Third Month, 2018 QUAKER NEWSLETTER GAINESVILLE MONTHLY MEETING OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 702 NW 38th Street, Gainesville, FL 32607; (352) 372-1070 www.gainesvillequakers.org The truth is the one thing for which there are no known substitutes. Anon Hold in the Light:Hap Taylor, Anne and Phil Haisley, Connie and Tim Ray, Arnold Von der Porten. Calendar of Events: (online at www.gainesvillequakers.org) Every Sunday: 11:00 am Meeting for Worship; 11:15 am First Day School Every Monday: 5:30 pm Yoga with Gary Every Monday: 5:00 pm Witness at Corner of 23rd Ave and 43rd St (by the Fresh Market) to Support Immigrant Justice Sunday, March 4 9:30 am Library committee 9:30 am Meetinghouse committee 1:00 pm Forum: Managing Distractions During Worship Committee clerks return list of committee ‘activities’ to retreat committe Saturday, March 10 6:00 pm St Patricks Day Dinner — Reservations Requested — See Below Sunday, March 11 DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME — Set Your Clocks Ahead! DEADLINE to Register for SEYM Annual Gathering 12:45 pm Meeting for Worship for Business Tuesday, March 13 12:00 pm Friendly Lunch - at the Meeting House Sunday, March 18: Meeting for Worship in Nature 12:00 pm Meeting Birthday Party 12:45 pm Earthcare Witness Committee Wednesday, March 21 Deadline for newsletter items. Email to Bonnie Zimmer at [email protected] Sunday, March 25 9:40 am Peace and Social Concerns Committee 1:00 pm Bibical and Spiritual Explorations Wednesday, March 28 — Sunday, April 1 SEYM Annual Gathering Sunday, April 1 1:00 pm Forum: Spiritual Leadings Saturday, April 21 Meeting Retreat MARK YOUR CALENDARS Poe Springs County Park Friends are reminded that it is the responsibility of the entire community to assist with cleaning up the kitchen area after the social hour. Gainesville Friends Meeting page 2! Third Month, 2018 SEYM YEARLY MEETING Registration is now open for SEYM Yearly Meeting Sessions. March 28 - April 1 Join Friends from all over the SEYM region and beyond for 5 days of retreats, workshops, worship sharing, the Walton Lecture, Yearly Business Meeting, intergenerational games, dance night, a fun Youth program, worship, music, and much more! All in a peaceful natural setting on Lake Griffin. The Walton Lecture will be Saturday evening. For more information go to: http://seymquakers.org/news-events/yearly-meeting-gathering/ Saturday March 10: St Patricks Day Dinner: 6:00 pm For centuries, America and Ireland have built a proud and enduring partnership cemented by mutual values and a common history. Over hundreds of years, Irish men, women, and children left their homes, watching the coast of Donegal and the cliffs of Dover fade behind them. Boarding overcrowded ships and navigating dangerous waters, they looked to the horizon with hope in their hearts. They left any valuables, land or stability behind, but came instead with the true treasures of their homeland….song and literature, humor and tradition, faith and family and when they landed, they shared their gifts generously, adding immeasurable values to towns and communities throughout our nation. Their brough echoed in mills, police stations, and fire halls across the country, and their blood spilled to defend a nation and way of life. Defying famine, poverty, and discrimination the sons and daughters of Erin demonstrated extraordinary strength and unshakable faith.” Let’s join in all of the Irish-ness, their inclusive and generous humor, their love of life and sense of fun on Saturday, March 10 at 6 pm. We will their songs, say their wittiness, and best of all – enjoy some of their traditional food. Dinner will be served at 6:00 pm — Reservations Please Menu: Corned Beef & Boiled Potatoes Boiled Onions & Cabbage with Carrots Vegetarian: Irish Stew with Mashed Potatoes Colcannon (Potato, Cabbage & Kale) Slieve Na Mbam Carrots (Irish) Baked Parsnips Desert; Irish Soda Muffins Bread Pudding/whiskey sauce Prepaid Donations: Adult-$10 Child over 8-$5 To put your elbow on the table, please register by March 3 Gene Beardsley-(386-462-3201) Building the Meeting Community Ministry and Nurture has planned a series of three forums that will consist of a combination of meditation instruction / practice and worship / sharing centering on Quaker practice and personal spiritual experiences. The first forum was held on February 4. Three practices for centering in worship were introduced and we had a chance to practice each of them. We then shared some our spiritual experiences in settling into worship. The next forum is scheduled for March 4. We will explore various ways to deal with distractions during worship, as well as share together the potential that distractions bring for deepening our spiritual lives. At the forum on the first Sunday in April we will explore the topic of spiritual leadings. We have scheduled a Meeting Retreat for April 21, 2017, at the Lodge at Poe Springs from 9 am to 6 pm. Joel Cook (Palm Beach Meeting) has agreed to help us facilitate the retreat sessions. We expect to spend much of the morning sharing our spiritual journeys / stories in small groups. The remainder of the day will be spent in various activities to assist us in strategic thinking and planning about how we can use our resources to meet our goals of: A) Spiritual Growth Gainesville Friends Meeting page 3! Third Month, 2018 B) Building the Beloved Community C) Engaging in Meaningful Social Action D) Keeping the Meeting Financially Sound Committee clerks are reminded to return their lists of committee ‘activities’ to the retreat committee by March 4. Condolences We received the following email from Wendy Sterba, a member of Gainesville Meeting residing in Texas. She requested that it be included in the newsletter. On January 18th, 2018 (my mother) Betty Lynn Sterba passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's. She and her family were extremely active with the Gainesville Friends during the late fifties and throughout the sixties. Up until the time of her death, she considered those years with the Gainesville Quaker Meeting to be the happiest of her life. Her light shines on in our memories. Quaker Organizations (From time to time we provide information on various Quaker organizations. Some of them are financially supported by the Meeting; others are not. This month we are providing information on Quaker EarthCare Witness.) Quaker Earthcare Witness is a network of Friends (Quakers) in North America and other like- minded people who are taking spirit-led action to address the ecological and social crises of the world from a spiritual perspective, emphasizing Quaker process and testimonies. While QEW supports reforms in laws, technology, education, and institutions, its primary calling is to facilitate transformation of humans' attitudes, values, identity, and worldview that underlie much of the environmental destruction going on in the world today. QEW will be having a Spring meeting in April. Silence Silence Yes, you except for the constant the big, fat black cricket cricket chirp. waving long tentacles Silence waiting beneath the bench. waiting for Spirit Is that you waiting for that-of-god God Except for the Calling in the cricket music shrill constant cricket singing declaring his presence birth death embracing life embracing now? bjz New from QuakerBooks: The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist Author: Marcus Rediker; Reviewed by Friends Journal, September 2017 In The Fearless Benjamin Lay, renowned historian Marcus Rediker chronicles the transatlantic life and times of a singular man--a Quaker dwarf who demanded the total, unconditional emancipation of all enslaved Africans around the world. Mocked and scorned by his contemporaries, Lay was unflinching in his opposition to slavery, often performing colorful guerrilla theater to shame slave masters, insisting that human bondage violated the fundamental principles of Christianity. He drew on his ideals to create a revolutionary way of life, one that embodied the proclamation "no justice, no peace." Lay was born in 1682 in Essex, England. His philosophies, employments, and places of residence--spanning England, Barbados, Philadelphia, and the open seas--were markedly Gainesville Friends Meeting page 4! Third Month, 2018 diverse over the course of his life. He worked as a shepherd, glove maker, sailor, and bookseller. His worldview was an astonishing combination of Quakerism, vegetarianism, animal rights, opposition to the death penalty, and abolitionism. While in Abington, Philadelphia, Lay lived in a cave-like dwelling surrounded by a library of two hundred books, and it was in this unconventional abode where he penned a fiery and controversial book against bondage, which Benjamin Franklin published in 1738. Always in motion and ever confrontational, Lay maintained throughout his life a steadfast opposition to slavery and a fierce determination to make his fellow Quakers denounce it, which they finally began to do toward the end of his life. With passion and historical rigor, Rediker situates Lay as a man who fervently embodied the ideals of democracy and equality as he practiced a unique concoction of radicalism nearly three hundred years ago. Rediker resurrects this forceful and prescient visionary, who speaks to us across the ages and whose innovative approach to activism is a gift, transforming how we consider the past and how we might imagine the future. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder This book is an exploration of the descent of democracies into tyranny. The following is a list of the chapters in the book. Each chapter describes how the action of its title contributes to maintaining a democracy. It is an interesting book and is available from the county library system both in print and as an e-book.. 1. Do not obey in advance 11. Investigate 2. Defend institutions 12. Make eye contact and small talk 3.