tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-157158892024-03-07T12:23:04.825-08:00Tables, Chairs & Oaken ChestsChris M.: Yet another Liberal Quaker with Conservative-leaning tendencies!Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.comBlogger329125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-24396190998411045892021-04-05T20:02:00.003-07:002021-04-05T20:04:54.477-07:00A spring day in Philadelphia, April 2021<p><i>Originally <a href="https://twitter.com/chrismsf/status/1379260712757903361" target="blank">posted to Twitter</a>: </i> <br /></p><p>Sparrow incoming!
#Philly #urbanbirding #sparrow
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGsiWLAFbRQQA43u1uIM_JhY4Pd4VB8BIziPxBibjTrZ3_nFBECX4JAdtROYRE-KoRI21YheBfD7uo7AeMaUhAipoo9JAVkmCwH65L9gEXVUnEQ8swCWh1Fs7rH3TE5nWCqzb-Sg/s1344/20210405_092047feeder_cropped.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="A small house sparrow with wings tucked fully in is shown in midair en route to a feeder hanging from a pole. Another small bird is on the other side of the feeder." border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="1344" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGsiWLAFbRQQA43u1uIM_JhY4Pd4VB8BIziPxBibjTrZ3_nFBECX4JAdtROYRE-KoRI21YheBfD7uo7AeMaUhAipoo9JAVkmCwH65L9gEXVUnEQ8swCWh1Fs7rH3TE5nWCqzb-Sg/w320-h270/20210405_092047feeder_cropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Daffodils in our backyard, not far from the feeder. (It's a small yard, so it couldn't be far in any case!)
#Philly #spring #urbangarden
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRD-fV4RaT9Q-CxpVIqXQVH5ysXwdZjf-5l_Xwmz5L5fYL9vvNL0cvH4j6qRnKEigm2aIKw7vmDaRL9vXJwFns6N2nw69ON_IlKYxaONIJT_kddT2Zek_3TURLBRVDtAUZv3JUuw/s756/20210405_092052daffodils_sized.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="A row of daffodils, many in bloom, recedes into the background, where there are houses. There are strips of grass and dirt on either side of the daffodils." border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="756" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRD-fV4RaT9Q-CxpVIqXQVH5ysXwdZjf-5l_Xwmz5L5fYL9vvNL0cvH4j6qRnKEigm2aIKw7vmDaRL9vXJwFns6N2nw69ON_IlKYxaONIJT_kddT2Zek_3TURLBRVDtAUZv3JUuw/w320-h320/20210405_092052daffodils_sized.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
A single precious bloom at Friends Center today. I liked a photo of a previous year's version of this flower so while I got a jigsaw puzzle made of it. #Philly #CenterCity #spring #urbangarden
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSG6ATRwFfiZG4YEs30GVQ86rbywOUQundTAARB8mEZz1nZoVIv6tbuVVkdxlOumwEqc7zLVUbZWOumMnJwMjQCLT8OrUCBnxqqeKGtMLAznHmhoauLdeEHNHBwumQinkRoVMwA/s1000/20210405_135436_lupine_sized.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="A purplish-blue cluster of blossoms, shading to white, is in the foreground amid greenery. In the medium ground is brownery, partly a heuchera plant. In the background are brick walls, metal railings, and the windows and shutters of Race Street Quaker Meetinghouse." border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSG6ATRwFfiZG4YEs30GVQ86rbywOUQundTAARB8mEZz1nZoVIv6tbuVVkdxlOumwEqc7zLVUbZWOumMnJwMjQCLT8OrUCBnxqqeKGtMLAznHmhoauLdeEHNHBwumQinkRoVMwA/w240-h320/20210405_135436_lupine_sized.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
Thanks to @robinmsf (currently on sabbatical and off Twitter, but <a href="http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/2021/03/holy-week-2021.html" target="_blank">occasionally still blogging</a>), our family made Easter cookies--like Christmas sugar cookies but in shapes like baskets & rabbits. Here are 2 of my sillier ones, set on the last remaining plate from the everday dishes of my childhood home.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZmtlAPjSQBL8mKO9K2ie_4eIwS246N8uTI2GKKM9reWXFaQhKY9j0s9mZeOZfDAC4gshoSrfSS_L01mtoXGalOJUDp3f-DEXWWbS_4dQqfZyDdQ-R8bDB_xlaAJyUomHQs_sNtQ/s2048/20210405_200805_cookies_cropped.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Two cookies sit on a white plate with a blue and green floral border. The left cookie is a deranged rabbit head with yellow fur. The right cookie is a pink Easter basket with white eggs outlined in blue." border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZmtlAPjSQBL8mKO9K2ie_4eIwS246N8uTI2GKKM9reWXFaQhKY9j0s9mZeOZfDAC4gshoSrfSS_L01mtoXGalOJUDp3f-DEXWWbS_4dQqfZyDdQ-R8bDB_xlaAJyUomHQs_sNtQ/w320-h320/20210405_200805_cookies_cropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i>Note: I enjoyed writing the image descriptions. If I get ambitious, maybe I'll post them to the main text of the blog.</i><br />Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-7226901379377247552021-01-23T12:25:00.004-08:002021-01-23T12:28:39.302-08:00Quaker Bible Study at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's 2020 annual sessions<p>Last summer I led two online Quaker Bible studies during Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's annual sessions in summer 2020. It was PhYM's 340th annual sessions, and their first-ever conducted entirely online.</p><p>Earlier in the week, civil rights leader and US Representative John Lewis had died, and his memorial services were held as PhYM sessions were starting. I remembered a clip of Rep. Lewis giving words of encouragement to a young man who asked him to record a message for his sister:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Last year I got to ask <a href="https://twitter.com/repjohnlewis?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@repjohnlewis</a> to record a brief video message for my little sister, who had been learning about him in class. Many politicians wouldn't have taken even the 20 seconds he did to make a stranger's day, let alone been so profound. Keep fighting, Congressman. <a href="https://t.co/WLwHOpo7gF">pic.twitter.com/WLwHOpo7gF</a></p>— Elijah Jacob Mears (@ElijahJMears) <a href="https://twitter.com/ElijahJMears/status/1211448808284004353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<p>For the first session, on 7/31/2020, I embedded the video in my slide deck, and found biblical passages that resonated strongly with many of the phrases he used. In the context of that week, and the presence in mind of Rep. Lewis's legacy, it was a very powerful time together.</p>
<p>Here's the slide presentation from that session.
<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vO9P8KEeI4QK2ek_AnlLvrgkTC1P5o6_/preview?resourcekey=null" width="500" height="300"></iframe>
<p>For the second day, on 8/1/2020, I looked at some passages from Psalms and explored how they may resonate for us today. Here's that slide show.<br />
<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cMKwCLMJmobetVS9weDKY9Br6jtOeRJJ/preview?resourcekey=null" width="500" height="300"></iframe></p>
<p>To be honest, it did not feel nearly as focused as the first session.</p>
<p>Here's an <a href="https://www.pym.org/interview-with-chris-mohr-on-leading-bible-study-at-annual-sessions/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">interview that PhYM staff did with me</a> by email afterwards.</p>
<p>Truly, it was a privilege to be able to lead Bible study with Philadelphia Friends. This library of ancient texts from very different cultures and societies can still speak to us today, if we enter into that Spirit that still inhabits those texts.</p>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-59928165954692088632021-01-21T20:10:00.003-08:002021-01-23T12:25:36.266-08:00I was a DJ. Was I what I played?<p>I once was a DJ for my favorite radio station, WPRB in Princeton, N.J. </p><p>Community-supported independent radio!</p><p>Stereo 103.3 FM! <br /></p><p>There's even a photo of me from 1985 or 1986 that's used as one of the rotating background photos for the header on the station's website, <a href="http://wprb.com">wprb.com</a>.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://wprb.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/head2.jpg"><img style="border: black solid 1px;" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://wprb.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/head2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><p>Recently I had the opportunity to peek at the studios. They are located in a different basement from where they were when I was a lad, but they are nonetheless still em-basemented.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiksBJmW91jCs0WdLdBIJadxAQwIvK9U9jAnzWjmEGmwYCZB2p6ylVAtAYb54zSEj2v3_UsGSRRJV49frHIRY7NHDjXdNG8ELL8VACFJvm8fu4uKA1QkS2-6pXMGYekgHQUfRPnDA/s4032/20210116_155711.jpg"><img style="border: black solid 1px;" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiksBJmW91jCs0WdLdBIJadxAQwIvK9U9jAnzWjmEGmwYCZB2p6ylVAtAYb54zSEj2v3_UsGSRRJV49frHIRY7NHDjXdNG8ELL8VACFJvm8fu4uKA1QkS2-6pXMGYekgHQUfRPnDA/s320/20210116_155711.jpg" /></a></div><p>Thank you to the generations of WPRB-ers who have made it what it is, and opened the door to new musical and artistic perspectives.</p>
<p>Community-supported independent radio!</p><p>Stereo 103.3 FM!</p>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-47194113629761923942021-01-20T08:46:00.001-08:002021-01-20T08:46:45.000-08:00Twilight<p>Recently I walked through Clifford Park in the Blue Bell neighborhood of
Philadelphia at twilight, with the sky's tones shading from the last
wisps of sunset to the inky depths of pending night. My phone captured
it nicely.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Gl71Us2BlIPYNe3zRR6PofGs-VUG0vUBOQhTq24Ru_ftEwB86bEsRVBQUwq02-rvyaq4V2FTSLaVitNZNwqBLkbS0TO2JYvt19AmK2PaBRKbOIa97RmPdLP0f4r88bXfTyiuyQ/s2578/Twilight+Clifford+Park+20210110_173125.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A photo of distant trees, a house, and streetlights, with the darkening evening sky above." border="0" data-original-height="2578" data-original-width="1220" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Gl71Us2BlIPYNe3zRR6PofGs-VUG0vUBOQhTq24Ru_ftEwB86bEsRVBQUwq02-rvyaq4V2FTSLaVitNZNwqBLkbS0TO2JYvt19AmK2PaBRKbOIa97RmPdLP0f4r88bXfTyiuyQ/w302-h640/Twilight+Clifford+Park+20210110_173125.jpg" width="302" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-32668561249903371122021-01-19T19:57:00.002-08:002021-01-19T20:11:06.610-08:00CastleI lived in a castle, more or less, from fall 1984 to spring 1985. I did not live in the tower, but off to the left side of the building in this photo.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4s6cN8l2nZ6pwqojTNZQnPlklFn4Oqqa9uz6iVGPpM9izNmeK2_41sTOe9D5CrNPAassTkK1EEVp76CKvqSFsFwj_B-rVpil2sEO-er5KWLkTE7ftsKpzCIJFEB0SepP9OjFFvA/s2048/20210116_163227.jpg" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4s6cN8l2nZ6pwqojTNZQnPlklFn4Oqqa9uz6iVGPpM9izNmeK2_41sTOe9D5CrNPAassTkK1EEVp76CKvqSFsFwj_B-rVpil2sEO-er5KWLkTE7ftsKpzCIJFEB0SepP9OjFFvA/s320/20210116_163227.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-39641319512830881362021-01-18T12:40:00.004-08:002021-01-19T20:11:22.162-08:00Auspices<p>Personally, whenever I see a raptor, I take that as a good omen. On Jan.
11, a juvenile Cooper’s hawk paused with its lunch on the wall by the
front entrance to Friends Center. So I’ve decided to take this as an
auspicious sign for the year ahead! (Fun fact: One definition of
“auspices” is “observation by an augur especially of the flight and
feeding of birds to discover omens,” according to <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/auspice">Merriam-Webster</a>.)</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0bLzvYxic2CyPnoKWy69WaNrl9RPnN7-qrE-Tod8UVGKVTmvpUPBdz-hSUScy2gCtXAKnPBdTEy6-fGA1hBxxzNxHwPhLJH8TzWG_YhzRF-SDVxJ_2fXbViYfdL_81QJcwKF-g/s1647/Cooper%2527s+hawk+FC+20210111b+cropped.jpg" style="border-color: black; border-width: 1px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="A juvenile Cooper's hawk spreads its wings to cover its prey, while perched on a brick wall with a railing behind it." data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="1647" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0bLzvYxic2CyPnoKWy69WaNrl9RPnN7-qrE-Tod8UVGKVTmvpUPBdz-hSUScy2gCtXAKnPBdTEy6-fGA1hBxxzNxHwPhLJH8TzWG_YhzRF-SDVxJ_2fXbViYfdL_81QJcwKF-g/w320-h318/Cooper%2527s+hawk+FC+20210111b+cropped.jpg" width="320" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HtufPSvijck2nbc0mu2AOUgSBYNOCR9E94OWG4Y-LJRUmAG6QuLxtv0ghgetyJPnKqPIF9V14YTTqt4wr9wjZdLFp3VvrElh-5YUpEbq8_QeJjIM9m1fwjPjpFsayJ2O1VUrXA/s2048/Cooper%2527s+hawk+FC+20210111e.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Same hawk, different angle." border="1" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HtufPSvijck2nbc0mu2AOUgSBYNOCR9E94OWG4Y-LJRUmAG6QuLxtv0ghgetyJPnKqPIF9V14YTTqt4wr9wjZdLFp3VvrElh-5YUpEbq8_QeJjIM9m1fwjPjpFsayJ2O1VUrXA/w300-h400/Cooper%2527s+hawk+FC+20210111e.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /></div><br /> <p></p><p> </p>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-42061959553204877502019-11-05T06:19:00.003-08:002019-11-05T06:19:52.782-08:00When an oak leaf is enough<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Recently Martin Kelley <a href="https://www.quakerranter.org/everythings-a-blog/" target="_blank">wrote on the Quaker Ranter</a>, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040;">Apparently it’s that time of year again. The days grow shorter, the nights grow chillier, and we bemoan the death of blogging."</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And Wess Daniels <a href="https://gatheringinlight.com/2019/10/23/a-refreshed-site/" target="_blank">wrote on Gathering in Light</a> posted, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;">Recently, I came across my old blogroll (a set of links of blogs you followed, supported, wanted to give props to), and 8 out of 10 of the links were dead."</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It got me to thinking about this blog. I hardly post even once a year here any more. Yet I also don't post as much to social media as I used to. For a while I was putting my artsy photos on Flickr, but now there is a limit to how many images you can upload for free, besides all the business issues they've had.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So it occurred to me I could just post stuff here again. It doesn't have to be weighty thoughts on Quakerism or theology or the like. It could just be a photo of </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">a brown oak leaf -- </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">rain droplets on its surface --</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">against the backdrop </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">of red brick pavers, with moss in between.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And that would be weighty enough.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWRVormy-ktaiwcgHb6vOs2rPk1u4dXxoleMYaNg1YXkOwIEkitDxh6lXcUDnBwrSe1ayE5NoChOvFccEVZLiHIcGqmmDO-_-9FPFidIQcxj9DSyN46tGekLa4UPK_AP_ULdWPQw/s1600/IMG_20191029_082645.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Brown oak leaf with rain droplets lying atop red brick pavers" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWRVormy-ktaiwcgHb6vOs2rPk1u4dXxoleMYaNg1YXkOwIEkitDxh6lXcUDnBwrSe1ayE5NoChOvFccEVZLiHIcGqmmDO-_-9FPFidIQcxj9DSyN46tGekLa4UPK_AP_ULdWPQw/s320/IMG_20191029_082645.jpg" title="" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-83499143686876553432018-01-16T19:16:00.003-08:002018-01-17T05:24:20.464-08:00Victoria Greene’s presentation on EMIR Healing Center, 1/14/2018<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
About a dozen people came to the Green Street Friends Meetinghouse
on 1/14/2018 to hear Victoria Greene talk about her work with the EMIR Healing
Center.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She founded the organization in memory of her son, Emir, who
was murdered on March 26, 1997. EMIR stands for “Every Murder Is Real.” They
provide support and counseling to families of murder victims in Philadelphia
and even beyond.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Problem<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There were 317 homicides in Philadelphia in 2017, the first
time since 2012 that the number has been over 300. Many of the murder victims
are young black men. Police Commissioner Richard Ross said the increase is
because of opioids, and the fact that the Police Department is down by 400
officers. There should be another 300 new officers by fall 2018 when the next
class graduates from the academy. There are also gangs in many areas of
Philadelphia. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Support Groups<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
EMIR Healing Center runs support groups for families of murder
victims. Friends from Green Street Meeting provide meals so that the families
can eat together from 6 to 6:30 pm. The meals enable people to get there
without having to worry about eating first. Having a meal together helps people
socialize and bond, which is a very important step in the healing process.
There are about 25 people per group. Over the course of a year, Green Street
Friends are providing something like 700 meals a year!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Friends from Green Street who want to help can sign up to
cook a meal, bring takeout food, or just donate money toward buying food for
the evening. If you do cook, please don’t use pork or nuts.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The process starts when, each week, EMIR gets a fax from the
Police Department with the list of homicides from the past week and contact
information for the next of kin. EMIR follows up with a letter and later a
phone call to invite them to participate in the support groups. Some people are
referred by other individuals or organizations in the community.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the groups, EMIR teaches families about trauma: how to
recognize it; and how to cope with it in healthy ways. Frequently people who do
not recognize trauma end up coping in unhealthy ways. People can come back
again, too. Often the second year is hardest for people – the second Christmas
or birthday – when they realize it’s real, the person is never coming back.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The first two meetings of the groups are open to drop-ins,
but after that, no drop-ins are allowed. The group needs a chance to bond
together, and that rule helps them do that. Each time there are separate groups
for women, men, and teens and kids.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Intervening to
Prevent More Violence<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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EMIR has sometimes gone to individuals to prevent them from
retaliating with violence after a murder. Recently a family asked them to
intervene in a gang dispute in South Philly. They are looking at being
mediators. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At one point EMIR was part of a collaborative that applied
for grant funding. It would have included money to pay “interruptors” who are already
on street corners doing this work, for no pay. It did not work out for EMIR in
the end. There is a still a serious need for interruptors.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Public Policy<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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EMIR also has growing interest in public policy. First, the
Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) the Victims Compensation Fund. The source of money
for this fund is fines paid by convicted criminals, not taxes. However, the
VOCA law excludes families of people accused of “causing their own demise.” If a
police report says the victim was committing a crime when killed, then the
family cannot get money from the fund. There is no process for judging whether
or not the police report is correct; and even if it were, why should the
families of the victim suffer? <o:p></o:p></div>
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EMIR has worked with attorney Angus Love on some cases. In
one of them, a father was upset that his son was accused of dealing drugs, when
he didn’t, and there was no evidence he did. They were able to get the office
in Harrisburg to overturn the initial decision. There may be a lawsuit in the
courts or a change in the law in the legislature.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In September, EMIR held a forum on gun violence. Families of
victims had the chance to be heard by public officials, including Congressperson
Dwight Evans, Commissioner Ross, several City Council members, and some state
legislators. EMIR has formed committees around illegal guns, education, and
housing. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Families who get involved with activism often find some
healing. It’s therapeutic because they may find some help for other people and
also work for the common good. This can especially be helpful when the
perpetrator of the murder isn’t caught. Less than half of murder cases in
Philadelphia are getting solved now, so there is a lack of closure for many
families.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Victoria’s Spiritual
Journey<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Finally, Victoria spoke about her spiritual journey through
this work. Soon after she started EMIR, she organized conferences two years
apart. She had no experience doing this. Yet when she asked, people said yes.
And both were successful. She felt God was guiding her.<o:p></o:p></div>
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People ask Victoria how she can cope with the stories, so
similar to what she went through with her son, Emir. She said, “When I hear a family’s story, I am
with them. I’m holding their hands, listening to them. That’s God.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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She sees how fragile life is. When she felt suicidal after
Emir’s death, she heard his voice saying to her, “What? It’s bad enough I got
killed, now you’re going to go?” And she held on. Now she won’t hold grudges.
If someone is good, she’ll tell them. She added, “Because you never know if you’ll
see them again. Be authentic. Don’t take people for granted.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s why Quakerism attracted her. She heard about
Spirit-led activism. She had never heard that anywhere before finding Quakers. Her
experience is definitely of Spirit-led activism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
WITH EMIR HEALING CENTER:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Join Green Street’s brand-new <b>Quaker Social Change Ministry group!</b> We hope to have our first meeting to get organized on Feb. 19 (this is still TENTATIVE).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Work with EMIR on <b>amending VOCA</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>Join one
of the committees</b> formed after the September forum (education; stopping illegal
guns; or housing)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Volunteer to help with the <b>annual fundraising concert,</b> usually late in the year<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Donate! If you do, you’ll multiply the impact of
our meeting’s annual gift to EMIR<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Watch Victoria’s QuakerSpeak video and share it
with people you know: <a href="http://quakerspeak.com/every-murder-real/">http://quakerspeak.com/every-murder-real/</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-82647492654533714292016-05-16T17:54:00.001-07:002016-05-16T17:55:13.281-07:00Faith to Move Mountains<p>Last fall I was blessed to co-lead the Inquirers' Weekend at Pendle Hill with Emma Lapsansky.</p>
<p>We had a deeply engaged group of eight people on varying places in relation to Quakerism. One had attended four meetings for worship; one is an Episcopalian minister with ancestors who were Quaker, and so she wanted to better learn Quaker vocabulary and practice; one had been a member 30 years ago and eventually resigned, and now is considering joining a meeting again; and many of the others are regular attenders at meeting for worship and are considering next steps.</p>
<p>I had never facilitated a full weekend workshop before, though many afternoon or evening ones, plus many a Sunday morning class with children. And I've clerked 12 weekend-long Friends Journal board meetings in total over the last four years; those are somewhat similar, logistically anyway.</p>
<p>Anyway, it went very well. Emma was a fantastic co-leader, with her probing questions and knowledgeable answers in turn--the very model of a well-loved professor. I brought some different activities to mix it up a bit and make sure we took stretch breaks. We watched a couple of QuakerSpeak videos that spoke to the group's condition.</p>
<p>Afterwards, I reflected that this had been something of a "mountaintop" experience for me, but it wasn't a tiptop peak experience, either. I've had them before. I hope to have them again. The fact that I drove home every night to be with our sons while my wife was also away meant I didn't engage 24 hours a day, and that may have had an impact.</p>
<p>But the mountain didn't feel as high as when I was newer to Quakerism. </p>
<p>In considering that, I realized, that's partly because I am further up "the mountain" of spiritual experience in my daily life. I fall far short of Paul's injunction in Thessalonians to "pray without ceasing," yet I often remember to. And I've been practicing as a Quaker for 25 years now. It makes a difference.</p>
<p>It occurred to me that when Jesus spoke of having sufficient faith to move mountains, maybe it wasn't as literal as the words recorded in the Bible, at least as translated into English:
<blockquote>Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” <br />- Matthew 17:20, New International Version</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps this passage gives us a clue that we can move the mountaintop to us. We can have a daily spiritual practice that brings us closer to God, closer to the feeling we get on retreat at the top of a mountain, a peak experience literally and spiritually. I can't believe in prayer literally moving mountains, at least not with what I understand of how the universe works. I can totally see how we can move the spiritual mountain to us - and ourselves up it - so that we are there all the time.</p>
<p>During the weekend, Emma had reminded us the early Quakers believed humans can attain a place, as she said, "above Adam, and beyond falling." I felt we touched a little bit of that place in our weekend together.</p>
<p><em>Written November 2015, posted May 2016.</em>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-13227044621176630132016-05-16T17:51:00.001-07:002016-05-16T17:51:19.392-07:00Just Step S'ways<p>I've been reading <em>The Long Utopia</em>, the latest and presumably last book in the Long Earth series by Stephen Baxter and the late Terry Pratchett.</p>
<p>It occurred to me that the Fall's "Just Step S'ways" from <em>Hex Enduction Hour</em> is the perfect soundtrack because of the lyrical parallel to the central conceit of the series.</p>
<p>The original <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFO70oGChQU">album version of</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFO70oGChQU"> the song is here</a>.</p>
<p>Click on the image for the Wikipedia entry on the album.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_Enduction_Hour" target="_blank"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Hex_Enduction_Hour.jpg" /></a>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-7918880898475260312015-11-10T18:03:00.000-08:002015-11-10T18:08:46.314-08:00Three perspectives on the Friends peace testimony<strong>1. Quakers are a religious society with a stance against participating in war</strong>
<br />
Quakers are a faith community. They have a collective position that participating in warfare is wrong and against the teachings of Christ Jesus. This is a clear and longstanding corporate witness growing out of Quakers' understanding of Christianity.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>2. Individuals must still make their own choices</strong>
<br />
Even when the teachings are clear, each individual has to decide for himself or herself what is right action in a particular context.<br />
<br />
Even though Quakers opposed all war, many individual men signed up for the US Civil War. Many of these volunteers were read out of meeting; and a goodly portion of them were accepted back into fellowship afterwards, especially if they expressed contrition. Even if the official witness of Friends was against the war, Friends supported an end to enslavement, and as a result many could understand why an individual might choose to sign up, even if it was officially outside the Quaker testimony.<br />
<br />
Later, many young Quaker men even signed up for World War I, to the consternation of many elders, including Rufus Jones. The American Friends Service Committee was founded in 1917 in part to provide young Quaker men with meaningful service opportunities outside fighting in the military. One option was the Friends Ambulance Corps.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>3. An individual may find a different answer than society at large, and need not have all the answers for everyone</strong><br />
Today, most people think of Quakers as not just refraining from serving in the military themselves, but also as people who act to stop war before it begins. This is a relatively modern approach.<br />
<br />
Many Quakers involved in peace work have analyzed past wars, diplomacy, and popular movements to understand strategies and tactics to prevent war in the future. There are too many examples to name here, so I'll list just one information resource: Quaker George Lakey led the creation of Swarthmore College's <a href="http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/" target="_blank">Global Nonviolent Action Database</a>, where you can learn more about popular nonviolent movements. (Side note: And there can be practical benefits to a peaceful approach: According to <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/the-more-violence-the-less-revolution/" target="_blank">Waging Nonviolence</a>, in researchers Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan found that nonviolent struggles were successful significantly more often (56%) than violent ones (26%). See their book <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/the-more-violence-the-less-revolution/" target="_blank">Why Civil Resistance Works</a>.)<br />
<br />
In some cases, Quakers have identified the failure by "good actors" to act in a timely way to prevent demagogues and dictators from rising to power. Once those moments are past and it's "too late," war may seem inevitable in hindsight. For example, theologian Walter Wink faulted the churches in Germany for not speaking out against Hitler and the Nazi putschists in the early 1930s. For another, peace activist David Hartsough and five colleagues were <a href="http://www.quaker.org/fpt/32kos.html" target="_blank">arrested in Kosovo</a> in 1998 while there to support the mass student nonviolent movement against the Serbian dictatorship. Despite the pleas of the students, Hartsough, and others, the nonviolent resistance was not supported by other Western nations and so was crushed, leading to genocide, internecine warfare, and US and NATO bombardments when it was "too late" to support the movement.<br />
<br />
So one may intellectually concede that wars of international aggression appear to have no solution besides war -- when they reach that point. They are not inevitable, however, if people of good will and conscience resist before that point.<br />
<br />
Finally, even when one or more nations begin warfare, people of good will and conscience have a choice. They can refuse to participate, no matter how just the cause may appear, or seem to appear, in order not to damage their own spiritual well-being. Such a person can know in her or his heart that this is the right action for him or her. Even when the larger societal answer seems to point to war as the answer, the still small voice can still tell that individual, "War is not the answer." And if everyone lived that way and followed that voice, the world would be a different and better place.Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-30083027309776052152015-05-28T18:11:00.001-07:002015-05-28T18:11:24.348-07:00WPRB-FM's 75th anniversary websiteI'm ridiculously happy to have been chosen as the photographic subject for the Facebook page announcement that WPRB-Stereo 103.3 FM has launched www.wprbhistory.org in this, its 75th anniversary year.<br />
<br />
<br />
WPRB means a lot to me. It particularly meant a lot to me from fall 1980 to fall 1989, when I either listened to the station pretty much every day or got to be a DJ on it.
<br />
<br />
A WPRB-themed exhibit will open at Princeton University's Mudd Library this fall.
<br />
<br />
<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/wprbfm/posts/912725172082913" data-width="500"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/wprbfm/posts/912725172082913"><p>We're thrilled to introduce a new WPRB History website for DJs, listeners, and college radio historians! Click through...</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wprbfm">WPRB 103.3 FM</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wprbfm/posts/912725172082913">Thursday, May 28, 2015</a></blockquote></div></div>
<br />
<br />
In the words of then-Fall guitarist Craig Scanlon, in a station ID for WPRB in the early 1980s, "Enjoy!"Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-53559670116815174902015-04-30T16:57:00.005-07:002015-04-30T16:57:46.304-07:00GFox quotable quoteFrom the Journal of George Fox, pg. 96:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"So dear Friends live all in the peaceable Truth and in the love of it, serving the Lord in newness of life, for glorious things and precious truths have been manifested among you plentifully, and unto you the riches of the kingdom have been handed."</blockquote>
Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-37352864850027353082014-05-19T19:09:00.000-07:002014-05-19T19:09:00.213-07:00Notes from the 2014 Cary Lecture by William GrausteinI attended the <a href="http://www.pendlehill.org/lectures/cary/1029-2014" target="_blank">2014 Stephen Cary Lecture</a> at Pendle Hill, the Quaker retreat center in Wallingford, Penna., in April. The following are my notes, pretty much unedited.<br />
<br />
A sound recording of the lecture <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2lOI4Ah8HE" target="_blank">is here</a>.<br />
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<b>Bill Graustein – Stephen Cary Lecture, 4/7/2014<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>“Prophets and Nonprofits: Tending Quaker Roots in Secular Soil”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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How do scriptural referents (parables, prophets) appear in
the inward experience of the Light? <o:p></o:p></div>
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He went to a high-church Episcopal boarding school; there
was some tension around religion with one of his parents. After he graduated he
was struck upon meeting a Quaker, who talked easily and simply of her faith.
She invited him to meeting for worship in Purchase, NY. When they all shook
hands at the close of meeting, he felt very welcomed. Later, he reflected that
this was indeed a radical sign of welcome.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Parable of the sower: had heard it back in school, but it
came alive for him one time stopping by a farm field one winter evening in
December. He realized sowing seeds then would not result in anything; but
sowing them in the same location four months later would. So he saw the parable
could be about time as well as physical (or spiritual) location.<o:p></o:p></div>
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His father had founded a company back in the late 1940s.
Although it didn’t do well, he started a foundation, too, (later?) named after
his late brother, Bill’s uncle. The company was sold much later, for about four
times what they thought it would, so they had a lot of money. Holy sh**! He was
in the 1%. <o:p></o:p></div>
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They agreed to start a family foundation with his mother’s
share. Bill consulted people for guidance. As a geophysicist, he expected data
and analysis. Instead, he heard stories and narratives. Meanwhile, his mother’s
withdrawn stance was diagnosed as paranoia.<o:p></o:p></div>
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His father, son of an uneducated dairyman, had gone to
Harvard, class of 1902. He was friends with Amos Wilson, (one of?) the only
African American at Harvard then. He stayed friends with Amos throughout his
life, as they found a pile of correspondence from Amos in his dad’s papers.
Bill realized racial justice was important to his father [and so could be
appropriate for the foundation’s work].<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bill attended a retreat on “emerging ministries” that he
heard about at a ministry and worship committee meeting. He didn’t feel emerging or like a minister,
but went anyway. Found that people there had the same story in different forms:
many had suffered some hurt, faced facts, chose life, got moving, and now
wanted to figure out how to give back.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He organize a planning meeting with 20 people in New Haven.
What’s your vision for the future, and what’s getting in your way? He found two
major themes:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
<ol>
<li>Yearning to look outside the bounds of their own
organizations to work together for something greater;</li>
<li>Seeking support to be more fully alive in community. The
work wasn’t necessarily supportive.</li>
</ol>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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He realized he was hearing things that Friends address, for
example, listening non-judgmentally.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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He founded an organization called the Community Leadership
Program. It encouraged storytelling. Then he introduced the clearness process
to them. After the first year, they did an evaluation. They learned people of
color held back on issues of race, because the two initial leaders were both
white. In the second year they brought in a third facilitator who is a woman of
color. This helped.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bill also brought in Donald Davis, who uses the power of
storytelling.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Niyonu Spann is now working with him to help transfer the
skills and talents of holding space, consciously creating. They have founded an
organizaton on co-creation; she is doing most of the day to day work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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He felt his work was difficult, yet there was vitality in
failing, and it was rewarding work. The work pulled him away from his meeting,
though. <o:p></o:p></div>
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He told the story of a 57-year-old woman on Metro North, who
was told not to sit down next to a white man because he didn’t want her black
skin touching him. She was shocked, paralyzed, and troubled that no one else
spoke up. There was only one other person of color in the car at the time. Bill was in meeting for worship two days
later and thought, “The composition in this room looks like that Metro North
car.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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He told the story of a man from a low-income background
whose father had left the family. Once he was on a commuter train, where he saw
an African American man in a suit and tie and sharp as can be. He resolved to
be like this older man. Now he has founded a couple of nonprofits in New Haven
to help young men in circumstances he had grown up in. He chanced to meet his
father once, in Florida; but he suffered from mental illness, and could not
truly see his son. Yet this was hard, as his whole life the younger man had
tried to be a man his father could be proud of. Bill could relate because his own
mother could not really see him, either.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Quoted Cornel West’s take on Ephesians: “love the people.”
Most radical thing Bill ever did was listen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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People in the world outside Quakers are longing to be heard,
to be affirmed. Quakers have something to offer. Many Quakers want to “get
outside the Quaker bubble,” as the December issue of Friends Journal said. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Renewal :</b> Power
flows from the practice of Friends for him. What do we have to offer the world
as patterns and examples?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>He concluded, “To listen to our
neighbors as if they were prophets is a necessary step toward justice.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Q&A.</b><br />
<br />
Q (J): Sometimes white people want people of color to tell their
stories at meetings. But that often doesn’t work well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A: Yes, there’s an imbalance of power/privilege. Start with
questions that are not about issues: “Who’s someone you admire who you wish the
others here could know?” (Otherwise it puts the less-privileged person at
risk.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Q: What’s a success and a failure you’ve had?<o:p></o:p></div>
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A: CLP is resulting in collaborations because people see commonality.
Personal friendships are growing across difference. Mistake was not getting on
the ball sooner. We often make mistakes in CLP and then say, “Oh, okay, what
can we learn?” And the biggest mistakes are the ones I haven’t learned anything
from yet.</div>
<br />
Q (LD): I’m part of a small group of white people who meet to talk about racism. It’s a spiritual practice. One person said, “I used to be able to forget about racism. Now, not a single day goes by when I don’t think about it.” This is important work you’re doing. Can you do this work with national Quaker organizations?<br />
A: (bows = yes) Q (O): Gravest sin is not to recognize the divine in others. My prayer is that we acknowledge the brokenheartedness in not seeing one another.<br />
A: We all need refuge at times. And other times we nee to step out of refuge and into action.<br />
<br />
Q (V): RSOF is either at a breaking point or a breakthrough point. How might we step into and through the difficult bits?<br />
A: 1) Boundary between RSOF and outside is more permeable today. Revitalization can come from without as well as within. Patterns of exclusion can be worked on. 2) How do we get people the “psychic Wheaties” to enable them to do the hard work? Sometimes, we nee to ask for help—from elders, accountability partners. Celebrate small steps.<br />
<br />
Q (S): Say more about the distance with your monthly meeting.<br />
A: I did not feel the meeting was letting me down, more that I was busy, stuck in “facilitators mind” when at meeting for worship, and didn’t know how to invite people along with me. Feel closer to my meeting again, serving on a committee again.<br />
<br />
Q: Point is to go forth, not to build meetings. Beatitudes turn everything upside down.<br />
Q (A): I affirm that you choose to do this work. You could choose not to and still have a foundation and have people around you say you’re doing good work. This, this is important work. [Didn’t write much in the way of notes, because I responded to her emotion with my own deep emotion welling up. Definitely felt like a moment of Presence.]… Is there anything that you get angry about in this work? A: I don’t do anger well, but I’m kind of starting to get worked up: Why aren’t more of us doing this work in our culture? There, did I do better [in expressing anger]? [Niyonu shakes head, everyone says “No!” and we all burst out laughing together. Together!!]Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-51747141998253808462013-08-20T20:15:00.000-07:002013-08-20T20:16:51.021-07:00Approaches to having children in Quaker meeting for worship<p>[NOTE: I wrote this as a comment on Wess Daniel's post, "<a href="http://gatheringinlight.com/2013/08/19/thoughts-on-bringing-children-to-worship/" target="_blank">Thoughts on Bringing Children to Meeting for Worship</a>."</p>
<p>[His article in turn also refers to Kathleen Karhnak-Glasby's excellent article in Friends Journal, "<a href="http://www.friendsjournal.org/bringing-children-to-worship/" target="_blank">Bringing Children to Worship: Trusting God to Take Over from There</a>."]</p>
<p>Green Street Monthly Meeting, our liberal unprogrammed Friends meeting in Philadelphia, is looking at how to better integrate the children with the rest of the meeting -- though I doubt we're ready to ditch Firstday School.</p>
<p>A commenter on Wess's post decried the practice in some unprogrammed meetings of having an occasional "all-ages" meeting that is poorly conceived, and a "poor hash." I can certainly imagine being in an otherwise-unprogrammed meeting that did a semi-programmed one poorly. However, I wanted to share some of my recent experience of the last two years.</p>
<p>Green Street has the children in Firstday School for the first 45 minutes (in two groups, elementary and middle school aged), and to worship the last 15 minutes. The teens generally come to meeting for worship.</p>
<p>On the 5th Sundays, a few times a year, we have a mostly programmed meeting for worship. It's <em>definitely</em> a hash, and a tasty one at that!</p>
<p>The one or two I've attended were led by a Friend who grew up expecting to be a minister in another tradition, so has some ability to lead worship; and more important, who is now a high school teacher, with a real gift for drawing young people at many different ages.</p>
<p>One 5th Sunday I missed featured my older son singing a Green Day song ("21 Guns") with his peers playing electric guitar. Since he has never sung with those peers before or since, I'm sorry I missed it. (And it's not like we're about to organize a worship band or something; I have personally never seen anything more high-powered than an acoustic guitar or a violin, usually around the year-end holidays, at this meeting myself.)</p>
<p>The warmth of the greetings at rise of meeting and expressions of joy following these semi-programmed meetings are enough to reassure me that we are saying something quite positive about our worshiping community. To me, it needn't imply anything negative about expectant waiting worship the other 48 Sundays a year.</p>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-40649844088963709522013-07-31T19:24:00.000-07:002013-07-31T19:26:08.404-07:00Summer living in the cityI appreciate living in a large city again. For the four years before we left the SF Bay Area, we lived in a small city to the south of San Francisco. While technically it was in the suburbs, it was definitely pretty urbanized, but in a fairly unsatisfying way, and so I missed "real" city life.<br />
<br />
Now I work in Center City Philadelphia, which I enjoy; I still miss downtown San Francisco sometimes.<br />
This afternoon I'd been meeting with my boss when the fire alarm in our office went off. It was the most bureaucratic recorded emergency instructions I'd ever heard: "Leave the building! Cease operations! Do not utilize the elevator!"<br />
<br />
On the sidewalk, I saw several people I knew, as there are two Quaker organizations in the same building where I work. One Friend asked if we could plant-sit again, and I said yes. She said she'd come over tonight with them. I enjoyed seeing her and the other people I knew. And my boss and I continued our meeting on the "front porch" of the Convention Center across the street from our office. It was a great day to be outside.<br />
<br />
At home, we live in a section of Philadelphia that is considered one of the oldest "streetcar suburbs" in the country, yet it's most definitely within the city limits. But the trees are tall and mature, and the pace is calmer here than in Center City.<br />
<br />
Tonight Son #1 and I had dinner on the back porch, and it was neither cool nor warm, just pleasant. Then we went (by car, alas) to an ice cream parlor for dessert. We sat on the bench right outside the shop on Germantown Avenue, and watched the clouds turn pink and then many shades of gray.<br />
<br />
This afternoon he had helped another Friend pack up her moving truck. I had gone by last night with some of our remaining boxes, and to help with packing, and heard that she needed help while I'd be at work today. We moved twice in the last two years, so we owe the universe some help-with-moving karma. I asked Son #1 if he'd be willing, and he said okay. And it was close enough for him to walk—there's that living in the city again.
<br />
<a href="http://robinmsf.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Robin</a> called shortly after we came home to say hello. She will be one of the keynote speakers at <a href="http://www.bym-rsf.org/events/annualsession/plenary13.html" target="_blank">Baltimore Yearly Meeting</a>, on Friday evening.<br />
<br />
While we were talking, the Friend came over with her plants. Well, it just so happens that she is a member of Robin's support committee, so I put the phone on speaker so we could both talk to her. In fact, our Friend gave Robin some really good advice and some very kind words of reassurance. I felt enormously blessed to be part of a community in this way.<br />
<br />
It's good to remember my blessings. It is practical and useful, as well as probably healthier, to be grateful and to focus on what's good and how to be helpful and loving in life, it seems to me.Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-68239765946737149302013-05-31T19:14:00.004-07:002013-05-31T19:24:23.447-07:00Ears whose drums you can scratch: WPRB-FM<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm "going back" to Princeton for a day tomorrow, 6/1/2013. It's been 25 years since I graduated from the university there, and they have a big party for that kind of thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As I reflect on that time in my life, it's worth remembering why I went to college there in the first place: <a href="http://www.wprb.com/" target="_blank">WPRB-FM</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today, their slogan is simply, "Community-supported independent radio."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Back then, when I was in high school and then college, the slogan was even more simply, "Stereo 103.3."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today they have a new studio in a new building, and I hope to drop in for the open house they're having. I will be pining for the basement of Holder Hall, a little bit. Not too much. Especially because if we turned up the speakers too loud, the students who lived on the first floor were liable to come down and lecture us. And it was pretty hot in the summer, with one window unit air conditioner stuck in the tech closet next to the studio, and pretty much venting into the rest of the station offices, making them often unbearable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As the person who could well be the 25th or 26th successor to me as station manager says in <a href="http://www.wprb.com/cms/blagga/4244/station-manager-adoley-on-wprb-and-the-world-beyond-princeton/" target="_blank">this piece</a>, "Playing music on WPRB is a way to reach out and commune with faces you may never hear, hands you may never feel, but hearts you have a few fleeting scrambling hours each week to try to touch. Ears whose drums you can scratch."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks for scratching this Central Jerseyan's eardrums, 'PRB!
</span><span class="messageBody" style="color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WNksR5qWDXzgdyA9F1UkMgWqxHXbdb9fjuFJ0UbJg2uWIhJkX-bCLrQsk9haYGuF5tyMd05D4f6F2zagTVZWjbd404Oc9ajWgIfeUdJ6fDuntist3kzBy3hYmt-k09X7C5MQHA/s1600/Chris+at+WPRB+in+Fall+t-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WNksR5qWDXzgdyA9F1UkMgWqxHXbdb9fjuFJ0UbJg2uWIhJkX-bCLrQsk9haYGuF5tyMd05D4f6F2zagTVZWjbd404Oc9ajWgIfeUdJ6fDuntist3kzBy3hYmt-k09X7C5MQHA/s320/Chris+at+WPRB+in+Fall+t-shirt.jpg" width="320" /></b></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>T</b>hat's me cueing up a Brian Eno record </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">while taking a request at WPRB-FM, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">probably in 1985 or 1986. The t-shirt </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">is from The Fall's tour in support of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">their 1985 LP, "This Nation's Saving Grace."</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-17452568391682722472013-04-27T18:22:00.003-07:002013-04-27T18:22:43.536-07:00Guest Post: Quaker Food Pantry, by Christine Hoang<i>My friend Christine Hoang is a parent at San Francisco Friends School. She coordinates the school's participation with the San Francisco Friends Meeting's neighborhood food pantry, which is a local outpost for the San Francisco Food Bank. I was clerk of the meeting when we went through the discernment process to create the pantry, and I'm pleased that not only has the pantry expanded to serve more people, it has helped keep the relationship between the school and the meeting vibrant.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The following piece by Christine was originally published in the school's "Circle Back" newsletter and is reprinted with the author's permission.</i><br />
<br />
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<div style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<b>Quaker Food Pantry</b><br /><i>At the Meeting House</i><br />
<br /><b>By Christine Hoang</b><br /><b>SFFS Parent & Board Member</b></div>
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<b><br /></b>Saturday mornings, the Friends Meetinghouse on 9th Street begins its
bustling day with deliveries from a wide variety of vendors. There’s
the regular delivery from the San Francisco Food Bank, which drops off
staples like pasta, bread, fresh fruits or vegetables from suppliers or
farmers; deliveries from Food Runners which picks up fresh and prepared
food items and pastries from specialty stores like Whole Foods; and a
very special bread delivery from a volunteer named Al. Al spends his
Saturdays gathering bread donations from Safeway and other stores and
delivering his bounty to the Meetinghouse. Al’s bread delivery now
accounts for over half of the bread distributed by the Pantry.<br />
<br />Three years, ago, when SFFS first began partnering with the Quaker
Pantry, the Pantry served 60 – 70 people every Saturday; now, the Pantry
serves well over 100. Clients are slotted into twenty-minute windows in
which they can shop. Each client usually brings one or two bags to fill
up with groceries for the week. For most clients, the Pantry is their
only source of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as staples like
bread or pasta. <br />
<br />SFFS families contribute to the Pantry in vital ways. Several
families contribute financially, a commitment that has allowed the
Pantry to feed another 25-35 clients a week. A few parents are also
trained to work as shoppers, going to the Food Bank to order the week’s
delivery, and filling in when volunteers are short. Most families
though, contribute time. For the past three years, each SFFS grade has
adopted a month in which families are responsible for staffing the
Pantry. The day starts around 10:00am, when the first deliveries arrive.
Working alongside delivery drivers and Meetinghouse volunteers, SFFS
families unload crates and boxes off of food trucks and create a real
store! Vegetables and fruits are placed into large bins or buckets, cans
are sorted, pastries and perishable items are arranged delicately on
tables, and loaves of bread are stacked into towers. <br />
<br />Another wonderful aspect of the project is that kids work alongside
adults. As SFFS parent Tawni Sullivan has noticed, “Kids feel empowered
by really owning their own jobs, not just helping the grown ups with
theirs.” Younger kids blacken bar codes on donated bread, organize and
stack cans, and count out the vegetables for clients. Older kids break
down cardboard boxes and do the math necessary to ensure a fair
allocation of food for everyone. <br />
<br />Around noon, the Pantry opens its doors and the first clients filter
in. Most of the clients are elderly; many are monolingual Cantonese
speakers; several are homeless. The Quaker Food Pantry affords them
regular access to healthy, fresh food. During the shopping hour, all
volunteers work at distributing food, handing out three oranges a piece,
two onions, or a can or two. For Jen Maeder, “working side by side with
your classmates and their families on a weekend really cements the SFFS
tenets of community and stewardship. Playdates and soccer games are a
great way to socialize with the school community on the weekends but
there is something different about once in awhile rolling up your
sleeves and working alongside your classmate on a weekend. To me, it
shows my kids that I take seriously what they are learning about
community and stewardship in school. It’s not something I just expect of
them, but I am choosing it for myself as well.”<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixt-vzbs6ECHR16m6eoQvjICit-Kkx8_y8T9cBaps16tyTk8FaHA0oXvvouXaxIaRhv6nlFf58xI9NWUBrnGsSptn96OQ4OF-HpYK6y9-3g6vXtjIUkjhhVBvuFcMkQ6VwWudrdQ/s1600/GinormousYams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixt-vzbs6ECHR16m6eoQvjICit-Kkx8_y8T9cBaps16tyTk8FaHA0oXvvouXaxIaRhv6nlFf58xI9NWUBrnGsSptn96OQ4OF-HpYK6y9-3g6vXtjIUkjhhVBvuFcMkQ6VwWudrdQ/s320/GinormousYams.jpg" width="222" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is my younger son at the food pantry in 2010, <br />when it was just starting out.</td></tr>
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Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-34978892850677386492013-03-17T20:11:00.001-07:002013-03-17T20:11:40.224-07:00Vital Quaker Tools (Kitchen Remix Version)<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today in leading the Firstday School for our middle school/early high school group, I brought a few props to help me make some points.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Among other things, I brought our sifter and our funnel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAhUYr5YTn1t3TwsyeO1ktJBdu4RJXefU_MOqH4oRtf3Vi8p9vDnzsu8RTWm2Hh_Xn8rpO-YjO7UUfihd3EroASGMBEFt5xD-XveIVyhlnB7UJs4IHptIP4pAgFmeMto0URoBVDg/s1600/sifter_and_funnel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAhUYr5YTn1t3TwsyeO1ktJBdu4RJXefU_MOqH4oRtf3Vi8p9vDnzsu8RTWm2Hh_Xn8rpO-YjO7UUfihd3EroASGMBEFt5xD-XveIVyhlnB7UJs4IHptIP4pAgFmeMto0URoBVDg/s320/sifter_and_funnel.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When the lesson was over, it was time for the group to go to meeting for worship for the last 15 minutes. I gathered some of my things up, but left others, including the kitchen gear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In meeting, I had a nudge to talk about the funnel and the sifter. I wanted to stand up and hold them up, for these simple, everyday tools to be visible, not just imagined. However, I had left them upstairs. So it seemed that this was not a message for that time and place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We had meeting for business after lunch. It started with the <a href="http://www.pym.org/faith-and-practice/queries/3-spiritual-nurture-ministry-and-religious-education/" target="_blank">Third Query</a> for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, on spiritual nurture, ministry, and religious education. Among the many queries of the Third Query: "How do we teach about Quaker practices in business and worship and their importance to the functioning of our Meeting community?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 23.33333396911621px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By then I had my funnel and sifter with me again, and I felt clear to speak the message, more or less like this:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These tools are important for Quakers. As with a funnel, in meeting for worship we can take all of our thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and focus them toward the center, and drop them into the container of meeting.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As with a sifter, in meeting for business we sift through the flour and strain out any chaff or pebbles, and let the good stuff drop through to be used. [<i>spin handle of sifter for emphasis</i>]</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The tools -- centering, discernment, or even meeting for worship or meeting for business themselves -- are not the point of Friends worship. However, in my experience, they are very helpful tools indeed along the way to learning to love God and to love my neighbor. It's important for adults as well as teens to be taught, or reminded, of this.</span>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-11914750413706247952013-01-04T20:13:00.000-08:002013-01-04T20:13:51.494-08:00Documentary and Discussion at Green Street Meeting: "Salt and Light: The 6th World Conference of Friends"<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Chris and <a href="http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/">Robin Mohr</a> will host the documentary "Salt and Light" on Saturday, January 12, 2013, at 6:30 pm, as a way of reporting back from the 6th World Conference of Friends that they attended in April 2012. They will also speak briefly about their experience in Kenya and about the <a href="http://www.fwccamericas.org/">Friends World</a> <a href="http://www.fwccworld.org/">Committee</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The 42-minute documentary was created by filmmakers from <a href="http://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/">Pacific Yearly Meeting</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The film is appropriate for all ages, but probably of more interest to Friends over age 10. Child care and refreshments will be available. (It is unlikely we will have any ugali, but we'll try to make popcorn.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.greenstreetfriendsmeeting.org/">Green Street Friends Meeting</a> is at 45 West Schoolhouse Lane, between Greene and Germantown Streets, Philadelphia, Penna.</span><br />
Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-34924793141121810962012-12-15T19:37:00.000-08:002012-12-15T19:37:14.769-08:00Quaker Revival in West Philadelphia, 12/6/12So I went to the <a href="http://lambswar.blogspot.com/2012/11/quaker-revival-in-west-philadelphia.html">Quaker Revival</a> in West Philadelphia on 12/6/12. I missed potluck and the very beginning of the service, because I went there right from the annual joint meeting of the Advisory Council and Board of Directors for the organization where I work, after which I had to help clean up.
<a href="http://lambswar.blogspot.com/2012/12/are-we-revived-yet.html">Micah Bales</a> and <a href="http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/2012/12/necessary-but-not-sufficient.html">Robin Mohr</a> have written about it already and reported accurately, in my opinion. I have something personal to add.
Really, it was a semi-programed meeting for worship, with rollicking music just at the start, and a few Friends asked to be prepared to bring a message to share as vocal ministry.
There was a good crowd in the parlor (where the organizers were sitting) and the living room of the home where we met. I was waiting for someone to break through the ceiling and lower a pallet down with someone on it who couldn’t get through the crowd.
Because I got there late, and for a variety of other circumstances, I ended up standing in the back, in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. At first, I was slumping against the door frame, a bit tired, and wondering if I should mind being in the next room or not, two rooms away.
Then I was transformed in the twinkling of an eye.
I thought I could stand like a steward at the ready waiting for a call to help.
And that helped! I stood with better posture, with my hands clasped behind my back, and felt better both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I was authentically in “waiting” worship, in the classic phrase of Friends.
After a while, my biceps fell asleep, which was a first for me. It felt odd to have my arms flop forward when I reached for something. No pins and needles, just floppy!
I found the vocal ministry generally rich and speaking deeply, and sometimes “to my condition” directly and sometimes less so. I do think the messages are still working their way through me, too, over a week later.
Overall, the revival meeting was somewhat similar to convergent Friends events Robin and I have participated in. So while she and I may have been a bit jaded, in the sense that this wasn’t spectacularly new and eye-opening (see her post), yet I felt like it was a time of spiritual refreshment and good worship together as a group.
The revival meeting closed promptly at 9 pm, which was helpful to us as we had our 9th and 5th graders with us, and it was a school night. It meant we didn’t spend as long socializing at the end as we might have liked, but we did give a ride home to a Friend who had been at one of the original convergent events with Wess and Emily Daniels after Pacific Yearly Meeting in the mid-2000s.
PS Micah quotes from Philipians in his <a href="http://lambswar.blogspot.com/2012/12/at-end-of-my-rope.html">2nd post</a> after the event. That was the book I was reading ahead of the event, thinking there might be a message for me to give! It didn't quite rise to that level, but it's reassuring to know it was on another Friend's heart as well.Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-34197237065711517792012-03-11T22:15:00.000-07:002012-03-11T22:15:00.876-07:00Guided by...A Friend today talked about wanting to worship with others who felt guided by something bigger than themselves, and that has agency. He doesn't care if that's God, or Christ, or Truth in an a-theist view. As long as there's that sense of something bigger. People who attend Quaker meetings without that are there for the culture of Quakers, not the faith tradition -- the religious society, as we're called.<br /><br />What stood out for me was the word "guided."<br /><br />I haven't been feeling very guided lately, at least not on a personal level. I moved to Philadelphia from San Francisco because my wife Robin M. is very much led to do the work she is currently employed to do, with the Friends World Committee for Consultation Section of the Americas. <br /><br />Fortunately, we found a place to rent (though that's turning into a whole nother story lately), a school for our children, and a job for me that's just a few blocks away from Robin's work and the boys' school. I particularly don't take that last item for granted -- in the words of Quakers, "Way opened" for me, in a big way.<br /><br />My life is focused on helping care for our family, doing my paid work, and doing one volunteer job that is rather substantial. Otherwise, I read Facebook, try to stay current on email, and read books that at least alternate between fluff and seriousness. But I'm not pursuing much in the way of an individual spiritual practice.<br /><br />I attend meeting at Green Street the Sundays we're home, but I seem to be elsewhere many Sundays. Last weekend we went to Gwynedd Meeting in Montgomery County, and visited an aunt and uncle nearby afterwards; and two weeks ago, we went to 15th Street Meeting in New York City, where Robin and I met. Both of those opportunities came about because of Robin's work engagements. So I'm not as involved in my monthly meeting as I used to be. (Well, even if I were still in San Francisco, I wouldn't be quite as involved in my meeting as I used to be, because last spring I completed four years as clerk of the meeting; that was the right thing to do whether or not we had left.)<br /><br />It's not surprising that I feel a bit unmoored (haha!) after leaving the area where I'd been living the last 16 years, and where Robin & I learned to be parents, and which had been where our children were born and had lived their lives until then.<br /><br />But hey, today we went to meeting and then the Woodmere Art Museum where both our boys had pieces in the show of their school's art. Our younger son got to play outside quite a bit in the spring weather, and I did a little yard work and sat on the front porch to read a book about particle physics. And ate homemade pumpkin pie after a substantial dinner. So I certainly am blessed and have much to be grateful for. May I remain open to Guidance.Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-60203267820391715292011-11-19T13:57:00.001-08:002011-11-19T13:57:52.320-08:00Write to think, think to writeI know I still have things to say. <br /><br />More important, I have things to think and I must say or write before I know I think them.<br /><br />I only know this because I wrote that in my journal the other day!Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-67813480654357917842011-10-11T17:04:00.000-07:002011-10-11T17:12:32.177-07:0010th Anniversary of San Francisco Meeting Vigil for Peace<i>Well, I left San Francisco Friends Meeting, but it hasn't left me -- thanks to the magic of meeting email lists. This report came through and its author, Markley Morris, agreed that I could post this here. </i><br /><div style="text-align: center;">- - - - - - - - - - - - -</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>10th Anniversary of San Francisco Meeting Vigil for Peace</b></div><br />Last Thursday was the 10th anniversary of our vigil. The first vigil was held on October 11, 2001, the same week U.S. bombing of Afghanistan began.<br /><br />There was a wonderful turnout. At 12:30 Supervisor John Avalos arrived and presented the attached proclamation to the vigil. Note that it is signed by all eleven San Francisco Supervisors. After this, Episcopal Bishop Marc Andrus gave a blessing and we resumed our vigil.<br /><br />For photos by Sean McConnell see <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/diocal/sets/72157627839290668/" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/diocal/sets/72157627839290668/</a><br /><br />The vigil continues. Please join us whenever you can from noon to 1:00 every Thursday (except federal holidays) at the old federal building at the corner of Larkin Street and Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco.<br /><br />In peace, Markley <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilCkVI2S86NkU4arLzxYJkz7-5jFdGrdK5EQcvcT85Oxhbpt1BMpi0Zu8IPX52ryAi63kkBcCCoGQgSJ3pWZPenUUrV_lEq_jsgGt0ihFKOylFKNLGCEyulaeXxKVPPMtpMXGbcw/s1600/SF-Friends-Mtg-Supes-Proclamation-Oct-2011.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 309px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilCkVI2S86NkU4arLzxYJkz7-5jFdGrdK5EQcvcT85Oxhbpt1BMpi0Zu8IPX52ryAi63kkBcCCoGQgSJ3pWZPenUUrV_lEq_jsgGt0ihFKOylFKNLGCEyulaeXxKVPPMtpMXGbcw/s400/SF-Friends-Mtg-Supes-Proclamation-Oct-2011.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5662391775448111938" /></a>Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15715889.post-49298742264249026972011-09-25T17:06:00.000-07:002011-09-25T17:52:56.905-07:00Last Day during My SabbaticalAs mentioned in my <a href="http://chrismsf.blogspot.com/2011/09/last-weekday-in-my-sabbatical.html">last post</a>, I've been blessed to be able to take the summer off of paid work. Well, I had a lot of unpaid work to do, so it's not like I didn't keep busy. I did get to eat a few bonbons -- actually, ice cream and donuts more than bonbons. But I didn't blog as much as I had hoped. So be it.<br /><br />Today, 9/25/11, was my last day before I go back to full-time work. It was a full day.<br /><br />I went to Bible study at Green Street Friends Meeting. It was led by <a href="http://whsbodywork.blogspot.com/" target="blank">Walter Hjelt Sullivan</a>. (It was thanks to Walter that Robin and I found a place to rent in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, close enough to walk to Green Street Meeting. He and his wife <a href="http://www.fgcquaker.org/about-us/meet-the-staff" target="blank">Traci</a> live a block away, and he heard about the house where we moved. We knew them from when they were co-directors at Ben Lomond Quaker Center near Santa Cruz, Calif.)<br /><br />Walter chose Ephesians 6:10-17, about the armor of God. It was offputting to some Friends, but I thought it was a great reminder that God gives us the strength and the tools -- spiritual weapons, even -- to meet challenges and, yes, even evil. "Stand firm," the text says; it sounds just like George Fox. I was reminded of something another parent told me this week at a school soccer game, when he was picking up plastic shopping bags blowing by: <b>"Be an upstander, not a bystander!"</b><br /><br />Then meeting for worship, where I was mulling over the armor of God, breastplate of righteousness, and so on in a contemporary context. Perhaps this: Put on the bicycle helmet of carbon footprint reduction, the bulletproof vest of faith, the organic cotton t-shirts and shorts of righteousness, and the sweatshop-free sneakers of peace. (I'm not sure what the sword of the Spirit would be.) This train of thought did not quite rise to the occasion of standing and delivering it as vocal ministry.<br /><br />Afterwards, Robin & I had a nice chat with a fellow parent of an 8th grader at our sons' school. Then we headed home, where after lunch I helped Robin get to the SEPTA train to connect with Amtrak to a conference on fundraising for Quaker organizations (she <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/robinmsf/status/118046014761467904" target="blank">tweeted this</a> from the Amtrak train).<br /><br />At home, Younger Son wanted to watch "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" on DVD (we don't have TV but we have a computer, and we only own a couple of DVDs, so...). Then we went outside to do yard work while Older Son did homework.<br /><br />Here's what Younger Son found in the grass:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdAYRTe1vsI9aIgVCN7jheMh22aMeY-kcZzQJIVioWFBihPRhgVrD5G5kz_svmimyk_9lT7dexIRXE2Sk8X8JkN-Ioq6a2cuuEssVjzE4ZFnUBfexyNF9es39lC3AYNYoi1f0Yw/s1600/SnakeInGrass3_1.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhdAYRTe1vsI9aIgVCN7jheMh22aMeY-kcZzQJIVioWFBihPRhgVrD5G5kz_svmimyk_9lT7dexIRXE2Sk8X8JkN-Ioq6a2cuuEssVjzE4ZFnUBfexyNF9es39lC3AYNYoi1f0Yw/s320/SnakeInGrass3_1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656464798874860338" /></a><br />And here are the non-motorized, carbon-footprint-reducing tools we used on the lawn and edges:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSOKdh_LeXOwbA7sb3lE_awqIb1HMn0MYTpxthVitQf7fqqpES9oFKaaujsFayAU2YuTux4gFbYmSlpQnL0oAjnvygOtv76emhTG7FkQLtf6TqusagOTTYYnGE7SiRuzhLmOkl8A/s1600/NonMotorizedLawnTools1-crop.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 245px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSOKdh_LeXOwbA7sb3lE_awqIb1HMn0MYTpxthVitQf7fqqpES9oFKaaujsFayAU2YuTux4gFbYmSlpQnL0oAjnvygOtv76emhTG7FkQLtf6TqusagOTTYYnGE7SiRuzhLmOkl8A/s320/NonMotorizedLawnTools1-crop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656457955876071794" /></a><br />And here is Younger Son, still smiling after working:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PVDDPAuDN6k7sLFSJRZLTJhHhgdw6zcEQHsAEoUkHiTQA_8wj1LNrBBVCTTXnuuR4c0NB880wmmOMVzwVA79TB6R2uOyaCjJP69SyDYnc5TgeaIMdyWGmro2SWuDp9vdFAlJ3Q/s1600/Son2AndLawnTools-crop.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4PVDDPAuDN6k7sLFSJRZLTJhHhgdw6zcEQHsAEoUkHiTQA_8wj1LNrBBVCTTXnuuR4c0NB880wmmOMVzwVA79TB6R2uOyaCjJP69SyDYnc5TgeaIMdyWGmro2SWuDp9vdFAlJ3Q/s320/Son2AndLawnTools-crop.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656458133023360690" /></a><br />Scrambled eggs for dinner, followed by washing two nights' worth of dishes, a blog post, and hustling the boys to showers and to bed. A truly satisfying day to end a truly blessed time. I am grateful to my sons, my wife, our new and old friends, and the Spirit for allowing these many blessings to flow.Chris M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11651283601238351902noreply@blogger.com1