Bennington Friends Meeting

Bennington Friends Meeting

Minutes for Meeting for Business

Sunday, September 27, 2009

When we are humble, we are able to wait and be silent. We can wait, for we do not expect that we should immediately understand each question from within or have a response to each query from without…

Being able to wait enables us to listen.  We are good listeners when others have something to say, and we will hear them out if we think it fit or timely to do so.  But even more, we are good listeners to our own inner voices which often speak slowly and indistinctly.

            William O. Brown, Transcendence in the Pursuit of Wholeness,

            Illinois Yearly Meeting, 1978 Jonathan Plummer Lecture,

Cited from Daily Readings from Quaker Writings, Ancient & Modern, edited by Linda Hill Renfer

Present were Timmy Bullock, Co-Clerk, Juliet Wright, Priscilla Tracy, Bain Davis, Maurice Kahn, Peggy Kahn, Ruth Hawes, Beth Cheadle, Co-Clerk, Joseph Tracy and Arnold Ricks.

Out of the silence at the beginning of the meeting Co-Clerk Timmy Bullock read the above words from William O. Brown.

Recording clerk Juliet Wright read the minutes for meeting for business August 23, 2009.

2009-59 Priscilla Tracy read the minutes of the Ministry and Counsel meeting held September 9, 2009, which were approved and are appended.

2009-60 The meeting would like to have the post potluck October discussion on text for the Mayfest bookmark to be as wide ranging as possible; we can narrow the selections of quotations at a later date.  The meeting will keep in mind the possibility of collating all the quotations for our meeting. 

2009-61 The Christmas party will be held on Saturday, December 19, 2009 at the Old First Church Barn. Ministry and Counsel will discuss the theme with the idea of reflecting on the word “gifts” and/or “shoes.”

2009-62 Meeting has approved Bain Davis leading the November post potluck discussion on spirituality and sexual ethics; materials should be distributed beforehand.

2009-63 Arnold Ricks reported on behalf of the nominating committee.  Business meeting approved nominating committee’s recommendation of Auberta Galusha as a member of ministry and counsel.

2009-64 Meeting reflected on the retreat, held on September 19 at Pompanuck Retreat Center.  It is our sense that the retreat was a positive experience.  We will forward a check for $750.00 to Callid and Kristina Keefe-Perry within a month.  We are still awaiting a statement on expenses but are comfortable that the amount designated is appropriate. 

2009-65 The discussion on the Northwest Quarterly Meeting Wilderness Meeting letter will be deferred to the next meeting for business.

2009-66 In their next meeting ministry and counsel will consider the way we are to participate in the October 24 350.org action concerning global warming.  Ministry and counsel will consider the possibilities that have emerged from meeting for business.

After a period of silent worship the meeting adjourned.

************************************************************************September 9, 2009

Meeting of Ministry & Counsel

Present:  Timmy Bullock, Priscilla Tracy (Co-Clerks), Bain Davis and Beth Cheadle

Pastoral Concerns discussed

17.09 In the October post potluck workshop, the workshop leaders will seek meaningful quotations rooted in Friends beliefs and language that succinctly express Friends persuasions.  These are to be used on the bookmark that would be distributed at Mayfest.

18.09 Tentative date for annual Christmas party, December 19; theme to be developed.

19.09 With an explicitly stated agenda to be a more broadly based mandate than a focus on same gender relationships, NEYM has asked meetings to reflect on how our experience of spirituality converges with sexual ethics practiced.  A working group of Yearly Meeting has developed materials and queries to help in directing our discussions, and Ministry & Counsel recommends that Bain Davis lead a preliminary discussion on this topic at our November 1 potluck luncheon.

Bennington Friends Meeting

Minutes

Meeting for Worship for the Conduct of Business

Held at the Senior Citizens Service Center, Bennington, Vermont

August 23, 2009

Let us listen more carefully to each other—certainly without interrupting each other.  I suspect that some of us tend to formulate our own thoughts while others are speaking.  We would do better to listen more deeply, considering the exact message made explicit:  the emotional content in the context of the speaker’s life and commitments:  the sources, rational and emotional, of our own acceptance or rejection of the message; and the source in the divine love of the message and our response to it.

To do this kind of listening is hard work, and we need a brief silence after each person speaks to hear the echo of the message in our own soul and to judge if a response is needed.  Such a brief silence is also a guard against interruption…..

            Pieter Byhouwer, “The Conduct of Business,” Friends Journal Daily Readings from Quaker Writings, Ancient and Modern, May, 1971, cited in Linda Hill Renfer, ed.

Present:  Timmy Bullock, Co-Clerk; Beth Cheadle, Co-Clerk; Bain Davis, Auberta Galusha, Ruth Hawes, Arnold Ricks, Priscilla Tracy.

Out of the silence at the beginning of the Meeting Co-Clerk Timmy Bullock read the above words from Pieter Byhouwer.

Acting Recording Clerk Arnold Ricks read the minutes of the July Meeting for Business.

2009-54 Priscilla Tracy read the minutes of the Ministry and Counsel meeting held August 9, which were approved, and are appended.

2009-55 Speaking for the Nominating Committee, Auberta Galusha reported that John Maloney was asked to serve on the Finance Committee and he has accepted.  There is not yet a recommendation for an additional member of Ministry and Counsel.  Friends raised the question as to whether the Meeting might wish to reconsider our existing policy and open the possibility of membership on Ministry and Counsel to long-term attenders as well as members.

2009-56 Timmy Bullock reported for the Finance Committee, which met on August 14.  Meeting Treasurer Jane Radocchia, addressing the status of the budget, noted that contributions are down for the year.  To meet total outlays planned, about $5,500.00 additional will be needed.  The Meeting agreed to revisit the matter of organizational contributions at our Monthly Meeting for Business in October. 

2009-57 In view of our all-day retreat on Saturday, September 19, Timmy Bullock proposed that the next Meeting for Business be deferred to Sunday, September 27.  This was approved. 

2009-58 Bain Davis reported on New England Yearly Meeting sessions, noting particularly two matters that especially exercised Friends present.  The first was consideration of the personnel policy of Friends United Meeting.  Bain illuminated for us differing views on aspects of the issue, and the recommendation of a committee on how to respond in love to an issue that exercises Friends deeply.  A second issue was a request from Moses Brown School in Providence in the light of its sense of its present needs, that the School have a Board independent of the Yearly Meeting, while a significant percentage of the Board would still be Friends, and the School would continue to value a close association with Friends.

The Meeting concluded in silence.

Timmy Bullock,                                                            Arnold Ricks,

Co-Clerk                                                                     Acting Recording Clerk

August 9, 2009

Meeting of Ministry & Counsel

Present:  Timmy Bullock, Priscilla Tracy (Co-Clerks), Bain Davis and Beth Cheadle

Pastoral Concerns discussed

16.09 Ministry & Counsel reviewed planning for our September 19 retreat and awaits the tentative final schedule from the co leaders, Kristina and Callid Keefe-Perry