Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Conducted by Zoom

January 17, 2021

Present: Timmy Bullock, clerk, Auberta Galusha, Juliet Wright, Alison Levie, Lucie Mckee, Edward Cady, Priscilla Tracy, and Michael Wajda.

The meeting opened with a period of worship during which the clerk read the following quote from For Peace and Truthby Pierre Ceresole:

Pray the Eternal to keep your weathervane in good trim so that it readily responds to the true winds of the spirit and doesn’t get jammed by the rust of tradition in a position unrelated to Truth…

The recording clerk read the minutes from our December 20, 2020 for information.

The recording clerk also read an thank you letter from Margaret Cooley for our special $5,000 contribution to their capital campaign.  It is attached.

2021-01.  The meeting then turned its attention to considering the allocation of $4,000 in extra donations beyond what is in our regular budget.  This is part of our five-year plan to give away $20,000 of our reserves.  As was true last year, we have allocated $300 of this year’s $4,000 to the children to decide which organizations they would like to support. We have generally focused our giving in three areas: local community needs, Quaker organizations, and projects which align with Friends values.

The Treasurer had distributed in advance a list of last year’s special donations, as well as the contributions included in our regular budget to help with our consideration. A suggestion was circulated to contribute $400 of the total to the McWaters Park Permaculture Garden, specifically to fund a sturdy railing next to the steps that will give access to the garden. Timmy Bullock, our clerk, has been very active in building this garden and she distributed a detailed description of the project via email to the meeting.  It is attached to these minutes. We also noted last month that we wanted to take into account any special local needs due to the pandemic. 

Alison Levie circulated in advance by email a possible allocation of this year’s $3,700. Her list made only a few changes from last year. It added the $400 for the permaculture project and $300 to the Sunrise Family Resource Center in Bennington. When looking at local needs, the Director of GBICs told Michael Wajda that the food and fuel fund is in good shape. We therefore are keeping in our extra contribution to GBICS but making it unrestricted.  The suggestion to add the Sunrise Family Resource Center, which offers many family services is to support other critical needs of families during this challenging time.  This new $700 of allocations would be met by removing the $300 to SHSF food pantry and reducing by $200 the donations to the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative and FCNL.

After considerable discussion, the meeting decided on the following allocation of this year’s $4,000:

Powell House	300.00
QREC	100.00
Friends Journal	300.00
Permaculture Project	400.00
NEYM Additional Contribution	300.00
FCNL Additional Contribution	300.00
BROC Additional Contribution	300.00
Quaker Earthcare Witness Additional Contribution	500.00
Woolman Hill Additional Contribution	300.00
GBICS Additional Contribution	300.00
FGC Additional Contribution	300.00
Sunrise Family Resource Center	300.00
For the First Day School Children to Allocate	300.00
TOTAL FOR 2021	$4,000

2021-02.  Michael Wajda circulated by email a proposal to experiment with a once-a-month meeting for learning.  A copy is attached.  Basically, the suggestion is that a small planning group would bring forward a brief reading each month and invite Friends to reflect on that reading in a worship-sharing format.  The planning group would select the readings, develop a query for reflection, and arrange for facilitation of each month’s meeting for learning.  The clerk suggested that Michael, Priscilla, and herself serve as the meeting for learning planning group during this trial period. The meeting agreed to move forward with this proposal and to hold meeting for learning after worship on the fourth Sunday beginning in February. We will evaluate this experiment after three months.

2021-03.  The meeting has decided to hold a special one-half hour Meeting for Worship at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, January 19 via Zoom following President-Elect Joseph Biden’s memorial ceremony for Covid victims.  Michael will send a Zoom link through our email list-serve. 

2021-04.  Michael Wajda reminded Friends that the Greater Bennington Interfaith Council and Peach and Justice Center have planned several activities for tomorrow’s Martin Luther King Day here in Bennington.  The theme is “Ending White Silence” and members of the community are encouraged to go out in front of their homes at 6:00 pm with a lit candle and bell to ring in acknowledgement of their commitment to racial equity in Bennington.  Community members are also encouraged to watch a 30-minute film produced by the National Education Association entitled “I Am from Here,” in which Vermont high school students share their experiences as persons of color living in Vermont.  There will be an online discussion of the film at 7:00 pm tomorrow.  Details of these plans are attached to these minutes.

Michael also noted that in connection with the theme of Ending White Silence, the Interfaith Council Peace and Justice Center are printing posters and yard signs with the words “End White Silence.” Anyone who would like any of either sign, should let Michael know.  He will then place the order. Both signs are free.

The meeting closed with a period of worship.

Michael Wajda

Recording Clerk

Thank you from Margaret Cooley, Executive Director of Woolman Hill

December 22, 2020

Hello Timmy –

What wonderful news! THANK YOU to all Bennington Friends!

It’s so affirming to hear of the sense of appreciation and necessity folks feel about Woolman Hill. And hearing this feedback also helps to keep Woolman Hill rooted in the values that Quakers in Bennington and around our region cherish. I love that Bain Davis, when the board was working on revising WH’s mission statement, encouraged us to use the phrase ‘peace-making’ – an active, engaged word, rather than simply the word ‘peace.’ It seems like that embodies the effort of programming and day-to-day operations that reflect ‘the change we wish to see’ – not just talking about it, but doing it. That manifestation, even in our small way, gives me hope.

What a blessing Bennington Friends are and have been to Woolman Hill. I hope the relationship continues strong and vibrant – and I can’t wait to welcome you all to the new space in person once the pandemic and the construction are behind us! 

Many thanks for your role in helping shepherd the request for and consideration of financial support. And thanks for the explanation re timing of the gift – I will keep my eyes out in early 2021 for the check. 

And, though I haven’t yet responded to your wonderful earlier email, I’m intrigued by the thought of a program on anger. So I’ll keep both that and the small meetings retreat in mind as we resume our on-site programming! 

May you have a blessed 2021. 

With much light and gratitude to all Bennington Friends,

Margaret

Explanation of Permaculture Project by Timmy Bullock

Friends,  

I write to ask the meeting to consider supporting the McWaters Park Permaculture Garden, specifically to fund a sturdy railing next to the steps that will give access to the garden.

 Some of you may remember Friends held a fall retreat at the park several years ago, and through a presentation from the person who has spearheaded the McWaters permaculture park effort, Avery Wood, we  immersed ourselves for that day in permaculture,  including doing some garden work. After our retreat, an excellent article by Joseph Tracy was published in the  Northwest Quarter’s newsletter.    At that point, the garden was in an early, or early/middle,  phase of planting and tending, with fruit and nut trees not yet bearing. The garden is big, with the garden portion of the park  spread over about 5 of the 11 acres of the park.  There  are two large fruit and nut beds — half moon shape densely planted with complementary fruit and nut species,* to be immediately accessible from the road down a steepish slope –via those new steps —  into the garden, and a further eight nut circle/kidney-shaped nut tree beds.**  The aim, which is on the verge of mature  achievement, is to demonstrate a garden that is food-producing, beautiful, self-renewing, self- fertilizing — and  replicable by backyard gardeners.  The totality of this  last goal will be best accomplished when signage, access steps and railings are finished: a  hope to be accomplished this spring and summer of 2021

This funding request is for a partial support of this last major outlay. the railing,  for which have had  to enlist  paid, professional work. 

Until now, the work has been funded primarily through volunteer labor.  Plants and some costs were initially funded through workshops with Mark Krawczyk, Keith Morris   and Eric Toensmeier, all major figures in New England permaculture world; some grants from the Village of North Bennington, and  individual contributions.  But volunteer labor has shouldered the support of the project.  Initially some l0 or 12 people were active, but that has shaken down to a group of 6, mostly older women, who typically work 10 to 16 woman hours a week during the growing season:  building soil, planting, watering, mulching, trimming, planting ground covers, pruning.  

A brief history of work on the site:  After very careful design work (see Holmgren quotation), the first 18 months to 2 years were devoted to assessing the site (soil analysis, site orientation, elevations) and the very hard labor (no fossil fuel inputs) of preparing the soil.  The park acreage consisted of badly depleted , indeed abused, soil   The soil had been subjected not only to frequent flooding but subject to the most regressive farming: corn crops with a dose of artificial fertilizer added.  Soil was compacted, depleted of nutrients and needed aeration (forking) and weed suppression (solarizing) and rebuilding (primarily cardboarding or newspapering and wood chips).  At once a  simple, but near Sisyphean labor.  

Plants are sited and planted in dynamic relation to site and to each other (nitrogen fixing, dynamic accumulators, nectaries, sun and water needs etc) as a fundamental design principle.  Through newspapering and mulching have continued, the pruning, the companion planting, the ground covers (alfalfa, clover, these last erratically successful) themselves now contribute to the self-reinforcing fertility of the garden, at the same time producing — ready for anyone to harvest — currants, elderberries, beach plums — and this year, a first crop of nuts. 

The big final expenses to bring the park to accessibility and to be fully informing: 

                                            Big informational sign:  ca $2500

                                            Botanical Garden grade labels for plants: ca $500

                                            Steps: ca $3000***

                                            Steel railing: ca $1300

Formally and informally over the past few years our meeting has discussed the urgency of climate change facing us, with special support of this effort by specially adding Quaker Earthcare Witness as both a regular annual contribution and as an additional contribution from the $4,000.  My hope is that the McWaters permaculture garden would be seen as part of this effort.  

The request is for $400 toward the completion of the railing (now in progress). 

Bennington Friends Meeting

Meeting for Learning

A Trial Experiment

• Once a month, say on the second Sunday, hold an hour-long meeting for learning beginning at 8:45am.
• Use a very brief reading to spur individual sharing, and if time allows group conversation around a query brought by a small adult learning planning group.
• Structure the initial time as worship-sharing using the guidelines listed below.
• Evaluate the interest and participation after a six-month trial period.

Worship-Sharing Guidelines

·       Settle into worship.  

·       Speak out of the silence.

·       Share from your personal experiences—not your thoughts on the topic.

·       Stay in worship and allow time between messages for deep listening.

·       Do not comment or ask questions about what someone has said. This is an   

        opportunity to go deeper and to listen.

·       Go around the group, allowing each person to speak. You may pass, if you wish.

·       Facilitator will be sure everyone has had a chance to share, even if at-first they 

        passed.

If time allows, there will be room for conversation at the end.

A Possible Example for One Sunday 

Christianity began as a revolutionary nonviolent movement promoting a new kind of aliveness on the margins of society. It was a peace movement, a love movement, a joy movement, a justice movement, an integrity movement, an aliveness movement.

Brian McLauren

What does aliveness, peace, joy, justice, or integrity look like in your life?  

Choose one of these characteristics and tell us a personal story to bring it to life.

MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

 January 18, 2021

Town of Bennington

A CALL TO END WHITE SILENCE

 

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

 

Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963, Letter from a Birmingham Jail

 

To mark the national Martin Luther King holiday this year in Bennington we are extending an invitation to join together to “End White Silence.”  There are three ways for you to participate:

 

Ring A Bell

At 6 pm on January 18, we are asking all those who are concerned about racial equity in our community to go out on your porch or in front of your home with a lit candle (or a flashlight if it’s too windy) and a bell (or bang a pot!) as a sign of your commitment to stand up and speak out for racial equality in our community.  Video tape your “ringing” and post the videos/pictures to your preferred social medial account with the hashtag #BennMLKRing so community members can share with other who care about equality in Bennington.

Watch “I Am from Here” and Join a Discussion 

“I Am from Here” is a 30-minute National Education Association film of interviews with high school students of color in Vermont. It is a compelling tale of their experiences in a state that is mostly comprised of persons of European descent. The film is free and available on Vimeo. Follow this link https://vimeo.com/288449454 or type the title in the search box and choose the one by Bess O’Brien. There will be a discussion of the film at 7 pm on Martin Luther King Day, January 18. If you want to participate in the discussion, please follow this link to register for this Zoom event https://www.eventbrite.com/e/martin-luther-king-jr-day-celebration-ending-white-silence-tickets-134822151685?utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=checkoutwidget&utm-campaign=social%2Cemail&utm-source=strongmail.

  You may watch the film anytime between now and the beginning of the discussion on January 18.  You will receive a Zoom link two days prior to the event. 

 

 

Learn More About Racism in Ourselves and Our Community

To End White Silence, we first must learn more about the realities of current day racism in ourselves and our community.  Throughout 2021, the Greater Bennington Interfaith Council and the Greater Bennington Peace and Justice Center will be offering several educational and action opportunities to support personal learning about racism and to help undo systemic racism in our community. If you are interested in being on the email list for these opportunities, please email here: info@greaterbenningtonpeaceandjusticecenter.org and mention “anti-racism notices please.”

The best way to honor Martin Luther King’s legacy is to commit to continue the struggle for racial equity here in our own community.