November 2021 Minutes of Meeting for Business
Posted: under Minutes from Meeting for Business.
Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
November 21, 2021
Present: Timmy Bullock, clerk, Auberta Galusha, Juliet Wright, Priscilla Tracy, Edward Cady, Gabrielle Isenbrand, Alison Levie, and Michael Wajda.
We gathered in the Senior Center for meeting for worship with attention to business again wearing masks for safety during the pandemic. The meeting opened with a period of worship during which the clerk read the following quote from John Woolman’s Journal:
And in the heat of zeal, I once made reply to what an ancient Friend said, which when I sat down I saw that my words were not enough seasoned with charity, and after this I spake no more on the subject.
The recording clerk read the minutes of our September 19, 2021 meeting for business for information.
2021-22. Priscilla Tracy reported for Ministry and Counsel. The committee received a letter of application for membership from Kerby Lovallo and appointed a clearness committee comprised of Timmy Bullock, Juliet Wright, and Michael Wajda. Priscilla read the report from the clearness committee and the committee recommends with joy that Kerby be accepted into membership. The meeting appreciates the full report from the clearness committee and approves accepting Kerby into membership. The meeting will find a time to hold a celebration with Kerby after meeting some Sunday. Timmy will communicate with Kerby to find a date. Kerby’s letter of application and the clearness committee report are appended to these minutes.
2021-23. The Ministry and Counsel Committee also heard of the anticipated need for support of an Afghan family of nine, which is expected to arrive in Bennington in the coming months. Timmy Bullock has been closely involved and gave more details to the meeting. A house has been rented in preparation for their arrival. In addition to finances, a big need will be for them to learn English. It’s expected that financial support will be needed for about eighteen months. The clerk asked if there is a dollar number that the meeting would consider to help meet this need. In what other ways might the meeting help with their resettlement? The meeting agreed that it would consider giving up to $10,000 to help with this family’s resettlement and it asks that Timmy bring back information on other needs as they become clear. Ed offered that he might be able to help attain some used computers.
2021-24. Alison Levie reported on conversations that she and Michael Wajda have had with Phil Fitz, a member of Northampton Meeting, regarding the 8-week online Elements of Quakerism class that he has been offering to his meeting and other meetings in our area. Alison is currently serving as an elder in the current class, which meets online and is comprised mostly of members and attenders at Northampton Meeting. Phil would be pleased to offer the course to Bennington Meeting online after the first of the year. He cannot commit to any in-person sessions until more is known about the state of the pandemic.
The meeting asks Alison and Michael to confirm with Phil our interest in offering the course and Michael will work with Phil and our meeting list to determine the starting date and weekly schedule that is best for all who plan to participate in the course. Once we have a sense of the numbers who will participate and Phil’s limit on size, we may open the course to others in the community. Alison will report back to business meeting in December.
2021-25. We confirmed our plans to provide much of the meal needed at the December 12 community dinner served from the Second Congregational Church in Bennington. Various Friends signed up to prepare parts of the meal, which typically feeds 90-100 persons. Our task is to deliver the food to the Second Congregational Church by 4:15 p.m. on December 12. Due to the pandemic, the meals now are only provided in take-out containers handled by volunteers in the church each Sunday. We are not being asked to be servers.
2021-26. Michael Wajda reported on his service with the Greater Bennington Interfaith Council. The Council continues to organize monthly walks along the Walloomsac Path, which include refreshments and presentations by community groups working to better the lives of all people living in Bennington. One goal of the walks has been to improve the beauty and safety along the path and significant progress has already been made.
2021-27. Michael also reported on the Interfaith Counsel’s and Bennington Peace and Justice Center’s jointly planned Martin Luther King Day commemorations for January 17, 2021. The plans are in the works to bring the Mt. Olive Men’s Chorus from Albany to Bennington to perform and to provide an inspirational talk that evening at the Old Castle Theater in Bennington. The plans are still developing so all is not confirmed. It’s anticipated that the costs for this event could be somewhere around $500-$1,000. Michael asked if the meeting would be willing to consider contributing toward this cost, if needed. The meeting approved considering such a contribution.
2021-28. Michael Wajda reported that the group that is helping with the discernment of his leading regarding the spiritual strength of Quaker meetings for worship and business will be holding its first session via Zoom on Wednesday, December 1. Timmy and Priscilla are part of that group for Bennington Meeting. Alison Levie will be clerking the session. Michael asks that the whole meeting hold this leading in the stream of God’s Living Presence.
The meeting closed with a period of worship.
Michael Wajda
Recording Clerk
To the Bennington Friends Meeting Clearness Committee,
Probably my path to the Quaker community is a typical one. My parents were Catholic and so I was raised in the church and attended Catholic grade school, and was more or less content in the faith until my late teens. At that point as most teenagers do, I questioned it along with all authorities and social structures – I didn’t rebel, but I wasn’t comfortable. There was a lack of joy in the faith, especially among the clergy, including the nuns who were teachers in grade school. For sure they didn’t inspire me to follow their path. There was moral certain which was comforting but not warmth, not joy. Once I left home for college I really had little interest in being in the church. Still it represents my moral and spiritual background and it’s a part of me, and useful – I measure ideas within the framework of the basics of the faith, and I have some nostalgia for the theatrical elements of the services. Rituals have meaning and can be powerful. When the Pope speaks on a subject of interest, I listen. But all the rules that the church seems to love, all the complications and contradictions within the Bible, and occasional bad experiences with clergy made it easy for me to drift away. Millions of Catholics have done the same for probably similar reasons.
For a good 30 years I was comfortably agnostic, and not that spiritual – once every few years I would attend mass but I felt no connection other than to the ritual. Time did it’s thing, and probably when I was in my late 40s, I started to think a little more deeply about spiritual, ethical, and existential matters. Also I thought being a part of a spiritual community would be in all ways healthy. I attended a few Episcopal (“Catholic Lite”) services, but didn’t connect. I think my first thought of attending a Quaker meeting came out of a conversation with Gordon Jones, a singer with The Hilliard Ensemble, a British vocal ensemble who I represented. We were talking about everything over a meal, and faith came up, and he suggested that I look into the Quakers. At some later date I attended a couple meetings in Storrs, Connecticut, and read some books about the Quakers including a biography of George Fox. I thought that the Quakers’ rejection of the human institution of the Church of England, but not the basics of the faith, was similar to my feelings about the Catholic church. The idea that God is in all of us, and that we don’t need a member of the clergy to intercede for us, felt right to me. The anti-hierarchical aspects of the Quakers was similarly attractive.
That was 15 to 20 years ago, and the idea kept rumbling around in the back of my head. I did refer to the testimony of integrity in my work as an agent representing performers. It’s very easy, tempting to stretch the truth a bit in the artist’s favor, and I frequently remembered that telling a simple, unvarnished truth was the way to go, and felt a little better for it. Over the last year I’ve read a few more books, mostly historical, about the Quaker faith. Being nearly as contrary as Fox (George, not the network), I don’t agree with much of the writing but I accept its validity, of course. I’m happy that the Quaker tent is big – actually, it’s huge.
At this point in my life I value simplicity and clarity. The big books of the various faiths offer great wisdom, and I’m open to that, but there’s just too much contradictory, confusing information in them for me, though I welcome thoughts gleaned from them by others. At present I’m content with these traditional Quaker beliefs: the foundational idea that there is that of God in all of us (and all that implies about community), and the three traditional testimonies of peace, integrity and simplicity. That’s enough for me. If I can internalize those, make them a part of my everyday life, then I’ll have a good balance and be at peace with myself and the world. That’s what I strive for. That’s at present – likely my thoughts and faith will evolve.
The above was easy to write – the words were there, ready, which means to me that I’ve thought this through and that I’m comfortable and ready to join the Meeting of the Bennington Friends. I look forward to speaking with the clearness committee.
Sincerely yours,
Kerby Lovallo
Clearness Committee Report
on the Application for Membership by Kerby Lavallo
Kerby Lavallo is on a thoughtful spiritual journey. After growing up Catholic and drifting away from the faith of his youth, it was in his forties that he began to feel a need for something spiritual.
Kerby first explored Quakers about twenty years ago. He attended Storrs Meeting in Connecticut a few times, as well as read various books by and about Quakers. After attending meeting now in Bennington for approximately one year, he feels nourished by our shared method of spiritual inquiry. He is especially drawn to the Quaker belief of God in everyone, and that one doesn’t need a member of the clergy to intercede. He values our clarity about having no creed. He unites with our emphasis on supporting each individual journey.
The clearness committee met with Kerby on October 31 following meeting for worship. He reviewed parts of his spiritual journey with us and answered various questions about Quaker faith and practice. He spoke especially about the benefit of searching spiritually in the corporate silence of our meetings for worship. He feels that it forces him to look a little deeper and that it helps to keep him accountable. He speaks with authenticity.
This paragraph from his letter of application captures well the core of his present journey:
At this point in my life I value simplicity and clarity. The big books of the various faiths offer great wisdom, and I’m open to that, but there’s just too much contradictory, confusing information in them for me, though I welcome thoughts gleaned from them by others. At present I’m content with these traditional Quaker beliefs: the foundational idea that there is that of God in all of us (and all that implies about community), and the three traditional testimonies of peace, integrity and simplicity. That’s enough for me. If I can internalize those, make them a part of my everyday life, then I’ll have a good balance and be at peace with myself and the world. That’s what I strive for. That’s at present – likely my thoughts and faith will evolve.
Kerby sees Bennington Meeting and the Quaker journey helping him to learn how to live his life here on earth in the present. We are touched by the simplicity and clarity of his objective.
The clearness committee recommends that he be accepted into membership,
Respectfully submitted,
Timmy Bullock, Juliet Wright, Michael Wajda
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Nov 29 2021