Business Meeting Minutes 03/20/2022
Posted: under Minutes from Meeting for Business.
Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
March 20, 2022
Present: Timmy Bullock, clerk, Auberta Galusha, Alison Levie, Gabrielle Isenbrand, Edward Cady, Priscilla Tracy, Juliet Wright, 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 Pushon:
“The meeting for business cannot be understood in isolation; it is part of a spiritual discipline.” John Punshon, 1987, cited from Britain’s Faith & Practice (3rd edition); 2.85
The recording clerk read the minutes of our February 20, 2022 meeting for business for information.
2022-06. Juliet Wright reported for Ministry and Counsel. The committee raised a question of how to proceed with the request from the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) for input on legislative priorities for the 118thCongress, which convenes in January 2023. Every two years FCNL asks monthly meetings and Friends churches to provide input regarding the legislative priorities of Friends. FCNL uses this input to help guide their lobbying work on behalf of Quakers in Washington D.C.
Michael Wajda reviewed their request materials and circulated a handout with suggestions for a process to select our priorities. A copy of that handout is appended to these minutes. The meeting mentioned two of its ongoing concerns, a deep concern about climate change and the current threats to U.S. democracy. We will use some worship sharing to explore our priorities and to discern those issues that we care about the most. We ask those Friends who plan to participate in our consideration to do some “homework.” You might read more of FCNL’s materials, look on their website, and search your heart for those issues that rise to a level of deep concern for you. We will do this session next week, March 27, which will enable us to meet FCNL’s deadline of April 12. Michael Wajda will facilitate and asks for query suggestions from any who might share one.
2022-07. The Ministry and Counsel committee also recommended that our meeting undertake a state of society report for ourselves, as well as to pass along to the quarterly and yearly meetings. The meeting approved and reviewed some queries used by Goshen Meeting in doing such a report in earlier years. Those queries are:
- How is the Living Presence being experienced in our meeting?
- Where do you find hope in the meeting and in your spiritual life?
- Are there ways in which the meeting might reach more fully for the Light?
- Do you have other reflections on the current condition of the meeting—places where you see new life emerging, loss, or sadness that you want to share?
The meeting decided to use those queries and to hold a session to consider them on the date of our next meeting for learning Sunday, which is April 24. Michael Wajda, as recording clerk, and Gabrielle Isenbrand will take notes during the session and draft a report for Ministry and Counsel to bring to the full meeting.
2022-08. Does the meeting want to provide Phil Fitz with an honorarium for the 7-week online “Elements of Quakerism” class he has been providing our meeting, even though he has not requested one? Nine members and attenders from our meeting are participating. The meeting agreed to give Phil an honorarium of $250.00. Our clerk will write a cover letter to be sent with the check from our Treasurer to Phil.
The meeting closed with a period of worship.
Michael Wajda
Recording Clerk
Monthly Meeting Input to FCNL (Friends Committee on National Legislation) Concerning Legislative Priorities for the 118th Congress
Every two years FCNL asks monthly meetings and Friends churches to provide input regarding the legislative priorities of Friends. FCNL uses this input to help guide their lobbying work on behalf of Quakers in Washington D.C.
They have sent the meeting a comprehensive packet of information concerning their broad legislative priorities, developed with extensive input from meetings and Friends. They now are asking:
- How are friends called to influence our government today?
- What issues should be the priority for our advocacy efforts?
- Where is the spirit leading us?
They offer suggestions on a process for providing our input. They suggest a worship-sharing format to begin the conversation and offered several queries for that session. The suggestion is to do some worship-sharing first. Then, out of it review their broad policy statements to determine whether our concerns fit within any of them. Then, they are asking us to send them no more than seven legislative priorities each written in thirty words or less.
Here are the possible queries for worship-sharing:
- What would the world look like if God was fully in charge?
- In what areas do we need to call upon the government to embrace truth and justice more fully?
- How could the choices we are contemplating affect those who have been harmed by systemic, institutional, interpersonal, and/or internal racism? To what degree have privilege, class, stereotypes, assumptions, and our ability to include other perspectives affected this decision-making process?
I’ve copying the four major areas of their policy statements, along with the subheadings under each, to help with our discernment.
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.
- Building the framework for peace
- Reducing militarization and armaments
- Preventing and resolving violent conflicts
- Building mutual understanding and trust
We seek a society with equity and justice for all.
- Government institutions
- Civil liberties and civil rights
- Communities free of violence
- Repairing historical and ongoing oppression
- Immigration and refugees
We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled.
- Fostering economic justice
- Supporting people and building viable economies
We seek an earth restored.
- Global climate change in energy policy
- Caring for the earth
- Environmental restoration and regeneration
- Population and consumption
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Mar 20 2022