December 18, 2022 Meeting for Business Minutes
Posted: under General News, Minutes from Meeting for Business.
Bennington Friends Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business
December 18, 2022
Present: Timmy Bullock, clerk, Edward Cady, Auberta Galusha, Alison Levie, Priscilla Tracy, Michael Wajda, and Juliet Wright.
We gathered in the Senior Center for meeting for worship with attention to business. The meeting opened with a period of worship during which the clerk read the following quote from Parker Palmer:
Here is where Friends can contribute to community by refusing to follow the religious individualism of our times. Behind these new movements lies the assumption that truth is totally subjective – one truth for you, another for me, and never mind the difference. But when we understand truth that way then the truth we are given will have no chance to transform society or ourselves. If we affirm community, we must risk that our partial versions of truth will be enlarged or even made uncouth by the light given to others.
Parker J. Palmer, 1980
The recording clerk read the minutes of our September 18, 2022 meeting for business for information.
2022-24. Priscilla Tracy reported for Ministry and Counsel. The committee is asking the meeting to consider pausing for a moment of worship before we sit down at potlucks. One way would be to hold hands in a circle before going through the line to get our food. The meeting approves of starting such a practice going forward.
2022-25. Alison Levie read the report from the clearness committee that met with Gabrielle Isenbrand following her application for membership. That report is appended to these minutes. The clearness committee and the Ministry and Counsel Committee heartily recommend Gabrielle for membership. The meeting joyfully approves. We will celebrate her becoming a member at our January 8, 2023 potluck.
2022-26. The meeting then turned to our plans for our January 27-29, 2023 retreat at Woolman Hill. The meeting reaffirmed its approval of the theme, “How Are We Called,” with the three sessions that were outlined in our September minutes. Saturday evening is to be a family fun time.
We also discussed attendance, room assignments, bedding needs, and meal planning. Michael and Timmy received information about Woolman Hill’s snow policy in case there is a storm on the weekend we have booked. Woolman Hill does not do refunds if it snows. If bad weather is known to be coming on that Friday, they can arrange for our group to arrive earlier in the day, or to come Saturday morning after the roads are plowed. If we get a huge storm that prevents the event from happening at all, they will credit our deposit to apply to a future, re-scheduled retreat so long as it is used within a year. The full cost for the weekend is $1,800.00 and Juliet has mailed a $500.00 deposit.
Those who are leading sessions will do their own planning. Michael and Juliet will plan for the family fun night. Michael, Timmy, and Gabrielle will work on meal planning. Friends are asked to bring their own dinner on Friday evening. Since meeting won’t be happening in Bennington that weekend, Michael will post a message to the meeting listserv and alter the listing in the Bennington
Banner for that Sunday. Auberta will ask the Senior Center Director to post a sign that we are away that Sunday in case there are any visitors. We are looking forward to a meaningful retreat.
2022-27. Bennington and Wilderness Meetings are responsible for planning the March 4-5, 2023 Northwest Quarterly Meeting, but Wilderness Meeting is not available this time for assistance. Alison Levie is Clerk of Northwest Quarter and explained that there is an expectation that the weekend either be a hybrid event, with some Friends attending in person and some Friends on zoom, or that it be held entirely on zoom. There are questions about continuing the practice of “coffee klatches,” one or two zoom get togethers largely for social purposes, as well as the schedule for the program. Some program ideas were offered, such as focusing on the recent “Urgent Call to the Religious Society of Friends,” in which Michael Wajda has been deeply involved.
After wrestling with these questions, we decided that we would be most comfortable doing a one-day Zoom event only on Saturday, March 4. We would organize the program and meeting for business for that day and encourage Friends to attend their own meetings for worship on Sunday. If the Quarter wants a coffee klatch, we suggest that Interim Meeting organize it. Michael and Timmy will work on the program and bring those ideas back to the meeting.
2022-28. Our Treasurer, Juliet Wright, presented a review of our income and expenses so far for this year. Our total assets as of December 17, 2022 are $197,208.17, which is basically $25,000 less than we had at the beginning of 2022 and largely reflects a decrease in value of our Vanguard account. We will take up our regular and special contributions at our January meeting for business, which we decided to move to the fourth Sunday, January 22, 2023.
2022-29. We have received a request from Meegan Winslow to present to the meeting about refugee resettlement in Bennington. We are interested but have postponed deciding when and how we can make it happen.
The meeting closed with a period of worship.
Michael Wajda
Recording Clerk
Report from the Clearness Committee for Membership of Gabrielle Isenbrand
On Sunday, November 15th, 2022, a clearness committee composed of Juliet Wright, Auberta Galusha, and Alison Levie met with Gabrielle Isenbrand to consider her request for membership to Bennington Meeting. After settling into worship, we read Gabrielle’s letter requesting membership aloud, so that we all could hold the moving description of her journey to Quakerism as we entered the clearness process.
Gabrielle added to the information she had provided in her letter, describing her very early sense of spirituality, which was most directly fed in nature. Although her family was committed to atheism, even as a teenager she felt a connection to something more, and soon became very involved in Tibetan Buddhism.
After she started coming to Bennington Meeting and reading Quaker literature, she found herself developing a growing sense of her spirituality. She was raised with negative impressions of Christianity, so initially Quakerism seemed to offer a home that did not require her to be Christian. However, as she read early Quaker writers and engaged with some of the understanding of Christianity within the meeting, she found input for her own growth in that path. She still identifies herself with a universalist perspective, with Jesus as one teacher among many, but welcomes what she is learning about Jesus. She embraces the diversity of religious language found in Quakerism.
When we asked what she was hoping to get from the meeting going forward, she talked about her sense that there is so much more for her to learn. She appreciates guidance in knowing where to start and which resources would be most helpful. She is aware that there is much to Quakerism beyond Bennington Meeting and that she has not really experienced much, including the Quarterly and Yearly Meetings. She looks forward to participating more in the larger body.
In discussing challenges, she mentioned the challenges in community of dealing with individuals that we may find irritating. While she said this had not been much of a problem in Bennington Meeting thus far, she is aware that it is an issue in any community. One time, when a visitor seemed challenging, she was curious how the Quaker way of dealing with irritations might be different. In the ensuing discussion, we agreed that this is a topic with a lot of potential for learning by all of us and might make a good study topic for the meeting.
Gabrielle is open to learning more about her evolving role in the meeting. She expects to contribute financially and is interested in how her strengths might complement the strengths of others. The committee expressed great appreciation for Gabrielle’s willingness to pitch in and help with anything that needs to be done. She already contributes a great deal to the life of the meeting.
We recommend that Bennington Meeting accept Gabrielle into membership. She brings a level of maturity and experience that is both deep and wide. Her eagerness to grow and learn is an inspiration to us all.
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Dec 19 2022