Westport Friends Meeting

January 2005 Newsletter

Note: Book Sorting weekly Thursdays 2- 4:00 P.M.
(See Deana Chase for details)
2 Property Committee meeting, 8:30 AM
Ministry and Counsel meeting, 11:45
8 NEYM Ministry & Counsel at Smithfield Meeting, RI
9 Second Sunday Discussion (See back page)
7-9 Junior High Retreat at Wellesley Meeting
15 Exhibit opens-Peace Through Active Nonviolence, Providence Place Mall (See back page)
15 NEYM Sessions at Monadnock Meeting
18 Market Ministries
(Can you help? Speak with Barbara Wicks)
21-23 Elementary Retreat at Wellesley Meeting
22 Sandwich Quarterly Meeting at Smith Neck Meeting
29 NEYM Committee Day, Concord MA

7 Becky Slattery
9 John Jennings
10 Marion Athearn
14 Amelia Ehrens, Amy Maxwell
24 Debbie Nixdorf Martinez

Business Meeting selected contractor M. J. Mawn, Inc. to do the exterior renovation work on the meetinghouse. It is hoped that construction will begin in early spring. This firm has a strong history in church renovation work and came highly recommended. Buddy Baker-Smith will function as the “clerk-of-the-works” once construction begins.

With measures factored in for unforseen expenses that could arise, $73,370 has been budgeted for this project. While the meeting can cover this expense in total, doing so, will seriously deplete any reserve funds for future unforeseen expenses in other areas. Therefore, Finance Committee plans to raise a sum of $18,000 in a special appeal and fund raiser that will begin in the months ahead. Please speak with Clerk Buddy Baker-Smith if you can help with this project. Donations are welcome anytime for this special appeal. They may be sent directly to our Treasurer, Deana Chase, and earmarked for this purpose.
Friends expressed their appreciation to Quaker playwright Steven Correia (and friends!) for producing yet another Christmas play. Friends of all ages enjoyed the performance and the delicious Advent pot-luck meal that followed.
Monthly Meeting minuted its appreciation to outgoing Treasurer Gretchen Baker-Smith. Gretchen has served the meeting tirelessly and graciously in this capacity for the past eleven years. Thank you, Gretchen! Fortunately, Gretchen will continue serving on our Meeting’s Finance Committee.

Monthly Meeting received a “first reading” of the Meeting’s 2005 annual budget. The second reading, and possible approval will take place at the January Monthly Meeting.

Peace and Social Concerns Committee recently made donations of $100 each to support the emergency heating fund programs in New Bedford and Fall River.
Ministry and Counsel, finding itself in unity with a set of queries advanced by Jo Devlin, who presented them to Monthly Meeting for consideration. The queries (enclosed at end) challenge us as Friends, to examine our reactions and non-action to human rights abuses of detainees and prisoners in US custody, connected to the Iraq War.

Business Meeting was in unity to support this minute. It was decided to hold a Second Sunday Discussion on January 9th in order to reflect more deeply on our personal and corporate response. Monthly Meeting also approved modifying the queries slightly so that they could be sent on to the print media for publication and signed by the Clerk of Meeting.

Recently, Stewart Kirkaldy announced to the Meeting and the wider community that he plans to retire from practicing medicine, effective this coming July. Stewart has served the wider Westport community with unparalleled devotion to his patients for the past forty-five years and will be dearly missed by generations of people in his care.

This news was especially bittersweet to our Meeting community, as Stewart and Frankie also made public, their plans to retire next fall to Middlebury, VT, in order to reside nearer their children and grandchildren. As a Meeting community, we rejoice with Frankie and Stewart as this new and exciting chapter unfolds in their lives. As Westport Friends certainly know, the Kirkaldys’, individually and as a couple, have been a sustaining part our spiritual, emotional and physical Meeting community for many decades. Therefore, our happiness for them is punctuated with sadness also, knowing how much these dear Friends will be missed in the future. There is a sense that our Meeting community may mark this transition with joy, worship and appreciation, sometime in the months ahead. For now however, it seems enough to just absorb the news and hold in prayer what shall be.

Peace Through Active Nonviolence: In the New Year, AFSC is co-sponsoring a remarkable community collaborative exhibit designed to highlight the importance and relevance of nonviolence as a philosophy and practice for our time. The exhibit will be housed in the main Pedestrian Concourse of Providence Place Mall in Providence, RI from January 15-January 30, 2005. For more information, visit their site at http://www.afsc.org/sene or call 401-521-3584.

Earlham School of Religion (ESR) offers regional intensive and online courses and seminars of interest to Friends. For additional information, contact the school at http://www.esr.earlham.edu or 800-432-1377. Flyers also are posted in the Community House.

Information and registration forms are posted in the Community House for Friends Camp in South China, ME. Early registration is advised. Contact Nat Shed, Director at 207-873-3499 or visit online at http://www.friendscamp.org.

Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center in Deerfield, MA, offers a variety of weekend retreats for Friends. Topics include, peace and social justice, journaling, art and spirituality, Quaker practice and thought and Bible stories. NEYM Ministry and Counsel is also sponsoring a special retreat entitled, Pastoral Care, April 1-3, 2005. It is required that attenders furnish a letter of support from their meeting in advance. Information is posted in the Community House or contact the Hill at 413-774-3431 or http://www.woolmanhill.org/.

As we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, are we thinking about those we have ignored or forgotten?

Have we completely lost our dedication to justice? Is it simply too unpleasant to look at the way this country is treating prisoners, be they prisoners of war or political or immigrant detainees?

How can we continue to ignore the flood of stories that appear daily in the news about the atrocities inflicted upon countries where torture is routinely practiced? Why are we not getting to the truth of it all and protesting loudly when the truth is withheld?

Are we complacent, so comfortable in our lives that we no longer feel the obligation to confront our country's policies in this matter? Have we become so inured to the brutality around us that we can't see how we have become no different from those inflicting brutality upon us?

As we believe that there is that of God in everyone, let us not hide it or deny it or ignore it, because if we do, we encourage maltreatment of prisoners to continue, and our hope for respect and dignity for ourselves and for all mankind is lost.

Posted by Greg Stone at February 2, 2005 09:01 AM