Westport Friends Meeting

January Monthly Meeting Highlights

The Hospitality Committee would like to remind Friends that goodies to share following worship are always appreciated.

Alice Mercer-Medeiros, who schedules teachers for our First Day School, needs volunteers for January and the months to follow. Contact Alice at 508-995-1306 or email her at amnm13@comcast.net.

Our Annual Advent Potluck held on December 9th. We ate and sang heartily and the gathering was enjoyed by all. (At right, Mark Miley, with son Aodhagάn and daughter Alexandria.)

New Meeting Directory Planned

Gretchen Baker-Smith, who will be producing the next Westport Monthly Meeting Directory, announces:

“We are updating Westport Monthly Meeting's Directory and Newsletter mailing lists. The Directory is used by Friends within Westport Monthly Meeting and is used for mailing out our monthly Newsletter. The Directory and Newsletter are wonderful ways to remain connected to Westport Meeting, regardless of how often you are able to join us for Worship or where you are currently residing.

Please return the attached form at your earliest convenience. If you wish to remain in the Directory, please review your information in the current Directory dated January, 2006 (see above, what’s left of it) and make changes on the Form”. – Gretchen Baker-Smith

The Directory includes contact information for Meeting members and attenders and is intended for use by the Meeting community only and has no other purpose. Please be sure that we have your latest home phone, cell number, mailing address and working email if available. Having accurate and up-to-date information allows us to contact people quickly should the need arise (snowstorms, cancellations, program changes and such!).

The popular Summer Conversations Series has decided to keep the dialog going and will meet on Sunday, January 6 at 3:00 PM at Westport Meeting. Please see Dave Sutton or Deana Chase for details.

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Editor’s Comment: George F. Will, writing in Newsweek (Dec 31, 07 – Jan 7, 08 edition) said, “At the U.N. global-warming conference in Bali there was Carbon Footprint Envy—the airport did not have enough space to park all the private jets.” Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman, in a recent piece (12/28) noted that in spite of the fact that a clear majority of Americans now disapprove of the war in Iraq, and a year since the Democrats took control of the Senate, that we have more armed forces in Iraq today then we did a year ago. And by golly even the Quakers are getting fired up. The Fall edition of the New England Friend showed its outrage to the War and to announce next year’s Sessions theme by using the largest font on the planet to say “War: God Help Us!” Big deal. In Washington, on December 12th, fully aware that more than nine million children in the US have no health insurance, our President vetoed for the second time the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Mr. Bush said that it was too expensive.

Where is the real outrage? Where are the protests? What are we doing as a Meeting? What am I doing sitting here?
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Meeting members are reminded that Westport Friends will be hosting the Sandwich Quarterly Meeting on Saturday, January 26. Contributions of food for lunch will be needed and help with setup and cleanup will also be appreciated. Please speak with Deana Chase or Gail Nixdorf for additional details. Additional information and an agenda of the Quarterly Meeting business will be available soon.

Jen and Jason Moura wish to express their deep gratitude to the Meeting community for the love, support and kindness expressed to them as parents, and of course to Maddie especially, after she broke her leg on December 12th. Though she will be in a cast for up to ten weeks, she’s doing well and the healing is progressing satisfactory. (At right: Maddie greeting Sara Mercer-Medeiros upon entering childcare on Dec 9.)