New England Friends WomenNew England Friends WomenUnited Society of Friends Women
Summer 2002
Message from your clerk
Fifth Month, 2002
My dear sisters,
I have just said good-bye to Dorothy Selebwa from Kakamega, Kenya who was visiting among USFW Friends in New England for 5 weeks. Wow!! I've never known USFW women to be so busy organizing. I'm so appreciative to the many women who helped make this trip possible for Dorothy.
I have been preparing for our family's trip to Kenya: getting shots, visas, reading the book of Luke and several books on Kenya. A story stays in my mind from Elspeth Huxley's Flame Trees of Thika.
The heroine who is 9 years old is waiting to hear word of a neighbor who is pregnant and about to give birth. The girl comes across her mother crying and in distress. She hears that the neighbor 'lost the baby during childbirth'. The girl can't comprehend the passivity of the adults in this travesty. "Let's go find the baby. Maybe it's fallen in a hole or is out in the shed."
I keep thinking about that young girl who in spite of the adults' despair wanted to save that lost baby. Her love was fearless: pushing her to do everything possible.
In the twilight days of the US empire, this world seems to be in great pain. Poverty in many countries who wallow in insurmountable debt; the AIDS crisis in Africa as ferocious as the bubonic plague 500 years ago in Europe; the wars brewing
in many countries. And the US supplying weapons and supporting despots. Our world is in the throes and agony of labor. We are suffering contractions and pain before birth. It is terrible to see, unbearable to feel.
Yet we, as Quakers, can witness to the new day to come. For we are clear of our covenant with the Spirit. We know that our role is to speak truth even if we need to walk onto the battlefields. We strive to heal in the midst of blindness; to reconcile inequities; to stop injustices toward the oppressed even if we put our own privileged lives in jeopardy. The kingdom of God is like a mother gathering her chicks; like the humble woman sweeping all of her house to find the penny, like the mustard seed whose growth is 100-fold.
We know the world is full of pain. If you had never had the process of birth explained to you and, unexpectedly, you found yourself in a room with a woman in hard labor---it would be frightening. The woman in labor might appear to be dying. So it is in this era of travail that we Friends live. We are called to speak to a truth that goes deeper than the current pain. As our world goes through this difficult labor, let us give all our might to witness to the new way God would want us to live. Let us remind the world of the joy of birth even before the child's head crowns. Let our lives speak to the unseen promise.
Peace,
Minga Claggett-Borne, NE USFW Clerk
USFW at New England Yearly Meeting
Held at Wheaton College, Norton MA
4:15 p.m., Sunday afternoon, August 4, 2002
Friends in the Middle East
Paul Hood and Ben Richmond have been asked to share their recent experiences at Ramallah Friends School.
Business session to follow over supper in the dining room.
Agenda includes:
The Summer Appeal is for a Kenyan AIDS orphans hostel being built by Kakamega USFW YM Kenya
See the minutes from 4 May 2002 for information about Kakamega USFW.
USFW New England Held at Dover Friends Meeting, New Hampshire, Saturday 4 May 2002
Meeting began with worship
Report on Visit to Cuba
Sara Hubner of Dover and Margaret Hawthorn of Monadnock read humorous and poignant excerpts from their journals from their recent FUM workcamp experience in Banes, Cuba. One story of the emptying of the fire ants from a backpack revealed how much extra 'things' Americans tend to carry around. Other stories highlight the richness of work and worship with Cubans and Friends from other parts of the US who live out their Quakerism with a different flavor. A Cuban song was then sung. See Cuba Journal, 2002 below.
Kakamega USFW
Dorothy Selebwa, Clerk of USFW of Kakamega Yearly Meeting and Leonida Mugofwa, a traveling minister from Vihiga Yearly Meeting USFW were introduced and began by singing two songs in Swahili. Their USFW has 5 regional meetings covering about 20 kilometers, 14 quarterly meetings, 103 village meetings. Approximately 3000 members and to every annual Kakamega USFW meeting they have about 600 women in attendance. They have a special recognition of elders day for women in their midst who have given long and faithful service in their USFW's, by dressing them and having a procession like a wedding, and giving them a lamp (to symbolize light), a certificate and gifts.
They then shared about their project with Aids widows and orphans who are increasing in overwhelming rates. The widows and orphans came to the church for help. They began sheltering and helping out as individuals. With the help of seed money from one friend in New England, the USFW added their own contributions and then started two projects. In Kakamega the larger central city of the area, they began a feeding program at the church. Meanwhile out in the countryside, each regional meeting selected from their members a widow and an orphan that were needy and deserving of support with food, clothing, and school fees. As the need has increased, they need to build a kitchen that will replace the temporary one that recently blew down in a windstorm, and build a dining hall. Eventually they would like to build a hostel for the orphans. The money they had been raising themselves each year to build meeting houses in each region has been diverted towards this Aids project, but their funds are extremely limited. the total that Kakamega women are hoping to raise to build the kitchen and dining hall is $8,000. After 2 years of planning the women pooled enough money to buy a 2.5 acre piece of land for the orphanage.
Minutes of USFW New England, Saturday 4th May, 2002
Present: Acton- Ann Armstrong; Cambridge- Minga Claggett Borne, Christine Smith; Dover- Barbara Sturrock, Charlotte Fardelman, Kathy Mulhern, Sarah Hubner; Durham- Clarabel Marstellar, Dorothy Hinshaw, Bernice Douglas; Gonic- Shirley Leslie; Monadnock- Margaret Hawthorn; N. Sandwich- Virginia Towle; Weare- Marian Baker
Recognizing elders Our clerk asked how long each of us had been involved in USFW. Bernice Douglas, Clarabel Marstaller, and Ann Armstrong had been active the longest. We recognized it would be nice for our Kenyans to lead us in a blessing of elders.
Recorder for the Day Marian Baker was appointed as recording secretary for the day.
Treasurers Report Clarabel Marstaller gave the treasurers report which we accepted.
Auditors Report Bernice Douglas handed in an auditors report finding our accounts to be kept in good order
Clarification was made that the increase in our dues was due to increase in the USFWI dues as well as increased costs in our newsletter mailing.
Support for Marian Baker Ministry in Kenya Question arose about where to send the money hat had been raised for Marian's support. Marian explained that instead of staying in Kenya working for FUM, that she will instead be working in this country and traveling for between two weeks and one month each year to travel in ministry in Kenya or Jamaica directly from Weare Monthly Meeting and NEYM. A support committee will be meeting in two weeks time to work on the details. In July she will return to Kenya for the Triennial and to consult and plan with Kenyan Friends the logistics of her future travels. Our treasurer was authorized to send the money that had been collected to Weare Monthly Meeting, earmarked for Marian Baker's Ministry, c/o Betty Straw, Treasurer, 61 Flanders Mem. Rd, Weare, NH 03281
Response to the Kakamega USFW appeal for help Minga reported that some money has already been raised by Friends to support of the Kakamega Aids project. There were three issues to discuss:
It was approved that all funds raised in New England Yearly Meeting during Dorothy and Leonida's stay in New England be channeled through our USFW and the treasurer be authorized to mail one large check or send it with Dorothy.
Marian described another project that is similar that is being done by USFW women's groups from three different yearly meetings working together in the northern area (Elgon, Elgon East, and East African YM North). That project is being considered for support by Right Sharing of the Worlds Resources. There are probably others as well, but we do not know yet.
We approved having our spring appeal this year focused on the Kakamega Project.
Meanwhile we will ask USFW New Englanders who are going to the Triennial to try to find out what other yearly meetings have viable active projects and to report back to us with further insight. Then we can decide whether to have one of our future appeals for either Kakamega or another USFW project at our next meeting.
Invitation to send two women over to visit Kakamega USFW at their annual conference in early December Dorothy Selebwa invited us to send over two of our women to visit during the Kakamega annual conference the first week of December, 2002.
Funds that had been already raised for a RSWR project in Kenya. The money raised will be saved until the RSWR has set up its mechanism for sending money to the Tri-yearly meeting project in Kenya.
Program for our own Yearly meeting sessions. Since the theme of our Yearly Meeting this year will be on "Lord make me an instrument of thy peace, we approved getting someone connected to Ramallah to speak. Suggestions include: Colin or Cathy South (if they happen to be coming) Ben Richmond, who is coming as FUM representative and who has recently been in Ramallah, or Paul Hood who is enroute soon to do a video on Ramallah. We would also ask Jilma Fernandez or Hyrama Ilena, the two Cuban visitors to sing a song and offer a prayer or testimony as well. Minga was authorized to work on this.
Articles for our Newsletter and for the NEYM News Molly Duplisea was asked to write up an article for both publications about the Kakamega Project for the upcoming news and to inform other groups in New England about our support of the Kakamega Project.
Next Falls Meeting It was suggested that we consider meeting the third week in October in Durham for our next meeting. Marian was asked to correspond with Becky and Sarita Williams to see if they might come to share about Jamaica with us. Marian also passed around some pictures of the work in Jamaica.
Outreach We felt the need to reach out to others to get more people into USFW. Sarah volunteered to go visit Winthrop. Marian and Virginia will visit N. Dartmouth/Smith neck meeting. Ann and Minga will visit the Wellesley Women's group. We will plan to hold our spring meeting somewhere south of Boston to encourage members from the southern half of the yearly meeting to attend.
Adjournment We adjourned purposing to meet next on Sunday 4th August at YM sessions.
Respectfully submitted,
Marian K. Baker, Recorder for the Day
Please support the Kakamega USFW in Kenya build their AIDS orphans hostel. Send this slip with your contribution today
Checks should be made out to USFW of NEYM and sent to USFW, PO Box 1401, Shirley, MA 01464-1401.
Other contributions to USFW of NEYM are always welcomed Several years ago we made a commitment that at leasst one woman in each meeting of NEYM would receive the newsletter. It costs approximately $2 per recipient per year to print and mail the newsletter.
Cuba Journal, 2002
Banes is a city of 40,000 (I'm told), but what you hear at daybreak is a chorus of roosters. Goats and pigs and horses graze in back yards; even at the apartment buildings. Some changes since I was here in 1997: more fresh paint, more dollar stores, more newer and new cars; models of Daewoo and Toyoto and Honda not found in the U.S. Saw a 1930 Ford convertible and a newish Mini Cooper today! Our camion today had to be pushed to get it started. Still plenty of horse-drawn buggies and bicycle-taxis.
Lots of meetings. This morning it was Sunday School, which is fun because there's a lot of informality; oh, there is, anyway, to the extent that there are lots of pauses to fool with the electronics and figure out what's next, and people talk often amongst themselves; but there are questions from the leader and answers from the children, music, and stories, before the children go to their classes. Tons of children.
...First day of work today, and I think I overdid it. If I can escape without having pain in my hands tonight, I'll mend my ways and pace myself better. I was not happy when Idalmis said all the females were to work in the kitchen ... I chopped onions, sorted rice, then went onto the job site and straightened wire, helped dig holes for the foundations of a brick wall, and straightened nails.
Cubans start the day early. When I saw our work schedule, I thought they were being tough on us. My daily schedule goes like this: up at 6, silent worship at 6:30 (so far it's only Ruah and Louis [Swennerfelt and Cox] and me), breakfast at 6:45 and to work at 7:30. But everyone seems to start the day early. People are streaming down the street when I am walking to the church at 6:20; mostly schoolchildren. Yesterday, among the throng were two chickens, looking as though they were part of the parade.
... Miguel taught us ironwork today and Margaret, Vanessa, Ruah, Robin, Lindsey, and I built rebar frames for the concrete structures. Right now they are being used for the wall (fence) around the church. We had "Buena Vista Social Club" music to make the work go easier. I only cut myself a few times on the sharp ends of wire. Miguel was very patient, teaching us to build the rebar frames.
A big gift I receive here in Cuba is that we are so well cared-for that I am able to be more in the present than usual, which means being more often aware of the presence of God.
... Bill Rose gave us a scare today. He told us at breakfast that he'd been sick during the night, and also had heart palpitations that frightened him. After breakfast, he felt ill again, so Ruah went with him to the hospital, where he was treated for an arrythmia, allowed to rest a couple of hours, and then released. We all stopped work to pray when we were told he had gone to the hospital.
... Yesterday, a young Cuban (13 or 14 years old) stopped by to talk to us while we worked, to practice his English. I was moving rubble from the fence line and he told me I needed a vacation, that I was working too hard. When I told him this was my vacation, he said, "I don't want your job!"
... As I was about to get on the bus leaving Banes, I suddenly realized that the kitchen workers weren't there, and I had to rush back to give big hugs to Cachita, Damari, and Darvis (Victor was absent) and that is when I started to cry. They were the Cubans I could most count on for a smile and a wink or a joke.
Sara Hubner, Dover Meeting
On the Role, Gifts, Qualities, and Work of the Elder
On November 9-11, 2001 I attended a New Foundation Fellowship gathering on the role of the elder, held at Kenbrook Bible Camp in Pennsylvania. I came home with a large stack of wonderful notes, references to the Bible and to the Works of George Fox, and handouts (including a statement on eldering from the New England Yearly Meeting discipline of 1930), and with a better sense of my responsibilities to a member of NEYM who had asked me if I would serve as an elder for them.
The work of the elder is discernment, spiritual nurturing, and encouraging faithfulness. Eldering is a gift bestowed by God, who will provide what is the right way to speak to someone. In eldering, words are given by God that encourage another to faithfulness. Words of discernment help the recipient know right from wrong. Words of motivation encourage them to do what is right. Words of caution advise them to not run ahead of their guide. Words of reprimand (not very effective) tell them what they did was wrong, while words of affirmation tell them that what they did was right.
Eldering is based upon a shared faith, a shared conviction that Jesus Christ speaks in our hearts in a unified way and calls us into unity.
The focus of elders may be ministers, individuals, other elders, or meetings. Among their many roles, they may serve as companions in travel with ministers, meet privately or correspond with individuals (encouraging their spiritual faithfulness and growth), pray and worship with other elders, pray during meeting for its spiritual condition, discern and call out gifts for the benefit of the meeting, organize groups for prayer, healing, or discussion.
What eldering is not: criticism or objection based on one's own thoughts or a different theology. In other words, approaching someone after meeting and telling them that they shouldn't give Christ-centered messages in meeting is not eldering. In the Book of Job, Job's three friends were elders out of their own power. Sitting in judgment does not equal eldering.
For a concise statement on elders, look in Faith and Practice of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends: A Book of Christian Discipline, 1930, page 72. Other good resources include Samuel Bownas, A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister: Advice to Ministers among the People Called Quakers, pages 20-23, 25, 34, 48, 50, & 64.
Christina Smith, Adult Education
Letter from Switzerland 12 February 2002
Like the roots of a plant in a soil gone dry, my soul searches for the evidence of any droplet of the living water, the love of Jesus, in the American national psyche that can appear so hardened and dry from our perspective here. The concern for what may be happening to the American people, American souls, weights heavy on me. I have had occasion recently to witness the effect this hardening of a nation's soul - in response to an injury suffered - can have especially on the souls of young people, moldable and impressionable as they are. I'm also holding in the Light all those in your country, among them Friends, whose hearts have been turned toward the love of Jesus and seek to cling to it. Your position at this time is a difficult one. You must continue to love your country and its people though you must disagree with its principal stance, love it with a love that transcends your natural patriotic love without denying it. It si our true position always, but we feel it more keenly in a time like this.
My soul is oppressed by the hardening of the collective psyche of this people I love, - in its flight from fear into self-righteousness and condemnation of those it chooses to label "enemy" and even "evil" itself. As the works of a marine in Guantanamo in a recent news bulletin put it: "These are the people who are responsible of r the destruction in New York and Washington. It feels good to see them in their little cages. That's where they belong."
But as I sit in prayer this morning seeking to bring this burden before God, I am shown how I myself have recently imprisoned, in my spirit, a person close to me who has injured me badly - into a "cage on a remote island" , and I am made to hear how my soul has spoken over her these same words this young soldier spoke in satisfaction, in his indignation and certainty of his own righteousness, believing himself innocent - or how I am at least tempted to speak these words. It is good that I am shown this.
And God shows me more. He makes me view the image of Christ's resurrection nest to the image of his bloody death on the cross. "Three days!" I hear. And the Spirit puts the picture I'm sending you into my hand. It represents an ancient carving on a choir stall in the church of a Swiss monastery of Cistercian women to which I go sometimes. Prayer for the world has risen from these stalls for 740 years daily. You are looking at the head of Christ between the jaws of the monster. What shall we look at - the face of the Spirit that saves and is eternally victorious, or the face of the darkness that seeks to swallow him?
And the God says to me that the American people is on a journey. That God is on a journey with the American People. Just as He is with you and me and ad all of us, and as He was and continues to be with the people of Israel. How different things look from that perspective, so different from the perspective I get from the media! Yes, America may be in a dark phase. But here is the face of Christ looking out from this maw that seems determined to devour the world in its fury. "Three days!" God says to me.
Let us all be entirely in hope then, and live from that hope. In the Light of this victory that is promised and cannot fail. Witness, dear American Friends, in this Light and hope, in quiet certainty of heart, in your daily life. Be steadfast and remember the importance of your witness for the young people especially, my own son among them.
Heidi Blocher, Switzerland
"Reaching Out"
The late Henri J. M. Nouwen, a Dutch priest and theologian, is revered by many for his books of devotional wisdom. Our new USFW reading list includes his "Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life". This little book speaks to those who are seeking to find their way into a more profound spiritual life. Nouwen identifies three places in the modern psyche which cry out for transformation. These three are: our loneliness, our hostility, and our dependence on illusions.
The first section deals with loneliness, the common human condition which seems particularly acute in our busy modern world. Nouwen shows how we can move from loneliness to solitude, a wholly different state, in which we listen for our inner truth. In this state, we can discover who and what we were meant to be; we can also learn to enter into the sorrows of others with true compassion. Loneliness keeps us apart; solitude can draw us toward one another.
The second section starts with the problem of hostility, by which Nouwen means not just active anger toward others, but all feelings of envy, competition, and fear of our fellows. In this section he speaks of transforming hostility into hospitality. His use of the word : "hospitality" is interesting; he specifically rejects the idea that it should be restricted to our rather narrow use denoting the usual host or hostess-playing. He points to one of my favorite biblical stories as an example -- the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, who invited the risen Jesus to supper, unaware of who their traveling companion really was. In this story, Nouwen says, we see how the stranger, the guest, is the giver, and how the hosts can be enlightened by opening themselves to the stranger.
Above all, hospitality, as Nouwen uses the word, consists in making space for the other. He points out that the Dutch word for hospitality, "gastvrijheid", means "freedom of the guest". In all our relationships ---not just as hosts, but as parents, children, teachers, students, healers -- we must provide freedom so that the other person can open himself to us if he chooses. It seems to me that Nouwen's words about listening to others would be helpful to members of Quaker clearness committees, and to all of us, as we seek to minister to each other.
The third section of the book is the most profound, as it deals with our relationship to God. It discusses the movement from illusion to prayer. Nouwen speaks of our illusion of immortality, meaning the inability of most humans to live life in the realization of mortality. This illusion leads us to focus on the mundane, the trivial; it takes us away from our central concern, which is to "seek first the Kingdom of God."
Nouwen has placed this section last in the book, but he stresses that the movement toward prayer must underly all our efforts to achieve true solitude and true hospitality. He writes movingly of the God who is both present and absent, the God of mystery who "transcends our psychological distinctions between -- absence and presence." Nouwen's themes in this section are familiar to Quakers, especially his emphasis on waiting. His writing is infused with a deep reverence for Christ, and with examples from Psalms as well as the New Testament.
Nouwen speaks of three "rules" for fruitful prayer---- first: contemplative reading of Scripture; second: silent listening; and third: "trusting obedience to a spiritual guide." In this third category he includes not just "experts", but fellow-seekers. He also includes spiritual giants of the past -- saints such as St. Francis or St. Teresa; leaders such as George Fox and John Wesley; more recent figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thomas Merton. We can choose some particular spiritual guide, who speaks most tellingly to us.
Toward the end, Nouwen writes of the communal aspect of prayer, and, again, touches chords in Quaker experience. "Communal and individual prayer belong together as two folded hands," he writes.
Nouwen sheds beautiful light on the subject of spiritual growth. This is a valuable book, one which your Meeting library would do well to stock. If your USFW group hasn't purchased it as part of the Reading Course, you can get it through the 2002 FGC Bookstore catalog, p. 21, or from the publisher, Doubleday Image Books, copyright 1975.
Kathy Mulhern, Literature
Next Newsletter Deadline is September 1, 2002.
Please send your articles, thoughts, even graphics to: USFW Editor <usfw@neym.org>
or PO Box 1401, Shirley, MA 01464-1401