tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55689434273315403952024-03-13T05:28:07.936-07:00Connecting Friends: Salt and LightMargaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-53128510988654981192017-08-28T14:00:00.000-07:002018-03-17T20:17:14.258-07:00IRELAND July 2018 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "corbel";"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">This is the last call to join a small group of us visiting Ireland in July 2018 - at the annual sessions of Ireland Yearly
Meeting in Limerick, and before and after, exploring countryside, culture(s) and history.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The itinerary is in three parts: before, during and after yearly meeting. I hope that you will be able to join me for the whole time, but it's also possible to join for one or two parts. </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">First part: July 9 - 18,
2018</span></b></h3>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">Cashel, Co. Tipperary, home of the<a href="http://www.cashel.ie/rock-of-cashel/"> Rock</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> and of the fictional 7th century<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/41999-sister-fidelma"> Sister Fidelma</a></span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";"><a href="http://www.nordicneedle.net/guides/stitching-techniques-guides/whitework/mountmellick/">Mountmellick</a> </span><span style="color: #000090; font-family: "corbel"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">and<a href="http://historicgraves.com/graveyard/society-friends-rosenallis/la-sofr"> Rosenallis</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">, Co. Laois, and <a href="http://www.discoverireland.ie/Arts-Culture-Heritage/ballitore-library-quaker-museum/13670">Ballitore</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">, Co. Kildare, historic Quaker towns. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enniscorthy">Enniscorthy</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">, Co. Wexford</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">Kilkenny: </span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"><a href="http://www.ndcg.ie/">National Design and Craft Gallery</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
<a href="http://kilkennydesign.com/">Kilkenny Design Centre</a></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">Bennettsbridge, Co.
Kilkenny:</span><a href="https://nicholasmosse.com/" style="font-family: corbel;"> Nicholas Mosse Pottery</a><span style="font-family: "corbel";">. </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";"><a href="http://www.ireland.com/en-us/destinations/republic-of-ireland/waterford/waterford-city/">Waterford</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">, founded by Vikings in 914</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">The <a href="https://coppercoastgeopark.com/about/">Copper Coast UNESCO Geopark</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
Co. Waterford</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">Historic <a href="http://youghal.ie/">Youghal</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
<a href="https://stairnaheireann.net/2016/02/16/kindred-spirits-monument-midleton-bailic-park-co-cork/">Midleton</a> </span><span style="color: #000090; font-family: "corbel"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">and <a href="https://www.irishcentral.com/travel/ten-remarkable-facts-about-cobh-where-25-million-irish-left-for-america-photos">Cobh</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
Co. Cork</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">Join Friends for meeting
for worship in <a href="http://www.ireland.com/en-us/destinations/republic-of-ireland/cork/">Cork</a></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">West Cork: Clonakilty,
Rosscarbery, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Baltimore">Baltimore</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
Skibbereen and Bantry</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">The Ring of Kerry,
including Portmagee, the<a href="http://www.skelligexperience.com/"> Skellig Experience Visitor Centre</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
<a href="http://www.valentiaisland.ie/">Valentia Island</a>,</span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> home of the cable that began to link Europe with Newfoundland in 1866,</span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> <a href="http://www.visitwaterville.ie/">Waterville</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> and Killarney</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">The Dingle Peninsula, Co.
Kerry: <a href="http://www.dingle-peninsula.ie/dunquin/">Dún Chaoin</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
the <a href="http://blasket.ie/en/">Blasket Centre</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
<a href="http://www.louismulcahy.com/">Louis Mulcahy pottery</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> and <a href="http://lisbethmulcahy.com/theshop.html">Lisbeth Mulcahy, Weaver</a></span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Limerick, established by Vikings in 812</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: corbel;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">Accommodation</span></b><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> will be in hotels in Shannon, Kilkenny, Horse & Jockey, Waterford, Cork, Bantry and Tralee. </span></span></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Second part, Ireland Yearly Meeting, July 18 - 22</span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";"><a href="https://quakers-in-ireland.ie/2017/08/10/ireland-yearly-meeting-2018/">Ireland Yearly Meeting's annual sessions</a> </span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">will be in <a href="http://www.irelands-hidden-gems.com/limerick.html">Limerick</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
at <a href="http://www.lit.ie/default.aspx">Limerick Institute of Technology</a>.</span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">As guests at the yearly meeting, we will spend time
in worship and conversation with Irish Friends. It's an opportunity to appreciate
the rich 350-year-old history of Friends in Ireland, and to enter into the
spirituality of this diverse group.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">Accommodation</span></b><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;"> will be in a <a href="http://www.cratloewood.com/">student village</a>.</span><span style="font-family: "corbel"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zfYHtsrCYVA/WaR9hWjZHrI/AAAAAAAACr0/1ob-p3goFj8BscgBcR31JQ3pBGJmlAJjQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_2238.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1520" data-original-width="1600" height="380" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zfYHtsrCYVA/WaR9hWjZHrI/AAAAAAAACr0/1ob-p3goFj8BscgBcR31JQ3pBGJmlAJjQCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_2238.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Connections being made over tea at yearly meeting</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">Third part, July 22 - 30</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When yearly meeting ends, we will head northeast, pausing to refuel at <a href="http://barackobamaplaza.ie/">Barack Obama Plaza</a></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">in </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Moneygall, Co. Offaly, crossing the border near Newry to Moyallon, near Portadown. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We will visit: </span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">The County Down coast and the <a href="http://www.ireland.com/en-us/what-is-available/walking-and-hiking/mountain-and-hill-walks/articles/mourne-mountains/">Mountains of Mourne</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">, <a href="http://www.saintpatrickcentre.com/">Downpatrick</a></span><span style="color: #000090; font-family: "corbel"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"><a href="http://www.saintpatrickcentre.com/"> </a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">and <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/strangford-lough">Strangford Lough</a></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Belfast</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">The <a href="https://discovernorthernireland.com/about-northern-ireland/destinations/causeway/the-glens-of-antrim/">Glens of Antrim</a>,</span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> Co. Antrim</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";"><a href="http://www.seamusheaneyhome.com/">Seamus Heaney HomePlace</a></span><span style="color: #000090; font-family: "corbel"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">in Bellaghy, Co. Londonderry</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">The north Antrim coast: <a href="about:invalid#zClosurez">Ballycastle</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
the <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/giants-causeway">Giant's Causeway</a> </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">Lough Erne, </span><a href="https://www.belleek.com/en/us/Visitors-Centre/cc-20.aspx" style="font-family: corbel;">Belleek Pottery</a><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> and</span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">The <a href="https://discovernorthernireland.com/about-northern-ireland/destinations/walled-city-of-derry/walledcity/">City of Derry</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
Co. Londonderry, and Co. Donegal</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";">Sligo, <a href="http://www.museumsofmayo.com/ceide1.htm">Céide Fields</a>
prehistoric site<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span> and <a href="http://www.westporttourism.com/">Westport</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
Co. Mayo</span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";"><a href="http://www.connemara.net/">Connemara</a>:</span><span style="color: #000090; font-family: "corbel"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">The <a href="http://www.thinplace.net/2012/10/meet-doolough-spirit-in-connemara.html">hunger trail</a> from Louisburgh to Doolough and</span><span style="font-family: "corbel";"> <a href="http://www.wildatlanticway.com/directory/signature/killary-harbour/341/">Killary Fjord</a>, Co. Mayo</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel";"><a href="http://www.goconnemara.com/localities/letterfrack/">Letterfrack</a> </span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">and <a href="http://www.wildatlanticway.com/directory/town/clifden/137/">Clifden</a></span><span style="font-family: "corbel";">,
two small Co. Galway towns with Quaker connections</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Accommodation</b>. For five nights we will stay in self-catering accommodation at <a href="http://moyallon.co.uk/">Moyallon Centre</a></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, Co. Armagh, where we will have sole use of the facility. On the other nights we will be in hotels in Derry, Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo and Shannon, Co. Clare.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "corbel";"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">Getting there</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">All parts of this itinerary
begin and end at <a href="http://www.shannonairport.ie/gns/passengers/home.aspx">Shannon Airport</a> in the west of Ireland. There are currently
direct flights to Shannon from: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">- Boston (Aer Lingus)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">- New York JFK (Aer Lingus and Delta)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">- Newark (United Airlines) and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">- Philadelphia (American Airlines)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "corbel"; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Look for a flight that connects through one of these cities.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "corbel"; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">Cost</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Part 1 July 9-18 the south and southwest: $2,900 </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Part 2 July 18-22 Ireland Yearly Meeting, Limerick: $520</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Part 3 July 22-30 the north and west: $1,720</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">What's included</span></b></h3>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;">All</span><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">
accommodation </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Three meals each day</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Travel within Ireland. Two of us who have years of experience driving
manual (stick shift) cars on the left side of the road will be your volunteer
drivers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Attendance at the residential sessions of Ireland Yearly Meeting(bring a traveling minute or letter of introduction from your Friends' Meeting)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Entrance fees, tips</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Advance reading materials.</span></li>
</ul>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">What's not included</span></b></h3>
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<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Airfare to Shannon</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Travel insurance</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Some of the more popular tourist destinations. This is an
opportunity to explore parts of Ireland that aren't easy to reach by public
transportation or tour bus. So no Blarney, Cliffs of Moher, Dublin or
Glendalough. If you want to visit places not on this itinerary, consider doing
so before or after we meet. I can advise you on how to get there to or from
Shannon.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings;">I am currently serving as interim pastor of Reedwood Friends Church in Portland Oregon. Last year I was interim pastoral minister at West Richmond Friends, in Indiana. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As a Quaker, inevitably I see things through that lens, and that shapes our conversations.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">But you don't have to be a
Quaker to join in! Maybe one of you loves to sit through business meetings and
the other doesn't, and needs to escape for a few days.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> If so, h</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ere's a handy </span><a href="http://www.buseireann.ie/pdf/1424345990-BE-English-Network-Map-Jan-2015.pdf" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">map</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> to
Bus Éireann's routes. Look for the</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'Expressway
Coach Service" lines radiating out of Limerick, to see where you might want to visit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I have co-led Quaker pilgrimages for adults and Young Friends on two continents, and have organized several international visits to Ireland and Northern Ireland. I have an interest in landscape, architecture and art; in the ways in which some communities can live together in the midst of significant cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, while for others the stress is too great. Irish Quakers have a remarkable capacity to stay united despite the challenges of national border, theologies and history.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I feel happily at home among Irish Friends and hope that my friends there will quickly become your friends.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">
</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">Last call to sign up</span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "corbel"; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The hotel accommodation is now booked. However, we can squeeze one or two people into the vehicles, and I will do my best to get rooms for you if you would like to join. P</span><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">lease email me at </span><span style="font-family: "corbel"; mso-bidi-font-family: Corbel;">margaret at goodnewsassoc.org or message me on
Facebook. A</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> non-refundable deposit will secure your place. You will be able to pay the
balance by installments.</span></div>
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Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-54024855311221274342016-09-12T23:27:00.002-07:002016-09-25T18:42:26.775-07:00New Association of Friends gathering at Friends of the Light, Traverse City, Michigan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The garden at Friends of the Light</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">Some of us arrived on our 400 mile journey from different parts of Indiana a day early, in time to do sightseeing, so I led a small group to Empire (National Park Office and Sleeping Bear Dunes the easy way, by car up <a href="http://mynorth.com/2008/03/pierce-stocking-scenic-drive-sleeping-bear-dunes/">Pierce Stocking Drive</a>. We ended the journey in Glen Arbor (<a href="http://www.cherryrepublic.com/">Cherry Republic</a>.)</span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">On the Saturday morning I repeated the expedition, starting this time in <a href="http://www.lelandmi.com/">Leland</a> and Fishtown, and then south to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/slbe/learn/historyculture/glenhaven.htm">Glen Haven</a>. Members of Friends of the Light took others to a wonderful restored Victorian mansion and garden on 6th Street, via a coffee </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">shop.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Glen Lake, from Pierce Stocking Drive, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Clinch Marina, Traverse City</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On Saturday afternoon we - Friends from Bluff Point, New Castle, Friends of the Light, Muncie, Raysville, Richmond First Friends and West Richmond, gathered at Friends of the Light for a Bible study by Janet Scott on Mark's Gospel. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Those who were not part of the Steering Committee meeting that followed went for a walk or joined me on a tour of the early history of Friends in the area: Round Top Cemetery in Maple City, the former Pleasant Grove/Maple City meetinghouse (now St. Rita's Catholic church), Long Lake Church (sadly they have dropped 'Friends' from their name) and the site of Lone Tree schoolhouse (the first Friends meeting in Traverse City) and the site of the home of evangelists Phebe and Amos Kenworthy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Friends of the Light served a pizza and salad dinner and we went into the second session of bible study with </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Janet Scott. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On Sunday we attended worship at Friends of the Light, where there were hymns </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">accompanied</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> on the psalter, concertina and a wooden base instrument from the Afro-Cuban tradition. Many of us went out to Minerva's for brunch at the historic <a href="http://park-place-hotel.com/">Park Place Hotel</a>, and then said goodbye, with hopes to repeat the experience within the next eighteen months.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The original Long Lake meetinghouse on Cedar Run Road</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Quakers moved
from Indiana into northern Michigan after the Homestead Act. From dates on
gravestones there is evidence of
Friends being in the Maple City area from 1868. The first recorded meeting for worship was
a decade later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Long Lake
Monthly Meeting was set up under the care of Winchester (Indiana) Quarterly
Meeting in 1880. Evangelists set out from this farming settlement to railroad and logging communities, and meetings were established at Lone Tree
(later Traverse City, 1894) and Pleasant Grove (Maple City, 1895.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five other meetings did not survive, partly
because logging communities were transient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maple City Friends Church lasted until 1918, and Traverse City Friends
Church until 1987. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #291c1d; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Friends of the Light's
history is of two worship groups that came together:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #291c1d; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 1986 Joe Kelly heard a
call to be a minister. He and others from Long Lake Friends Church began
meeting on Sunday afternoons in St. Rita's Catholic Church, the former Maple
City Friends meetinghouse. They took the name Pleasant Grove Worship Group,
which was the historic name of Maple City Friends Meeting. The worship group
was under the care of Long Lake Friends.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #291c1d; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Joe also started a worship
group at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City for people in recovery and/or
with mental health challenges. After learning about the history of early
Friends, the group named itself Friends of the Light.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #291c1d; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 1990, at the invitation
of Indiana Yearly Meeting, Friends of the Light relocated into the empty
Traverse City Friends meetinghouse and began caring for it. Recovery groups
started using the property and other community groups and churches followed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #291c1d; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 1994 the Pleasant Grove
Worship Group relocated from Maple City to the Traverse City Friends
meetinghouse. Later that year, Friends of the Light and Pleasant Grove Worship
Group merged as one monthly meeting under the name Friends of the Light. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #291c1d; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.newassociationoffriends.org/congregations/#/friendsofthelight/">Friends of the Light</a> is
now part of The New Association of Friends.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The presiding clerk climbs the dune</span></td></tr>
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Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-78337478987437653422012-08-13T19:32:00.002-07:002012-12-26T13:27:40.298-08:00Michigan roots and routes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZxH4qOhfLfw/UCm0zEXrRzI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/uXD-Tdp7VQg/s1600/RVFC.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZxH4qOhfLfw/UCm0zEXrRzI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/uXD-Tdp7VQg/s400/RVFC.bmp" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Raisin Valley (formerly Adrian) Friends Church. The oldest active Friends congregation </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in Michigan</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Nineteenth century history</b></span></h2>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whether they got there on by boat on the Erie Canal and Lake Erie or by train, by carriage or on foot, Friends who moved to Michigan in the nineteenth century were pioneer farmers, artisans, teachers and small business </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">owners</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. Those whose work was connected to logging communities had to move frequently, so it was not unusual for some worship groups and meetings to be established and laid down a few years later. The landscape of the Lower Peninsula contains the ghosts of small meetings and worship groups. The meetings in farming and manufacturing areas to the southeast of the state had a more stable population.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">To the outside world, the early Quaker settlers would have looked the same. All the early meetings were unprogrammed until the late-19th century evangelical revivals. The early Friends would have worn plain dress and used plain speech. Differences in theology and attitudes towards the world, and Friends' place in it, would, however, have been apparent by the vocal ministry and in some of the conflicts that arose. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There were two main migration routes: The earliest was from Ohio or via upstate New York and the Erie Canal; the later route was through Indiana. Because of their different roots, the congregations had distinct cultural and theological histories. </span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Most of the congregations began as worship groups or preparative meetings under the care of a monthly meeting. Those "home" monthly meetings belonged to one of the following yearly meetings.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING</b> was the<b> </b>Orthodox yearly meeting that had continued after the Orthodox/Hicksite separation of the late 1820s. The earliest Friends congregations in Michigan were part of New York Yearly Meeting:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>-Raisin Valley</b> (formerly Adrian), </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Lenawee County</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> (</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">1831- ),</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>-Raisin Center</b> (formerly Raisin), </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Lenawee County (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">1842- ),</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>-Rollin</b>, </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Lenawee County (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">1851- ), and</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>-Ypsilanti</b>,<b> </b></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Washtenaw County (</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">1855- .</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">) </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Together, they formed New York Yearly Meeting's Adrian Quarterly Meeting.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There were early tensions over engagement in the Underground Railroad, and some activist members left to join other churches, but there was no schism.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>GENESEE YEARLY MEETING </b>Set up in 1834, it had its roots in New York Yearly Meeting's Hicksite branch. Three monthly meetings were established in Michigan:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Livonia</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> (formerly Plymouth, originally Nankin), Wayne County (1834-joined Michigan Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends 1848; laid down 1849.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>-Battle Creek</b> (formerly Milton), Calhoun County (1838-1899), and</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">-<b>Adrian</b>, Lenawee County (1840-49.)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In Michigan the yearly meeting was weakened by the Congregational/ Progressive schism four years later. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">One meeting split; its Genesee supporters joining another meeting, and that meeting survived until 1899, but none </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">of the 19th century Hicksite meetings survived the 19th century. Hicksite Quakerism underwent a revival in Michigan in the 20th century, but not in the original Genesee meetings.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>MICHIGAN YEARLY MEETING OF CONGREGATIONAL FRIENDS</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Linked to the movements in other states of Progressive and Reform Friends, and the Friends of Human Progress, two meetings in Genesee Yearly Meeting separated:</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>-Adrian</b>, Lenawee County. The Progressives separated from the Hicksite Adrian Meeting in 1840. Its dates as a monthly meeting are 1848/9-1860.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Livonia</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> (formerly Plymouth, originally Nankin), Wayne County. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This Hicksite meeting became a Progressive meeting in</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> 1848. It was laid down in 1849.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>-Hickory Grove</b> (formerly Parma Preparative Meeting), Jackson County. Became a Progressive meeting in 1848, and was also laid down in 1849.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Members of Progressive meetings supported anti-slavery activism, women's rights and greater equality in meetings. The movement faded</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">because, with Emancipation, some of their work was accomplished. B</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">y the late 19th century many of their views on equality had become mainstream Hicksite thinking.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>INDIANA YEARLY MEETING:</b> Its first monthly meeting in Michigan was established in 1841, to be followed by twelve others and several preparative meetings and worship groups. It experienced a schism over anti-slavery activism, but only one meeting in Michigan separated. Although Indiana Yearly Meeting had also separated into Hicksite and Orthodox branches, the Hicksite yearly meeting had no congregations in Michigan.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Of Indiana's original thirteen meetings, nine were</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">laid down and </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">one was transferred as a worship group to Ohio Yearly Meeting and subsequently laid down. They </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">were:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Birch Lake</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Cass County (1841-1921, when it merged with Penn Monthly Meeting.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Vandalia</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Cass County (1880-1915</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">when it merged with</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> Penn Monthly Meeting</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Long Lake</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Grand Traverse County (1880-.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Maple City</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Leelanau County (1886-1917.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Manton</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Wexford</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> County (1890-1929.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Traverse City</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Grand Traverse County (1894-1975; 1978-1987.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Onaway</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Presque Isle County (1895-1910.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Penn</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Cass County (1896-2012, when it became an independent Evangelical church.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Chapel Hill</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Cass County (1899-1924.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-<b>Tawas City</b>,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> Iosco County (1905-transferred to Ohio Yearly Meeting and laid down in 1906.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Arthur Center</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Clare County (1915-1920.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Detroit</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Wayne County (1922-1984.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Friends of the Light</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Grand Traverse County (1994-.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">INDIANA YEARLY MEETING OF ANTI-SLAVERY FRIENDS</span>. While by the 19th century Friends were united on the evil of slavery, they were divided on what actions they should take. A minority of Indiana Yearly Meeting Friends became committed to nonviolent direction action through hiding enslaved fugitives and engagement in the Underground Railroad movement. The majority believed that abstinence from slaveholding and non-engagement with "the world" was their calling. This led to a schism and the establishment of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In 1843, two years after Birch Lake, Indiana's first monthly meeting in Michigan was established, an Anti-Slavery group separated from it, and <b>Young's Prairie</b>, part of </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends, continued until 1857</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">After Emancipation, the two yearly meetings recombined, with the understanding that there need be no apology on either side. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">❧ </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">❧ </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">❧ </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">❧ </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">❧</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">A new yearly meeting came into Michigan 16 years after the third of the 19th century schisms was affecting Friends in the U.S. Inspired by Joseph John Gurney's revivals, there were movements of energetic evangelism, which were opposed vigorously by John Wilbur and his supporters. This lead to Gurneyite/ Wilburite (Evangelical/ Conservative) separations. Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends split in 1854, with the Evangelical branch being identified with Damascus, Ohio and the Conservative branch identified with Barnesville, Ohio. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal;">New York Yearly Meeting transferred all its meetings in Adrian Quarter to the Gurneyite, Evangelical <b>OHIO YEARLY MEETING OF FRIENDS </b>in 1869. Ohio Yearly Meeting went on to </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;">establish nine more monthly meetings in M</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">ichigan:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hanover</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, Jackson County (1882-1924), </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-Lupton</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (formerly Lane), </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ogemaw</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> County (1893- ),</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-Tecumseh (now <b>Riverbend</b>), </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lenawee County</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (1893- ), </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-<b>Adrian</b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, Lenawee County (1904-1973), </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-Burt</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, Saginaw County (1907-1913), </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>-Albee</b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, Saginaw County (1908-1926), </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-Selkirk</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (formerly Rifle River), Ogemaw County (1912-1964),</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>-Battle Creek</b>, Calhoun County (1946-), and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>-Lansing</b>, Ingham County (1964-1970.)</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This branch of Ohio Yearly Meeting changed its name to </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>EVANGELICAL FRIENDS CHURCH EASTERN REGION</b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, leaving the name 'Ohio Yearly Meeting' to be used by the Wilburite, Conservative branch, based in Barnesville Ohio. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Twentieth/twenty-first century developments</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Nine new monthly meetings have been established in Michigan since 1937, mainly in college towns. They are affiliated to Friends General Conference, so have Hicksite roots, though not all members would be comfortable with that term. Seven monthly meetings and their associated worship groups on the Lower Peninsula belong to <b>LAKE ERIE YEARLY MEETING. </b></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">They are:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Detroit</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Wayne County, (1937-)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Ann Arbor</b>, Washtenaw County, (1938-),</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">-Kalamazoo</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Kalamazoo County, (1955-)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Birmingham</b>, Oakland County, (1968-) </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">-Pine River</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">, Isabella County, (1970-)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Grand Rapids</b>, Kent County, (1971-), and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-<b>Red Cedar</b>, Ingham County, 1973-.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are also two meetings on Michigan's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Upper Peninsula affiliated with Friends General Conference belonging to <b>NORTHERN YEARLY MEETING</b>:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Lake Superior</b>, Marquette County, (1979-), and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">-<b>Keweenaw</b>, Houghton County, (1991.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px;">The original four monthly meetings established by </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING</b> and transferred to what is now </span></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">EVANGELICAL FRIENDS CHURCH EASTERN REGION</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> remain:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Raisin Valley</b>, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Raisin Center</b>, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Rollin</b>, and </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Ypsilanti</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Of the nine other Evangelical churches, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">three survive: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Lupton</b>,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">-<b>River Bend</b> (formerly Tecumseh), and</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>-Battle Creek</b>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Of the original 13 meetings founded by <b>INDIANA YEARLY MEETING</b>, </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">nine were</span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">laid down and </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">one was transferred as a worship group to Ohio Yearly Meeting and subsequently laid down. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">It appears that </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">only <b>Long Lake</b> will survive as part of the yearly meeting. Historic <b>Penn Friends Church</b> (which, as Penn Monthly Meeting, had absorbed Birch Lake and Vandalia, Indiana's earliest meetings in Michigan) withdrew from Indiana Yearly Meeting </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">in 2012, and is currently an independent Evangelical church.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Indiana's youngest Michigan congregation, <b>Friends of the Light</b>, plans to leave the yearly meeting when the yearly meeting's reconfiguration is complete in 2013. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">The newest small monthly meeting in Michigan, <b>Crossroads</b>, a Conservative meeting in Genesee County, was established in 2009 under Stillwater Quarterly Meeting, <b>OHIO YEARLY MEETING</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">180 years of Quakers in Michigan</b></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">45 monthly meetings have existed in Michigan. (The figure is approximate because of separations and mergers.) </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">Some bloomed briefly, either because of schism or implosion, or because communities moved to follow the work, especially that associated with the lumber industry. Others are still active more than 150 years later.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Over the years, Evangelical Friends Church Eastern Region and its predecessor Ohio Yearly Meeting laid down six of its 13 monthly meetings. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">11 of Indiana's 13 meetings have been laid down, transferred or withdrawn, with another due to leave in 2013.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">None of the traditional Hicksite meetings or the activist splinter meetings survived.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">All nine Friends General Conference meetings established in the 20th century have survived, and a new Conservative meeting has been established.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">There are currently 20 monthly meetings in Michigan.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Nine of them are unprogrammed meetings affiliated to Friends General Conference, and somewhat Universalist in outlook.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Eight (including one independent) are Evangelical, with a particular understanding of what it means to be Christian. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">These two groups tend to pull away from each other. One group may look outwards towards building alliances with other Faiths. The other may look to other Christian evangelical denominations for alliances. Their focus is unlikely to be on each other, and towards Friends who are somewhat different from them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Conservative meeting is likely to look to other Conservative meetings in Ohio and elsewhere for its connections. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The traditional Orthodox, Friends United Meeting "middle ground" has largely collapsed. What is left of it is fragile, with just</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> two congregations that belong to Indiana Yearly Meeting, which is in the process of schism. One is evangelical, the other seeks stronger connections with the wider world of Friends and progressive Christians.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">While the nineteenth century saw fractiousness, arguments and some schism, most Friends would have recognized in each other more that was common than was different. This was not just because Friends were still “peculiar” - more set apart from the World. It was also because they </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">did</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> share commonality: the identity of being a particular part of the Christian Family that was Quaker. They were also linked through educational, employment, and family ties and tradition.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Given the polarization of the present Quaker landscape, what if anything,can hold us together, and how can we nurture that fragile middle ground?</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Friends of the Light, Traverse City. Newer congregation; historic building<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="text-align: left;">Thanks to Thomas C. Hill, <u>Monthly Meetings in North America: A Quaker Index</u> </span><span style="color: #00001a; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.quakermeetings.com/" style="text-align: left;">https://www.quakermeetings.com</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #00001a; text-align: left;">for the names and dates.</span></span></td></tr>
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Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-27374804827329702822012-04-19T22:35:00.000-07:002016-09-25T18:01:17.063-07:00Esther Mombo starts us off<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7jHJ2ApiQHw/T5D097cKAKI/AAAAAAAAArc/G8cHwnHnOqQ/s1600/Kabarak+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7jHJ2ApiQHw/T5D097cKAKI/AAAAAAAAArc/G8cHwnHnOqQ/s400/Kabarak+002.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Every morning it is the responsibility of a different area of the Quaker world to offer a one and a half hour period of morning worship and the week began, appropriately, with East Africa.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Theologian Esther Mombo of Bware Yearly Meeting brought the message which set out the context and issues that face us during our time together. She grew up in a Quaker family in western Kenya, and credits her mother and grandmother in particular for nurturing her faith. She attended what is now Friends’ Theological College in Kaimosi and went on to postgraduate study in Europe, where she was able to attend the 1997 FWCC Triennial gathering in Birmingham.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">She greeted us as people who speak many tongues, but who, this week, are speaking in one tongue.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some of the highlights of her message for me were:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Salt and Light were, and still are, important metaphors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The context of Jesus’ time was discrimination and marginalization, and that is still the context in which we live. We have divided ourselves by race and ethnicity, which can be used to exclude. In this situation, we Friends have to be Salt and Light.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A major challenge for Christians is how to live in peace with neighbors of other faiths, especially, at the current time, with Muslims. Christians are </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">called</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> to live at peace with their neighbors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another is denominational rivalries, and, among Friends, rivalry and tensions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The social context in which we live includes:</span></span></div>
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<li style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">sexual minorities continue to live in fear of marginalization, in the name of religious community;</span></span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is extreme poverty in both rural and urban areas, and the gap is increasing. ‘Some can make ends overlap, while some cannot make ends meet</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Conflict, violence and war are endemic in most of our communities, in homes and in the wider world. There are ethnic clashes, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and genocide.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In all this, we are called to be Salt and Light.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Quakers were a group who challenged the ills of their day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Quakers were among the first who said that women were humans.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Early Friends were Salt and Light in their own context. In the 21st century, much of that zeal has died. Yet we read in scripture that if salt has lost its effectiveness, it is only good to be trampled underfoot.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some Christians take pride in statistics. The issue is not numbers, but influence. There is a disconnect with what is preached. There is more pride in numbers than what we do.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was said of the Christians in Antioch ‘See how they love each other.’ Not ‘See how they talk about loving each other.’ </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some traditions give life; other traditions need to be done away with. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The context of Salt and Light is brokenness, rottenness. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">You don’t see salt; you see its results. Society will be influenced by us. We influence by </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">being</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the salt has to be contaminated, to be mixed in, to be effective. We have to get involved.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Light is different. It is visible. We shine better when there is darkness, not light.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">By avoiding issues, we are hiding our light under a bushel.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Don’t complain about the darkness: light a candle!</span></span></div>
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Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com3Nakuru, Kenya-0.3030988 36.080026-0.43012629999999996 35.9220975 -0.17607130000000001 36.237954499999994tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-86898534772198155082012-04-15T00:28:00.000-07:002012-04-15T00:28:59.251-07:00Preparing for a World Conference<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Twenty-one years ago I was preparing for a world conference of Friends. I had been a Quaker for less than a decade and, despite being assistant clerk of my monthly meeting in Britain, I still felt newly hatched. I thought it was only “weighty” Friends who went to world conferences, but I benefited from FWCC’s request to yearly meetings to balance age, gender and participants’ experience among Friends. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I had felt a strong tug to attend the conference, ever since I had seen a poster about it a couple of years earlier, and the logo, with its three intertwined globes, had glowed at me. The poster’s glow stayed with me, and I mentioned it, with some diffidence, to a member of my meeting. That set in motion a chain of events that changed my life’s direction.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The 1991 conference - the last before this week's - was on three sites: the Netherlands, Kenya and Honduras, with just over 300 people at each. I assumed I would go to the Netherlands as it was nearby. If not, Kenya was the logical next choice, with its ties to Britain. No. The same glowing, insistent feeling that had accompanied the poster kept telling me I should suggest I might be sent to Honduras.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Honduras was such a preposterous idea - never in my wildest dreams could I imagine going to Latin America. The only news I was aware of coming out of Central America was scary. You guessed. So I took Spanish evening classes and around Easter time in 1991 I took myself to Madrid for the weekend. I booked into a bed and breakfast knowing that I would have to use the language or go hungry.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I signed up for a study tour of Nicaragua on my way to Honduras and boldly booked flights to Managua and San Pedro Sula. The study tour was an important preparation for the world conference. The situation in Managua, eighteen years after the earthquake that had destroyed it, was shocking, with almost nothing rebuilt, yet people were getting on with their lives and community connections were impressive. We visited a number of faith groups that were working there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was taken out of my own culture and comfort zone which made it possible to be broken open to experience things anew. I was vulnerable and open to new experiences, ideas and people. I experienced “Quaker culture shock” seeing, for the first time, the differences among Friends, within the container of geographical culture shock. My world was turned upside down daily. I was broken apart, but I survived.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After the world conference I needed to meet with others who had been there, as if we were survivors of an event that others who had not been there would never fully understand. Like a survivor, I needed to tell my story, repeatedly. It was not a catastrophe, and yet for me it was a kind of death and rebirth. </span>I, who had always regarded writing as a necessary chore, also found myself birthing articles in joy. My curiosity about the differences among Friends grew. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">The following year found me in the US, traveling to four yearly meeting sessions in three weeks, trying to discover the roots of the differences that had been exported around the Quaker globe. The year after, I was in seminary in Indiana, at Earlham School of Religion. I joined a pastoral meeting and I shortly after, I resigned my tenured position in Britain - work I had felt fortunate to have - to serve Friends in the US.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Since that conference I have traveled among Friends in Latin America, including Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru. If I had know what a whirlwind I would be caught up in, would I have taken the first step? I think so, but sometimes it helps not to know what is round the corner. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">My greatest excitement about the upcoming world conference is to accompany some people who will be finding their own worlds turning upside down, and waiting to see what God has in store for them.</span></span></div>
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</div>Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com1Terminal 3, London Heathrow Airport (LHR), Hounslow, Greater London TW6, UK51.4718018 -0.465502751.4668563 -0.4753732 51.4767473 -0.4556322tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-35892103838439301342011-10-05T01:53:00.000-07:002011-10-21T02:48:50.230-07:00Unbinding ties<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';">Friends outside the US are often baffled by the tendency of yearly meetings here towards schism. The Hicksite/Orthodox separations of the 1820s, the Gurneyite/Wilburite, and later Holiness and Evangelical separations among the Orthodox are part of our history, as are some of the later reunifications which occurred when the grandchildren could not understand what the grandparents had been quarreling about. Last week I was present when a little more of that history was made, setting in motion a schism that may reach further than the boundaries of one yearly meeting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">The Representative Council (which functions at the Indiana Yearly Meeting’s decision-making body when the yearly meeting is not in session) met in Muncie, Indiana on October 1 to “help the yearly meeting in its discernment of a way forward regarding our current tensions.” The outcome was the choice of “Deliberative/Collaborative Reconfiguration.” <br />
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A task force of members has been laboring to present the issues and to offer guidance. Part of their work has been to name issues, holding up a mirror to this diverse yearly meeting. They presented four options to the yearly meeting sessions in the summer, with a recommendation for model #4 - “Division and Possible Realignment.” Friends were not ready to have this as the only option to be considered at the October Representative Council.<br />
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Taking into account feedback after yearly meeting sessions, the Task Force met again and modified option #4. A new option #5 was sent out. This was worded “Deliberative/Collaborate Reconfiguration.” The outcome would be essentially the same - schism - but included provision for a yearlong process of seeking a future that honored each other’s consciences and understandings of scriptural guidance.<br />
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The task force pointed out deep differences, ranging from how Friends regard, interpret and use scripture, differing world views, and differing identifications: those who identify most closely with the wider Religious Society of Friends and the other Peace Churches, and those who identify most closely with other Evangelical churches. It acknowledged deep disagreements on the yearly meeting’s authority over congregations. It asked meetings to discern if they wanted to be part of a yearly meeting that has authority over subordinate meetings, or if they wished to be part of a yearly meeting that is a collaborative association. After the period of discernment, meetings would be expected to state their preference for the yearly meeting to which they would wish to affiliate. Model #5 included inviting neighboring Western and Wilmington YMs to join this process of discernment.<br />
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The process would involve appointing a new task force to clarify implementation and determine how to share responsibilities for Friends Fellowship Community, FUM, Quaker Haven Camp, White’s Family Services, and to address legal issues such as meetinghouse ownership.<br />
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There were proposals from the floor to continue to work towards reconciliation, and models of family life and family systems theory were used both to make a case to stay together and work through differences, and to separate (as “healthy self-differentiation.”) However, the sense of the meeting was that staying together locked in conflict was distracting the work that churches and meetings felt called to do, and possibly inhibiting them from being fully authentic. Out of this, Representative Council took the decision to separate, as recommended in model #5.<br />
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A few personal observations. Care had been taken to frame the Representative Council meeting as a meeting for worship with an earnest desire to seek God’s will for the yearly meeting. From the choice of hymns to the Penrose’s painting of The Presence in the Midst projected onto the wall throughout the session, it was a gathered meeting and I know we were being held in prayer from many different places, as well as those of us who had attended with the single intention to hold the whole process in prayer.<br />
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I heard “new light.” For instance, among our “deep differences,” some of us derive energy and greater connection to God when encountering Difference; others are discouraged by it. But above all, I think I heard weariness over protracted conflict, fear of further loss of numbers if the decision were delayed, and a deep desire not to inhibit the ministry of others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small; letter-spacing: 0px;">I also heard from a member of the task force that while we might get along “ecumenically” we could not get along “denominationally.” I take that to mean that respectful dialogue and friendship is possible between people in different faith traditions, when each is speaking out of a clear sense of their own identity, and not asking the other to be more like them. This is also the basis of effective interfaith dialogue. It makes sense to me in the context of my work, professional and volunteer, with FWCC. However, as a member of the yearly meeting, it is harder to wrap my head and heart around it. Indiana Yearly Meeting was my door into Friends in the US eighteen years ago. West Richmond Friends Meeting became my faith community, but my circle was wider, especially through accompanying Young Friends to visit other meetings within the yearly meeting and through attendance at yearly meeting sessions. To unravel the tapestry that is this yearly meeting - to pull out threads that were put in in the earliest days to be monochrome is heartbreaking.<br />
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While I expect that there will be suggestions that those churches and meetings that prefer a more collaborative polity could join existing FGC-affiliated yearly meetings, I believe that this would not be an appropriate option, since most if not all of our meetings are Christ-centered, semi-programmed and pastoral, which can present problems to some (but not all) Friends who are not. So during the year of discernment it is likely that a “shadow” structure may emerge for a new yearly meeting or association, and it may work as part of, or alongside, the Indiana Yearly Meeting task force. <br />
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The decision to separate was not without challenges in the afternoon to both content and process, and not without deep grief. The proposal to sing Blest Be the Tie that Binds did not sit well with those who were feeling ties torn apart, and was quietly dropped. While it may prove to be the best decision in the circumstances, the ties are not simply “fellowship” but deep ties of history, generational connection and, above all, identity. Grief is appropriate</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-80230531234193252942011-06-17T10:09:00.000-07:002011-06-17T10:09:53.291-07:00Salt and Light in Ulster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6tuD-OLhOYY/TfuJ4k4tNQI/AAAAAAAAAe0/X9az4aKiI3o/s1600/IMG_1169.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6tuD-OLhOYY/TfuJ4k4tNQI/AAAAAAAAAe0/X9az4aKiI3o/s400/IMG_1169.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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Grange Meeting dates back to 1660, when families in the area between Moy and Dungannon, County Tyrone, joined the Religious Society of Friends in response to the preaching of Robert Turner. There are reports of Friends from Grange being imprisoned in Omagh in 1729 for refusal to pay tithes (taxes to the Established Church.) Arthur Chapman, Quaker historian, estimates that in the first half of the 18th century, over 2,000 Irish Friends migrated to Pennsylvania, and of those, 41 were from Grange, the greatest number from any meeting in the north of Ireland.<br />
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A century after the founding of Grange Meeting, the local landlord and occupant of the castle in Richhill (formerly Richardson’s Hill) 11 miles away in County Armagh gave land to Friends for a new meetinghouse and burial ground there. Richhill was known for its linen markets, a town on the stagecoach route from Belfast to Armagh, with connections to the west of Ireland. American Friends Job Scott and Thomas Scattergood are known to have worshipped at Richhill, and John Wesley visited the town several times.<br />
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Grange and Richhill remain thriving meetings, and together they form one Monthly Meeting. Last weekend, with more than sixty others, I attended a lively all-day session of Ulster Quarterly Meeting, held in the creeper-covered meetinghouse in Grange. Last night was the chance to revisit Richhill, for the Monthly Meeting on Ministry and Oversight, where I was the invited speaker.<br />
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My sojourn among Irish Friends has offered many opportunities for home visits. Yesterday I had tea with Gray and Elsa Peile. Gray told me that he had been at the Young Friends conference in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1949. He had served in the Friends Ambulance Unit in China during the Second World War and went to Iowa to meet up with some American Friends he had known in China. Elsa had been a representative at the 1967 World Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina. <br />
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After roast chicken, apple crisp and many cups of tea, we went to Richhill where I talked about the impact of world conferences on raising up new generations of Friends ready to take on responsibilities and educating all of us more about the global span of Friends. I suggested that they identify those who might not have thought of applying open places to go to Kenya, but who might show gifts in ministry or future promise. We talked about ways in which meetings could raise funds to make it possible for open place holders to attend, and also raise extra money to support the travel costs of Friends from the global south.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0Richhill, Co. Armagh54.3683254 -6.541232799999988953.7226184 -7.9197032999999886 55.014032400000005 -5.1627622999999891tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-17488999401343720202010-12-01T04:15:00.000-08:002010-12-01T04:20:54.249-08:00Friends presentations start the conferenceOn Monday there were 22 presentations, with the Friends featuring significantly. Adriana Cabrera of Bogota Monthly Meeting started us off with some challenging questions, then Bernabé Sánchez of Honduras YM read the paper on the Peace Testimony by Heredio Santos of Cuba YM. (The two Cuban Friends had not been able to get visas to enter the Dominican Republic.) Linnette Garcia of Jamaica YM spoke about prison visiting ministry, and Lon Fendall of Northwest YM read the paper from William Bertrand, Evangelical Friends Church Eastern Region. William is responsible for the Friends churches in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He felt he should not leave Haiti during the election period. Fortunately there are other Haitian pastors here, from the Church of the Brethren. <br /><br />Oto Morales of Ambassadors Friends Church in Guatemala talked of engagement in civic and political life. I think that Friends have always been more willing to engage with ‘principalities and powers’ than the other peace churches, which are ambivalent about this. I sense an interest from their members in the quiet ways in which we have been able to influence public policy.<br /> <br />Delia Aspi Mamani of Quaker Bolivia Link said there are now 26 Alternatives to Violence (AVP) facilitators in La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochamamba. After some challenges they have been able to get into prisons, including the San Pedro Jail for those convicted of drug trafficking. It was good to hear her pay tribute to the work of facilitators whose travel we (FWCC) had been able to fund.<br /><br />Martin Gárate of Chile, and Jesus Huarachi of Peru spoke next, followed by Daniel Mejia of Honduras YM, the pastor at San Marcos, and Lilian Hall of the Managua Friends Worship Group, an agronomist who has spent many years in rural Nicaragua, and who now runs Pro-Nica.<br /><br />Jorge Laffitte of AFSC presented research results. The rural image of Latin America, he said, belongs to 1940, not 2010. It is an urban society with rural pockets, and unlike other parts of the world where there are wars between nations, the violence is urban. After South Africa, Latin America is the most violent area of the world. Violence, as measured by the homicide index, is now moving from the big cities to medium-sized towns. Criminalization of youth is noticeable, and there will be no peace in communities without inclusion and relationships. <br /><br />I want to mention two contributors from other churches that were particularly interesting: Olga Piedrasanta Ortiz, a Guatemalan Mennonite, described the Latin American Anabaptist Women’s Blog, to be found at http://teologasanabautistas.blogspot.com/ <br /><br />We also got a crash lesson in the background of the Dominican Republic and Haiti from a Dominican pastor. A quick gallop through history from the 1400s onwards, and an account of some of the origins of the difficulties in relationships between the two nations that share one island space. <br /><br />It’s impossible in a blog to do justice to the words that were delivered, and the preparation behind them. I am doing just a brief overview. By contrast, my friend Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford of the Church of the Brethren is picking just a few speakers to cover in depth at http://www.brethren.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=13059Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-24147917160900067052010-11-30T03:36:00.000-08:002010-11-30T06:18:25.741-08:00Domingo in Santo DomingoThe conference began by our attendance at a large Mennonite church in Santo Domingo called Luz y Vida (Light and Life.) There were several short messages of welcome, but most of the service consisted of chorus singing led by a praise team. Alix Losano of Colombia brought a powerful message about violence and peace in the cities.<br /><br />In the afternoon we moved to the center where we will remain for the rest of the week. We traveled in buses loaned by local churches, and our luggage went on the back of a small truck. It was piled twice or three times as high as the cab. I said goodbye to my small case which was perched on top, not really believing I would see it again; but the combination of a rope and a man balanced on top of the load kept everything in place. How did he keep his balance? I am glad there were no low bridges.<br /><br />The recently-built center where we are staying is called the Casa Arquidiocesana Maria de la Altagracia. Much of the work is done by young women volunteers from different countries. After squeezing into a room with five women and having to share a bed in the hotel, it is wonderful to be in this welcoming space. The pope has stayed here, so you can imagine it is in good shape. I enjoy visiting different retreat centers to see the commonality (how do the do food service? en suite rooms, or facilities down the hall? worship? budget worries?) and also the differences. Here the communion sacraments are on display 24 hours a day in a chapel, with two volunteers keeping constant vigil. Parts of the beautifully planted grounds are also a cemetery in current use - not at all obvious as there are no headstones or mounds. <br /><br />The full day ended with a long and detailed presentation by John Driver, a veteran of Civilian Public Service, who spent his working life as a Mennonite missionary in different Latin American countries, starting in Puerto Rico. The characters and issues from the Radical Reformation in sixteenth century Europe must have given quite a workout to the interpreters. We were off to a good start!Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-47240848543653150662010-11-28T18:43:00.000-08:002010-11-28T18:51:05.361-08:00With St. John and St DominicI left a somewhat chilly Philly for San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is a hub for many flights between the US and parts of the Caribbean. I have been there a couple of times on my way to somewhere else, and although we flew in low over the city, I haven't really <em>been</em> to Puerto Rico, since I have never left the San Juan airport. The airport is a strange experience since the stores and fast food cafes belong to the familiar US airport chains.<br /><br />Flying to Santo Domingo is a different matter. To go there you need to complete an immigration card and a customs declaration, and on arrival buy what is called a tourist visa, but seems to function as a non-negotiable $10 tax on visitors. You then have to go through immigration (which doesn’t happen if you are flying from the US to Puerto Rico) and finally get some Dominican Republic Pesos. After all that, and friendly welcomes, I knew that I had truly arrived in a Hispanic Caribbean country.<br /><br />When I got out of customs I saw the IHP – <em>Iglesias Historicas de la Paz</em> sign that was being held up to welcome participants at the Conference of the Historic Peace Churches of Latin America. After many hugs and handshakes we were dispatched in groups of fifteen onto a shuttle bus to the hotel where we would spend the night before moving to a Catholic retreat center for the rest of the week.<br /><br />70 people are expected. Apart from a group from the US (mostly denominational staff like me) the majority are from the Caribbean and Latin America. In descending numerical order they are from the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Chile, Guatemala, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Argentina, Jamaica, Peru and Venezuela. The Cuban Friends who couldn't get visas will have their talks read and I will show video clips of interviews I did with them when we were together last week. <br /><br />The proceedings will be mainly in Spanish, with interpretation to and from English and Haitian Creole.<br /><br />Please join the conference. You can watch it live over the internet in English or Spanish at http://www.bethanyseminary.edu/webcasts/PeaceConf2010Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-6458538176507643712010-11-27T03:40:00.000-08:002010-12-04T04:40:30.092-08:00Historic Peace Church gathering<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TPoysHHXlAI/AAAAAAAAAZI/A1KyW8myz9Q/s1600/Dominican%2BRepublic%2B001.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TPoysHHXlAI/AAAAAAAAAZI/A1KyW8myz9Q/s320/Dominican%2BRepublic%2B001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546801624465773570" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TPoyrwxcllI/AAAAAAAAAZA/3zd6973NhZI/s1600/Dominican%2BRepublic%2B003.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TPoyrwxcllI/AAAAAAAAAZA/3zd6973NhZI/s320/Dominican%2BRepublic%2B003.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546801618468247122" /></a><br />The Brethren, Friends and Mennonites have held three conferences in connection with the World Council of Churches' Decade to Overcome Violence. They were in Switzerland, Kenya and Indonesia. In addition there was a Canada/USA conference in Philadelphia, called <em>Heeding God's Call</em>. Now it is the turn of Latin America to host the final one. FWCC Section of the Americas has underwritten the Quaker contribution to make this happen. I am on my way right now to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and will report on ways in which members of the Historic Peace Churches are being Salt and Light where they live.<br />Photos show some Quaker arrivals at the Santo Domingo airport. Above: Costa Ricans Sandra Ribas (San José) and Ivonne Rockwell (Monteverde.) In the background are delegates from other churches in the Dominican Republic and Chile. Below: Dionel Mejía (Honduras), Loida Fernández (Mexico), Bernabé Sánchez (Honduras) in the background, Aminda Posada de Arévalo (El Salvador) and half of Nick Wright (Mexico.)Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-84342842010780136732010-11-08T06:18:00.000-08:002010-11-08T06:47:26.338-08:00Ann Arbor and Detroit<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNgNb3fylXI/AAAAAAAAAYU/U4f2bbB6-6A/s1600/Ann+Arbor+003.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537190514256942450" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNgNb3fylXI/AAAAAAAAAYU/U4f2bbB6-6A/s400/Ann+Arbor+003.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNgNbZ7SeoI/AAAAAAAAAYM/ZC9IE8Yi4l8/s1600/Ann+Arbor+005.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537190506319215234" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNgNbZ7SeoI/AAAAAAAAAYM/ZC9IE8Yi4l8/s400/Ann+Arbor+005.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNgM5UZ00zI/AAAAAAAAAYE/iDdZezx77nI/s1600/Ann+Arbor+003.jpg"></a>Friends from Toledo, Ohio and Birmingham, Michigan joined Ann Arbor Friends to hear Anne Bennett talk about some of her experiences working with Friends in Northern Ireland on peacebuilding and reconciliation. She decribed work done by Irish Friends at all levels from grass roots community work to strategic off-the-record meetings, and her own work with the latter.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><div>With Anne's encouragement small groups considered issues in their locality and how they could make a difference where they are right now in reconciliation.<br /><br />Next day, Anne spoke to the middle school students at Detroit Friends School. Thanks to Ann Arbor Friends for their gracious hospitality and a special thank you to Nancy and Thomas Taylor for hosting and planning - and for taking Anne to Indianapolis for her next Salt and Light event.</div><br /><br /><br /><div>Safe travels, Anne, as you leave for Mexico City for the Casa de los Amigos.</div></div></div></div></div></div>Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-50345600475899270882010-11-03T12:16:00.000-07:002010-11-03T12:19:49.067-07:00Salt and Light in Illinois<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNG1brVwJII/AAAAAAAAAXc/uJJRVYXA90A/s1600/SDC11444.JPG"></a><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNG1bEQZroI/AAAAAAAAAXU/y6GrnVNP7ns/s1600/SDC11421.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 269px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535404893618679426" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNG1bEQZroI/AAAAAAAAAXU/y6GrnVNP7ns/s400/SDC11421.JPG" /></a> Louise Salinas writes: A good-sized crowd from five nearby meetings showed up for the hearty potluck at Lake Forest Friends Meeting before Anne Bennett and Rachel Stacy spoke in what felt like an extended Meeting for Worship – intense, spiritual and moving.<br /><br />In line with the bright sun streaming through the large windows at Downers Grove’s new meetinghouse, Saturday’s event was spent with cheery Friends who had more time to hear from Anne and Rachel. Here Friends talked about the issues of brokenness that are on their minds: access for all to resources such as water; the large number of incarcerated persons in the US, and understanding technology in our lives. </div>Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-49667901125116683902010-11-02T08:12:00.000-07:002010-11-02T08:22:55.951-07:00Kalamazoo<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNAswCL-okI/AAAAAAAAAXM/Dx2f4wTgX4M/s1600/Kalamazoo+003.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534973145770795586" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNAswCL-okI/AAAAAAAAAXM/Dx2f4wTgX4M/s400/Kalamazoo+003.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNAsvmB--7I/AAAAAAAAAXE/LoYsDLOTt0k/s1600/Kalamazoo+001.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534973138212682674" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TNAsvmB--7I/AAAAAAAAAXE/LoYsDLOTt0k/s400/Kalamazoo+001.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div>We lined up, from Britain, Indiana, Lake Erie and Philadelphia yearly meetings, around the table in Kalamazoo Friends meetinghouse. What a feast of autumn abundance. We talked, we ate, it was hard to herd us all upstairs for the program, but we went to hear Anne Bennett.<br /><br />She told stories of people taking small steps where they were in situations of terrible loss and fear. Of men in Burundi trampling red mud and water to make bricks – almost dancing as they gave their time to re-house neighbors whose homes had been burnt. Everyone had lost family members in the slaughter, and there was always the possibility of more reprisal raids. She told us of women taking the practical steps of opening a laundry in a Balkan town where landmines were still hidden in side streets. It became a place to talk as well as to clean clothes, and is still a presence in the community. Just do what you can, where you are, was what I took away. Even if it doesn't make much sense at the time. Those small steps are part of the greater fabric of reconciliation.<br /><br />She reminded us of our coping mechanisms. How we cope when we are with “others” – those with whose community we have historic issues or often recent grievances. – We navigate politely by talking about many topics except those touching on the things that separate us. How do we create the space, and time, and safety, to make possible those more difficult conversations, so critical for community and personal healing, possible?<br /><br />I appreciated her accounts from long years of Quaker service, and I was happy that one of the things that we (FWCC) are doing is not only bringing speakers and programs to Friends communities, but also acting as a catalyst to bring those Friends together. As someone said last night: it takes outside visitors to get 35 Friends together on a Monday evening.</div></div>Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-47342336471781873922010-10-17T10:03:00.000-07:002010-10-17T10:06:41.529-07:00Dayton, Virginia<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLss9p2YuDI/AAAAAAAAAV0/ngPpqEOGJ4k/s1600/Salt+%26+Light+Valley+Friends+002.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLss9p2YuDI/AAAAAAAAAV0/ngPpqEOGJ4k/s400/Salt+%26+Light+Valley+Friends+002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529062405245024306" /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLss9NbHT0I/AAAAAAAAAVs/czdPCQ8E3to/s1600/Salt+%26+Light+Valley+Friends+003.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLss9NbHT0I/AAAAAAAAAVs/czdPCQ8E3to/s400/Salt+%26+Light+Valley+Friends+003.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529062397614444354" /></a><br />Tuesday evening found us at Valley Friends Meeting, part of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, in Dayton, VA, a few miles south of Harrisonburg. The event was jointly hosted by Rockingham Friends (Ohio YM) and Valley Friends. The meetinghouse is a former Presbyterian church, and comes with a nice kitchen, good classroom spaces, excellent acoustics and some historic stained glass windows. <br /><br />Participants traveled from as far as Staunton and Charlottesville, but most were from the local area, including a couple of people who had discovered that they might be Friends after taking an online quiz on Beliefnet.com. We had a lively discussion and only drew things to a close because it was past 9:00 pm and most of us had to be up early the following morning. With thanks to Rockingham and Valley Friends for hospitality in many ways.<br /><br />The pictures show Felicity unloading the car in the dusk, and Tom Hill, one of two Friends who drove over from Charlottesville to be with us.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-14616826838822387792010-10-17T09:46:00.000-07:002010-10-17T09:49:25.369-07:00Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLso8usfcVI/AAAAAAAAAVk/L-PBDl-jmus/s1600/Salt+%26+Light+Valley+Friends+006.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLso8usfcVI/AAAAAAAAAVk/L-PBDl-jmus/s400/Salt+%26+Light+Valley+Friends+006.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529057991319318866" /></a><br />Then it was back to Salt and Light. Sue Williams had arranged for Felicity to speak at a “brown bag lunch” at Eastern Mennonite University. It was actually a bring-your-tray-of-excellent-cafeteria-food-into-the-committee-room-lunch. Not a brown bag to be seen. As we all munched, Felicity spoke about the support that Mennonites had given Irish Friends during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, in exploring paths towards reconciliation.<br /><br />Those attending were mostly Mennonites connected with the University, but Dona Boyce Manoukian, former FWCC representative from Baltimore Yearly Meeting, drove over to Harrisonburg for the event. Later that day, a number of us, including Faye Chapman and Dona, had afternoon tea at Mrs Hardesty’s tea room ‘quality cuisine in a traditional tearoom setting.’ It’s all about balance: attend many meetings and events, but have good fellowship along the way. The picture shows Dona and Felicity at EMU.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-76788023608830235602010-10-17T09:21:00.000-07:002010-10-17T09:34:37.897-07:00In the Shenandoah Valley<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLslbjWZdDI/AAAAAAAAAVc/K0rqhud_psw/s1600/Rockingham+County+021.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLslbjWZdDI/AAAAAAAAAVc/K0rqhud_psw/s400/Rockingham+County+021.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529054122803295282" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLslay_SRrI/AAAAAAAAAVU/sCjo0g3d1xA/s1600/Rockingham+County+011.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLslay_SRrI/AAAAAAAAAVU/sCjo0g3d1xA/s400/Rockingham+County+011.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529054109821454002" /></a><br />One of the great things about getting on the road and visiting Friends meetings is catching up with F/friends. Tuesday was busy, with two Salt and Light events, but we also found time for fellowship and exploration. While Felicity stayed with Sue Williams of Ireland Yearly Meeting, who now works at Eastern Mennonite University, I stayed with Jack and Susan Smith. <br /><br />They took me to the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction, a wholesale market that, twice-weekly, serves the predominantly Mennonite farming community in the area. Buyers come from a wide area, and schools, colleges and hospitals, as well as restaurants, are benefiting from being able to buy fresh food directly from the growers. Tractors with trailers loaded with boxes of produce, from pumpkins to peppers to potatoes, and a whole lot of other things, pulled up near the auctioneer. There were some very experienced buyers and agents who seemed to bid by merely twitching. I was careful to avoid brushing my hair out of my eyes in case I found I had bought some bushels of vegetables by mistake. What a great experience and thanks to my friends for suggesting the visit.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-39542520841564228322010-10-11T10:50:00.001-07:002010-10-11T10:55:00.149-07:00Salt and Light in Tennessee<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLNPR6m6NeI/AAAAAAAAAVI/npp5n5LjqI8/s1600/Salt+and+light+Knoxville+026.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TLNPR6m6NeI/AAAAAAAAAVI/npp5n5LjqI8/s400/Salt+and+light+Knoxville+026.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526848336922555874" /></a><br />My last <em>Salt and Light</em> posting was written while I was flying over the Alps, returning from Kenya, where I had been helping to plan the 2012 World Conference of Friends. Since only 1,000 people will be able to go to Kenya, it’s important to bring some of the spirit to local meetings and churches.<br /><br />The first of these local events took place last weekend in the shade of deciduous trees in Tennessee, in a meetinghouse lined from ceiling to floor by windows. When the windows were open we could hear birds and the noise of huge acorns falling; we were truly in those woods.<br /><br />Participants, hosted by West Knoxville Friends, came from eight yearly meetings: six in the USA and also from Ireland and Jamaica. Felicity McCartney, Ireland YM, and Sheila Hoyer, North Carolina YM (FUM), spoke of doing peace and reconciliation work in Northern Ireland and encouraged participants to consider ways to address conflict in their own lives and in the experience of their communities.<br /><br />As with all FWCC events, we combined the worship styles of different traditions, singing hymns and having vocal prayer as well as waiting worship. We heard reports from all the yearly meetings, and were particularly interested to hear that Jamaica YM had used the text of being Salt and Light as the theme for its recent annual sessions. I am hoping that Jamaican Friends will host a local event next year. <br /><br />Most of us were able to stay to be able to worship with West Knoxville Friends and we shared some of flavor of the weekend with them over potluck lunch. With thanks to all those Tennessee Friends who volunteered time and a host of skills to launch this program (we are looking forward to sixteen local events in just six weeks) I am now moving through the changing tree colors to our next stop: Harrisonburg, Virginia.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-297050357407705122010-05-23T11:14:00.000-07:002010-05-30T03:18:56.186-07:00Leaving Africa<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_-WoBHirzI/AAAAAAAAAL4/t3PqE0X2cdQ/s1600/Alps+008.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5476261286144814898" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_-WoBHirzI/AAAAAAAAAL4/t3PqE0X2cdQ/s320/Alps+008.jpg" /></a> As we left Nairobi, the pilot pointed out Mount Kenya, to my right. It was covered in snow, a contrast to the dark green vegetation all around. Dark green faded into reddish brown, as trees gave way to desert. We crossed northern Kenya and Sudan through red clouds - the red dust had been blown or sucked up even to our height.<br /><br />After a few hours, we left the coast of Tunisia behind and crossed the Mediterranean. Below me were the Straits of Messina - Scylla and Charybdis in Greek mythology - the eastern tip of Sicily and the big toe of the Italian mainland. I watched the Italian coast slip away far to my right. Next we were over Corsica and then over Nice.<br /><br />Very quickly, mountains were there to keep me company again. This time it was the Alps (see photo), with all the peaks coverered by a dusting of icing sugar snow. Delicious. Then they, too, were behind me as we passed Grenoble, and then followed the Rhone Valley for a while, past Macon, and slowly towards the northern French coast, the Isle of Wight, and finally London.<br /><br />Usually, a long flight is something to be endured or ignored. A means to a destination. But today I had the gift of a glimpse of the beauty of Creation.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-82653190470958030012010-05-19T23:49:00.000-07:002010-05-30T03:18:09.382-07:00Crossing cultures...<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TAI7U8z8ejI/AAAAAAAAAMg/P5i5o3KNVuk/s1600/Webuye+003.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477005327943367218" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/TAI7U8z8ejI/AAAAAAAAAMg/P5i5o3KNVuk/s320/Webuye+003.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_Tc3BHjsDI/AAAAAAAAALg/Oh-4KDv4ZMQ/s1600/Webuye+003.jpg"></a>We have come to the end of two weeks of intense meetings, coping with (depending on where we came from) varying levels of jet lag, culture shock, theology shock, and probably internal shock- absorber shock as our minibuses navigated potholed roads. It has been exhausting. I need time to be quiet and reflect. But I am very glad to have been here as part of a group of international visitors to worship with Friends from Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, and to receive Kenyan hospitality.<br /><br />How can we help those coming to the world conference from outside of East Africa to prepare for the experiences? At the heart of our FWCC work is going to those places where the differences exist: the differences of culture, language, history, belief and ways of worship. We leave our comfort zones and travel into places where we feel strange and confused, sometimes like helpless babies, but there are Friends in these new places to welcome us in. We cross these boundaries not because of some notion that it is intrinsically useful, but because it is who we are as a People. We are a mixture of all those differences, so we have to find ways to navigate them, if we are to allow the Light to shine through us as a global faith community.</div>Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-82590879884493758922010-05-19T23:42:00.000-07:002010-05-30T03:16:15.173-07:00Transition time<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_Tay7XOHPI/AAAAAAAAALY/CrvCR_G-vPo/s1600/Kabarak+002.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473240015625395442" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_Tay7XOHPI/AAAAAAAAALY/CrvCR_G-vPo/s200/Kabarak+002.jpg" /></a> Duduzile left this morning to fly home to Johannesburg. Mama Gladys and I were there to say goodbye with many hugs. While I hope to see Dudu at next year’s meetings, Gladys is completing her term as clerk of the Africa Section and has been replaced by David Bucura of Rwanda. Dilarwar left after breakfast, so that leaves just three of us at Savelberg retreat centre.<br /><br />The others left for the airport after our meeting closed yesterday. So there is time to enjoy the bird calls, the gardens and watch the occasional wildlife. We were surprised by a couple of very large monkeys with white whiskers, jumping among tree branches.<br /><br />It was a relief to see the big monkeys – a reminder that wildlife is here, even in the city. My only previous experience of East Africa was in Arusha, Tanzania, and I had expected Kenya to be similar, with baboons at the roadside and larger animals all around. I knew the towns would be a bit more developed, but I expected similar countryside.<br /><br />I was mistaken. Kenya – the parts I have been in at least – has been intensively farmed for more than a century and that does not make a hospitable place for wild animals. It’s good to see such healthy and juicy potatoes and carrots on sale at the side of the road, and great that there is such a variety of vegetables available, but tough on the antelope, zebras, gazelles and warthogs.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-39278834858738671842010-05-17T03:45:00.000-07:002010-05-18T22:01:35.436-07:00Mabanga to Nairobi<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_NwoX5qwII/AAAAAAAAALI/_jPjKvWGDRY/s1600/Webuye+002.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472841811098255490" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_NwoX5qwII/AAAAAAAAALI/_jPjKvWGDRY/s200/Webuye+002.jpg" /></a><br /><div>Yesterday was full of ups and downs. On the up side I have the memory of lively worship led by African Friends, and of some of the contributions that we visitors were able to make, in presentations and in leading semi-programmed worship with favorite readings and hymns from our traditions. I also treasure the enthusiastic welcome that we received, which continued throughout the meeting. We women were all given white USFW headscarves.<br /><br />On the down side my brand new glasses went walkabout. I had left them, carelessly, on a dining room table and in the midst of black-outs I had not needed them, so I didn't discover they were missing till next morning. To try to get a police report so I can claim on insurance, I was taken to the police station in Webuye. It was a scary place, with two doors behind the counter, one marked "cells" and the other "female cells." I decided not to photograph the interior in case I might end up in the latter. They were unable to do the report on the spot, but promised one would be available to someone going to Eldoret today. We'll see if this is forthcoming and if it catches up with me in Nairobi before I leave early Friday. Another down side is news of volcanic dust closing parts of British airspace again,<br /><br />The journey from Mabanga to Nairobi was mixed. We were divided into three groups and my group went to Webuye, which is part of East Africa YM (North.) Once again we were warmly welcomed and there were efforts to present part of the service in English, in addition to the Kiswahili and Luhya that they customarily use. Part of the program was an evangelist (probably not a Quaker - it was a kind of street preaching Pentecostal style) who yelled at us all with his lips touching the microphone. It took several hours for my ears to recover. The visit there was completed by drinking tea or Milo at the home of the clerk of the monthly meeting and his wife. We ate hardboiled eggs (straight from the chickens that were running around, perhaps) and fragrant honey.<br /><br />We then drove to Nakuru, where we met up with the others at an Ethiopian restaurant and then on to Nairobi. On the way we saw zebra, gazelles and antelopes. The new main road was closed in certain parts, from repairs and in once case because of a horrible accident. The rain got increasingly torrential so it was hard to find Savelberg Retreat Centre, where we are holding our final meeting, but it is actually just behind the FWCC office on Ngong Road.</div>Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-69662472488608511462010-05-17T03:34:00.000-07:002010-05-17T03:44:51.409-07:00Mabanga at sunset<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_EeD5Fkd0I/AAAAAAAAAKw/1BYWdpcxc7g/s1600/CIMG0853.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472188074444486466" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_EeD5Fkd0I/AAAAAAAAAKw/1BYWdpcxc7g/s200/CIMG0853.JPG" /></a><br /><div>You probably found it as hard to see Mabanga in the black-out post as I found it to walk around my room. Here is a picture of Mabanga at sunset. The photo doesn't really do justice to the brilliant orange sky each evening.</div>Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-60102934351439117702010-05-14T04:18:00.000-07:002010-05-30T03:14:59.568-07:00What do my flowers really cost?<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_Nu_PHqQxI/AAAAAAAAAK4/8jz2n7REXTU/s1600/Rose+008.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472840004854760210" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_Nu_PHqQxI/AAAAAAAAAK4/8jz2n7REXTU/s200/Rose+008.jpg" /></a> I love cut flowers. To bring a vase of flowers into a committee meeting lifts spirits. In late February, after a long and difficult winter, small bunches of daffodil buds appear in grocery stores and I buy one to take home and watch them bloom, with their promise of spring. I don’t think much about where they come from, though I know it is not Philadelphia. Somewhere further south, blessed with a more temperate climate.<br /><br />During the worst of the volcanic dust crisis, when I was happily stranded for an extra week in Ireland, I heard stories of misery; of people stranded at airports without funds or other assistance. And I heard of Kenyan cut flowers, destined for Europe, having to be destroyed because they could not be flown north.<br /><br />This week, I saw where many of those flowers are grown – under plastic sheeting near to Lake Naivasha, in the fertile Kenyan rift valley. Lake Naivasha has the distinction of being Kenya’s largest airport for a while. Between 1937 and 1950 BOAC flying boats ran a service from London to serve the large expatriate community that had settled there. Another of the lake’s distinctions is that it has fresh water, while many of the other lakes in the area are alkaline because of the volcanic activity. So the lake’s fresh water is used for irrigation and it turns out to be a perfect growing place for flowers. According to my <em>Lonely Planet</em> guide, it is a $360 million industry. Flowers can be picked early in the morning and be in Europe later that day.<br /><br />$360 million is a useful sum to flow into the Kenyan economy. But there is a price to pay – not only with the impact of road and air transportation on the planet, but also with the pesticide and fertilizer runoff into Lake Naivasha. I have been told that even with the distance and air freight, the carbon footprint of Lake Naivasha’s flowers on the world is less than if they were grown in heated greenhouses in northern Europe. I have no way of measuring. But I know that there are costs as well as benefits to economic development and the spreading of a little happiness to a cold northern hemisphere. We are interconnected in so many ways.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5568943427331540395.post-19133724595795166692010-05-13T11:35:00.000-07:002010-05-30T03:14:25.000-07:00Powerlessness?<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_EWvUOVRhI/AAAAAAAAAKI/ExnIIWMfk1c/s1600/CIMG0854.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472180024370349586" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_n-Z8vwuaWYg/S_EWvUOVRhI/AAAAAAAAAKI/ExnIIWMfk1c/s200/CIMG0854.JPG" /></a> We completed our work in Nakuru during twenty four hours without power and another long outage the following day. Once I got used to finding my way around my room in the dark, I appreciated some of the advantages. The stars were brilliant and plentiful at 4:00 am when I decided to step outside. Candlelight dinner was romantic. Those who came with LCD lights on bands round their foreheads looked funny. We functioned well. It was only after a day that things became challenging. The batteries on our laptops and mobile phones ran down. Some of us had documents on our computers that we needed to refer to. If the outage had been much longer I think anxiety would really have risen.<br /><br />Many countries that had no extensive infrastructure of telephone lines have leaped from no phones to mobile telephony. Places like Kenya where there isn’t a robust system of broadband are using mobile phone technology for computing. So while my office in Philadelphia is plugged into a system of cables, and my home has wireless courtesy of a fibre optic cable laid by the phone company, the Africa Section’s computer uses Safaricom, with a dongle/mobile-modem/USB stick. These use mobile phone SIM cards.<br /><br />Everywhere, in the tiniest villages, there are signs on stores advertising mobile phone top-ups. Several of our group bought pay-as-you-go dongles so they can reach the internet in places where there is no wireless signal. I am in the process of inventing new words and phrases. Since the noun is a dongle, how about the verb <em>to dongle</em>? Meaning to insert the dongle into the computer. And now I have invented the <em>ministry of dongleology</em> – the kindness of lending your dongle to another (thank you, Liz) so that he or she can check urgent emails, or post a blog?<br /><br />But here’s another dimension of life here when organizing events. What happens when the power goes out for a very long time, as it did for us in Nakuru, and our mobile phones and laptops go into hibernation because they have completely run out of battery power? That’s when we get anxious. How will we do simultaneous interpretation without electricity? Perhaps we can just speak in tongues. Or perhaps we rediscover singing and chatting together, and let the work wait for another time. It can be pleasant – but it keeps it very local. It doesn’t make it possible for me, on one continent, to communicate with you on another, while I am actually here. And I am really enjoying doing that.Margaret Fraserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15816265523721808103noreply@blogger.com0