Newsletter April 2008

MEETING DATES

4 May - Meeting for Worship, 10

Query 4, Harmony Within the Meeting, 11

11 May - Meeting for Worship, 10

Meeting with Attention to Business, 11

18 May - Meeting for Worship, 10

20 May (Tuesday) - Midweek Meeting and Potluck

6:15, Fink’s house, 222 South Russell

25 May - Meeting for Worship, 10

20-22 June - Scattergood Family Camp

(Information in the library)

29 July - 3 August - Yearly Meeting, Scattergood Friends School

AND

27 April-3 May - National Volunteer Week

29 April - Faith Club, Meetinghouse, 7

2 May - Friendship Day, Church Women United

First United Methodist Church, 6^th and Kellogg, 9

13 May - Faith Club, Meetinghouse, 7

Every Wednesday evening -- Peace Vigil, 5:30-6

Lincolnway & Welch

ROBERT SOLOMON

As this newsletter is written Marian and Ted Solomon are traveling to Virginia, to be with their son Robert who is in the last stage of his life. Robert grew up in Ames Meeting and was an active part of the group through his university years. Living with his wife Linda Winston, he is now a neurologist. Most recently he has been clerk of Williamsburg Friends Meeting. We hold them all in the Light.

PEACE RALLY

On March 24, a coalition of Ames and area peace organizations organized a peace rally marking the fifth year since the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Meeting members carried our peace banner in the march from the Lincoln Center parking lot to the ISU Memorial Union. In the Great Hall of the Union, the meeting had a display and distributed “War Is Not the Answer” yard signs, buttons and stickers. The event lasted into the evening, with food, speakers and music declaring our opposition to torture, our concerns for our troops and veterans, and our determination to wage peace and justice.

Kevin Arritt worked hard organizing to bring off a peaceful and inclusive event. We will not be silent while the ongoing war and occupation demoralizes and disempowers both Iraqis and Americans.

TAX DAY WITNESS

Members of the meeting made our annual April 15 Tax Day witness at the Ames downtown post office, where many people were rushing to get their tax returns in the mail at the last minute. We handed out a bright yellow flyer, designed by Sandi with information from FCNL, War Resisters League and NationalPriorities.org that informs taxpayers of the large percentage of their money that goes to the military. The taxpayers of Ames alone have so far paid $54.7 million for the war in Iraq, and this money is a small downpayment on the total cost. In the meantime, Ames forgoes a pre-K program and agonizes over opening a social services facility.

For me, Midyear Meeting at the Bear Creek Meetinghouse has become an important yearly ritual. The scarred benches of the nineteenth-century meetinghouse are steeped in the spiritual presence of faithful rural Friends whose forebears escorted escaped slaves to Canada and who themselves stood firm against the repeated winds of war throughout the past and present centuries. Convinced and birthright Friends come together as spiritual equals, yet I find it a special blessing to experience the quiet confidence, calm patience and self-effacing humor of many who were raised as conservative Quakers.

Midyear Meeting begins with hugs and greetings, followed by a meeting for worship which grounds, unites and centers the folks who gather from Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as from across the state of Iowa. Then it is time for eating, which is a sacrament of its own in the meetinghouse basement. A young Friend coordinates the cooking, and kitchen helpers, waiters and dishwashers pitch in to do the multiple tasks involved in providing simple and nutritious food for the hundred-odd folks in attendance. Friends share their joys, trials and concerns with each other over the weekend, and committees arise to support different individuals or groups in their leadings.

This year, Callie Marsh, who has recently completed a masters thesis in Quaker theology at Earlham School of Religion in Indiana, was the invited speaker. She spoke on “Standing Still in the Light,” which was a consideration of Conservative Iowa Friends in relation to the earliest Quaker witness in the political and religious turmoil of mid-seventeenth-century England. Early Friends read the Bible, only recently printed and accessible to common people; but what they took from the Bible was not the words, but the superceding reality of the holy spirit, which visited and instructed them. This claim seemed both heretical and offensive to many of their peers, but these Quakers persisted through persecution and long imprisonments to forge testimonies that we hold dear today.

Midyear Meeting closed after Sunday meeting for worship and dinner. The experience of Midyear Meeting has been basic to my understanding of Quaker simplicity, love and faithfulness.

We see that the query starts with ourselves and goes outward. We think that this is appropriate. We are reminded by John Woolman that our possessions may be the seeds of war. We also need to remind ourselves that these seeds are in us and we should be cautious when we blame other people or circumstances. Others’ needs and weaknesses are the same as ours. On the other hand we need to guard ourselves from avoiding conflict by being nice instead of prophetic. It is truth and reconciliation that solves conflict and violence. The meeting promotes peace and nonviolence through its activities with peace demonstrations and the tax day witness at the post office.

Scattergood Admissions Director Glenn Singer was in Ames for an open information meeting at the meetinghouse on April 6. Established in 1890, Scattergood is owned and operated by Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). It is our school and our witness to the world of our commitment to education that gives high school boys and girls an opportunity for practical experience, rigorous academics, and open questioning of societal values, all within a small group environment. Ames Friends have been -- and remain -- deeply grateful for the school.

There are FCNL “War Is Not The Answer” yardsigns at the meetinghouse. For those taking a sign, a $5 donation to FCNL is appreciated but not required. How good it would be to have a yard sign standing in every yard in the United States.