Omaha Friends Meeting
Meeting for Business
18 March 2007
Present: Debbie, Carol, Frank, Marshall, Lynda, and Curtis
Minutes from February 18 were read and approved with slight changes.
Query: Query 2 responses from adults and youth were read.
Here is the adult response:
We do some intervisitation with FCNL, Scattergood, Mid-Year Meeting, and the All-Nebraska Friends Meeting. We also plan to have a booth at the Peace and Justice Expo.
We wish to explore ways to increase our meeting's visibility and provide more opportunities to communicate our faith. We will consider using clothing such as lapel pins to identify ourselves publicly as Friends.
We would like to improve our skill in helping those who disagree with us to feel welcome and included in our fellowship.
And here is the youth response:
We remember people visiting Omaha Meeting, talking about their own Meetings, and being welcomed. During Yearly Meeting, we visited a Friends church. Many of us have gone to FGC, Mid-Year Meeting and Yearly Meeting
A Lutheran church visited Omaha Friends Meeting. We shared our faith during Midyear Meeting when we made signs together and went to a peace demonstration in Des Moines. Some have spoken to their music teachers about their faith.
Face Book has made it easy for people to know we are Quakers because the personal profile has a space for "religion". Seeing your friends’ religions starts conversations. People are curious about what Quakerism is. You can search for and become part of Quaker on-line groups. That’s how one found out about Youth Quake.
We share Meeting activities with friends who sleep over Saturday night. Sometimes friends ask to come to Meeting. Some have invited friends to youth retreats.
We cooperate with those we share concerns with by doing things like peace rallies with them. We reach out to those we disagree with through discussion.
"Do we welcome everyone and appreciate the gifts that differences such as race, creed, economic status, disability, age, gender or sexual orientation may bring to us?" is a bad question. We think of all of these as normal people. We don’t invite or welcome people because of their differences. This query is on outreach. Are we going to say, "Come disabled black person so we can appreciate what your differences bring to us?”
Query 3 response from the adults will be shared at a later time. The youth chose to write and respond to their own query instead of responding to Yearly Meeting’s Query 3, since they didn't have much experience with Meeting for Business. They wrote and
responded to a query on faith. Several adults expressed admiration and
appreciation for the youth query responses. We considered talking with the
youth during first day school about the difference between faith and
faithfulness.
What is faith? Faith is believing in something with little evidence, without taking it over the top. Faith is not expecting to get material things from God.
How do we express it? Faith is expressed by attending Meeting regularly, posting your religion on Face Book, and joining faith-based groups on Face Book. We do not express our faith at school. We let others discover our faith. We believe that others should discover their own faith and we should not impose.
How is the faith in Quakerism different from other religions? We have faith without a minister telling us how to have faith. We believe everyone has the Spirit. It is personal, not determined by someone else.
Should we have faith in our brothers and sisters as well as God? We have faith in people in general. We believe that others will help you when you need it and that others will do as they should when they let the Spirit within guide them.
Because of our faith are we better than others are? No, sometimes others don’t know about their faith yet. They may not have discovered their faith so they believe in chance.
Calendar:
First Day:
March 25 - Envisioning Quaker community
discussion
April 1 - Query 4
April 8 - Easter, intergenerational, starting with potluck
breakfast at 9 (stove on earlier if needed)
April 15 - Curtis will welcome attenders who are not going to
Midyear Meeting.
April 22 - Environmental ad hoc committee
April 29 - Business Meeting
Other:
March 24 - potluck at Ginny's 6 PM
April 14 & 15 - Midyear Meeting at Bear Creek
Meeting, near Earlham, Iowa
April 15 - Peace Expo at UNO
June 1 - Ananda's & Jeff's wedding
July 26-31- Yearly Meeting at Scattergood Friends School near West Branch, Iowa
Peace and Social Concerns Committee Report:
There was no committee report.
LB 476 to abolish Nebraska's death penalty is to be
voted on this week. There will be various vigils marking the fourth
anniversary of the beginning of the US war against Iraq.
Joe Volk, Executive Director of FCNL will be visiting Omaha March 30th. We
approved having our name on the letter to the Omaha World Herald if it's not
too late. Frank or Lynda will attend lobbying sessions with
our local representatives to Washington DC, and Pam Avery will be invited to
attend the meeting with the World-Herald in the afternoon. Debbie will
coordinate between Nebraskans for Peace regarding individuals contributing
desserts and/or money toward the purchase of desserts and drinks.
Carol will buy candy after Easter for the Peace Expo.
The committee will report on the rationale of supporting OTOC at a later time.
Ministry and Oversight Committee report:
There was no report from the committee this month.
Finance Committee report:
We will hear about Mike O’Bradovich’s recommendations at a later time.
Treasurer's report:
Reports from February and March were read and approved. Lynda
adopted a new format for the treasurer's report based on suggestions from
Ginny. Debbie brought up making toiletries bags for Day House to give
out to homeless people as we have done in the past. There isn't enough
money for those things in the treasury at the moment, but she will bring
this up with the Peace and Social Concerns committee. Concern was expressed
that the cost of small items is very high when bought at the retail level,
and other ways to purchase these items should be found.
Religious Education:
The clerks will meet as soon as practical with the youth to explain the
guidelines established at the last Business Meeting.
Curtis will ask the youth whether they want to plan the Easter intergenerational meeting; adults will add to the plans as needed.
Building and Grounds:
There was no report from the committee this month.