PYM Support & Outreach Committee
Fellowship of Reconciliation Vieques
Conflict Resolution and Community Building for Elementary School Educators
Chandler Hall Tournament at Jericho Mountain Club
Meetinghouse Needs Volunteers to Welcome Tourists
Seeking a Praxis of Peace: The Sacred and the Secular
American Friends Service Committee Donations
Friends Committee on National Legislation:Protecting the Freedom to Read
The Emerging Majority - Progressive American Radio
Snippets of News from the Quarter and Other Places
Chandler Hall Worship Services Organizer
June 2003 |
|||
|
1 |
Sun |
11:30 |
PYM Support & Outreach Committee at Quakertown Meeting, NJ. |
|
2 |
Sat |
11 |
Chandler Hall tournament at Jericho Mountain Club. |
|
2 |
Mon |
1:30 |
Chandler Hall Auxiliary meets at 1:30 pm at Cafe in Wright Meeting Hall. |
|
12 |
Thurs |
7:30 |
BQM Oversight Committee meets at Buckingham. Bring a dish to share. |
|
24 |
Tues |
7:30 |
BQM Singing Group at Makefield Meeting. |
|
26-29 |
|
|
Seeking a Praxis of Peace: The Sacred and the Secular. |
|
28-July 5 |
|
|
Friends General Conference will be held at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, PA. |
Looking Ahead |
|||
|
Aug 8 |
Concert and Singalong with Annie and Peter Blood-Patterson at Pendle Hill. 1-610-566-4507 |
||
|
Aug 8-9 |
Conflict Resolution and Community Building for Elementary School Educators. |
||
|
Dec 27, 2003 - Jan 1, 2004 |
Young Friends (14-20) YouthQuake Estes Park, Colorado. Info: 215-241-7222. |
||
The program will be at Quakertown Meeting, NJ. It starts with Worship, followed by potluck lunch, and business meeting. Date is Sunday, June 1st, 9:30am. For more info: mailto:dwmeaker@aol.com
This is it! Bring your glove and baseball bat. It you own more than one glove please bring it in case someone else doesn’t have a glove. We’ll have food for the grill, rolls, ketchup, etc. Date is Saturday, June 21st, from 6pm -8:30pm (note time). Bring $3.
You don’t need a permission form if you were there previously. If you’re coming for the first time don’t forget to have your parent fill out the permission form on the back of the flyer. Info: 215-860-9747.
A long-term nonviolent action campaign in Puerto Rico has now won a commitment from the US Navy to stop testing bombs and other weapons on the island of Vieques. If the US Navy keeps this commitment, this is a major success. However, follow-up work must continue since decades of destructive tests, including the use of depleted uranium 238, napalm, and the placement on Vieques’ shallow waters of a sunken ship once used as a target in an atomic bomb test have left a devastated ecology and rates of illness notably higher than those in the rest of Puerto Rico. Continued pressure is needed to ensure that the Navy and the EPA clean up the contamination to protect health and the environment.
Fellowship of Reconciliation calls this a “reminder of modern warfare’s inherently irresponsible nature but also of the power of communities using organized nonviolence, which succeeded in kicking out the most powerful Navy in the world.”
On Friday, Aug 8th and Sat, August 9th, 2003, the Nonviolence and Children Working Group is again offering a two-day teacher training at Friends Center. Thanks to underwriting by PYM, the fee for this training is only $30. Call Betsy Berger at 215-241-7233 for more information.
The Peace Vigil at the Liberty Bell that began in 1999 continues each First Day afternoon between 4-5 pm. This is a meeting for worship in the manner of Friends that lasts for an hour. Usually, it’s a handful of people. Last week, with a concerted effort, Friends from three states swelled the ranks to 60. John Andres Gallery, of Chestnut Hill Meeting articulates that this vigil is “for prayer, and for peace.” His reflections appear in Pendle Hill Pamphlet #358: Reflections from a Prayer Vigil for Peace.
Chandler Hall will hold its Fourth Annual Golf Classic on Monday, June 2 at Jericho National Golf Club, New Hope, PA. The proceeds will go to the Chandler Hall Hospice unit, which is committed to providing Quaker-inspired care for terminally ill persons since 1982. Last year’s event raised over $30,000. In addition to individual and foursomes offers, many levels of sponsorships are available for businesses and individuals. Contact Nanci Harris, 215-860-4000 x 1502.
Philadelphia’s new Constitution Center will open July 4, 2003. We can only guess the impact it will have on the number of visitors to the Fourth and Arch Street Meetinghouse. We need you to help as volunteer guides.
Our Quaker heritage is a gift from the past that the tourists want to experience and explore. They treasure what it stands for: A way of life based on religious freedom, the founding of a nation, etc.
Tour guides and school groups are finding the Arch Street Meeting House a significant addition to their tour of Philadelphia. They don’t have to wait in long lines or go through metal detectors. They get to sit down and share in the dialogue. Last spring over 25,000 visitors came to the meetinghouse (over 1,000 on one day!).
The Quaker message needs to be told and Arch Street Visitors Program needs your help to do it. Call Sandy Sudofsky at 215-627-2667.
This program will be at Pendle Hill and Swarthmore College, June 26-29, 2003. Plenary Sessions include:
Info: Call Pendle Hill at 1-610-566-4507.
Needed: 4 bars of soap, 1 plastic bottle of shampoo (in plastic bag), 1 tube of toothpaste, 4 adult-size toothbrushes (in packaging), 1 hairbrush, 1 wide-tooth comb, 1 finger nail clipper, 1 box of adhesive bandages (minimum 40, assorted preferred). Donors are encouraged to include $5 for each kit to help pay shipping costs. Send to AFSC, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479.
Doylestown Meeting Friends continue their Silent Vigil for Peace at the corner of State & Main Streets, and invite members from other Meetings to participate as well. The Meeting has added the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons to the Peace Vigil Message. The Vigil is from 6pm-7pm every Tuesday.
Friends General Conference will hold the 2003 Gathering of Friends at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, PA, June 28-July 5, 2003. The theme is “Coming to Peace.”
There will be many wonderful things: Africa Section of Friends World Committee for Consultation, storytelling, swimming, folk dancing, a family film, discussion opportunities and more. Folk singers will present a concert reflecting Coming to Peace. Junior Gathering children grades 1-7 will choose among theme groups. High Schoolers may expect to experience a loving spiritual community composed of friendship and zany antics. Music making will abound, along with yoga, contra dancing, folk dancing. FGC has financial support for Gathering attenders.
Info: http://www.fgcquaker.org/gathering/
Water-borne illness continues to be Iraq’s most lethal killer and is even more widespread after the recent war. The American Friends Service Committee is providing material and funds for water purification in Iraq. The AFSC delivered a portable water treatment plant into Iraq before the U.S. invasion, with another one waiting for safe passage to be delivered. AFSC is paying to have wells drilled and lined in the countryside to keep depleted uranium, a by-product of US weaponry, from leaching into the water. This is being done with the Islamic Relief Agency. This is ongoing and will be expanded to address the immense need for safer water. Contribution? Info: 215-241-7000.
Call 215-561-1700
There are seven full-time summer positions and one part-time, unpaid Internship available. We offer flexible start and end dates-begin as early as May and/or work as late as September with a minimum commitment of twelve weeks. Schedules vary; some jobs require weekend and/or evening work. Salary, room and board is provided. Applications welcome from all who share Pendle Hill’s principles, regardless of religious affiliation, race, age, gender, national origin, or sexual orientation. Info: 1-610-566-4507, ext 131, 9-5, Monday thru Friday.
Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the FBI can initiate secret surveillance of a library or bookstore’s public computers. The FBI can also demand library circulation records and bookstore business records.
The FBI may obtain a warrant for this surveillance by applying to the secret court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It is much easier to get a FISA warrant than to get a wire-tap warrant under criminal law. There is no need to show probable cause of criminal activity or that the individual under surveillance is connected to a foreign power. The FBI just has to certify to the FISA court that an individual is linked to “terrorism” or a “terrorist organization,” terms with very flexible definitions.
Far-reaching impact of USA-Patriot Act. Surveillance of a library or bookstore’s public Internet usage and circulation or business records can be initiated when the individual under surveillance uses the library or bookstore. However, the warrant does not simply remain with the individual under surveillance. It also attaches to the library or bookstore’s computer and location and thus allows the FBI to monitor use of the facility by anyone using the computer, including citizens not initially under Surveillance. Under the USA Patriot Act, the librarian or bookstore owner served with a FISA warrant can be prosecuted for refusing to obey the FISA warrant or for sharing the existence of the secret warrant with anyone other than the employee who will actually respond to that warrant.
In addition to eroding civil liberties, the USA PATRIOT Act has contributed to a shift in the balance of power between the branches of federal government. One example of the “balancing of power” can be seen in relation between the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Congress. The DoJ has decided that it need only report periodically to Congress the number if FISA warrants obtained but not provide information on how many were served, or whether the FBI has been successful in reducing terrorism by serving the warrants. Fortunately, some members of Congress have introduced a measure to correct this substantive intrusion into readers’ privacy and to increase Congressional oversight of the DoJ’s use of FISA warrants.
Be part of The Emerging Majority every Friday between 1 and 2 PM on WBNW am 1120 and WPLM am 1390 (Boston). Ben and Dennis Tafoya were members of Doylestown Meeting. Their new show aims to create an on air community for people who are passionate about economic democracy, peaceful foreign policy and human rights. Info: 1-617-953-2530.
Thanks go to Southampton Meeting for a wonderful day. There was singing, and a very interesting slide show about Mombasa, followed by Worship, lunch, and Meeting for Business. Friends were pleased to be there.
Arts & Crafts Camp at Newtown has several options for kids. There are morning sessions from 8:30 to 12:15 - $115 per week. Afternoon sessions are 1:15pm to 5:00pm - $115 per week. Morning & Afternoon Sesson - $175 per week. All Summer Long Camp Sessions: June 23-August 29 - $799. June 23-August 29 All 20 Morning & Afternoon Sessions - $1499. Also, the Arts & Crafts Camp at The Lutheran Church of God’s Love is available. Morning and afternoon sessions available, or all-day sessions.
Pathways to Peace - An Interactive Conference. Date is June 7th, 2003, from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm, at the Raritan Valley Community College in North Branch, New Jersey. We all want to live in a world with peace and security. Many of us know that the only way to attain this is through: mutual respect and understanding, healing and reconciliation,and creative and enduring resolutions of current conflict. Attend this conference: explore diverse paths to peace with justice and beyond, learn how to make a difference from a committed community of activists, support, encouragement and connection to ongoing peace-building in Central New Jersey. Chris Hedges, nationally known New York Times correspondent, author of “War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning” will be the keynote speaker. Info: 1-908-996-3424.
Middletown Friends Meeting now has midweek Worship from 7-8 pm every Wednesday. The third Wednesday is Worship Sharing at 7pm.
Buckingham Peace Fair committee meets at Buckingham Meeting in June. Call Judy Kashoff at 215-766-7887 for info.
June – Middletown
July – Newtown
August - Solebury