Metamorphosis – September 2012

Metamorphosis: Newsletter for Bellingham Friends Meeting
Weekly Meetings for Worship are on Sunday @ 10-11 am.  Childcare is provided.
Monthly Meetings for Worship with Attention to Business are on the 2nd Sunday.
1601 Ellis Street in Bellingham, WA 98225               Phone:  (360) 734-0244

Metamorphosis is a monthly newsletter. If you would like some particular information placed in the Metamorphosis, please send it via email to the newsletter editor Betty McMahon: Bettysmokey@hotmail.com. (If you do not have email: (360) 734-0244.)

September’s Advice & Query: Plain Living by Catherine Whitmire, p 113
“Seeds, not fruit, are given in prayer, but they are given for planting.”  Douglas Steere, 1962
Do I pay attention to the “seeds of concern” for others that may come to me in prayer?

Upcoming Schedule at a Glance

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Sept. 9

Meeting for  Worship:  Business

Sept. 10 Digging to America by Ann Tyler     Sept. 13

7 pm Spirit Group

   
Sept. 16

Singing 15 minutes prior to worship.

      Sept. 20

 

QUAR

 

Sept. 21

 

TERLY

Sept. 22

 

MEETING

 

Sept. 23

 

no second hour

 

 

           
Sept. 30

 

no 2nd hour

 

 

           

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS:

September 21, 2012 – International Day of Peace at Congregational Church, 7 pm. (or meet at Maritime Park for the group walk to the church at 5:30 pm.)

September 21-23, 2012 – Quarterly Meeting

TBA            NPYM Coordinating Committee meets. (date TBA)

October 7, 2012 – All day Retreat at Quaker Cove

     Bellingham Friends Meeting invites you to our annual day-long retreat!   Join us for a   rich, intimate sharing of values and goals. Re-energize for             another year of worshiping and working together!

Theme:  What Quaker values inspire you?  How can our meetings help us realize our most cherished and heartfelt leadings?

Where: Quaker Cove Retreat,

14594 Gibralter Road, Anacortes, WA

When: ~9:30 am to ~4:30 pm, Sunday, October 7, 2012

Our program will include a fun opening activity, brief descriptions of the primary  Quaker        testimonies, small-group worship-sharing, whole-group activities -[including brainstorming, singing, and closing worship–and of course a potluck lunch!]

     Note: Times shown above are approximate, to be adjusted based on the fall San Juan

Islands ferry schedule.  There is no cost to attend, but you are asked to pre-register by September 30th by contacting Don Goldstein at dnx57@yahoo.com.  A children’s  program will be provided, and assistance with carpooling and pickups for ferry foot passengers will be available.  Driving directions will be sent upon registration.

 

October 9, 2012 – Next Quarterly Meeting Planning Committee Meeting

October 13, 2012 – Whidbey Island Friends are sponsoring a clerk workshop on from 9-5                                        pm at the Unitarian Church on Whidbey Island.

October 20, 2012 – Next “Retreat” planning committee meeting at Joanne & Larry’s, 1 pm.

October TBA, 2012 – NPYM Coordinating Committee meets.

October 21, 2012 – Larry Thompson discusses his calling in the world (second hour).

November 28, 2012Co-sponsored with WPJ – Herald Bldg, 3rd Floor Conference Room

A book-related presentation on Refusing to be Enemies:  Palestinian and Israeli Nonviolent

Resistance to the Israeli Occupation with Maxine Kaufman Lacuste

December 3, 2012Co-sponsored with WPJ –  Madison Quakers Inc in Vietnam – evening presentation Mike Boehm (Traveling Quaker)

Friendly Requests:  Lynne Lohr of Squim, member of Victoria Friends Meeting, is moving to Bellingham and is requesting a place to stay ~ 2 days.  She would also appreciate it someone  or more Friends would be able to aquaint her with the area.  She can be reached at 360-783-1943.

 

Friendly Tidbits:

            This is the most cherished recipe shared at Live Oak Friends Meeting in Houston.  Joan and Burnham Terrell are the perpetrators and eating these little sandwiches always makes me smile with warm memories of Texas Friendships.  I hope it becomes a fond memory for Northwest Friends as well.

Joan and Burnham’s Celebrated Sandwich Recipe for Gingered Tuna Salad

This is the basic tuna salad recipe.  To convert into a sandwich spread, replace 1/2 the tuna with chopped hard boiled eggs { about 4 eggs to a 6 oz can of tuna}.

12 oz can white tuna in water
2 tsps sweet curry powder ( I get this at Penzey’s on 19th street near Ashland)
1 TB olive oil
1/4 cup minced red onion
3 Tb crystallized ginger (at Penzey’s) cut into pieces about the size of the onion

1 TB rice vinegar
1/3-1/2 cup mayonaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 tsp salt (this could easily be reduced or deleted)
1 dash cayenne (or to taste)

Drain tuna, set aside. Over low heat, cook curry and oil together for five minutes.  Stir frequently; cool.  Whisk together mayo,vinegar and mustard.  Add ginger, onion, pecans,salt and cayenne to cooled curry and oil.  Mix together thoroughly and blend thoroughly with mayo mixture. Add to tuna and mix with a fork to coat all the tuna. Serve on lettuce either chilled or room temp.  Good with cherry tomatoes and/or baby carrots.

Have you Read a Good Book Lately?

Can you imagine beginning a 1100 mile hike in hiking bootsw you had not yet put on your feet?  Thus begins the tale of Wild, the autobiographical saga of Cheryl Strayed’s journey “from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail.  After the tragic death of her 45 year old mother and subsequent scattered family, Cheryl, 26, makes the impulsive decision to hike from the Mojave Desert in California to Washington State, alone.

Encountering a black bear, rattlesnakes, snowpack and intense heat (plus the ever present struggles with her overweight backpack and blistered feet), Cheryl copes with courage and humor.  After losing one of her boots over the edge of a cliff, she continues onin her cheap sandals, determined to reach her goal.  Filled with humor and soul, you’re bound to identify with this feisty adventurer.

THE ABOVE BOOK REVIEW WAS WRITTEN BY CLAIRE HIRSCHI.  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO OFFER YOUR OWN BOOK REVIEWS, AND YOU CAN MAKE THEM AS BRIEF OR THOROUGH AS YOU WISH.

 From our Peace and Environmental Concerns Committee:

ECO-Suggestion of the Month:  Instead of degrading your neighbors’ quality of life (and your own) with noise pollution by using a leaf blower, get healthful exercise and some quiet moments of meditation while raking your leaves.
Concern of the Month:  Friendly Water for the World makes bio-sand water filters of local materials to provide clean water for families in areas where it is not otherwise available. $86 was donated.  Last month $108 was collected for the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund.
Speak Truth to Power:  Our final suggestion from Friends Committee on National Legislation is for the federal budget is to ask Congress to bring home an additional 4300 troops from Afghanistan.  This would save $4.3billion, enough to fully fund U.S. war prevention programs, contribute to international organizations and peacekeeping and to secure and remove vulnerable nuclear materials from around the world.

 Interfaith Coalition Winter Coat Drive

JOIN US!  It is time for the Interfaith Coalition winter coat drive.  Please share your extra warm coats, hats, gloves and mittens with our neighbors in need.  Please bring donations to the worship service.  The last day to bring donations is Sunday, October 21.

WHEN:            Now through Sunday, October 21. Please bring your donations to worship meetings, and Sharon Trent will bring                  them to Interfaith.

 

WHAT:  Clean, good quality children & adult coats, hats, gloves and mittens. Children’s coats are

especially needed.

 

FOR:  Distribution to our neighbors in need.

 

SPONSORED BY:  Interfaith Coalition of Whatcom County

…AND FINALLY:  {An introduction to Quaker Testimonies, continued.  Last month we read

about Peace. }

EQUALITY – Seeking Social Justice

     Friends hold that all people are equal access to the “inner Light.”  This profound sense of   equality leads Friends to treat each person with respect, looking for “that of God” in everyone.

This testimony was reflected in the practice of early Quakers, who granted equal spiritual   authority to women, refused to use forms of address that recognized social distinctions, supported religious freedom, and worked to abolish slavery.

American Friends Service Committee supports the development of societies and structures that recognize the dignity of every person.  We seek to work with all people in pursuit of justice—the economically impoverished and the materially comfortable, the disenfranchised and the powerful—inviting the Spirit to move among all these groups, making great change possible.

One has to fight for justice for all.  If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is strengthened.                                                                                       – BAYARD RUSTIN, QUAKER CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST

The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.                                    – JANE ADDAMS, SOCIOLOGIST AND ACTIVIST

Query:  How do I respond to opportunities to establish personal and professional relationships with people whose backgrounds differ from mine, whether across class, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, or ability?