Metamorphosis – December 2011

Newsletter of Bellingham Friends Meeting –  December 2011

 

Advices and Queries

 

Friends, do not judge one another in Meetings, for your so doing hath hurt the people and yourselves under their judgment ye have brought.

–George Fox, Epistle 116, 1635
To what extent do I use Meeting as a place to heal from the world, and to what extent do I bring to the world the love I experience in my Meeting?
“The Meeting Experience: Practicing Quakerism in Community” by Marty Walton

Earthcare Query

Do we seek guidance in the Light for ways that we may lead and participate in actions which both enable the healing of the Earth and inspire others regarding the urgency of this healing?                                                                                                          — NPYM 1998

Speak Truth to Power

Congress has eliminated Endangered Species Act protection for wolves in the Northern Rockies and in the Pacific Northwest. This has put the fate of wolves in the hands of state officials. While Washington and Oregon have adopted progressive plans to welcome wolves back to their historic ranges, in Idaho, Officials in Wyoming, Montana and Utah “managing” wolves by encouraging killing them, even kits in their dens. Please write to the governors of these states, urging them to adopt sound, sensible management plans for these family-oriented animals. They are icons of the wilderness and need to be ensured of a lasting future in the west. Also, encourage Governor Gregoire to support a robust wolf recovery plan that can fully recover wolves in Washington.

Date/time	Activity	Description
December 25	Christmas Day Meeting for WorshipNo second hour
January 1	New Years Day Meeting for Worship	Potluck
Wed January 4	Earthcare Meeting7 pm	Anyone may attend or give input to a committee member
January 8	Meeting for Worship for Business
Mon January 9	Book Group 7 pm	Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
January 15	No Second Hour to allow time for memorial
January 15	Memorial for Annelise Pysanky 3-5 pm	Congregational Church2410 Cornwall Ave.
Wed January 18	Outreach Committee10 am	Anyone may attend or give input to a committee member
Thurs January 19	Spirit Group 7 pm	Rooted in Christianity, Open to New Light: Quaker Spiritual Diversity by Alex Wildwood and Tim Peat Ashworth
January 22	What Quakers Believe: Judgment	Lesson and Discussion
Tues January 24	Finance Committee 3 pm	Anyone may attend or give input to a committee member
January 28	Intergenerational Activity

Book Review by Susan Richardson:

Frances Moore Lappe (of Diet for a Small Planet) has recently published Eco Mind: changing the way we think to create the world we want, which would be a great book to discuss among Friends.  She takes several assumptions we make about the state of our planet and carefully examines each. She argues that we can only save this planet using tenets of social justice, and illustrates with many examples.   I found this to be heartening as she provides grounds for “honest hope” using examples about significant changes that have been made from all over the world.   Did you know that the stripes on zebra provide a differential absorption of heat that causes micro air currents that cool the animal 17 degrees F, and that a new building in Japan has used that principle to reduce cooling costs 30%?

 

The Interfaith Coalition is most appreciative of our Christmas gifts.  We gave gift certificates for the Co-Op, the Bead Bazaar, Clark’s, and 2 for Village Books as well as a board game, scarf, 2 sweaters and a shawl.  Thank you all for your generosity.
Annelise Pysanky, 59, died peacefully in her Bellingham home, surrounded by loving friends and family, on Nov. 13, 2011. She had been living with familial idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for two years. She was born Elise Ann Kurutz on January 15, 1952, to Bertha Baltuth Kurutz and John William Kurutz, in Upland, California.
Annelise worked courageously all her life for peace, social justice and equal rights for women. A founding member of the Bellingham Friends Meeting, she was first introduced to Quakers as a young adult at the University of California at Irvine, where she helped start an anti-Vietnam War group. She also adopted a St. Bernard puppy she named “Mahatma.”
In 1973, Annelise moved to Bellingham and discovered a deep love of nature and community. She was active in the Blackwell Women’s Health Collective, Northwest Passage alternative newspaper, the Community Food Coop, the Community Land Trust and the Holy Smokers fire crew. Six summers she worked for the U.S. Forest Service on fire suppression crews in Mt. Baker Snoqualmie Forest, the last two years as a Baker River Hot Shot firefighter. In 1989, she climbed Mount Baker.
Annelise scored 100 on the USPS test in 1979 and became a letter carrier, a profession she loved. She took pride in being an active union member, and was an enthusiastic promoter of the annual letter carriers Food Bank drive. She was also an incredible artist, making exquisite Ukrainian eggs and stunning decorative tiles. She changed her name to Pysanky after the style of hand-decorated eggs she created.
Annelise loved to laugh, to garden, to create beauty indoors and out, and to be with her dogs, (Maya, Zoe and Amelia succeeded Mahatma), and her pampered chickens. She took a childlike delight in everything, from the beauty of maple leaves in the fall, to the emergence of the first shoots of asparagus in her garden in spring. As one friend said, if Annelise loved something, “it got swarmed.” Outspoken and direct, she was always ready to “do something” about injustice. In December of 2010, she flew to Washington, D.C., to take part in a peace demonstration and be arrested for civil disobedience. Trailblazer and gentle firebrand to the end, she chatted with the arresting officers, praising their courtesy to “little old ladies” such as herself! Annelise gave generously to causes she believed in, always an active supporter of the Bellingham Friends Meeting and other progressive local and national groups.
She will be missed by sister Donna Bryant of Santa Rosa, California, and her family of friends in Bellingham and elsewhere. She was preceded in death by her mother, father and two brothers; her father and brothers also died of pulmonary fibrosis.
Memorials may be made to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), AFSC Development, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, and to Whatcom Hospice Foundation, 2901 Squalicum Parkway, Bellingham, WA 98225.