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Morningside Matters The Newsletter for Morningside Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) www.morningsidemeeting.org ________________________________________________________________________________ June 2018 Calendar Weekly Sunday Meeting for Worship Riverside Church 490 Riverside Drive, room 12T (childcare provided in room 13T) 11:00 am Thursday Downtown Outdoor Meeting https://www.nycquakers.org/event/downtown-meet- ing-2/2018-05-03/ The Battery, NE cor- ner 6:00 pm Monthly First Sunday Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business room 12T 12:30 pm Second Sunday Bible study room 12T 9:30 am Second Sunday Peace & Social Concerns Committee meeting: Every- one welcome room 12T 1:00 pm Fourth Sunday Welcome Breakfast: An easy way of getting to know other members and attenders. Just tell the cashier you’re with the Quakers. The tab is picked up by our hosts, the Ministry & Counsel Committee Riverside Café 9:30 am Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly Meeting events June 24 Morningside Meeting Racial Justice Study Group: Deep Denial by David Billings room 12T 1:00 – 2:00 pm July 1 Moving with the Spirit: Jane Alexandre and Tom Goodridge lead simple movements, with encourage- ment to move as the spirit leads. No experience neces- sary. Everyone is welcome. room 12T 10:00 – 10:30 am July 14 NYQM Meeting with a Concern for Business https://www.nycquakers.org/event/new-york-quar- terly-meeting-in-the-cemetery/ Friends Cemetery, Prospect Park July 22 – 28 NYYM Summer Sessions http://www.nyym.org/nyym_sessions Silver Bay, NY October 5 – 7 Morningside Meeting Fall Retreat Stony Point Confer- ence Center Events of interest First Sundays Monthly Vigil for Peace Washington Square Arch 1:00 – 2:00 pm Saturdays Vigil for Yemen Astor Place 11:00 am – 1:00 pm July 1 – 7 Friends General Conference Gathering: The Power of Truth Toledo, Ohio July 21 – 22 On the Way to Silver Bay Powell House July 26 – 29 Kairos: Silence, Contemplation and Scripture Pendle Hill August 3 – 5 Fierce Biblical Women Speak Power to Us Today Pendle Hill August 5 Fierce Biblical Women Speak Power to Us Today Pendle Hill August 5 – 9 Visual Storytelling, the Transformative Art of Altered Bookmaking Pendle Hill August 10 – 11 Challenge of Progressive Christianity Pendle Hill

Morningside Matters...from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, By Shane Claiborne, 2010. Morningside Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends . Minutes of the Called

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Page 1: Morningside Matters...from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, By Shane Claiborne, 2010. Morningside Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends . Minutes of the Called

www.morningsidemeeting.org 1

Morningside Matters The Newsletter for Morningside Monthly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) www.morningsidemeeting.org

________________________________________________________________________________

June 2018 Calendar

Weekly

Sunday Meeting for Worship

Riverside Church 490 Riverside Drive, room 12T (childcare provided in room 13T)

11:00 am

Thursday Downtown Outdoor Meeting https://www.nycquakers.org/event/downtown-meet-ing-2/2018-05-03/

The Battery, NE cor-ner 6:00 pm

Monthly

First Sunday Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business room 12T 12:30 pm Second Sunday Bible study room 12T 9:30 am

Second Sunday Peace & Social Concerns Committee meeting: Every-one welcome room 12T 1:00 pm

Fourth Sunday

Welcome Breakfast: An easy way of getting to know other members and attenders. Just tell the cashier you’re with the Quakers. The tab is picked up by our hosts, the Ministry & Counsel Committee

Riverside Café 9:30 am

Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly Meeting events

June 24 Morningside Meeting Racial Justice Study Group: Deep Denial by David Billings room 12T 1:00 – 2:00 pm

July 1

Moving with the Spirit: Jane Alexandre and Tom Goodridge lead simple movements, with encourage-ment to move as the spirit leads. No experience neces-sary. Everyone is welcome.

room 12T 10:00 – 10:30 am

July 14 NYQM Meeting with a Concern for Business https://www.nycquakers.org/event/new-york-quar-terly-meeting-in-the-cemetery/

Friends Cemetery, Prospect Park

July 22 – 28 NYYM Summer Sessions http://www.nyym.org/nyym_sessions Silver Bay, NY

October 5 – 7 Morningside Meeting Fall Retreat Stony Point Confer-ence Center

Events of interest

First Sundays Monthly Vigil for Peace Washington Square Arch 1:00 – 2:00 pm

Saturdays Vigil for Yemen Astor Place 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

July 1 – 7 Friends General Conference Gathering: The Power of Truth Toledo, Ohio

July 21 – 22 On the Way to Silver Bay Powell House July 26 – 29 Kairos: Silence, Contemplation and Scripture Pendle Hill August 3 – 5 Fierce Biblical Women Speak Power to Us Today Pendle Hill August 5 Fierce Biblical Women Speak Power to Us Today Pendle Hill

August 5 – 9 Visual Storytelling, the Transformative Art of Altered Bookmaking Pendle Hill

August 10 – 11 Challenge of Progressive Christianity Pendle Hill

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August 17 - 19 Quaker Religious Education Collaborative Conference & Retreat Powell House

August 24 – 26 Godly Play Pendle Hill September 12 – 14

Take Back the Rite: Celebrating Women’s Friendship, Healing the World Powell House

September 21 – 23 Couples Enrichment Workshop Powell House

September 28 – 30 ARCH Re-up 2018 Powell House

September 28 – 30 Lives of Service, Pendle Hill

October 5 – 7 Rest for the Weary Powell House October 26 – 28 Fall Work, Contra Dance, Storytelling Powell House

November 28 – December 2 FCNL Annual Meeting: Prophetic, Persistent, Powerful Washington, DC

Remember to check the Calendar and the Bulletin Board at www.morningsidemeeting.org

Newsletter Submission Guidelines: The purpose of the newsletter is to inform members, attenders and other interested people of Meeting news, including member interviews, news of Friends, other Quaker-related subjects, news of Quaker organizations, upcoming events, Meeting-sponsored projects, book reviews, etc. Articles and pictures are welcome. The deadline for the newsletter is the Sunday of the Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business. Please e-mail your material in Word or text format to [email protected] by the end of that day. Past issues of the newsletter are archived at www.morningsidemeeting.org.

Reflection

"Peacemaking doesn't mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight or flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free."

from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, By Shane Claiborne, 2010

Morningside Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Minutes of the Called Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business

June 3, 2018 1. The Meeting began with worship at 12:30 p.m., and

Pamela Wood read Query 11 from Faith and Prac-tice, New York Yearly Meeting:

“Do we foster reverence for life? Do we strive to find, to understand, and to remove causes of suf-fering? Do we, in loving concern, extend assistance to those who require it?”

The reading was also followed by silent worship.

2. Charlene Ray read the report for Ministry and

Counsel. M&C met on May 28th at the home of

Pamela Wood. The next meeting will be at the home of Pamela Wood on September 3rd at 7:15 p.m. All are welcome to the first part. Please RSVP. Friends accept the report. The written re-port is attached.

3. David Fletcher gave the Peace and Social Concerns report. Friends accept the report. The P&SC Re-port, along with the final 2018 P&SC budget, and an attachment about the New Poor People’s cam-paign are attached.

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4. Daniel Seeger gave the Treasurer’s Report. Friends accept the report. The report is attached.

5. Pamela Wood gave the Clerk’s Report:

The transfers of membership of Susan Carmody and Cole Carmody Harmatty from Morningside Monthly Meeting to Langley Meeting in Virginia have been completed.

The Woodbourne Worship Group is undergoing some significant changes. One regular attender was released last month and visited the Meeting last week. A second one may be released this coming week. A third person was supposedly transferred temporarily to a facility for health care, but, after several months, no one seems to be sure what has happened to him. Woodbourne, which has been quite accepting of letting people attend multiple worship groups, has decided to put a person’s reli-gious affiliation on the ID card. The guards don’t much care about enforcing the destination, but if a staff officer is unhappy with a person, the rule may

be enforced. The group has become smaller as a result of these factors.

The men requested a focus on forgiveness so for our last two trips that has been the topic of discus-sion. There was much thoughtful and moving shar-ing. There continues to be much appreciation of the Worship Group’s connection with the Meeting. Birthday and Christmas cards are valued and com-mented on. Often birthdays of the volunteers and the men inside are celebrated.

Friends accept the report.

6. Friends approved these minutes. The meeting ended with worship at 1:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Stephen McDonnell Present: Joyce Richardson, Jane Alexandre, Ernie Buscemi, Daniel A. Seeger, Tom Goodridge, Dot Savage, Nancy Britton, David Fletcher, Kathy Stackhouse, Charlene Ray, Dave Britton, Robert Renwick, Richard Schmidt, Charlotte Ehrman, Pamela Wood, Stephen McDonnell.

Ministry and Counsel Report 1. M&C met on Monday May 28th at the home of

Pam Wood.

2. The next meeting will be Monday September 3rd at Pam Wood’s at 7:15. The first half is open to any-one with concerns.

3. Our next welcome breakfasts will continue through the summer at9:30 in the Riverside Cafe. All are welcome. June 26th Charlene Ray will host, July 22nd Jason McGill will host, and August 26th Pam Wood will host.

4. June 24th the Racial Justice Study group will meet from 1-2. All are welcome. This group will not meet in July and August.

5. Bible Study will be held on June 10th at 9:30. This group will not meet in July and August.

6. M&C currently has 7 support committees.

7. M&C held our Spring retreat yesterday.

8. Moving with Spirit has continued to meet on First Sunday’s from 10-10:30 in the meeting room

9. M&C plans to hold our annual weekend retreat from October 5th to 7th at Stony Point Conference Center. We are still seeking input from the meeting regarding content. Two possible options are For-giveness and Speaking Truth to Power.

Treasurer’s Report So far this year (at the end of five months) expenses have exceeded income by slightly over $2,000. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that the Spring appeal has been de-layed because of the difficulty of finding a date when a working party of Finance Committee members could be convened. The mailing is now scheduled to go out on June 18, 2018.

The proceeds from a recent gift of stock have now been realized. Charlene Ray did the work of pushing through

the bureaucratic procedures. At its next meeting the Fi-nance Committee will consider switching from Schwab to Friends Fiduciary as the Meeting’s agent to expedite stock gifts. But in any event, we will continue to be sure that the proceeds of gifts of stock can be utilized for Meeting pur-poses, so please remember the Meeting in your will, and remember the Meeting also if you wish to divest anything before your demise.

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The Peace and Social Concerns payouts to organizations approved by the Meeting are behind schedule while the Treasurer awaits the data needed from Committee mem-bers to expedite the writing of checks by the TDBank.

The negative expense of $235.33 which appears in the col-umn for May represents a member’s advance payment for a supply of books we have already received and for which we will eventually be billed by the Yearly Meeting. When the bill comes and is paid the negative figure will disap-pear.

The willingness of members and attenders to make their donations on an automated monthly basis is a great help in stabilizing meeting finances and in planning. This is greatly to be appreciated. If anyone who has not yet done so wishes to inaugurate this practice, it can be easily done if you already do your banking on line. People who still write paper checks can usually establish an automatic payment routine by making a visit to their bank and speaking to a customer representative.

Respectfully submitted, Daniel A. Seeger, Treasurer

Income/Expense by Category - Year to Date

1/1/2018 through 6/1/2018 (Cash Basis)

Category 1/1/2018 – 1/31/2018

2/1/2018- 2/28/2018

3/1/2018 –3/31/2018

4/1/2018 –4/30/2018

5/1/2018 -5/31/2018

6/1/2018 -6/1/2018

OVERALL TOTAL

INCOME General Fund Contribution 793.40 455.00 5,154.29 710.12 830.63 0.00 7,943.44 Interest and Dividends 1.68 1.57 1.85 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.10 Reintegration Grant 0.00 0.00 500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 500.00 TOTAL INCOME 795.08 456.57 5,656.14 710.12 830.63 0.00 8,448.54

EXPENSES Huntington House 0.00 200.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200.00 MMM Oper. -- Hospitality 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 200.00 0.00 200.00 NYYM Allocation 0.00 0.00 4,125.00 0.00 0.00 4,125.00 8,250.00 Operations - Breakfast 0.00 36.00 40.00 0.00 21.50 0.00 97.50 Operations - Finance 0.00 20.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 20.00 Operations -- First Day Child Care 0.00 290.00 185.00 0.00 370.00 0.00 845.00 Operations -- Literature 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 -235.33 0.00 -235.33 Operations, Comm. - Website 0.00 0.00 160.00 60.00 0.00 0.00 220.00 Outreach - Peace, Social Concerns 100.00 0.00 0.00 500.00 0.00 0.00 600.00 Outreach -- Scholarships, Relief 0.00 0.00 0.00 350.00 0.00 0.00 350.00 TOTAL EXPENSES 100.00 546.00 4,510.00 910.00 356.17 4,125.00 10,547.17

OVERALL TOTAL 695.08 -89.43 1,146.14 -199.88 474.46 -4,125.00 -2,098.63

Report from Peace and Social Concerns Committee Peace & Social Concerns met on May 13, 2018.

Attending were Sally Campbell; David Fletcher; Robert Renwick; Pam Wood; Richard Schmidt; Kathy Stackhouse; Bryan Wigfall; Corona Machemer (clerk)

The meeting opens with a few minutes of silence.

1. The final details of the P&SC budget for 2018 are approved. The budget is attached.

2. Richard Schmidt will be the local liaison for the Sane Energy Project. He will work with the princi-pal liaison, Amala Lane, who is now living in Ith-aca, New York.

3. David Fletcher will contact Naomi Paz Greenberg about changing how people are added to the Morningside Google Group, so the entire business will no longer rest in Naomi’s hands.

4. The Committee decides to follow up on the monthly letter writing campaign of the Education Fund of the Friends Committee on National Legis-lation (FCNL) by having the information about each month’s campaign forwarded to individual Morningsiders via the email list. Individuals can then write letters to the appropriate people as they are led. Kathy Stackhouse has agreed to coordinate

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the effort. Friends should let Kathy know if and when they send their letters.

5. David Fletcher agrees to coordinate Morningsiders’ response and participation in the new Poor Peo-ple’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival (www.poorpeoplescampaign.org), on the 50th An-niversary of the original campaign, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. The American Friends Service Committee is an “official” participant, as is River-side Church. See the attached flier from Riverside for more information.

6. The Committee approves recommending to Busi-ness Meeting that Morningside become a support-ing member of the National Farm Workers Ministry:

Together with Farm Workers, Harvesting Justice. Friends are urged to visit the Ministry’s website at www.nfwm.org to learn more about the organiza-tion. [Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Committee has been unable to share relevant information with Morningsiders prior to this meet-ing as we would have liked to do. Therefore, there will be no presentation of an action minute on this proposal today. It is hoped that the minute may be presented in September.]

7. The next meeting of Peace & Social Concerns will be on June 10.

Respectfully submitted, Corona Machemer, clerk

2018 Peace & Social Concerns Committee Budget

Morningside’s Peace and Social Concerns 2018

budget Schedule Memo (in bold) / Comment

Local Hands-on Organizations Woodbourne Prison Quaker Worship Group (Pam Wood & Helen Garay Toppins) 300.00 As Requested Alternatives to Violence Project NY (Pam Wood) 400.00 Aug Huntington House-Sarah Powell (Helen Garay Top-pins) 200.00 Dec Redemption Center (Pam Wood & Helen Garay Top-pins) 600.00 June

Flushing Interfaith Council (Naomi Paz-Greenberg) 350.00 Dec $50 Mbrshp + $300 for Social Justice Committee

Brooklyn for Peace (Pam Wood) 100.00 Dec Sacred Heart Church School, Camden, NJ (Joyce Rich-ardson) 200.00 June For the School Wider Quaker Fellowship Friends General Conference (FGC) (Robert Renwick) 400.00 March Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) (Bryan Wigfall) 400.00 Dec FCNL (Kathy Stackhouse) 700.00 March

AFSC: Healing & Justice NE Region (Pam Wood) 600.00 May For Liberation Summer Youth Advocacy Training Camp

Fellowship of Friends of African Descent (Karen Taborn) 200.00 July NEW FLGBTQC (Robert Renwick) 200.00 Dec NY Yearly Meeting ARCH (Charlene Ray) 200.00 May NY Yearly Meeting Sharing Fund (Helen Garay Top-pins) 600.00 Nov Quaker UN Office (Ernie Buscemi) 400.00 Nov

Right Sharing of World Resources (Sally Campbell) 400.00 Nov Note that Postage Stamps also go to Right Sharing

Quaker House of Fayetteville (David Britton) 200.00 Dec

Ramallah Friends School (FUM) (Pam Wood) 800.00 ASAP, July

$200 ASAP for new Head of School; $600 in July for Scholar-ship Fund

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NYQM African Education Committee (Corona Ma-chemer) 800.00 Sept Bolivian Quaker Education Fund (Pam Wood) 400.00 March Samburu Mission (Kenya) (FUM) (Pam Wood) 100.00 August NEW

National/ International Organizations National Religious Campaign Against Torture (Dave Britton) 50.00 Dec Membership Fee (for 2019) Center for Conscience and War (Pam Wood) 300.00 June Christian Peacemaker Teams (Naomi Paz-Greenberg) 500.00 July AGLI (African Great Lakes Initiative) (Pam Wood) 500.00 Dec Progresa Guatemala (Charlotte Ehrman) 200.00 Dec

Lambi Fund of Haiti (Sally Campbell) 600.00 Sept

Hispanic Federation Unidos Disaster Relief and Recov-ery Program (Pam Wood) 300.00 April

NEW; Puerto Rico relief (Morn-ingside made emergency contribu-tion in 2017 out of Meeting funds)

Coalition for Immokalee Workers (Naomi Paz Green-berg) 100.00 August NEW

Environment Quaker Earthcare Witness (Tom Goodridge) 300.00 Dec Sane Energy Project (Amala Lane; Richard Schmidt) 500.00 ASAP NEW

Total Provisionally Allocated (3/18/2018) 11,900.00

P & SC Reserve Fund (for emergencies) 900.00

Difference between sum of initial allocations and budget from Meet-ing

TOTAL (Including Reserve Fund) 12,800.00

BUDGET FROM MEETING $12,800.00*

*Equivalent to P&SC’s Budget from Meeting in 2017

Immigrant Solidarity Training: How to Support Detained Immigrants?

Co-Sponsored by First Friends of NJ & NY and the Interfaith Center of New York, this training will be held at East End Temple, 245 East 17th Street in Manhattan. First Friends is an organization that links volunteers with immigrants who are being detained. Learn how you can support immigrants, meet with them regularly at a detention center, and help them return to their lives after their release.

Light snacks will be provided beforehand, at 6:00 pm.

This event began as a project conception of Beth Hermelin, a fellow attending ICNY's Interfaith Civic Leadership Acad-emy (ICLA), which is sponsored by Trinity Wall Street.

June 13, 6-8 pm https://www.facebook.com/events/1799499540110659??ti=ia

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Handouts from the June 2 Retreat - Joy Wonder Awe -- Quotes and Poems compliments of Ed Seliger, retreat leader

“Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger is the force that protects it.”

- Valerie Kaur – Three Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=8014

* * * “Living as we do in the belly of a soul-eating culture, it is imperative that we have measures that can help us come back to soul, especially in times of crisis.”

p 79, Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief

* * * For Beauty

by John O’Donohue (in To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings)

As stillness in stone to silence is wed, May solitude foster your truth in word. As a river flows in ideal sequence, May your soul reveal where time is presence. As the moon absolves the dark of distance, May your style of thought bridge the difference. As the breath of light awakens color, May the dawn anoint your eyes with wonder.

As spring rain softens the earth with surprise, May your winter places be kissed by light. As the ocean dreams to the joy of dance, May the grace of change bring you elegance. As clay anchors a tree in light and wind, May your outer life grow from peace within. As twilight pervades the belief of night, May beauty sleep lightly within your heart.

* * * “Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for the transcendence, for the rev-erence everywhere to the mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine … to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple, to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.”

Abraham Heschel, quoted on the Inward and Outward email list * * *

“Recently I met a young Jesuit priest in Brazil who has been working with the tribes of the Amazon for two years. When I asked him what he had learned from them, he replied without hesitation, “Joy. They experi-ence more joy in a day than we do in a year. And they don’t live as long or have as much as we do.” Re-cently some African Americans who visited Africa for the first time were asked by the Africans there, “Why are you Americans so sad all the time?” Joy is lost when a cosmology is lost. Delight is reduced to the pseudo-pleasures of buying and selling, winning and gossiping, living vicariously in heroes and soap operas. Joy—a gift of the spirit—is the starting point for the spiritual journey.”

Matthew Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth * * *

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And For No Reason

And for no reason I start skipping like a child.

And

For no reason I turn into a leaf

That is carried so high I kiss the sun’s mouth

And dissolve.

And For no reason

A thousand birds Choose my head for a conference table,

Start passing their

Cups of wine And their wild songbooks all around.

And

For every reason in existence I begin to eternally,

To eternally laugh and love!

When I turn into a leaf And start dancing,

I run to kiss our beautiful Friend And I dissolve in the Truth

That I Am.

~Hafiz, trans. Ladinsky

***Joy Unspeakable is not silent, it moans, hums, and bends to the rhythm of a dancing universe. It is a fractal of transcendent hope, a hologram of God’s heart, a black hole of unknowing. For our free African ancestors, joy unspeakable is drum talk that invites the spirits to dance with us, and tell tall tales by the fire. For the desert Mothers and Fathers, joy unspeakable is respite from the maddening crowds, And freedom from “church” as usual. For enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage, joy unspeakable is the surprise of living one more day, and the freeing embrace of death chosen and imposed. For Africans in bondage in the Americas, joy unspeakable is that moment of mystical encounter when God tiptoes into the hush arbor, testifies about Divine suffering, and whispers in our ears,

“Don’t forget, I taught you how to fly on a wing and a prayer, when you’re ready let’s go!” Joy Unspeakable is humming “how I got over” after swimming safely to the other shore of a swollen Ohio river when you know that you can’t swim. It is the blessed assurance that Canada is far, but not that far. For Africana members of the “invisible institution,” the emerging black church, joy unspeakable is practicing freedom while chains still chafe, singing deliverance while Jim Crow stalks, trusting God’s healing and home remedies, prayers, kerosene, and cow patty tea. For the tap dancing, boogie woogie, rap/rock/blues griots who also hear God, joy unspeakable is that space/time/joy continuum thing

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that dares us to play and pray in the interstices of life, it is the belief that the phrase “the art of living” means exactly what it says. Joy Unspeakable is both FIRE AND CLOUD, the unlikely merger of

trance and high tech lives ecstatic songs and a jazz repertoire Joy unspeakable is a symphony of incongruities of faces aglow and hearts on fire and the wonder of surviving together. Barbara A. Holmes, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, second edition (Fortress Press: 2017)

***

Morning Prayer Morning prayers are best said in the water, belly up, facing the rising sun, and immersed in the renewing feel of the font with your ears submerged so that everything you say is magnified, flying straight up to be heard by all the trees and the mountains

and to be carried away on the wind by the ravens and the gulls for the rest of the world.

Thomas Ryan Source: Soul Fire: Accessing Your Creativity

* * * “Contemplation is not confined to designated and institutional sacred spaces. God breaks into nightclubs and Billie Holiday’s sultry torch songs; God tap dances with Bill Robinson and Savion Glover. And when Coltrane blew his horn, the angels paused to consider. “The arts engage a sacred frequency that is perforated with pauses. Artists learned . . . that there were things too full for human tongues, too alive for articulation. You can dance and rhyme and sing it, you almost reach it in the high notes, but joy unspeakable is experience and sojourn, it is the ineffable within our reach.”

Barbara A. Holmes, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, second edition (Fortress Press: 2017)

* * * Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.

— Stephen Hawking

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POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN A NATIONAL CALL for MORAL REVIVAL

Sign Up Now for Actions June 18 in Albany, NY, and June 23 in Washington, DC

BE PART OF THE ACTION in this historic movement of justice! Join fellow Riversiders and tens of thousands more people across the country in the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation's distorted morality. Buses are FREE (donations accepted) on all dates, with seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. E-mail ppcatriverside@gmailcom for more info and to sign up. Include your name, phone number, desired date(s) and whether you need transportation.

WEEKLY THEMES DURING THE "40 DAYS OF ACTION" Not sure what date(s) to join an action? To help you decide, here are each week's themes (including past themes): June 18 - A NEW AND UNSETTLING FORCE: Confronting the Distorted Moral Narrative

June 23 - Global Day of Solidarity and Sending Forth Call to Action; Mass Rally in Washington DC

Learn more at http://www.poorpeoplescampaipn.org Follow the PPC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anewppc/ Keep up with New York State programs and events: https://www.facebook.com/NYSPPC/events Access the livestream of Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday events: https://bit.ly/2rKVvK6

NYYM is seeking a Communications Intern for the summer!

Are you, or someone you know looking for part-time summer employment? New York Yearly Meet-ing (NYYM) is seeking an intern to join our Communications team to work with the Digital Communications Director on web-based projects, including creating a searchable web archive for Spark. Please share the Job Description and Application Form with anyone who might be interested.

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The Formation of Morningside Meeting and Sister Meetings – from the Archives

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submitted by Charlene Ray with special thanks to Pat O'Donnell, Archivist, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College