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Morningside Matters The Newsletter for Morningside Monthly Meeting

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

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March 2020 Calendar

Weekly Sunday Meeting for Worship

Riverside Church 490 Riverside Drive, room 12T (childcare pro-vided in room 13T)

11:00 am

Monthly

First Sunday Moving with the Spirit room 12T 10:00 – 10:30 am

First Sunday Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business room 12T 12:30 pm Second Sunday Bible study: Genesis room 12T 9:30 am Second Sunday Peace & Social Concerns Committee meeting. Everyone welcome room 12T 1:00 pm

Fourth Sunday

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

Riverside Café 9:30 am

Fourth Sunday Racial Justice Study Group room 12T 1:00 pm

Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly Meeting events

Thursdays Downtown Manhattan Quaker Meeting (May – September) Battery Park 6:00 pm March 15 Morningside Meeting discernment on FCNL priorities room 12T 1:00 pm

March 28 Meeting for Music Brooklyn Meet-ing 7:00 pm

March 29 Quaker Values & End of Life Decision Making room 12T 1:00 pm

April 3 – 5 NYYM Spring Sessions Oakwood Friends School

April 19 NYQM meeting 15th Street Meet-ing 1:00 pm

July 18 NYQM meeting Friends Ceme-tery 1:00 pm

July 19 – 25 NYYM Summer Sessions Silver Bay, NY August 1 Ribbon International Peace Walk, NYC

October 17 NYQM meeting Flushing Meet-ing 1:00 pm

October 23 – 25 Morningside Fall Retreat Stony Point, NY

November 6 – 8, 2020 NYYM Fall Sessions Shrewsbury &

Plainfield, NJ

November 12 – 15, 2020 FCNL Public Policy Institute and Annual Meeting Washington, DC

First Sundays Vigil for Peace Washington Square Arch

1:00 – 2:00 pm

Saturdays Vigil for Yemen Union Square 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

February 7 – 9 Beauty, Truth. Love & Life Powell House

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February 14 – 16 Annual Winter Wonderland Powell House

March 20 – 22 Facing Transitions Together: Couples Enrichment Retreat Pendle Hill March 20 – 22 Opening to the Heart of Worship Powell House March 22 – 29 Perfection of the Moment: 7-day Mindfulness Retreat Pendle Hill March 27 – 29 The Sankofa Path: Healing from the Traumas of Racism Pendle Hill March 27 – 29 Creating in the Light: Creativity and Spirituality Powell House April 2 – 10 The Student Dharma Project, Powell House April 3 – 5 Opening the Heart of Worship Pendle Hill April 10 – 12 Spring Work, Messiah Sing, Scavenger Hunt 2020 Powell House

April 17 – 19 The Meaning & Challenge of Resurrection with John Dominic Crossan Pendle Hill

April 23-28 An Invitation to Sacred Silence Powell House April 24 – 26 Bless the Night Pendle Hill April 30 – May 3 Working Toward Right Relationships with Indigenous Peoples Pendle Hill

May 8 –10 New Creation & The Alchemy of Love Pendle Hill

May 29 – 31 Drinking Deep at the Well—the Passionate Spirituality of Early Quaker Women Pendle Hill

June 5 – 10 Continuing Revolution 2020 Pendle Hill June 12 – 14 Spirit of Hope—Living Courageously in Troubled Times Pendle Hill June 26 – Persuade, Don’t Preach July 17 – 19 Chanting as Spiritual Community Practice with Paulette Meier Pendle Hill

August 2 – 6 Visual Storytelling; The Transformative Art of Altered Book Mak-ing Pendle Hill

August 7 – 9 Fierce Biblical Women Speak Power Today Pendle Hill

August 7 – 9 Nonviolent Social Change as Spiritual Practice & Act of Social Change Powell House

August 21 – 23 The Gathered Meeting Pendle Hill Explore websites of Powell House and Pendle Hill, respectively, at https://powellhouse.org/ and https://pendlehill.org/contact-us/

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 morningsidequakermeeting@gmail.com by the end of that day. Past issues of the newsletter are archived at www.morningsidemeeting.org.

Reflection: “The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because, in the degrada-

tion of woman, the very foundations of life are poisoned at their source.” Lucretia Mott

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

March 1, 2020The Meeting began with worship at 12:35 p.m., and Jane Alexandre read a selection from Last Night As I Was Sleeping by Antonio Machado.

Last Night As I Was Sleeping

Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt—marvelous error!— that a spring was breaking

out in my heart. I said: Along which secret aqueduct, Oh water, are you coming to me, water of a new life that I have never drunk?

Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt—marvelous error!—

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that I had a beehive here inside my heart. And the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures. Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt—marvelous error!— that a fiery sun was giving light inside my heart. It was fiery because I felt warmth as from a hearth, and sun because it gave light and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night as I slept, I dreamt—marvelous error!— that it was God I had here inside my heart.

Antonio Machado

1. CLERK’S REPORT

We have no new members or transfers.

These committees are not on the agenda today: First Day Caregivers, Hospitality, Library commit-tees.

Friends accepted the clerk’s report.

2. TREASURER’S REPORT

Stephen McDonnell gave the Treasurer’s report. The written report is attached.

Friends accepted the report.

3. PEACE AND SOCIAL CONCERNS

Corona Machemer gave the Peace and Social Con-cerns report. Peace and Social Concerns met on February 9th at 1:00 pm. There will be no regular meeting of P&SC in the month of March.

A meeting on March 8th with Sally Jones on World Conference 2020 will be held at 1:00 pm.

A meeting to consider FCNL’s priorities will be held on March 15th at 1:00 pm

Friends approve the action minute on $500 emer-gency donation towards the Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund.

The written report is attached.

Friends accepted the report.

Read-back of the minutes. The minutes were ap-proved.

4. MINISTRY AND COUNSEL

Ed Elder gave the report. The next meeting will be held at Pam Wood’s house on March 30th at 7:15pm.

Planning for the Spring Retreat has begun. The dates for the retreat are October 23rd, 24th, and 25th.

A written report is attached.

Friends accepted the report.

5. COMMUNICATIONS

Bryan Oettel gave the report. The committee met on February 23rd and discussed updating the web-site and our Facebook page. Communications Committee will meet again on March 22nd.

A written report is attached.

Friends accepted the report.

6. SPACE COMMITTEE

Jason McGill reported that Riverside Church re-quires a $150 deposit in the event that an organiza-tion renting space serves food and cleaning is re-quired. Currently we are not paying this fee. Jason brought this information asking how the meeting should proceed. Questions came up as to whether this deposit is refundable; and whether hot water may be served. Jason will speak with Riverside on these matters.

Friends accepted the report

Friends approved paying the cleaning deposit if re-quired.

7. ADDITIONAL BUSINESS

No new business.

8. ANNOUNCEMENTS

No announcements today.

The minutes were read back and approved.

The meeting closed with silence.

Respectfully submitted, Bernard Winter

Present: Robert Renwick, Ed Elder, Charles Sirey, Bryan Oettel, Nancy Britton, Corona Machemer, Sally Campbell, Kirsty Tinto, Tom Goodridge, Daniel Seeger, Ernie Buscemi, Peter Beck, David Fletcher, Carol Wilkinson, Ma-ria Goodridge, Jason McGill, Dave Britton, Bryan Wigfall, Pamela Wood, Jerry Reisig, Stephen McDonnell, Jane Alex-andre, Bernard Winter.

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Treasurer’s Report

The former treasurer, Daniel A. Seeger, and I have been working to make the transition complete and give me the skills I need to work effectively and report to Meeting. This will continue for at least another month or so.

There is a spreadsheet attached of our income and spend-ing, Year to Date. There was very little activity this past

month, and in January (one contribution of $30, for exam-ple in February).

Our balance as of this report is $54,136.

Respectfully submitted, Stephen McDonnell, Treasurer

Category 1/1/20 - 1/31/20 2/1/20 - 2/27/20 Total INCOME $1,685.18 $30.00 $1,715.18

General Fund Contribu-tion $1,683.01 $30.00 $1,713.01 Interest and Dividends $2.17 $0.00 $2.17

EXPENSE -$1,543.25 -$500.00 -$2,043.25 Operations, Comm. -- Advert., Listings -$70.00 $0.00 -$70.00 Operations, Comm. -- Member Directory -$273.25 $0.00 -$273.25 Outreach -- Peace, So-cial Concerns $0.00 -$500.00 -$500.00 Retreat Expense -$1,200.00 $0.00 -$1,200.00

TOTAL $141.93 -$470.00 -$328.07

Peace & Social Concerns Committee Peace & Social Concerns met on February 9 at 1:00 pm.

Attending were Robert Renwick; David Fletcher; Bryan Wigfall; Pam Wood; Sally Campbell; June Tano; Kathy Stackhouse; Ernie Buscemi; Corona Machemer (Clerk)

The meeting opened with a few minutes of silence.

1. The P&SC Budget for 2020 [see pp. 7-8] is reviewed in light of the Meeting’s approval of an increase in the total P&SC budget for 2020 to $16,000 (from $14,000 in 2019). The Committee decides to add one new organization to our list, AVP New York City. Dave Fletcher will be liaison. We also decide to contribute again to Puerto disaster relief through the Hispanic Federation Unidos, as disasters continue to strike and the U.S. government response has been meager and bungled. The revised Budget is attached. Friends should keep in mind that the budget is not written in stone; concerns that arise during the year can be brought to the committee for consideration at any time; note that $1,000 has been allocated to the P&SC Reserve (Emergency) Fund. For the first time, we have also allocated funds for expenses.

2. ACTION MINUTE: At its meeting in January, the Committee approved donating $500 from the 2019 Emergency fund to the Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund, which helps persecuted Ugandan

LGBTQ people flee their homeland. (For more in-formation, go to friendsugandanssafetransport.org.) As it turned out, because of the timing of the au-thorization, the money, which was sent on or about February 7, could not be accounted for in the 2019 P&SC Budget as planned; all the unspent 2019 P&SC Emergency funds were returned to Morning-side’s Reserves. Therefore P&SC ASKS THAT THE MEETING APPROVE ACCOUNTING FOR THE $500 CONTRIBUTION TO THE FRIENDS UGANDAN SAFE TRANSPORT FUND AS AN EXPENDITURE FROM MORN-INGSIDE’S RESERVES.

3. June Tano reports on developments in the Ribbon International Campaign. Logistics are being finalized with the city’s Parks Department and the relevant police precincts. Additional organizations are com-ing on board. June shared information about devel-opments in Japan, including creation of a large ban-ner by students at the Sacred Heart School in Sap-poro, which will be sent to New York to be carried in the event here. An account of the event at the school is available among P&SC materials on the ta-ble.

4. Sally Campbell and June Tano undertook to liaise with Riverside Church’s Peace and Social Justice

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Minister, Reverend Kevin VanHook, about World Conference 2020 (worldconference2020.org) on abolishing nuclear weapons and on resisting and re-versing climate change, which is to be held at River-side Church the weekend of April 24-26. It is hoped that a presentation to Morningsiders and Riversiders by Sally Jones, a representative of the World Confer-ence, can be scheduled. [Sally Campbell, June, and Corona Machemer met with Reverend VanHook on February 12. Both the World Conference and the Ribbon International event on August 1 were dis-cussed, as was efforts generally to enhance coordina-tion in matters of peace and social justice between Morningside and Riverside. Subsequently, the presentation by Sally Jones was scheduled for March 8.]

5. As reported last month, Morningside has again been asked by FCNL (the Friends Committee on Na-tional Legislation, the Quaker lobby in Washington DC) to join other U.S. Friends meetings, churches, and organizations in helping discern FCNL’s legisla-tive priorities for the new Congress (the 117th), which convenes in January 2021. It is decided to

hold Morningside’s meeting for discernment on March 15, following Meeting for Worship. The meeting will be clerked by Kathy Stackhouse. Co-rona Machemer will serve as recording clerk. All are welcome to attend. Information about the proce-dure and copies of the Priorities for the current con-gress are available on the table and at fcnl.org. The results of our discernment are due by April 10.

6. Because of special P&SC events, there will be no regular meeting of P&SC in March. All Morningsid-ers are invited to attend the joint presentation to Morningsiders and Riversiders on March 8 by Sally Jones of World Conference 2020 and the meeting to discern what Morningsiders believe should be FCNL’s priorities for the next congress on March 15. Both meetings will begin at 1:00 pm. Friends who have concerns to bring to P&SC that cannot wait until the next regular meeting of P&SC should bring them to the meeting on March 15, where they will be considered before discernment of FCNL pri-orities begins.

Respectfully submitted, Corona Machemer (Clerk)

Ministry and Counsel Committee

1. Next Meeting of M&C is scheduled for 7:15 pm, Monday, March 30, in Pam Wood’s home.

2. On March 22 Ministry & Counsel’s Fourth Sunday breakfast will be hosted by Charlene Ray, beginning at 9:30 am. On April 26th it will be hosted by Ron Rieder.

3. Moving with Spirit continues to meet the First Sun-day of the month

4. Bible Study continues to meet on the 2nd Sunday of the month beginning at 9:30 am. If you are not on the email list, please let Jerry Reisig know you are in-terested.

5. We have begun the process of planning a Spring re-treat. We are contacting the retreat leader from last year to see if she has an interest in leading a retreat on any of the various retreat options that came to M&C.

6. On March 29th, Charlene Ray will be leading an af-ter-Meeting discussion on “Quaker Values and End of Life Decision Making.”

7. The dates for our Fall retreat are October 23, 24, 25.

8. Currently Ministry & Counsel has 8 clearness and support committees.

Respectfully submitted, Ed Elder, Clerk

Communications Committee

The Committee met on Sunday, February 23 on the 13th floor of Riverside Tower. Attending were Bryan Oettel (acting as clerk), Scott Blumenthal, Derek McIver, and Kathy Stackhouse.

1. We discussed basic committee functions: website, database, newsletter, email distributions, and social media outreach for the benefit of new committee members.

2. Bryan outlined the work and goals of the NYQM Communications Committee and how our commu-nications functions might integrate with those of the Quarter.

3. We talked about the purpose(s) of the meeting website and reviewed its pluses and minuses with the aim of increasing its visual appeal and user-friendliness. On a preliminary basis we identified

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must-have pages, e.g., Home, About Us, Calendar, and Blog, and decided that, before making any modifications, we would survey Morningsiders to learn what information they need/want from the Meeting and how they prefer to receive it. To that end Derek and Scott will create an online survey within the next few weeks.

4. Derek volunteered to audit our Facebook page’s content to determine how to enliven it and make it

reflect the “personality” of the Meeting. He will also develop some concepts for ads that would di-rect targeted recipients to the FB page.

5. We discussed possible new formats for delivering newsletter content.

6. The committee will meet next on March 22.

Respectfully submitted, Bryan Oettel, acting as clerk

FCNL: Effectively Engaging Election Candidates

As the November 2020 election approaches, political can-didates are hosting town halls, talking to voters, and listen-ing more closely to constituents.

This is an opportunity to lift our concerns for peace and justice with candidates for Congress and state offices, and with the public. Here are some ways you can engage candi-dates during the 2020 elections.

1. Ask a Question at a Campaign Event

Check candidate websites or contact campaign of-fices to find out about their public appearances. We recommend deciding in advance what question you want to ask and practicing speaking it out loud. You will likely only have a minute or two to ask your question. Listen carefully to the candidate’s answer and thank them for their response.

Consider going to an event with other people who are ready to ask the same question. This strategy in-creases the chances that one of you will be called on to speak. Remember, you can influence not just the candidate, but also others in your community and potentially the media. If you attend an event, take a photo and send it to us at support@fcnl.org! We will share it on social media to inspire others.

Questions for Candidates can be found here: https://www.fcnl.org/updates/questions-for-can-didates-2565

2. Organize a Campaign Event

When you work with your meeting, church, or community group to put on your own event, you can focus on the issues most important to your community and help candidates get to know your group. Several years ago, Durham Friends Meeting

invited congressional candidates to such a forum and asked them questions based on FCNL’s sug-gestions. You can do the same!

3. Organize a Joint Letter to Candidates

Letters can come from a few people or from your meeting or church, asking all the candidates their perspectives on your priority issues. Joint letters can help show candidates that there’s an organized group of people who are paying attention to an is-sue.

4. Write a Letter to the Editor

Any of the questions in this newsletter can become the basis for a letter to the editor. Respond to a news article if possible, and keep your letter short (150 words or less). Be sure to include the names of your candidates so campaigns will see the letter.

Get more tips at fcnl.org/lte, and please email a copy to support@fcnl.org if your letter is pub-lished!

5. Contact Campaigns Directly

Send campaigns a letter or an email. Or ask friends who are involved with campaigns where their can-didates stand on issues of concern to FCNL.

6. Engage with Candidates on Social Media

Follow candidates on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms and comment to raise issues you want to see them address. Campaigns monitor these sites closely! Candidates are also likely to share information about public events on these platforms.

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