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Bellingham Quaker E-News, Aug 19, 2015                           View this email in your browser 
Sun., August 23, 2015
Silent Worship at 10 AM
Second Hour:  
Threshing Session on Meetinghouse Ownership Generally, and Bell Tower Building Particularly.
Please bring your heartfelt concerns, questions, and perspectives. All points of view are important -- and welcome!
Meeting Tasks for this Sunday:

Care of Meeting: Virginia H.
Key - Don G.
Setup help - Wendy G.
Greeter - vacant
Snack - Dorothy D.
Kitchen - vacant
Kitchen help - vacant
Children's Teacher - vacant
 
Please contact Carole Teshima at knitpearl68@gmail.com to volunteer on a semi- regular basis.
Calendar for Bellingham Friends
 
When
Tonight - Wed, Aug 19, 7– 9pm 
What

Where
Midweek Worship

Mary Ann P.'s home

One hour worship + one hour worship sharing/ check-in. Friends gather for midweek worship on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays each month.
 
When
Sat. Sept 12, 2pm -
Sun Sept 13, 2 pm
What

Where
Annual Retreat

Camp Lutherwood 

See more information at the bottom of the newsletter.
click here for tentative schedule
click here for registration form (you may need to save it to your computer in order to read it)
From Ministry and Counsel:
 
Please hold Carole Teshima in the Light, as she recovers from knee surgery. Friends who are available to help with errands or meals, pleaselet Virginia Herrick know of your availability and she will coordinate if  Carole needs any help. At this time she is mostly needing to rest a lot, she says!

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We ask Friends to hold our whole Meeting in the Light. We are already a few weeks into a 120-day contract within which we hope to discern whether purchasing the Bell Tower building is a Spirit-led choice.

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Please honor our shared silence in worship by planning to arrive before 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings. Please enter the hallways outside the worship room quietly, as voices carry. Please silence cell phones and arrange belongings before entering, and keep comings and goings during worship to a minimum.
 
Thank you, Friends.
Opportunities for Friendly Activists
From your Social and Environmental Concerns Committee

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SUPPORT THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL 
 
A huge vote on war and peace is right around the corner. 

click here
and follow the instructions (very easy) so that Friends Committee for National Legislation (FCNL) can help you send a message to your legislators. 
 
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Comment on the Tongue River Railroad
 
We have an opportunity to comment on the Draft EIS for the Tongue River Railroad (TRR), which, if built, would transport 20 million tons of coal annually from the proposed Otter Creek coal mine for likely export to Asia. The TRR would adversely impact the lives and lands of farmers, ranchers, and the Northern Cheyenne Nation of southeastern Montana, and would contribute to 2.5 billion tons of new greenhouse gas emissions.
More information is available at: www.northernplains.org/issues/tongue-river-railroad/
Here is a direct link to the page on the Northernplains Resource Council website that will help you formulate and send a comment to the agency that has the power to approve or turn down this project.  
Taking the time to comment is easy, educational, and meaningful for the future of our shared ecosystem.

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Special Request for
Baked Goods
for
Whatcom Peace and Justice Center
fundraiser
from Janet Marino:
Please consider bringing baked goods, savory or sweet for our bake sale at the International Day of Peace Event and Fundraiser on September 19 at the Majestic.  Anything easily portionable would be most welcome!  If you would like to help, please contact Janet Marino at janet@whatcompjc.org
Experience FGC - the Gathering from the comfort of your own home!

You can view all the 2015 FGC Plenary sessions including

Parker Palmer
Click here
for access to all 2015 FGC gathering Plenary sessions
August Metamorphosis is out! 

Click here 

to find it online
The second installment of the feature article on the Elders  and a wonderful poem are highlights of the August issue.
 

Friday Peace Vigil

When
Every Fri, 3:45pm – 4:45pm
Where
104 W Magnolia St, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA (map)
Description
The Nation's oldest weekly Peace Vigil. Paricipants gather weekly at 4:00 pm with signs in front of the Federal Building on the Corner of Magnolia and Cornwall Streets.
More
Announcements from the Wider Community

 

Concert in Elizabeth Park
Thursday, 6 pm



SUMMER PARK CONCERT SERIES:
Bellingham's Columbia neighborhood at Elizabeth Park.
Every Thursday through Aug. 27.
http://www.cob.org
6:00 pm - 8 pm
Free concerts sponsored by The Eldridge Society, in partnership with Bellingham Parks and Recreation. Hot dogs will be available for purchase, and all are encouraged to recycle and compost. Donations to enable The Eldridge Society to continue to pay the performers will be gratefully accepted at the concerts.

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Listen to Speak Up! Speak Out! 

In Whatcom on KMRE 102.3 FM Sunday at 11 PM
A half hour weekly locally produced radio show committed to community, peace, justice and non-violence issues. Topics and interviewees change weekly. Schedule subject to change.
Check out our archives at www.speakupspeakoutradio.org.
 

Upcoming Second Hours:

Aug. 30 – Held open as possible MfWfB if needed, (OR threshing session, re: Meetinghouse proposal?)
Sept. 6 – Labor Day Weekend, extended social time (OR threshing session, re: Meetinghouse proposal?)
Sept. 13 - BFM Annual Retreat (with potluck Sunday)
Sept. 20 - 
Sept. 27 - Quarterly Meeting, extended social time
Oct. 4 - Potluck
Oct. 11 - MfWfB
Oct. 18 – “39 Questions for White People” (SEC)
Oct. 25 - “39 Questions for White People” (SEC)
From Outreach and Welcoming
Ever been puzzled about Quaker jargon?

The Outreach and Welcoming Group (OWG) is pleased to announce its publication of “A Quaker Glossary, with Some Notes on How Things Got That Way,” originally drafted by Howard Harris several years ago and recently augmented and edited by OWG Clerk Don Goldstein.  Here are a couple of sample definitions:

Continuing revelation ---- The belief that God (or the spiritual dimension) can speak directly to people today just as tradition says happened in earlier times.  Also called “ongoing revelation”

Lay down ---- To terminate a committee or activity when its work is completed, no longer felt necessary, or is not sustainable with the resources available.

The entire glossary may be read or downloaded by clicking on the following link: BFM Quaker Glossary .  A few paper copies will also be available at Explorations Academy beginning about mid-August.  Feedback to OWG about the glossary, including suggestions for definitions of additional Quaker-jargon words and expressions, is welcome by contacting Don at dnx6309@gmail.com.
AFSC Suggested Action on Immigration Reform
and weekly video
 
Each week for the next several weeks, the E-News will post a link to a short video recommended by  AFSC on immigration.
Here is this week's video:

Inside America's $2bn immigrant detention industry
- BBC News
Click here to access this video on youtube
 
Several additional AFSC-suggested youtube videos on immigration (including last week's) are available here
Movie Recommendation from Karen Steen

"INHABIT: a permaculture perspective"
3.5 minute trailer – https://vimeo.com/119915612

Also, click here for more on the movie/movement

Announcements from the Wider Community

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Monday, August 24th at 6pm

Just Transitions: Voices from the Frontlines of Climate Change

Bellingham Public Market (1530 Cornwall Ave, Bellingham)

On August 24, RE Sources, Community to Community Development, and Familias Unidas por la Justica will be hosting an assembly at Terra Organica to center voices at the frontlines of climate change and explore the intersections between economic justice for farmworkers, climate change, and water quality.  Please join us to hear from farmworkers working for liberation from the injustices of industrialized agriculture. You'll also learn how supporting justice for those who suffer the immediate impacts of pesticides, fertilizers, and climate change will help deliver on a fairer and more sustainable future. Read and learn about the Principles for Climate Justice at www.re-sources.org/ppc/climatejustice


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Totem Pole Blessing Ceremony at Lummi Nation

Saturday, August 22nd - 5:30 pm
Lummi Tribal Center, 2665 Kwina Road

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Whatcom Museum
HELMI'S WORLD: SYMBOL, MYTH, FANTASY
June 27 - October 11, 2015, Lightcatcher Building


Helmi’s World presents 65 artworks—paintings, drawings, prints and ceramics—drawn from the Whatcom Museum’s collection of her work, which numbers 250 objects. Some of her finest pieces are highlighted, including paintings of petroglyphs from Central Washington, watercolors of Lummi masked dancers, and linocut prints based on the Makah Wolf Dance experienced at Neah Bay. The exhibition suggests the complexity of Helmi’s vision by displaying some of her most unusual artworks, where images and symbols from a variety of cultures converge. The influences of Mark Tobey, Pablo Picasso, Scandinavian Folk Art, and Judeo-Christian and Buddhist iconography are also explored
 

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August 29th 

Lummi Youth Academy Benefit Dinner and Variety Show

Lummi Gateway Center: 4920 Rural Ave., Ferndale (I-5 Slater Rd Exit)
 
Bar-B-Q Salmon Dinner (Lummi Style), Mallards Ice Cream
$35 per dinner:
Reception 6:00, Dinner 6:30

Tickets at Brown Paper Tickets or call Lummi Youth Academy
360-738-4218

Brought to you by Setting Sun Productions
Singing, Comedy, Skits, Poetry, Drumming, Silent Auction
 
This is a boxed text block. You can use it to draw attention to important content
Update on work of the Ad Hoc Meetinghouse Committee
At Meeting for Worship for Business on July 12, the Meeting set out several benchmarks related to the possible purchase of a meetinghouse. One was that the purchase price be less than $595,000. A second was that the meeting could proceed to make a non-binding offer to purchase a building at 1430 N. Garden St provided the contingent contract allowed at least 120 days for discernment and study. The third was that Allen Stockbridge was “appointed” to represent the meeting in the transactions and a committee was set up to work with Allen.
Since that date a committee consisting of Larry Thompson, Allen Stockbridge, Sharon Trent, Dorothy de Fremery, Susan Richardson and Joanne Cowan was set up and has met twice. This ad hoc committee has identified a multitude of questions and issues for further study and has divided this work up among the members. 
 
On July 24, our contingent offer was accepted. This gives us 120 days to discern whether this purchase is both feasible and desirable for our Meeting. It is important to stress that no irrevocable decisions have been made.Your ad hoc Committee is taking its job very seriously and recognizes the huge importance of this matter in the future of the Meeting.
We have decided to set in motion a number of communications opportunities that hopefully will allow all Meeting Members and attenders to make their own discernment of the right course of action on this matter.  One part of these communications is the Post-It Board, kept up by Dorothy, which you will see at most Meetings for Worship. Additionally, the Committee will host a number of special meetings to allow members to dialogue and seek clarity. In the meantime, feel free to work with Allen, Larry, or any Ad Hoc Committee member as you build your own clearness on the Meetinghouse matter.
Bellingham Friends Meeting Annual Retreat 2015

September 12 - Sept 13

Registration Deadline = Sept 4th
The 2015 BFM Annual Retreat will take place at Camp Lutherwood, on Lake Samish just south of Bellingham, beginning about 2 pm on Saturday, September 12th and ending about the same time on Sunday, September 13th.  Most, if not all, of us will be staying overnight in one of two modern lodges with beautiful lake views and cozy kitchens/small meeting areas.  Camping space is also available.   
 
This year’s annual retreat includes time for several simultaneous interest groups from 7:30 to 8:30 pm on Saturday evening.
 
Indoor sleeping accommodations for the retreat will mostly be church-camp-style bunks (bring your own sleeping bag and pillow) in one of two lodges with beautiful lake views.  Tenting sites are also available, plus two small cabins with overflow indoor bunks, if needed.  The retreat will include a potluck supper on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday, plus meeting for worship at 10:30 am on Sunday.  Other activities will include a plenary session with keynote speaker Christine Hall, worship-sharing, interest groups, sacred circle dancing, meditative walking, and spiritual collage-making, with an overall retreat theme of “Spiritual Deepening”.
 
NOTE:  LINKS REALLY WORK THIS TIME!
To read and/or print the tentative retreat schedule, click here.
To download the registration form (deadline is September 4th), click here.   (Note that you may need to save this one to your computer in order to read it.)
Request for Proposals
for
Interest Groups at 2015 BFM Retreat
 
The Retreat Planning Committee (Mary Ann Percy, Carole Teshima, Wendy Goldstein, Mark Hersh, and Don Goldstein) invites Friends to develop short proposals (1-2 paragraphs) for interest groups that somehow connect with our overall retreat theme of “Spiritual Deepening” and submit them to the committee not later than August 15th.  Depending on the number and nature of the submissions, we expect to select between 3 and 6 proposals for inclusion in the retreat, and will announce the list of interest groups selected by about September 5th.  The assumption is that you are willing to facilitate any interest group that you propose.

Interest group activities could be either individual (e.g., sharing a poem to express your experience of spiritual growth) or something requiring a group process (e.g., improvisation exercises).  Your proposal should include a sentence or two explaining how your activity or subject matter relates--for you--to Spiritual Deepening.

Send proposals by email to committee clerk Don Goldstein or deliver them in hard copy to any committee member. 
Questions?
Contact committee clerk Don Goldstein at dnx6309@gmail.com
or 671-1395.
General Information:

Ways to connect with Friends:   click on the links below for

  1. Bellingham Friends Facebook Page 
  2. Bellingham Friends Meeting website
  3. Bellingham Friends listserve
  • Please contact Allen Stockbridge by email cleanairguy@gmail.com if you have any trouble connecting to either the Facebook account or to the Yahoo group.
  • See the October 2014 Metamorphosis for more information.

Bringing snack? You may make this a contribution to Meeting, or, if you would like to be reimbursed, please write your name and "please reimburse" on your receipt/s and put in the Donations box. Thank you! 

Posting items  to the website calendar? Contact Virginia Herrick (vherrick@q.com) if you need help