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Meeting Tasks for this Sunday:
Care of Meeting: Sharon T.
Key - Betty M.
Setup help - Wendy B.
Greeter - Don G.
Snack - .Everyone! - finger food potluck
Kitchen - Don R,
Kitchen help - Wendy C,
Children's Teacher - Mark H. and Virginia (Ginny) H.
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Bellingham Friends Calendar of Events
Wed., April 1, (Tonight) 7-9 PM
Midweek Worship
at
Mary Ann Percy's home
(1 hr worship + worship sharing and/or check-ins).
Friends gather for midweek worship on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays each month.
Future dates will be on April 15, 29 etc.
April 11
Wedding!
Wendy Beach and Don Goldstein
will be married under the care of the Meeting
See invitation below
May 19
Clerk's Supper
more information TBA
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Last Sunday's Second Hour
Unistoten Camp
oil and gas pipeline blockades in
Wetsuetin territory
For those who requested want information on the Unistoten Camp including videos, etc. Click here |
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for Kristen McLewin
Climb on Board!
Friend Kristin McLewin fell from her horse and was hospitalized the weekend of March 14 with four broken vertebrae! Not fun, folks! The good news is that she came home Tuesday, March 17 and her mom is here until April 5, helping out.
Kristin will need help with meals for several weeks. So jump on board the meal train and let's help out our Friend! Here is the link to a mealtrain for her. Please sign up if you can!
https://mealtrain.com/0znw43
For those of you who are a bit computer phobic - this is easier than you think! Just click the link and pick a date - scroll down a ways if there are no open dates showing on the screen.
MealTrain.com is a free meal calendar tool that makes planning meals among a wide group easy and less stressful.
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Announcements from Friends
Housing Request
Friend Tom Zylstra
Tom is coming from China to Bellingham in early April for some medical evaluation and treatment for an estimated 3 months. He needs a place (room, neither big nor modern). He can pay as much as $200 or $250 per month, and will also pay food costs, and will cook and help with chores.
He also hopes to buy a cheap but dependable car.
If anyone has or knows of a room and/or vehicle, please contact Tom at cntomclay@gmail.com.
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Wedding Invitation
Wendy Beach
and
Don Goldstein
are pleased to invite you to share
the celebration of their marriage on
Saturday, April 11, 2015 beginning at 1:00 pm at
the First Congregational Church of Bellingham,
2401 Cornwall Avenue, Bellingham, WA.
We are planning a Quaker wedding under the care of
Bellingham Friends Meeting, followed by a reception including
circle dancing, contra dancing, and a potluck buffet, for which we invite you to
bring food to share if convenient. Cake and drinks will be provided.
No gifts, please.
The festivities will last until about 4:30 pm.
Please R.S.V.P. to let us know how many will be in your party
by phoning us at 360-671-1395, or emailing Don at dnx6309@gmail.com.
We look forward to the pleasure of your company on this happy day.
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A message on mental health and Whatcom County Jails by Sheriff Bill Elfo.
Mental Illness, Addiction, and the Whatcom County Jail
Click here to read this statement
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From Ministry and Counsel:
Friends are asked to hold Jenny Davidow in the Light following the death of her cousin recently.
Maya Hatten-Beck is home! Please continue to hold Maya, John, Katy and Frieda Hatten-Beck in the Light as she continues her recovery.
Friends are asked to hold Kristen McLewin in the Light as she recovers at home after breaking four vertebrae (fortunately none affecting her spinal cord!) falling from her horse. Friends who can help by running errands or with other needs, please email Virginia at virginiafherrick@gmail.com and she will let you know when opportunities to help arise. Please sign in to the meal train (see announcement in box above) if you can.
***
*Ministry and Counsel asks the Meeting to hold Don Goldstein and Wendy Beach in the Light as they prepare for their April 11 wedding.
*******
To honor and nurture our precious silent worship together, please plan to arrive before 10 a.m. on Sunday mornings. Please enter the hallway outside the worship room quietly, as voices carry. Please silence cellphones and arrange belongings before entering, and keep comings and goings during worship to a minimum.
Thank you.
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Looking ahead to wider Quaker gatherings:
PNQM Spring Quarterly Meeting – April 24-26, Ellensburg, WA: Theme: Lift Every Voice – Music & Spirituality
Friends General Conference (FGC) Gathering of Friends – July 5-11, Western Carolina Univ., NC
North Pacific Yearly Meeting (NPYM) Annual Session - July 15-19, Whitworth Univ., Spokane
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) Fall Steering Committee Meeting:October 22 - 25 at Ben Lomond Quaker Center near Santa Cruz, CA
Bellingham Friends are reminded to contact Ministry and Counsel for assistance reaching clearness about attending, and/or availability of financial assistance for attending any Quaker event.
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Call to Action!
WA State Budget Priorities
and Progressive Taxes
Contact your Representatives and urge them to support the House Budget Proposal
Leaders in the state House last week released a budget proposal that charts a progressive course for Washington. Their budget meets our constitutional responsibility to fund education, protects essential services, and finally implements a progressive tax on the wealthiest Washingtonians.
The proposal includes:
- a capital gains tax on anything over $25,000 per individual per year,
- repeal of some business exemptions
There are many positive environmental provisions including:
- funding for oil spill response plans and equipment (both rail and vessel)
- fish and forest management, the
- voluntary stewardship program to meet county critical area ordinances, and
- State Parks funding, to name just a few.
The Senate version does not include any new taxes, but simply shifts funds for other programs to education. It would maintain Washington's status as the state with the most regressive tax structure in the nation. A compromise between the two versions will be devised.
If you support progressive taxation, funding for education and social services, then
Contact your Representatives and urge them to support the House Budget Proposal
Two more ideas:
Sign on to the petition circulated by Washington United for Fair Revenue.
Listen to the "Where's the Dough? On the Hunt for Washington's Tax Dollars" on public radio station KPLU 88.5. You can hear or read the series by clicking here.
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Celebrate Nature!
SKAGIT VALLEY TULIP FESTIVAL:
The flower-focused Skagit Valley Tulip Festival takes place throughout the month of April at a variety of venues from Mount Vernon to Edison to La Conner, Anacortes, and beyond. In addition to being able to explore fields of budding daffodils and tulips, there'll be a street fair, arts events, a kids garage sale, a boat show, a tulip run and tulip pedal, live music, a quilt walk, a wine festival, roller derby, book sales, a parade and much more. Head to the website to check out the full roster
http://www.tulipfestival.org
If you would like to organize a Quaker carpool to an outdoor event, (Meeting for Worship with Attention to Nature) just send a message to the editor !
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Upcoming Second Hours
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April 12 - MfWfB
April 19 – QEI – Friends History (Allen Stockbridge)
April 26 – Quarterly Meeting
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The Retreat Planning group needs your help to select the best date for our retreat by filling out this doodle.
(In case you missed MfWfB - The venue had to be moved from Quaker Cove to Camp Lutherwood because of difficulty with accommodations, and the date needs to be reset.)
If you have not completed a "doodle" before,
FEAR NOT!
Just follow the steps below, and may the Force be with you.
First: Have your calendar handy.
Second: Click the link above or cut and past this address in your browser: http://doodle.com/e6gxkesthty2mygt
Third: Enter your name in a box to the left .
Forth: Put a check mark in the box under each date you think you would be available. (This is NOT a commitment - it is just a poll)
(If you could not possibly come on any of the dates listed, click they box that says "no options work for me".)
Fifth: click "save"
Congratulations! You are now
Doodle proficient!
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Spring Quarterly Meeting
April 24 - 26
Registration for the Spring 2015 session of Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting (PNQM) is now open.
The location is Lazy F Camp and Retreat Center near Ellensburg.
The theme is:
“Lift every voice: Music and spirituality”.
To register online, go to pnqm.org and click on the “Register now” link near the top of the page. You can download the registration information packet in PDF format, and also a separate document containing the registration forms, in either Word or PDF format, in case you choose to mail in (postally or electronically) your completed registration form.
PNQM has a “pay what you can” policy. The information packet includes a page listing suggested fees (the average amounts the Quarterly Meeting needs to receive in order to cover expenses). You can also receive a further discount by registering early, by March 25. The final registration deadline is April 12, after which there is a late registration fee and neither accommodations on site (other than camping space) nor availability of the children’s program for your children can be guaranteed.
If for some reason you need a printed registration packet, there will be a few available at Meeting beginning March 15th.
--Don Goldstein, BFM’s liaison with PNQM
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Query of the Month
"Live adventurously. When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts in the service of God and the community? Let your life speak. When decisions have to be made, are you ready to join with others in seeking clearness, asking for God’s guidance and offering counsel to one another?
Advices and Queries. - #27 in the Little Red Book
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William Penn Quaker Workcamps
Summer 2015
There may be snow on the ground, but Spring is on our minds and in the air. As you turn your own thoughts to warmer days, consider joining William Penn Quaker Workcamps for one of our exciting, fulfilling and meaningful programs in either Washington, DC or Pine Ridge, SD. Both of these share the spirit of building bridges while deepening our own faith and practice in peace and justice work. Some of the people you will meet are also in our "40 Days with Peacemakers" series.
From June 28 to July 5,
"Community Gardens/Community Health"
will be taking place in DC. This Workcamp will be an exploration of the community around the Capitol at the peak of July 4 celebrations. Connecting myth with reality, we will be engaging in a range of activities that expose participants to the vibrant yet underserved and often-invisible parts of DC, while also partaking in celebrations and festivities. Many of the projects will have a focus on community gardens and clean watersheds.
From July 15 to July 29,
Pine Ridge
We will be returning to Pine Ridge, SD to continue our partnership, friendship and service in this beautiful but challenged region. As in past years, we will spend time building for a sustainable future while honoring sacred traditions. Along the way, we learn more about the history - much of what is untold or rewritten - as well as the day-to-day experiences of people on "the Rez." This is our effort to carry on William Penn's commitment to create the Peaceable Kingdom. What better place to start than where many of the struggles for rights and honoring of treaties continue to play out.
These are both great opportunities for fellowship, for learning and to further our own practicing of what we preach. They are inter-generational programs. All are welcome. See here for more information about the details.
The William Penn House
515 E. Capitol St. SE
Washington, District of Columbia 20003
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Metamorphosis
(Each month’s Metamorphosis is available on our website (www.bellinghamfriends.org ) the Wednesday following Meeting for Business. A few of the many offerings in the current issue are:
March - in your mail box now!
- Interfaith Hope Auction and a leading of Sharon Trent
- AFSC article : Nine Ways to Connect our Meeting to the Work of American Friends Service Committee: Some GREAT suggestions here - in case you are pondering YOUR next leading. .....(Personal note: Your E-News editor is especially intrigued by the Art exhibit "39 Questions for White People")
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Announcements from the Wider Community
Thursday, April 2
Town Hall Meeting with Rick Larsen
Rick Larsen says: Hearing directly from you about your questions and concerns is important to me. I look forward to talking with you, and please pass along this invitation to others in the Second Congressional District who may be interested in attending.
Bellingham - Thursday, April 2
6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Western Washington University
Academic Instruction Center Building
Lecture Hall 210
516 High Street
Campus Map
FIRST FRIDAY WITH SWIL KANIM
Friday April 3, 7:00 p.m. FREE
Lummi Gateway Center: 4920 Rural Rd, Ferndale (exit 260, Slater Rd)
Celebrating Poetry Month: Bring your favorite poem or lyric!
5:30 pm Dinner: Chowder and salad Bar
Clam Chowder and Fisherman’s Stew $6
Join Lummi tribal members, community members, young and old who make this a First Friday of every month a ritual.
BELLINGHAM FARMERS MARKET OPENING:
Saturday, April 4 10 AM
Bellingham's Farmer's Market features locally grown produce, cheeses, organic and local poultry and meats, crafts, ready-to-eat foods, buskers, cooking demonstrations, and so much more!
The mayor will toss the traditional cabbage to open the 23rd season of the Bellingham Farmers Market at 10am, April 4 - at the Depot Market Square, 1100 Railroad Ave.
World Issues Forum
Coordinator: Shirley Osterhaus
April 8
“The Politics of Immigration in the Age of Mass Incarceration”
Silky Shah, Co-Director of
Detention Watch Network
April 8, noon-1:20 Haggard Hall 253
In recent years immigrants have become the fastest growing population behind bars. Since the 1990s immigration policy has become increasingly linked to the growth of mass incarceration, private prisons, and police and border militarization. ... The presentation will give an overview of the immigration detention system, current policies and practices put forth by the administration and Congress, and the movement to resist the mass incarceration and deportation of immigrants.
For more information click here
April 18
Saturday, 6 - 8 pm
Whatcom Museum - Old City Hall - Rotunda Room
Art depicting Suffragists and the Women's Movement
Free and light refreshments will e served. Click here for more information
Friday Peace Vigil
When
Every Fri, 3:45pm – 4:45pm
Where
104 W Magnolia St, Bellingham, WA 98225, USA ()
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.
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