Calendar

Each Sunday 9:50 a.m.: Hymn Singing

Each Sunday 10:30 a.m.: Worship and First-Day School

Every Wednesday 7:30 p.m.: Bible Discussion.

Every Wednesday 5:00 p.m.: Courthouse Square – Peace Vigil

Every First Sunday ea. month: Discussion of query (see box at right)

Every Second Sunday following potluck lunch: Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Every Fourth Tuesday 7:00 p.m.: Meeting for worship and healing

Every Fourth Saturday 11:30 a.m.: Community Kitchen (see signup poster in lobby)

Every Fourth Sunday following Meeting for Worship: Legislative letter writing

February 26: Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination (ICON) Forum

Meeting Information

Clerk

Terry Reynolds 876-8666

Clerk of Ministry and Counsel

Michael Evans 331-1479

Monthly Meeting Website

www.bloomington.in.us/~quaker

Newsletter

Newsletter Committee: Steven Wennerberg (clerk), Dell Douglas, Wayne Marker, Wally Buck

To submit an item for the Newsletter, please contact Steve Wennerberg (angel42052 at aol.com)

DEADLINE: The Tuesday following the monthly meeting for business.

Kelly Carson
2611 E. 2nd St., #18
Bloomington IN 47401
Tel.: 812 687-0196
e-mail: kelcarson at sbcglobal.net

Ron Hugar
P.O. Box 1472
Nashville IN 47448
Tel.: 270 681-0196
e-mail: hugarr at mailcity.com

Jeff Cummings
9704 Lasuer Road
Poland, IN 47868
Tel.: 765 795-2916
e-mail: jcummings at ccr+c.com

The Meeting library will hold a sale of withdrawn and donated books, magazines, pamphlets, and media items on March 19 and March 26, 2006. Please bring anything appropriate for the sale starting February 26; these need not be strictly Quaker items. Proceeds will supplement our funds for new purchases. Please label bags or boxes and place them in the coatroom, out of the way if possible. For information, contact Joyce Adams (331-9987; joycepax at bloomington.in.us), David Gay, Betsy Caulfield, Lary Smith, or Katy O'Bryan.

Quaker Affiliations, Groups & Gatherings Committee announces a forum on Pendle Hill, the Quaker study and retreat center in Wallingford, PA. The forum will be held during the second-hour session on 04/23/06. Bloomington Friends who have visited or resided at Pendle Hill are asked to contact Rex Sprouse (rsprouse at indiana.edu, 272-3332) to facilitate planning. All are welcome to attend.

Twenty-five bios that Bill Shetter published regularly in the Meeting Newsletter in the '90s are now available in a blue binder, to be found in the library among the oversize books. Let's go read them and learn more about each other!

04/15/06: Whitewater Quarterly Meeting, Bloomington Friends Meeting, 10am to 3:30pm

07/01/06 to 07/07/06: Friends General Conference Annual Gathering, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA. Theme: Swimming in Living Waters. Visit: http://www.fgcquaker.org/gathering.

07/26/06 to 07/30/06: Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting, Earlham College, Richmond, IN. Theme: Seeking an Earth Restored: The Spiritual Path of Stewardship.

The Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Discipline Revision Committee has prepared a first draft of a revised section on membership. The Committee is now soliciting comments and responses from Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Friends. Bloomington Friends have set aside two occasions for worshipful discussion: the second-hour session on 03/26/06 and Tuesday evening, 04/04/06 at 7:30pm. All are encouraged to attend and participate.

Bloomington Friends will hold a forum after the rise of meeting on 02/26/02, featuring Dan Funk, Executive Director of the Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination (ICON). Bloomington Friends Meeting is a congregational member of ICON, and Dan would like to become acquainted with us as a faith community. Please attend and learn what we can do to aid in ICON’s faith-based efforts to defeat the proposed amendment to the Indiana State Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.

Janice Clevenger is directing two upcoming plays at the Monroe County Civic Theater, Sleeping Beauty and, as a curtain-raiser, The Emperor’s Daughter. Dylan Evans will be appearing in The Emperor’s Daughter. The plays will be presented at 2:00 p.m. on Feb. 18, 19, 25, and 26 at the John Waldron Arts Center, and on March 4 at the new high school auditorium in Spencer. All are welcome.

Ministry and Counsel - Monthly Meeting Membership Procedures (Revised February, 2006)

Those desiring to become members of the Bloomington Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends should submit a letter to the Clerk of the Committee on Ministry and Counsel.

The Ministry and Counsel Committee reads the letter and discusses the applicant’s relationship to the Meeting. If the Committee finds that the application is inadvisable, the members talk with the applicant and plan future steps to resolve any concerns. Otherwise, the Committee creates a Clearness Committee to consider the application further.

The Clearness Committee should have three or four members, all of whom must be members of the Bloomington Monthly Meeting; at least two of them must be members of Ministry and Counsel. The other members may be chosen in consultation with the applicant. Typically, one of the Ministry and Counsel members on the Clearness Committee will serve as the convener.

The Clearness Committee gives the applicant a copy of the Meeting’s “Queries for Applicants for Membership” and the Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Book of Discipline. After the applicant has had a chance to read and consider these materials, the Clearness Committee meets with the applicant as often as necessary to arrive at a full mutual understanding of the wisdom of the application.

If the Clearness Committee finds that concerns hamper the application, the Clearness Committee is encouraged to work with the applicant to address those concerns. If concerns remain and the applicant reconsiders the application, the Clearness Committee is encouraged to remain in contact with the applicant and to encourage him or her to reapply when appropriate.

Once the Clearness Committee discerns that the application should go forward, the convener reports back to Ministry and Counsel. If Ministry and Counsel concurs, the clerk of Ministry and Counsel reports to the Monthly Meeting with a recommendation to approve the application for membership. Members and attenders of the Meeting are encouraged to get to know the applicant better in the coming weeks.

At the following Monthly Meeting, the application is discussed. If the Monthly Meeting raises serious and unaddressed concerns, the application is referred back to Ministry and Counsel for further discernment. If the Monthly Meeting approves the application, the applicant’s membership is recorded and the Monthly Meeting appoints two or more Friends as a Welcoming Committee.

1. Opening worship. Whitewater Quarterly Meeting Friends gathered in a regular meeting for worship with attention to business on First Month 21, 2006, at 11:35am, at Somerset Community Center in Somerset, IN.

3. Roll Call of Monthly Meeting representatives. The following Friends identified themselves as meeting representatives:

4. Review of Minutes of Tenth Month 15, 2005. A draft of Minutes from Tenth Month 15, 2005 was read aloud and corrected. Friends then approved the corrected Minutes.

5. Friends World Committee for Consultation request. Susan Lee Barton brought forward two requests for Friends:

1. Friends World Committee for Consultation requests a representative from each monthly meeting to be responsible for receiving the electronic newsletter and disbursing its information to their monthly meetings.

2. Quaker Youth Pilgrimage is coming to our area. They are still looking for leaders, hosts, and teenage participants. The deadline for application is Second Month 20, 2006. Friends World Committee for Consultation is requesting nominations for these participants and help in supplying items and sharing talents in order to make them feel welcome. Susan Lee answered several Friends’ questions.

6. Nominating Committee report. Susan Lee Barton presented the report, the full text of which is attached to these minutes. On behalf of Nominating Committee, Susan Lee brought forward the name of Karen Atcheson to serve as Recording Clerk for a term to begin immediately upon approval and to end at the end of Whitewater Quarterly Meeting business meeting on Fourth Month 15, 2006. Friends approved.

After an extended and prayerful discussion of the queries raised in the report, Friends agreed that the Clerk should direct the queries to the clerks of each constituent monthly meeting within a week’s time. It was agreed that all Friends (especially Monthly Meeting Representatives) should encourage discussion of these queries in their respective monthly meetings and encourage attendance at the Fourth Month, 2006 Quarterly Meeting, where the afternoon will be devoted their further consideration.

With regard to the Treasurer, we will function with an interim Treasurer until Quarterly Meeting in Fourth Month, 2006. Stan Zarowin will be that person, with North Meadow holding the funds in trust.

Stan Zarowin requested that Friends become volunteer prison facilitators through the Alternatives to Violence Project.

Both Indiana Friends Committee on Legislation and Friends Committee on National Legislation seek monthly meeting representatives.

Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting will sponsor an adult work camp on the weekend of Fourth Month 29-30, 2006 at the Lauramoore Home in Richmond, IN

Traveling Friend Mariah Miller would like correspondence. Please contact Susan Lee for her contact information.

8. Closing worship. Friends closed with a period of silent worship at 1:35pm, to meet again as way opens on Fourth Month 15, 2006, at Bloomington Friends Meetinghouse.

There are two positions open: Recording Clerk and Treasurer. We would like to nominate Karen Atcheson of Lafayette Monthly Meeting to serve as our recording clerk through April, 2006.

Paul Kriese resigned as our treasurer effective today. He has closed the account and turned over the financial records and check to the clerk.

1) Do we need a treasury? If so, why? We need to be clear about why we have the money, what we want to use it for, and how we want it to be managed.

2) If we have a treasury, do we need a treasurer? If so, we need a very specific job description and form for reports. Another possibility is having a monthly meeting take on the responsibility of managing the quarterly meeting account (currently involving 1-3 transactions per year). Would monthly meetings consider adding this to their treasurer’s responsibilities?

3) We have done the best we can with what we have to work with. As reported at the October quarterly meeting, we have considered all names who came to light and struggle to bring any names forward. It is not for lack of motivation or trying or concern or care for the yearly meeting. Many Friends feel unable to serve Whitewater Quarterly Meeting. We now need the quarterly meeting to help us with discernment, and to step forward with a plan.

4) One problem facing our quarterly meeting and our officers is that different Friends come to each quarterly meeting. Decisions are made, then unmade with a new group. Information is repeated and different Friends ask for different information. The quarterly meeting has requested representatives to be appointed by each monthy meeting, but most meetings have not done this, and some meetings appoint someone different each time. Are we able to do the work we feel called to do with changing faces?

5) What is the work which we are called to do as a quarterly meeting? The nominating committee believes that the matter at hand is not continuously trying to fill open spots, but the spiritual condition of the quarterly meeting and the monthly meetings which form Whitewater Quarterly Meeting.

How is God calling us to work together? How can we strengthen our community? How do we best support those serving us in particular roles? How do we make our quarterly meeting a spiritual piece of work? How committed are each of us to this work (as individuals and as monthly meetings)?

6) Are we draining resources from the monthly meetings to keep the quarterly meeting going? Finding Friends to serve beyond the monthly meeting is not draining to the local community if the wider organizations nourish the monthly meeting and those Friends bring back energy and ideas. This seems to be the case with the yearly meeting, but some Friends seem to feel that the quarterly meeting is simply one more thing added to a long list of responsibilities, and not something which feeds the spirit of the monthly meetings.

7) Until we reach clarity about our quarterly meeting, the treasury will remain unused until we decide what to do with it.

1. Opening worship. Bloomington Friends gathered in expectant silent for a regular meeting for worship with attention to business on Second Month 12, 2006, at 12:30pm.

3. Maintenance Committee report. Julie Chapin presented the report. Almost all of the work scheduled for the Fireplace Room had been completed, and the space was essentially ready for the Archivist to move in. Precise plans for lighting and painting in the Gathering Room were yet to be discerned. It was reported that a group of Friends had agreed to serve as an ad hoc committee concerned with improvements to the path to the Burial Ground. Friends approved the scheduling of spring work day at the Meetinghouse for Seventh Day, Fifth Month 13, 2006.

4. Peace and Social Concerns Committee report. John Daschke presented the report. Friends approved devoting the second-hour session on Third Month 19, 2006, to a forum to make priority recommendations for Friends Committee on National Legislation.

5. Quaker Affiliations, Groups & Gatherings report. Rex Sprouse presented the report. Rex made several announcements regarding upcoming events in the wider Quaker world. (See Newsletter for details.) Friends were reminded of a discussion of the first draft of the membership section for the revised Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Book of Discipline already scheduled for the second-hour session for Third Month 26, 2006. Friends approved the scheduling of a second discussion of this document for Third Day, Fourth Month 4, 2006, at 7:30pm at the Meetinghouse. It was reported that the next session of Whitewater Quarterly Meeting would be held at Bloomington Friends Meetinghouse on Seventh Day, Fourth Month 15, 2006. The Clerk read aloud a set of queries posed by the Nominating Committee of Whitewater Quarterly Meeting, which call for deep prayerful reflection and a spiritual re-grounding of the Quarterly Meeting as a faith community. (See Newsletter for minutes of Whitewater Quarterly Meeting, First Month 15, 2006, including the Nominating Committee report.) Friends approved the use of these queries for the second-hour session on Third Month 5, 2006. Friends approved the scheduling of a forum on Pendle Hill for the second-hour session on Fourth Month 23, 2006.

6. Ministry and Counsel Committee report. Michael Evans presented the report. It was announced that the committee would be willing to facilitate the formation of a men’s worship sharing group. Those interested in such a group were invited to contact a member of Ministry and Counsel Committee. On behalf of Ministry and Counsel, Michael presented a revised set of procedures for application for membership in Bloomington Friends Meeting. The new procedures bring our procedures into line with the procedures in the Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Book of Discipline. The three primary changes are: (1) that Ministry and Counsel would appoint membership clearness committees, not monthly business meeting as a whole; (2) that monthly business meeting would become generally aware of an application only after the work of the membership clearness committee is completed and Ministry and Counsel Committee is ready to bring the name forward; and (3) that final action on the application would occur at the monthly business meeting following the one at which Ministry and Counsel Committee brings forward its recommendation. (See Newsletter for full text of the new procedures.) Friends approved adoption of the new set of procedures for a one-year trial period.

7. Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Teen service project at Pine Ridge Reservation. David Gay shared concerns about the upcoming Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting Teen service project at Pine Ridge Reservation, including the limited amount of direct contact and consultation with residents of Pine Ridge Reservation or with other Indian people in the planning stages and a potentially negative impression of the Religious Society of Friends that such a visit might make on the residents of Pine Ridge Reservation. Several Friends expressed additional concerns about the advisability of the service project. Specifically, Friends were concerned that there had been no direct indication that the residents of Pine Ridge Reservation seek and would welcome the help of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting teens. Friends asked the Clerk to contact Jim Coppock to seek further information.

8. Colorado Springs Monthly Meeting request. The Clerk shared a request from Colorado Springs Monthly Meeting for financial assistance for the building of a meetinghouse. Friends were uneasy with the request as stated and asked the Clerk to inquire after additional information.

Friends attending: Joyce Adams, Elizabeth Buck, Christine Carver, Betsy Caulfield, Julie Chapin, John Daschke, Michael Evans, Hans-Joachim Fliedner, David Gay, Tunia McClure, Terry Reynolds, William Shetter, Rex Sprouse, Peggy Squires.

RACHEL ERNST

Bloomington Friends Meeting is fortunate to be located in a small city with a university. After fall enrollment we often see new young faces in our midst. Some come to check us out, then leave after two or three visits in search of a better fit someplace else. Rachel Ernst was one of those who chose to stay with us. Three years ago, she began attending our Meeting

Rachel spent her younger years in Cincinnati. Her father is retired from a. position with the city utilities. Her mother is a reading specialist. Rachel's older sister by two years is afflicted with Asperger’s syndrome. Living with a sibling with a medical handicap has made Rachel acutely sensitive to those who find themselves out of the mainstream through no fault of their own. Her sister has fought her condition sufficiently to be able to function as an independent adult. Rachel also has a younger brother living in San Francisco.

Hanover was Rachel's choice after high school. Her preference at the time was toward a smaller college. As part of her degree in sociology she was able to spend a semester in Belgium. She treasured this experience, becoming fairly fluent in the language, which she acknowledged she has mostly forgotten.

Her greatest challenge that semester in living abroad was in discovering how other countries view the United States. She was surprised to find young college students abroad much more aware of U.S. politics than students in the U.S. She also discovered the Belgian students viewed the U. S. as a bully nation, an empire that was both admired for its power and hated for the arrogant practice of it.

She spent a year after graduating from Hanover in the AmeriCorps vocational program, where she counseled high school students regarding divisive cultural prejudices such as racism, sexism, and substance abuse. Before going on to graduate school, she worked in Cincinnati for a year as a peace educator with children through the non-profit Center for Peace Education.

Rachel spent time in Columbia with the Witness for Peace program sponsored by Presbyterians. In a recent forum she spoke to us of the challenges faced in altering U.S. policies which she felt were often unfair to both parties. She hopes to return to Columbia after taking some time off in May after getting her Master’s degree in sociology.

Rachel comes from a devout Catholic background. She chose to try our Meeting because it was something totally different. Those who have come to know her better are impressed by the restless adventure in her eyes, which appears not quite synchronized with her easy conversational manner.

I asked what she has gained from her years of sharing Sunday worship with us. She reflected for a moment, then answered, "I feel a greater sense of calm and am less easily frustrated in a world that seems more and more hurried." She also found the intergenerational exchange of ideas and the history of Friends to be a significant benefit.

When asked what some of the weaknesses of our Meeting might be, she suggested that we were probably too much alike. Not that there wasn't diversity, but that we are a minority of a minority, which tends to preclude an easy acceptance in some broader community participations.

Rachel’s activities in our Meeting include serving as clerk of the Welcoming Committee, forum leader, and Sunday school teacher. Our Meeting has been blessed by her active participation during her time with us. The Meeting wishes her well when she leaves us in June. We always are renewed by return visits from those who move on. We hope you won’t forget us, and come back any time you can.

Bloomington Monthly Meeting

Religious Society of Friends

P. O. Box 2303

Bloomington, IN 47402-2303