N ewsletter - Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious

Quaker
N e w s l e t t e r
WEEKLY MEETINGS
1 pm
Every Sunday
9:30 am
Meeting for Worship, Meeting
Room
February 2015
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE FIFTEENTH STREET MONTHLY MEETING OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
Meeting for Worship with a
Concern for Business, Meeting
Room. All welcome.
2nd Mondays
10:30 am Social Hour, Common Room
6:00 pm Women’s Worship Sharing Group
Room 3. Pot luck 6:30-7 pm and
worship sharing 7:00 – 8:00 pm.
11 am
Meeting for Worship, Meeting
Room
and First Day School
See Greeting Committee for
classroom location.
2nd & 4th Mondays (New in 2015)
Social Hour, Common Room
7–8 pm
12 noon
7-8:30 pm Meeting for Healing Prayer,
Room 1 or as shown on board.
2nd Wednesdays
Every night of the year
6 pm
Friends Shelter, Common Room.
To volunteer or for more
information,
call 212 673 8316,
www.friendsshelter.org
One in Christ Worship Group
Meeting Room.Contact Eliezer
Simeon Hyman, or Brian Doherty at
brianj.doherty@verizon.net
3rd Sundays
1 pm
Ministry and Worship Third
Sunday Program, Meeting Room.
Programs under the care of Ministry
and Worship
MONTHLY MEETINGS
Rotating Schedule
1st, 3rd & 5th Sundays
12:15 pm Outreach to Young Adult Friends.
9:30 am
Manhattan Monthly Meeting,
Room 1
Programmed Meeting for Worship
1st Sundays
1-2 pm
Silent Vigil for Peace, Washington
Square Arch at Fifth Avenue
2nd Sundays
9:30 am
Manhattan Monthly Meeting
Bible Study, Room 1
11 am
Bible Discussion Group, Upstairs
Lounge
Everyone welcome; no preparation
needed. For more information:
sabjonze@yahoo.com
COMMITTEE MEETINGS
2nd Wednesday 6:30 pm
Arts Committee Committee Room. All are
welcome. For info, contact Ricardo SmithHoffman (smithhoffmanr@gmail.com).
3rd Sunday 9:30 am
Peace and Social Justice Committee All are
welcome.
4th Sunday 12:30 pm
Religious Education Committee in Room 3.
Childcare provided. Potluck lunch appreciated.
For info, contact Ann Kjellberg
(kjellzer@pipeline.com).
Page 2
February 2015
IMPORTANT DATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Birth Announcement
On December 15, 2014 Willamina Margaret Rose (Willa) Dunn was born to member Loren Dunn and Jenny
Strassburg Dunn. Welcome to the world, Willa!
Death Announcement
Member Louise Wolf, age 90, passed away on January 4, 2015.
March 22, 1:30
New Plays
th
The 15 Street Meeting Arts Committee is planning a series of readings of new plays by members of our
community at the Meeting House, 15 Rutherford Place. If you are interested in reading, please meet us at
th
1:30 after meeting so we can hear you. We will follow up with a rehearsal on March 29 .
April 5, 1:30
A Performance of Four Plays
th
The 15 Street Meeting Arts Committee will perform four Charles Sirey plays at the Meeting House, 15
Rutherford Place at 1:30. Please come. All are welcome.
Connectivity & Information
The Quaker Cloud
Please visit https://www.quakercloud.org/cloud/fifteenth-street-friends-meeting to access the Quaker Cloud.
Quaker Religious Thought
All back issues of QRT are now available online, thanks to the collaboration of QRT editor Howard R. Macy and the
staff of George Fox University Libraries. They're available at
http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/qrt
15th St Monthly Meeting Google Group E-mail
If you are not getting e-mail via the 15th St MM Google Group and you would like to, please do the following:
To post to the group, send a request to 15thstreetfriends@googlegroups.com
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/15thstreetfriends
th
15 Street Young Adult Friends Google Group
Those between the ages of 18 and 40 (or thereabouts) are encouraged to join the 15thStYAF google group. Apply to
join the group at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/15thstyaf or go to groups.google.com and search for
15thStYAF. Young Friends can email announcements and invitations to the group.
th
15 Street Arts Committee
http://quakerarts.blogspot.com/
Page 3
February 2015
HOSPITALITY
Charles Sirey
1. If you have a problem with the date, call or email me ASAP and give me a different one.
I would like to know quickly that the date is tentatively OK.
2. If you want to volunteer, would like to serve with your significant other or just have some
questions, I'm at (212) 665-6390 or chass435@gmail.com.
3. For recent changes, check the bulletin board or check with me.
February
2/1 Jackie Knoch Shitemi & Ricardo Smith Hoffman
2/8 Antonia & Ben Smith
2/15 Pat Donohue & Jonathon Staiger
2/22 Loren Dunn & Joanne Schultz
March
3/01 Margery Cornwell & Ian Hansen
3/08 Margaret Lew & Glenn Josey
3/15 Michael Schlegel & Leslie Anne Weishaar
3/22 Jimmy Gowans & Carol Summar
3/29 Julie Finch & Tony Shitemi
By the time you see this, changes may have been made.
The bulletin board is likely to be more up to date, or check with me.
Chas.
Page 4
February 2015
FIFTEENTH STREET MONTHLY MEETING
RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
15 Rutherford Place, New York, NY 10003
Telephone (212) 475-0466
fifteenthstreetny@yahoo.com
http://fifteenth.quaker.org/
MEETING FOR WORSHIP WITH A CONCERN FOR BUSINESS
January 11, 2015 at 1:00 pm
At the Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, held in the Room One at
15 Rutherford Place, Manhattan, New York City, First Day, First Month 11, 2015 at 1:00 p.m.
2015.1.1 The Recording Clerk reads the 12th Advice and 2 nd Query from NYYM Faith & Practice.
Friends consider them in waiting worship with vocal ministry.
12th Advice: The attention of Friends is called to the propriety of conducting funerals and
memorial meetings in a sincere spirit of worship. They are advised to avoid the display of
floral decorations and the wearing of mourning and to adhere to our simple ceremony.
2nd Query: Do we make opportunity in our daily lives for communion with God and the opening of
our hearts to an awareness of the Christ Within? Are we thankful for each day as an opportunity for
a new adventure of life with God?
2015.1.2 The Recording Clerk informs the meeting that Ian Hansen, the Clerk, will not be present
today, and asks that Emily Provance serve as Clerk for the day. The meeting approves, and Emily
takes a seat at the Clerks’ table.
2015.1.3 Friends receive the request of Maureen McGovern for transfer of her membership to
Brooklyn Monthly Meeting and forward the request to Pastoral Care.
2015.1.4 Pastoral Care recommends Glenn Josey for membership. Friends hear a reading of his
letter requesting membership. Friends approve his membership and instruct the Clerk to notify the
recorder, New York Quarterly Meeting and New York Yearly meeting. Carol Jackson, Linda Hill
Brainard, Margery Cornwell, Sisi Kamal, Alice Proskauer, Pat Donohue, Steve Monroe Smith, and
Janet Soderberg volunteer to organize a welcoming party for Glenn Josey and other new members.
2015.1.5 Nominating Committee presents the following second readings of nominations: Assistant
Clerk: Emily Provance 1st Term (2015); Religious Education Committee: Gloria Thompson 1st Term
(2017); Property Committee: Lorraine Kreahling 1st Term (2017); Historian: Steven Bhardwaj 1st Term
(2015); Library Committee: Claire Litherland 1st Term (2015); Peace and Social Justice Committee:
Alice Proskauer 1st Term (2015), Frederica Azania-Clare 1st Term (2015) and Glenn Josey 1st Term
(2015); Care Committee for Friends Seminary: Libby Johnson 4th Term (2015) and Margaret Lew 2nd
Term(2015); Greeting Committee: Suki Scott 1st Term (2015). Lorraine Kreahling’s nomination will be
held over for further discernment. Otherwise, Friends approve the appointments.
2015.1.6 Friends ask Pastoral Care to discern a way to address the concerns of the meeting as they
relate to the Property Committee.
2015.1.7 Pastoral Care presents a second reading of a nomination of Julie Finch for first term ending
in 2017 to the Nominating Committee. Friends approve the appointment.
Page 5
February 2015
2015.1.8 Nominating Committee presents the following first readings of nominations: Retreat
Committee: Jackie Knoch Shitemi 6th term (2015), Roxanne Wolanczyk 1st term (2015) and Keith
Westerfield 1st term (2015); Care Committee for Friends Seminary: Gloria Thompson 4th Term (2015).
Friends with thoughts or concerns about these nominations should speak to the committee.
2015.1.9 Friends hear the second draft of the State of the Meeting report, which is attached. Friends
approve the State of the Meeting with a few small changes. Arthur Berk stands aside. Friends ask
the Clerk to forward the State of the Meeting to the Clerk of Ministry Coordinating Committee of
NYYM.
2015.1.10 Friends hear the introduction to a Friend’s Sounding Epistle and letter. The Epistle and
letter are attached. Friends are encouraged to read the letter and epistle and to continue
discernment as it seems appropriate.
2015.1.11 Friends hear an update on Friends Seminary’s proposed construction and a minute from
the Trustees. More information will be presented at the next Meeting for Worship with a Concern for
Business.
12-14-07 (2) Trustees would value Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting's Discernment on the visual
impact of the physical expansion of Friends Seminary.
If there are any questions or concerns Friends may email project@FriendsSeminary.org.
2015.1.12 Friends hear a minute from Friends in Unity with Nature:
If we are to be at peace with our earth--with the land, the air, the water, the people, the
plants, and in this case the animals, we are opposed to the raising of animals on factory
farms, where they are treated most cruelly. In our daily lives, we aspire to eat with
compassion and therefore, our food choices need to be thoughtfully considered.
Friends approve the minute with Arthur Berk and John Edminster standing aside.
Additional information from Friends in Unity with Nature
How food choices affect starvation around the world:
UNESCO reported that each day about 40,000 children die because of hunger or lack of
nutrition. Meanwhile, corn and wheat are largely grown to feed livestock (cows, pigs,
chickens, etc.) or to produce alcohol. Over 80 percent of corn and over 95 percent of oats
produced in the United States are for feeding livestock. The world’s cattle alone consume a
quantity of food equivalent to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, more than the entire
human population on earth.
How food choices affect climate change:
40% of the world’s landmass is used for the raising of animals for meat, and 18% of the world’s
greenhouse gases comes from the raising of animals, which is higher than what comes from
driving cars.
2015.1.13 Then, at 3:58 p.m., Friends adjourned to meet on First Day (Sunday), Second Month
(February) 8, 2015 at 1:00 PM.
Page 6
February 2015
Attendees
Richard Accetta-Evans, Robert Baldridge, Arthur Berk, Steven Bhardwaj, Charles R Brainard, Linda
Hill Brainard, Scott Carlson, Margery Cornwell, Loren Dunn, Elizabeth Edminster, John Edminster,
Elizabeth Enloe, Julie M. Finch, David Garrity, Jimmy Gowens, Nancy Hadley-Jaffe, Maureen Healy,
Carol Jackson, Glenn Josey, Ann Kjellberg, Margaret Lew, Emily Provance, Amy Scarola, Steve
Monroe Smith, Diana Smith-Barker, Ricardo Smith-Hoffman, Janet Soderberg, Jonathan Staiger,
Diana Timmons, Carol Warner (30)
And,
Clara Diaz, Pat Donohue, Sisi Kamal, Lorraine Kreahling, Barbara Kuesell, Kevin Lovelady, Alice
Proskauer (7)
Total Attendance (including clerks): 37
Emily Provance, Clerk
Glenn Josey, Recording Clerk
Appendices
State of the Meeting
Sounding Epistle and Letter
Page 7
February 2015
Fifteenth Street Meeting
State of the Meeting Report 2014
Approved at Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, 1/10/15
Fifteenth Street meeting has been gaining vitality in recent years, and in 2014, with God’s guidance
and help, we find ourselves bearing new and more abundant fruit.
Several major events and activities have played important roles in this growth in the Spirit:
A freshly designed six-part Exploring Quakerism series this past spring has attracted new attenders
and stimulated discussions about fundamental aspects of Quakerism among both longtime
members and curious newcomers.
A long-overdue Fifteenth Street weekend retreat at Powell House offered varied opportunities for
Friends of all ages from both Fifteenth Street and Manhattan Meetings to spend time working,
playing, talking, and worshiping together. We came away from it a stronger community with a
renewed sense of ourselves individually and collectively. Fifteenth Street and Manhattan Friends
have also attended more regular Powell House workshops than in the recent past, and one of our
newer members has facilitated workshops there.
Our Men’s and Women’s Meetings continue to flourish; a substantial number of Fifteenth Street
men have been gathering for a meal and fellowship in one another’s homes monthly for many
years. Our monthly Women’s Meeting, held at Fifteenth Street, has been reborn in the last couple
of years after a hiatus.
Our annual rummage sale to fund participation in New York Yearly Meeting Summer Sessions at
Silver Bay, conducted jointly with Manhattan Meeting, is always a highlight of the year,
combining fundraising, cooking and eating, closet- and bookshelf-clearing, fellowship, and fun.
As always, the children of both meetings contributed a great deal to the event, including a fresh
lemonade booth. We raised enough money to help a number of Friends attend Silver Bay.
Fifteenth Street and Manhattan Meetings are increasingly working together both formally and
informally. We established the practice of quarterly intervisitation, when Fifteenth Street is
particularly invited to attend Manhattan’s 9:30 meeting and Manhattan Fifteenth Street’s 11:00
meeting. Members of the two communities visit informally as well. The two meetings’ children
work jointly on projects including fundraising, creating gift bags for our homeless shelter, and
learning about both Quakerism and global concerns. Both Fifteenth Street and Manhattan
Meetings are represented in the monthly meetings for healing prayer, which also draws interested
non-Quakers.
Our Ministry and Worship-sponsored Third Sundays have comprised both spiritually centered
programs, such as two focused on Friends and the Bible, and those addressing social action
issues. The latter included three focusing on prison concerns, including overcrowding, racial
disparities in sentencing, and the abusive practice of solitary confinement. We struggle to deal
with the systemic racism of which mass incarceration is one part, and our meeting’s experience
of and attitudes toward racial issues continue to evolve.
Members of our meeting work with Huntington House, a homeless shelter run by the Women’s
Prison Association (WPA) for formerly incarcerated women and their children. For Halloween, we
donated treats to make gift bags for the children of Huntington House residents. One Friend has
completed the clearance process and visits Sing Sing Prison; there is also interest in visiting people
detained on Rikers Island, but it would require authorization, which is difficult to obtain.
Page 8
February 2015
Our meetinghouse hosted Friends from around the state and the country for two large gatherings
this fall: the People’s Climate March on September 21 and NYYM Fall Sessions in November. Our
cohabitants of the Fifteenth Street building complex, Friends Seminary and New York Quarterly
and Yearly Meetings, generously shared space and expertise with us on both occasions. We are
grateful to Friends Seminary for providing food and kitchen space that made the logistics much
smoother, and we joyfully welcomed the opportunity to march together with many Friends
Seminary students and faculty. The NYYM and NYQM offices offered details on, and keys to,
various parts of the complex and advice on space use and security.
For the Climate March, we coordinated registration of hosts and guests in private homes and local
meetinghouses through the NYYM website. Fifteenth Street, Brooklyn, Flushing, and RahwayPlainfield opened our meetinghouses to sleepers, while many Friends in these and other meetings
offered space in their homes. Fifteenth Streeters met with NYQM and Friends Seminary staff to
arrange logistics and security; wrote and processed an online questionnaire for hosts and guests;
matched them; kept track of where and when to join the march; rounded up Quaker banners;
bought, inflated, and decorated balloons to help Quakers find each other; slept in the
meetinghouse from one to three nights; brought, prepared and served food; and locked and
opened a plethora of doors. That weekend we also offered hospitality and support to Friends from
Philadelphia YM for a protest action at PNC Bank and to New England YM for a gathering to
worship and to hear from Jay O’Hara, who had blocked delivery of a shipment of coal to a
Massachusetts power plant for six hours in a lobster boat. Many Fifteenth Streeters also joined the
March itself.
While Fall Sessions involved many more people in many more parts of the building, we were
blessed with the help of experienced administrators and old hands in NYYM and NYQM. We
enjoyed inventing the wheel for the Climate March, but were grateful not to have to do so again
for Sessions.
To us, this is much more than a “laundry list” or “My Summer Vacation” report. God has led us. Valued
new members of our community joined us via the Exploring Quakerism sessions and have already
served on several major committees. The workshops, discussions, hikes, conversations, games, and
chores at our Powell House retreat mixed us up into varied groupings of old and new F/friends, each
with its own aim and purpose. The rummage sale and other interactions with Manhattan Meeting
Friends have enriched our faith. The overuse and abuse of prisons have engaged Friends’ conscience
and compassion as we struggle to find answers and ways to help. The People’s Climate March drew
out a wide variety of gifts, knowledge, and open-heartedness from so many of us. Along with Fall
Sessions, it introduced us to new F/friends and them to us in a community of all ages. We have been
enlarged and leavened by these experiences.
Day-to-day, week-to-week service by committees and individuals, in combination with regular
waiting worship, continues to undergird our community life. Friends have visited one another in the
hospital; helped find housing and services for people with special needs; maintained our longstanding monthly peace vigil in Washington Square Park and our ongoing witness for Earthcare, prison
reform, and other concerns; and volunteered to keep our homeless shelter open every night. The
regular monthly Bible study continues to attract new participants as well as old hands. The monthly
Meeting for Healing Prayer has become more regular, includes people both inside and outside our
meeting, and is now expanding to twice a month. Our Meetings for Worship have welcomed many
visitors from around the world and around our own city. We rejoice in the variety of art exhibits,
performances, blog posts, articles, and publications of many community members. Our Pastoral Care
Committee and ARCH (Aging Resources, Consultation, and Help) volunteers are assisting members
with medical and other needs.
We are becoming a more hospitable community for all who come to us. Social hour conversations
seem more open and welcoming and Friends seem less likely to vanish into huddles with their best
Page 9
February 2015
friends and favorite committees. Much credit goes to the social hour hospitality system pioneered last
year, in which Friends take responsibility for hospitality on assigned dates. This has resulted in more
plentiful food than before with a higher proportion of home-cooked or carefully selected items.
Friends are more apt to linger, eat, start conversations, and get to know one another.
Our children often participate in social hour preparation and are more closely integrated into the life
of the meeting. Two elementary school children are members of our Greeting Committee. The
Climate March and NYYM Fall Sessions offered new opportunities for children to meet, work, play, and
lead with their Quaker peers.
We are both challenged and blessed as a large urban meeting that attracts people with diverse gifts
and needs, including those with psychological or neurological diagnoses. Not all are strangers: while
some draw on our patience, others bless us with gentle and loving souls; still others have come to
terms with and live gracefully with our condition, fully integrated into meeting life.
Some people, both inside and outside our meeting, have concluded from their observations that we
are stuck, have always been stuck, and probably always will be stuck. It is time to take a new look at
this view. Fresh water is stirring the pond. Fresh breezes are blowing.
Page 10
February 2015
Presentation Note for A Letter of Sounding to the Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious
Society of Friends (Quakers)-First Day, 01.11.2015:
Not that Quakers take oaths, but I had to solemnly affirm to the Clerks I would keep my presentation
under four Minutes. I cannot read the letter in that length of time so let me provide a prologue.
There are copies of the text here and I have send a digital copy to the Recording Clerk. Also I can
post it at the 15th Street Google Group and email to any one who asks me.
From the opening: “Two Months ago I informed the Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious
Society of Friends (Quakers) that I was embarking among Friends, Attenders and Committees to
sound the depths of issues and hopes in conversation and inquiry among us pertaining to matters of
temporal property, the Spirit and the Life of our Meeting… To date I have spoken to over 40 Friends
in conversations which have ranged in tenor from quiet prayer, gentle reflection and humor to
anger, recrimination and blame. Some amends have been made, forgiveness and mercy
extended.”
The chief surprise to me is there appears to be complete confusion at 15th Street as to what a
Monthly Meeting of The Religious Society of Friends IS.
Like most things spiritual, it is difficult to pin that “IS” down. I believe that's why scripture alludes to
the small units of the First Century Church as "The Body of Christ." Weird to modern ears, but it feels
true. Early Friends referred to the movement as "Primitive Christianity Revived."
But, with my 40-plus years of Silent Quaker Worship in community, I can take a fleeting stab at the
“IS:” in my experience the Monthly Meeting is a mystical Union. And in my heart, head and
emotions, this Union most resembles Marriage.
And like most things spiritual, it is much easier to describe what a Meeting for Worship it is not. Such
as a a student council, a college debating society or a democracy.
To continue the reference to 1 Corinthians 12:27, is if the members (just like the feet, head and
spleen) of our Quaker Meeting understood what they signed up for, perhaps there would be less
rancor. And maybe more hearts and hands.
All too rarely, we will hear a reference among us to "submission to the discipline of the Meeting." It is
a witness in which we seem to be sorely lacking. Sometimes we have to lay aside our individual will
and plans to be part of the community.
Taking part in the life of the Meeting rather than letting it drift by is uncomfortable. Every body
naturally wants to get along with each other. That keeps things easy. I fully take my responsibility in
the current state of affairs personally and with humility. I have veered from the Path as much as any
Friend present during my long association. Perhaps more so. And my part of error will not be easy to
repair. But when a Friend perceives Truth and does not speak it, it is time to hand in the Quaker
Card.
Steven Monroe Smith
Manhattan
<steviepesce@gmail.com>
646.409.8899
Page 11
February 2015
A Letter of Sounding to the Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers)-First Day, 01.11.2015
Two Months ago I informed the Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers) that I was embarking among Friends, Attenders and Committees to sound the depths of
issues and hopes in conversation and inquiry among us pertaining to matters of temporal property,
the Spirit and the Life of our Meeting.
The concept of Sounding is based on the ancient practice of testing the depth of navigable water
on a river by means of a lead weight and rope knotted to indicate fathoms. The “leadsman” reads
the depth and calls it to the hearing of all on- and off-board to assist the Pilot in safe passage. In
practice it involves deep listening, consideration and reflection with individuals participating during
a challenging change of direction. And to truly know who is “on what page.” To date I have
spoken to over 40 Friends in conversations which have ranged in tenor from quiet prayer, gentle
reflection and humor to anger, recrimination and blame. Some amends have been made,
forgiveness and mercy extended.
Due to emerging commitments, 2015 will be the last year for a while I will be able to dedicate as
fully as I have to the local Religious Society of Friends. In a sence this is my one years notice I won’t
be around here much. Having attended Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting for 28 years and being 19
years a Member, this oncoming separation had led me to some personal despair and concern
regarding the spiritual and emotional health of our Meeting. Just in time, to my relief on November
1st I attended a New York Yearly Meeting Workshop on Conflict Transformation in Monthly Meetings
at the Matinicock Monthly Meeting (Long Island Quarter). The day gave me new hope and energy
in that Quakers have invested significant time and effort in developing tools and techniques to
identify and heal conflicts among us which can lead to a more vibrant and vital witness at 15th
Street. My leading from Matinicock was to Sound our Meeting during what has been yet another
trying season.
The constant in discussion I have so far found among Friends is a great hunger for understanding,
tolerance and forgiveness. There is a gnawing feeling that there is more of substance that is not
being tapped in our journey together. There exists a deep yearning to have the rifts between us
healed. Among these are the intense focus on the temporal relations with Friends Seminary, the
astounding amount of committee and personal time spent on marginal and worldly concerns, the
condition and lack of outreach, the wholesale indifference to the changing nature of our
neighborhood, the lack of coherent spiritual support to individuals and the perceived aridness of
our spiritual atmosphere.
What has becomes radically apparent to many is 15th Street Monthly Meeting is not a thriving
spiritual community. Those who do not see this are in denial. The financial resources exist to make
the physical structure a striking and attractive space. An attender told me the scariest walk in his
spiritual journey so far was from Rutherford Place through the Courtyard to the Meetinghouse doors.
The place looks creepy.
The facilities and the money are in place to make the initial experience of walking through the door
less like entering a mausoleum. I repeat, to the eye of the seeker, the place looks creepy. The issue
that our local and Quarterly Meetings are “poor” is not true. Look at the balance sheets and ask
about the reserves. We have, what I will technically refer to a “oodles of cash.” The hording of
money cannot serve as an excuse of spiritual and temporal inertia.
What is missing in our ministry are the people, the energy, the will and the Spirit. We must deeply ask
ourselves why are we squandering this opportunity to spiritual witness? If you shall know a tree by its
fruits, what does that say about us? (Matthew 7:16-17). The fruit is not good, Friends.
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February 2015
Quaker practice may aspire to make our Meeting a reflection of the Light and “be not conformed
to this world.” (Romans 12:2) However it is in the World that we live, love and work. It is to this world
we are commanded to be a Light. (Matthew 5:14)
That our obsession with the temporal world commands our attention and diverts us from any primary
spiritual purpose is an issue of great concern before our Meeting. We are not exempt from the
institutional measure of organizational dynamics and that measure gives grave reason for concern.
To realize effectiveness in the real world demands focused attention and a realistic path toward
resolution in a timely fashion. Endless contemplation does not equal discernment.
Among many there is an overarching feeling that our Meeting spends inordinate amounts of time
and effort to reach decisions due to discernment that seems calculated to produce specific results.
In the process, pointless, seemingly endless effort and discussion results in exhaustion of members
and attendees as they drift away. By attrition, only those Friends particularly invested are left to
coast toward unity with those calculated results. This is false discernment.
There is a widespread opinion that the “governance” of the 15th Street has been manipulated to
where some Committees strive to exert authority over the Meeting rather than Servants of the
Meeting.
Is there a primary spiritual purpose of the 15th Street Monthly Meeting? As a Body are we letting our
lives speak meaningfully? Are we members of a faith that believe we stand naked in front of a
Living G-d? Are we afraid or ashamed to Quake? The case can be made the purpose of Quaker
worship and testimony is to follow the one Inward Teacher, Guide or Spirit, that speaks to all people
in all times and places. From that we attend to that Inward Guide and follow it. In obedience we
can aspire to create and maintain a safe, nurturing, caring atmosphere of Worship. In love we
should welcome and comfort those who seek the Spirit. These goals are achievable.
In the framework of Conflict Transformation we can identify and approach resolutions to the issues
with which we grapple in working with each other. This is a mission we sorely need. We can resolve
to settle the property and financial issues with Friends Seminary for they are our Family. We can
dedicate ourselves to building a bold witness and active ministry in the place where we live and
among the people we live with now. Together we can renounce the old forms and judgments that
divide us. We can accomplish all of this in a few short years. If we will commit to undertaking this
path together, all it will take is work, time, faith and firm reliance on G-d.
Steven Monroe Smith
Manhattan
Page 13
February 2015
FRIENDS SEMINARY
NYQM members are invited to join Friends Seminary Meetings for Worship on these designated days. Guests will
need to sign in at the Reception desk at the school's Main Entrance (222 East 16 Street) before proceeding to the
Meetinghouse. Upon signing in, guests will receive a NYQM Visitor badge and be directed to the Meetinghouse.
Please note, all visitors will need to return to Reception at the end of the Meeting for Worship to return their badge
before leaving the building. These guest procedures are part of the school's security protocol which aims to keep
Friends Seminary's buildings safe for its students and teachers. We appreciate NYQM members' cooperation with
these procedures and look forward to worshiping together.
Upper School Fridays, 9:00-9:25am
Middle School Thursdays, 8:15-8:40am
Lower School Wednesdays, 8:40-9:00am
JOB OPENINGS AT FRIENDS SEMINARY:
For more details use the website www.friendsseminary.org listed in the tab About/Employment Opportunities
THE FIFTEENTH STREET
MONTHLY MEETING
Entrance at 15 Rutherford Place
Mailing Address:
15 Rutherford Place, New York, NY 10003
Telephone:
(212) 475 0466
Website:
http://fifteenth.quaker.org
Email:
fifteenthstreetny@yahoo.com
Clerk:
Ian Hansen
Recording Clerk:
Ben Smith
Treasurer:
Tony Shitemi
The Quaker Newsletter is issued monthly by The Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of
Friends.
Contributors are responsible for ensuring that persons or organizations listed or shown within the material have
granted permission to 15th Street Monthly Meeting to publish in all media forms of the newsletter. Editing or omission
of articles, if necessary due to space restrictions, is done under the guidance of the Meeting’s appointed advisors.
We welcome submissions. Email submissions to the editor, Krista Looper, at krista@inmaginative.com