SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2015 FRIENDS MEETING, POUGHKEEPSIE Poughkeepsiequakers.org

You have had plenty of words outwardly, but to hearken to the word inwardly, is better than all; for that is both able to comfort at present, and save forever. ~ John Crook, 1617-1699 Advice and Query 4. Friends are advised to observe our Christian testimony for a faithful ministry of the gospel under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Members are reminded that all have a responsibility in ministry. 1. Are meetings for worship and business held in expectant waiting for divine guidance? Are we regular and punctual in attendance? Are we willing and faithful in the service of our meeting and in financial support of its activities? YEARLY MEETING SUMMER SESSIONS AT SILVER BAY From the plenary speaker. For Summer Sessions at Silver Bay this year I was given the opportunity to offer the plenary message to our Yearly Meeting. It was titled: Publishing the Truth of Experiential Faith. The message was delivered in the main auditorium, a room that is virtually unchanged since my first visit there as a 1-year old in 1950. This was a profoundly moving experience for me and I am grateful both for the opportunity and for the openings that led to it. The complete text can be found on the YM website (NYYM.org) and I hope that PFM Friends will take the time to read it. Because Yearly Meeting Friends are diverse in their approaches to faith I shared some thoughts on the continuing tension between “Christ centered”, and “Universalist” Friends and pointed out the vital perspectives that can unite us in faith. I also presented several other challenges that I hope Friends will consider. Our deafening silence in the world is not just silence regarding our Experiences of the Light that enables us to order our lives and model our testimonies. It is also a silence regarding the celebration of violence in American society and a silence regarding the right-wing politicization of Christianity and the appalling misrepresentations of Jesus’ teachings in that context.

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When we Friends do offer a witness to the world, more often than not we are secular in our presentation. It is only rarely that we even mention the Light that inspires the witness. This weakens the impact of our witnesses. Essentially my message is a call to action and a call to ministry in and to the world that lovingly proclaims the Living Experience of The Light; the Light the does away with the “occasion for war” and violence. It is a call to the Monthly, Regional and Yearly Meeting to lift up and support those ministries when they arise. It’s a call to reach out to the young who have mostly abandoned religion even as they profess to be “spiritual.” We have vast opportunities to share our Experiential Faith with the world and yet as a faith community we are intentionally and nearly entirely mute. There are myriad reasons for this reticence. One misguided reason is avoidance of conflict. Continued quietism may keep us, the aging few, comfortable but it also assures that The Religious Society of Friends, in its original simplest form, will continue to fade into obscurity and then justified oblivion. Un-programmed Friends now represent only 11% of worldwide Quakerism. That diminishment has been caused by our choice to be passive even as our Protestant/Orthodox branches have been proactive. I hope our meeting will be willing to labor with these questions in the years to come. Will we continue to rest invisibly and silently in our comfortable meeting house? Or, will we reach into our wider community with a ministry that welcomes seekers, challenges falsehoods and faithfully publishes the Truth we Experience? This is my prayer. -- Don Badgley Reflections from a long-time attender at Yearly Meeting. Although I was only able to attend Sessions for 2 full days, I accumulated some very fond memories, which will remain with me for a very long time. I thank the Poughkeepsie Monthly Meeting, Nine Partners Quarterly Meeting and New York Yearly Meeting in helping me get to Silver Bay this year. I am so grateful for: *Watching Friend’s children and grandchildren playing together and forming good friendships, just as my own children did three decades ago; *Early morning worship sharing; *Deep sharing of Friends during Meetings for Discernment *Don’s address on Tuesday night, which was inspiring and well received *Spending afternoons volunteering at the Healing Center *Kayaking with friends *Worshiping on the boathouse porch while appreciating the beautiful surroundings: the clear water and the green hills surrounding Lake George *Friends gifting me with meal tickets *Sounds of laughter *Catching up on news and friendships *Eagerly participating on the “Committee for Eating Ice Cream at the Café” -- Lynne James Overview of life at Silver Bay. This year’s week at Silver Bay was for me a time for spiritual refreshment, family fun, and reuniting with friends from the Yearly Meeting. Jean and I shared most meals with my son Fred and family. My granddaughter Andra talks about Silver Bay all year long, and has learned many of the songs that she loves to sing at the porch hootenanny each evening. Two and a half year-old Nora had fun in Silver Bay’s Wee Woozle program, and Andra had her first year in the youngest JYM group.

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Jean and I availed ourselves of some of the evening programs that Silver Bay YMCA offered: a string quartet performance, a family cruise around islands in Lake George on the Silver Spirit, a showing of the movie “Still Alice,” an informative talk on bees by former NYYM Friend, Dean Hoover, and just two visits to the ice cream store. During the day we went to the beach where the two grandchildren took swim lessons and enjoyed the clear waters, we went on a three-hour hike to Sunrise Mountain, joined by son Fred, and we took to the lake several times in kayaks or canoes. I had a good game of chess on the porch with Norm Keiser, and he lured me on to the tennis court once - with dubious results. Each morning I participated in a worship-sharing group, and on Tuesday evening Don Badgley gave an inspiring plenary message. Don had arranged to have George Woods and his new bride Heather give a moving musical prelude to the talk. Judging by the conversation at the reception afterward, the program was well-appreciated. Jean went to four yoga sessions and offered Reikii two afternoons at the Healing Center. In between these activities I had two meetings of my Faith & Practice Committee, and I sat in on several business sessions. The active days made for early retreat to the Inn, which enabled me to enjoy morning coffee each day with different early birds, both new and old. -- Fred Doneit FROM GREEN HAVEN My Friendship with Friends In all of my days (12,750+ and counting) of imprisonment my Friendship with Friends has been most rewarding. Friends have helped me to understand a few important things in life, including the following: Sunrise is the time when everything begins anew. Every day is a chance to start over, to do things right and help to make things better – one step at a time. Power is not inherently good or bad. What matters is how it is used. It helps little to allow anger and frustration to fester until you hurt yourself or someone else. No one owes you a thing. What matters is who you are, the kind of person you wll be, and the mark you leave behind in this world. Life may not be fair but you must work to balance the scales yourself. So I begin each day asking for the compassion to be given the knowledge and wisdom to show me how to walk a peaceful path. And work tro make each day better than the last. Be it a person, structure, or an event your contribution makes it that much more meaningful than it was before you rendered your service. Most important of all: Friends' friendship has taught me: there can be no 'us' without 'you'. -- Knowledge (Y. Johnson) Love is Blind There was a girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone except her loving boyfriend, who was always there for her. She told boyfriend "if I could only see the world I would marry you." One day someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When her bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her loving boyfriend. He asked her, "Now that you can see the world,

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will you marry me?" The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her, for she hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at him like that for the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him. Her boyfriend, in tears, left her;, and days later wrote a note to her, saying: "Take good care of you eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine." This is how the human brain often works whey our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by our side in our most painful situations. The world can easily blind us more severely than the mere loss of our eyesight ever could. Despite what is going on around you, never become so blinded by life that you can no longer see the true love that exists within it. --Alvin Brown FROM TIM AND SILVANA Dear friends, Silvana and I have just spent the last six weeks house-sitting for friends at their home five miles up in the mountains from St. Elena and Monteverde, taking care of their animals and renewing their blackberry patch and large garden. It is once again beautiful and productive. Since they give away a lot of food, we have indirectly been helping others as well as house-sitting for our friends. In the months prior to our return to Costa Rica, I was in N.Y. while Silvana was mostly in Italy. She traveled a lot, visiting friends and relatives, including her sister with whom she spent some extended time. She also went through possessions and decided what to leave in Italy, what to give away, and what to bring to Costa Rica. I spent my time working at the Peter Maurin Catholic Worker Farm where I lived previously and going through possessions to pass on. I read, re-read, or skimmed through many books in my library. My collection, once several thousand in number, has been whittled down to 350 or 400 volumes and may be still further if we make a home here, since the Monteverde library has a good collection of 18th, 19th, and 20th century literature, which would relieve me of the need for my own personal copy in most cases. Otherwise, my possessions are down to a few clothes, a couple of quilts my grandmother made, some lecture and classical music CDs, two or three boxes of household items, some photos, and a box of my writings over the years. Lack of travel meant the time passed more slowly for me than for Silvana. We missed each other, compensated for by daily 30-minute skype conversations, but for the most part we did fairly well apart. So I guess we passed that test. In recent days I have been carrying knapsacks full of excess onion, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and turnip seedlings down the mountain to our plot in the community garden we helped start in Valle Bonito, a barrio a short distance down the mountain from St. Elena. I've also transplanted blackberries to form a hedgerow along the fence. In the coming days I'll plant beans, squash, broccoli, kale, carrots, camote, a root, which resembles the sweet potato, and perhaps other crops as well. If I knew we were going to make a home in Valle Bonito I would transplant our tomato tree as well. The tomato that grows on a tree looks somewhat like a Roma tomato, with an orange tomato flesh, tough skin, and somewhat sour taste. I like them in sandwiches. Four of the five Tico families have planted their 1000 square foot plots, which are producing with varying degrees of success. One is as beautiful as any garden I've been able to raise. Marcelo modestly accepts the praise we lavish on his garden. Giovanni promises that his presently unplanted plot will be planted when he has more time. I feel at home now with my own garden space. For me a good garden makes a home more than the house in which I live. I would much rather live in Thoreau's one-room little house on Walden Pond and have a good-sized garden than live in a huge mansion without a garden. For me a house without a vegetable and fruit garden is sterile, the life lived therein diminished from its

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full potential. Some would contest this claim, saying they have no time for or interest in gardening, just as others would assert the same about reading books. Let me try to explain why I make such a strong assertion. It is not just about the physical exercise or the delicious food produced or the better psychological and physical health fostered or the working with earth, air, and sun to create beauty. It is all of these and more. In the coming century humanity will struggle to survive the consequences of our environmentally destructive ways of living. It is not clear that we will make it. The scientifically calculated odds against it are great. Meanwhile, statistical studies indicate that the three most significant ways we contribute to our environmental footprint are the size of the house we live in, the vehicles we travel in --including our gas-powered lawnmowers that can equal the footprint of the average car-- and the food we eat, each contributing about a third of our footprint. Probably the most important single thing we can do to decrease our footprint is to be a vegan growing as much of our own food as possible. That alone would reduce our footprint by 20-25 percent and probably more because our transportation footprint would be reduced as well. So if we are not physically challenged and have the space, it is our environmental responsibility to grow a garden. If this is not enough of a reason, consider that many of the things we spend our time doing are of recent invention. By contrast, growing and collecting food is one basic thing we have been doing for thousands of years. It has been fundamental to who we are for hundreds of generations. One could almost say that to miss out on food growing is to miss a vital part of what it means to be human. A corollary assertion is that our lives are bloated with non-essentials, material and non-material, while essentials get left unconsidered and undone. For example, I understand that there is an ongoing discussion in progressive circles in the U.S. about what to do about income inequality. I take it that this discussion is more than just a matter of pay scales about which I have no expertise, except that it used to be, and may still be, the case that the Mondragon cooperative movement set a ratio of 1 to 6 between salaries of the lowest and highest paid. If it is also a matter of gross inequalities of wealth, then perhaps I have something to say. As with the rest of life, we must start with ourselves. If we have things we don't really need, we can pass them on to those with need of them. If we have above-global-average wealth, we can pass the excess on to those who have less. Of course, we have to ask ourselves if this is something we really want to do, if the sacrifice is important enough. But if we make the sacrifice, we may find ourselves becoming happier and spiritually freer, and our action may invite similar action on the part of others. How can we expect laws and policies to effect, except on a superficial level, the necessary changes that our hearts are unwilling to accept? By all means we should change laws and policies if we can, but if we want to get to the heart of the matter let us go to the heart. Let us change ourselves, too. After all, the only action we can be sure of is the action we take ourselves. Let us create the world we want for the community of living beings where we are. We hold you in heart in daily worship and our thoughts. Blessings and love, Silvana and Tim ANNOUNCEMENTS Annual Crop Walk On October 18 we will once again take part in a county-wide effort to raise money to fight hunger—the Crop Walk. Either by walking or by giiving money to a walker, we support anti-hunger activities in Dutchess county and around the world. Agencies distributing the funds include Dutchess Outreach, Beulah Baptist Church soup kitchen, Fishkill Food Pantry, Community Action funds, and Church World Service.

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The walk will start, rain or shine, any time between 10 am and 2 pm at the Jewish Community Center (about two blocks from the Quaker meeting). Walkers travel as far as they are able; the full walk takes about 2 hours. Come and walk with friends on October 18! – Viola Hathaway Article about Quakerism An article. “4 Things We Can All Learn From One Of America's Oldest Religious Communities,” was recently published in the Huffington Post. It is reproduced as an attachment to this newsletter. Besides reading it ourselves, we may wish to share it with friends. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/18/quaker-meeting-for-worship_n_5500022.html -- Don Badgley

Have you attended Sessions at Silver Bay or a program at Powell House? Have you participated in a wider Quaker Community event? Have you hosted Friends or do you have news of Friends from out of the area? The Friendly News depends on your participation and welcomes submissions from all members of our meeting community, including Friends, attenders, and those who do or have worshiped with the Poughkeepsie Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Articles, quotes, letters, poems and announcements may be emailed to anyone on the Friendly News Committee (Frank DeLeeuw, Nan Fogel and Lynne James) who then edit the submissions. They may also be mailed to Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting, 249 Hooker Ave, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603 attention Friendly News Committee

BIRTHDAYS SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 1 Robert Martin 1 Alice Kirn 3 Thaddeus Davis 8 Peter Doneit 5 Andrew Kessler 10 Richard Edwards 5 Charles Carpenter, Jr. 11 Linda Fisher 18 Frank deLeeuw 13 Perry Gorgen 23 Betty Daniele 15 Fred Doneit, jr. 23 Joseph D'Esposito 20 Marcia Seale 25 Lydia deLeeuw 22 Marty Mercer 25 Steven Johnson 22 Michael Edwards 25 Elijah Haven 26 Olivia Marie Ying Rockrohr 27 Dorothy Badgley Adams 28 Peggy Lewis 31 Margaret Johnson 31 Peter Baily

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