Smithfield Friends Newsletter December 2001 Smithfield Monthly Meeting of Friends 108 Smithfield Road Woonsocket, RI 02895 Vol.14________________________________________________________________________ No.134 Parsonage: 762-5726 Internet: www.smithfieldfriends.org Clerk: Richard Frechette Recording Clerk Connie Bair-Thompson Pastor: Marnie Miller-Gutsel Treasurer:Bruce Buteau Ministry&Counsel Rhoda Mowry Newsletter: Randy Oftedahl CALENDAR FOR December 2001/January 2002 EVERY SUNDAY 10:30 am: MEETING FOR WORSHIP No First Day School in the Summer Child Care Available LAST SUNDAY OF EACH MONTH: Unprogrammed Worship and Pot Luck Lunch OTHER WORSHIP UNDER THE CARE OF SMITHFIELD MEETING OR RI/SMITHFIELD QTLY. MTG. SECOND SUNDAY OF MONTH 7:00 PM: Unprogrammed Worship at Uxbridge Meetinghouse, Uxbridge, Mass EVERY WEDNESDAY 6:00 PM: Unprogrammed Worship and discussion at ACI(Maximum) Dear Friends, Early in the first week of December, I did a load of laundry, and hung the clothes out on the line in the side yard. Some other time I'll rhapsodize about the positive pleasure I take in hanging clothes to dry outside, even though there's an electric dryer in the parsonage. Suffice it to say, I got busy later, and didn't have time to take in the dry clothes until nearly 5 o'clock. The sun had set a half hour before, so I went out in the gathering dusk of a chilly December evening to take in my laundry. It was a lovely and peaceful time. There was still a soft peach-colored blush along the horizon. The planets and some of the brightest stars were just becoming visible in a sky that was the exquisite electric blue that lasts only a few moments before night sets in. And my Advent candles were shining out of the parsonage windows into the growing dark. I was glad I didn't get around to taking in the laundry earlier--I'd have missed the chance to pause, breathe in the winter dusk, and reflect on the powerful symbolism of light. Physically and spiritually, all light partakes of the great Light. Ultimately, directly or indirectly, all the small and great physical lights of the earth derive from the one enormous physical light of the sun--power and energy made visible. This is a physical reflection of the spiritual truth that all true spiritual light derives from the Great Light which is God. Recently I've been reading a writer who describes the Spirit as "the energy of God." I like that image--the Inner Light, the Inward Spirit of Christ, is God's ~ at work within us. Perhaps this is why we respond so positively to the sight of a house with lighted candles in the windows--they look so inviting, as if something alive and warm and welcoming is at work within. It isn't hard to understand that setting a lighted candle in a window is an ancient sign of welcome to the wandering and weary. It says "Welcome. Here is light and life in the darkness. Here we will do our best to provide you with warmth and comfort and rest." The lighted candle is an outward expression that the Spirit is at work in this house--and invites the wanderer in. Not surprisingly, Christmas traditions in several cultures have explicitly seen the lighted candle as an invitation and welcome to the Holy Family, wandering through the night looking for a place to stay. In Mexico, the candles moved outdoors, to light the path. These charming luminaria have now made their way north of the border, and in some places, entire neighborhoods have decided to line their walkways with them. Much earlier in the 1700's, Moravian settlers brought with them the custom of setting a single lighted candle in each front window. At Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, even in the nineteenth century--before electric candles--the young women students set lighted candles in their windows during Advent, to welcome the Christ Child. In these times, when more Light is so badly needed in the world, may we all "Walk as children of Light--for the fruit of the Light is found in all that is good and right and true." (Eph. 5:8-9) Peace, Friends, Marnie Christmas Eve Candlelight Service Our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service of lessons and carols will begin at 5 PM, Monday, Dec. 24. If you would like to be part of the service but haven't yet let Marnie know, please do so ASAP. More Christmas Eve Celebrations Following the Candlelight Service, Marnie again invites you to join her at the parsonage for the delicious tradition of the Sixth (!) Annual Christmas Eve Reception, with 'pot luck' treats. Bring your favorite Christmas goodies to share--Marnie will provide tea, coffee, and mulled cider, and the annual rendition (in German!) of 0 Tannenbaum. Calendar Sunday, December 23, Christmas Pageant at rise of Meeting Monday, December 24, 5 PM--Annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service Sunday, January 6-- Meeting for Business at rise of Meeting Wednesday, January 9, 7 PM--M&C, at the Frechette's Every Friday--Gathering to Pray for Peace--6 PM at the Meeting House, followed by a simple supper at 6:45 (note supper time change) Advent and Christmas Music Our list of volunteer musicians for our Advent and Christmas Eve music is nearly full, but ask anyway, if you have something you would like to offer. We would like to form a singing group but are short on several parts. See Marnie or Ron. Fill Up the Mitten Tree! Mittens, scarves, and warm hats for our mitten tree can be brought to the Meeting House through Sunday, Dec. 23. Monday they will be taken to the Haven of Grace, a local shelter and training center for battered women and their children. Our continued Gathering to Pray for Peace At last there actually seems to be a possibility of peace in Afghanistan, yet there is a looming prospect that this "war on terrorism" could spread elsewhere. Smithfield Friends continue to gather on Fridays at 6:00 PM in the Meeting House to pray for peace. We have now decided to continue in prayer until 6:45, to allow more time for centering. A simple supper follows. All Friends and attenders are encouraged to join the group. The Meetings are open to the wider community, so please invite your neighbors and friends. Pageant Time! This year, our Christmas pageant will take place at the rise of Meeting on Sunday, December 23. Parents, please make a special effort to bring your children every Sunday, so they won't miss rehearsals! Missing Candles? Wondering why we haven't put the Advent candles in the Meeting Room windows this year? We've "shrink-wrapped" the side windows, which cuts off access to the sills. We'll miss the candles, but we're hoping to cut down our heating bills. Got an idea for how we can both have candles and save heat? Tell Marnie or Richard. Meetinghouse caretaker wanted The Meeting has need for an adult or mature youth to provide weekly janitorial services at the meetinghouse. Duties include sweeping and vacuuming, cleaning and restocking the bathrooms, emptying trash and occasional heavier duty cleaning. Adult or mature youth. The Meeting pays $80 per month for the services. Contact Suzanne Frechette 769-4433. Heather Bushnell Weds Meeting Member Heather Bushnell married Keith Masse on December 9 at a ceremony at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Woonsocket. The Wedding ceremony combined both Quaker and Catholic traditions, led by both Rev. Paul Grenon and Marnie Miller Gutsell. Ministry and Counsel Meeting change Ministry and Counsel normally meets the last Wednesday of the month, but because of the holidays, the meeting will be on Wednesday, January 9, 7 PM, at the Frechette's. Friends having concerns they would like to have brought to M&C should speak to Rhoda Mowry, Clerk, to Marnie, or to any other member of M&C. Mailbox Indigestion? Is your mailbox overstuffed with the charitable appeals that pile up at this time of year? Check the bulletin board for a summary of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Guide, to see if your favorite charities pass the tests for right use of funds. If your favorite cause didn't get a check mark, see Marnie, who has the full report with explanations. (PS--AFSC passed the test) Christmas in January! (Maybe even February!) Because this year seems to be particularly full of pre-Christmas activities, the decision has been made not to try to have a Meeting Christmas party. Instead, we will plan a post-Christmas party, for some time in January or February, when we really need something to counter cabin fever and the mid-winter blahs! Moses Brown Class Days for Parents of Prospective Students Thinking of sending your child to Moses Brown? From now through February of 2002, there will be a series of days on which you may come to observe classes at the school. Reservations are required. See the notice on the Bulletin Board for dates and times. New Years Retreat at Woolman Hill Looking for a different, quieter way to observe the arrival of 2002? Join leader Peggy Dunn for a Stillness Retreat at Woolman Hill, December 30-Jan. 1. See the flier on the bulletin board for details. Scholarships are available. High Juniors and Seniors--Trip to DC! The Quaker Youth Seminar 2002 will meet Feb. 15-18, at William Penn House, just blocks from Capitol Hill. The topic will be "The Equality Testimony." Enrollment is limited to 30, first come, first serve, so sign up soon. Only $50! See bulletin board for more details and registration forms. (Marnie has extras) Christmas Food Baskets We have once again decided to participate as a meeting in the Family Resources Christmas food basket program for families in need. Young Friends, as well as Kathy Malin and Connie Bair-Thompson are coordinating our efforts this year. Last year, we delivered 13 large baskets of food to Family Resources - not bad at all for a small meeting. Collecting the baskets at the meetinghouse and scheduling a day for Friends to deliver them (just prior to Christmas) seemed to work well last year. We intend to do the same thing this year. Family Resources asks that we include a gift certificate to a local market in lieu of anything perishable like a turkey. So, if you did prepare a basket last year, please consider putting another one together. If you weren't able to last year, perhaps you can participate this year. Those who are unable to collect an entire basket can donate money to purchase a supermarket gift certificate or donate individual items that we will be added to another basket. As soon as it is ready, bring your basket or food contribution to the meetinghouse. We will deliver everything to Family Resources on the afternoon of Wednesday December 19 or Thursday December 20 - exact date and time to be announced. For more details, please talk to one of our Young Friends, or to Kathy or Connie. If you would like to contribute a basket or individual items, please put your name on the sign-up sheet on the bulletin board (do this even if you have already spoken to one of us.) We have committed to Family Resources to deliver ten baskets. If we come through with more, they can use them - their waiting list is very long. Bear in mind that most families don't have proper kitchenware to cook turkey (roasting pan, baster, etc.). These things can be included in the basket or extra money can be included in the store gift certificate for these items. Family Resources suggests filling extra space in baskets or offering an extra basket with staples - flour, sugar, canned goods, peanut butter, etc. Baskets do not have to be elaborate. Some suggestions for contents are: CHRISTMAS MEAL Appetizer: * cheese and crackers * chips and salsa * cut-up veggies and dip * ? Beverages: * juice * sparkling water * ? Main course: * Gift Certificate to local market (one suggestion from Family Resources) Stuffing (if turkey as main course) Potatoes, sweet potatoes Cranberry sauce Vegetables: * Peas * Broccoli * Salad * ? Desert: * Pies * Cookies * ? Extras: candlesticks, candles, etc. ?? STAPLES include in basket or separate basket: * Flour * Sugar * Pasta, Sauce * Peanut Butter * Jelly * Baby food * Powdered milk * Cereal * Instant coffee * Tea bags * Bisquick * Juice * Canned Goods Summary of Meeting for Worship with attention to Business: December 2, 2001 (Full minutes available at meetinghouse or upon request) * Membership - Diane Gauthier A clearness committee had met with Diane and found that Diane is clear about her desire to become a member. The clearness Committee and M&C recommend her for membership. Friends enthusiastically approved accepting Diane into membership of the Meeting. * Report on AFSC Southeast New England Support Committee Bob Sumner-Mack, our representative to the committee, reported to us on their Nov 27 Meeting. Friends felt that, at least at this beginning stage, it is important to maintain the focus on social concerns through the lens of Quaker values and process. Friends are very supportive of re-establishing a local and easily accessible AFSC office. * Nominating Committee Report The Nominating Committee selected Connie Bair-Thompson to serve as its clerk, and presented the following partial slate, which was accepted by Friends. The Committee hopes to have the remainder of nominations ready for the January Meeting for Business. Treasurer: Bruce Buteau Newsletter: Randy Oftedahl Librarian: Diane Gauthier (a change from committee to single person) First Day School Committee: Suzanne Frechette Jeanne Kinney Karin Sprague Martha Smith Kathy Malin Barbara Landi Diane O'Hara Cindy Keene . * Hanging of a U.S. flag on the meeting signpost (minute 2001-93 in its entirety) For the past several weeks, a U.S. flag has often been hung on the meeting house signpost next to the sign announcing our weekly open gathering to pray for peace. At an earlier meeting for worship with attention to business, no objections were raised to hanging the flag when the question was asked. In the ensuing weeks, this flag has sparked considerable discussion, and disagreement, over whether this is the right thing for Smithfield Friends to do. During one of these discussions, the clerk suggested that the matter be brought before this meeting for worship with attention to business. Friends discussed their feelings and ambivalence about what hanging the flag means to us. In one way, it is a symbol, and as such may not be something earlier Friends would be comfortable with. Especially at times like this, when our country is at war, the flag is seen by many as a symbol of battle. In another way, the flag can stand for positive values and ideals of freedom and democracy, as well as for loving the good things about our country, and we shouldn't allow one meaning to be "co-opted" by another. Friends have traditionally been opposed to using symbols because they often mean different things to different people. We recognize it is impossible, and probably not even desirable, to remove all symbols from our lives. However, if we as a meeting community are not of one mind about what the flag stands for, then does it make sense to display it? The Friend who originally hung the flag said that the flag is a reminder that we have the freedom to stand for peace because we live in America and that it deeply troubles her when people malign and burn the flag. The flag was hung before our military began dropping bombs on Afganistan. It seems as if the flag's meaning has changed since then. Friends are united in their conviction that peace and patriotism are not conflicting ideas, but that peace is patriotic. However, we are not in unity about whether a U.S. flag should be displayed in front of the meetinghouse at this time. Therefore, we will not continue to hang it at this time. We will work diligently in the future to find a way to express our love for peace and for country in a way that the meeting can unite behind. * Temporary parking of motor home in the meeting house parking lot Friends approved allowing the Frechettes to park their motorhome in the meetinghouse parking lot during construction activity at their home. * Military Conscientious Objector - Aaron Frechette Aaron Frechette's letter expressing his conscientious objection to military activity (elsewhere in the newsletter) was read. Friends asked that the letter be included in the official minutes. Dear Friends: As you know, I have been away at college, and was not able to participate in the formulation of Smithfield Meeting's open letter on the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. But I wish to write to you to express my unity with the letter. Further, I am writing this letter to explain my reasons for being a military conscientious objector. I ask that you record receipt of this letter in the Meeting's minutes. Ever since I was born my parents taught me that fighting was wrong. I joined the Religious Society of Friends with my family at the age of five. Since then, I have believed in the tenets of pacifism-that war does not solve anything; it simply contributes to a culture of violence. I still hold this feeling today. I also believe in the Friends' philosophy that "There is that of God in everyone." For this reason, to take arms against another conductor of God's spirit would fall contrary to the religious beliefs which I have held since a child and which I affirmed when I asked for membership in Smithfield Monthly Meeting on my own volition when I was 16. In fact, I believe in nonviolence so much that to this day, though provoked many times, I have never fought another person. As a patriotic American, my pacifist beliefs have always been challenging. Our government is engrossed in a military-industrial complex. But I know in my heart that to kill is wrong and contrary to God's will. Although our country faced tragic death and mass destruction on September 11, to kill another for revenge is not the answer and continues and encourages the vicious cycle of violence that caused the terrorist attacks in the first place. To kill in the name of justice is wrong. Due to my religious beliefs, my belief that violence simply incites further violence, and my understanding of the historically flawed U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, I feel that war is not the best path for our nation, nor will it heal the wounds that the attacks of September 11 brought to our nation. I am morally opposed to war in any form. War only creates more hurt, it makes violence seem like the answer, it hides the roots of the problem rather than trying to fix them, and it continues the vicious cycle of self-interested, imperialist U.S. foreign policy. George Fox stated, "I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness." I believe that the best way to "fight" the culture of violence that is the root of these terrorist attacks is for light and love to be our "weapons" with which we defeat the darkness. War creates more darkness and death. These must not be our "weapons of choice" if we are to end this vicious cycle. I understand the issues and the roots of war and realize that the true patriot-the true leader-questions the status quo if it is flawed. While I feel that fighting terrorism is a noble goal, our attacks on Afghan civilians are the equivalent of the attacks on us. While I object to the path my country has chosen to take militarily, I have never been prouder to be an American and I have been touched by the patriotic sentiment and unity that finally exists in our nation. If I were to be drafted, my sense of duty for my country would allow me to take a non-combat role in a military action that I deemed to be necessary. However, I ask that you, Friends, record my moral opposition to all wars. I am proud to be an American, I am proud to be a Friend, and I am proud to be a conscientious objector. In Peace, Aaron D. Frechette 'We become what we hate' Several years ago I read Walter Wink's wonderful book on the Powers and Principalities titled, Engaging the Powers. In his explanation of what he called "Jesus' Third Way" (neither passive compliance nor violent resistance, but non-violent direct confrontation), he used a term that was new to me, mimesis. Mimesis is that very human tendency to increasingly take on the image of the very things we dislike or oppose - and often in direct proportion to the intensity of our opposition. We see the mimetic phenomenon everywhere - from small children fighting over the 'injustice' of a playmate to nations at war adapting the tactics and atrocities of each other. Anthropologist Rene Girard, in his 1972 book, Violence and the Sacred, believed containing mimetic violence was one of the main reasons that ancient societies developed the sacrificial religions that made it possible to create human societies in the first place. By 'sacrilizing' violence and directing communal urges to a sacrificial scapegoat, religion could redirect mimetic impulses - and restrain uncontrollable mob violence. Gil Bailie, a student of Girard's, expanded on this theory in an astonishing book Violence Unveiled. Bailie contends that societies used sacrificial violence very well - until the Crucifixion showed the us the Victim and seeing the victim showed us the sham of the sacrificial system. The genie was out of the bottle and the 'victim' - any victim - would from that moment on become inextricably linked with the "innocent one," and victimization would never be as easily justified again. "In clogging the gears of the scapegoating machinery" Bailie writes, "the gospel revelation brings not peace but a sword. This is purely and simply because it interrupts the only kind of peace that "the world" - the world of conventional culture - understands. The only kind of violence that can end violence effectively is sacred violence, and, over time, the gospel revelation gradually destroys the ability to sacrilize violence." As Bailie points out, it has taken the world twenty centuries to even begin to grasp the significance of this, and I can't do justice to this profound concept in these few words. But in this time of war when we also celebrate the Prince of Peace, isn't it incumbent upon people of faith to think on where the violence of our world comes from? I hope the following passages might bring a little more Light to our present ocean of darkness. -Randy Oftedahl "It is striking, in this regard, that both times in John's Gospel when the crowd threatens to stone him, Jesus is inside the Temple precinct. Symbolically speaking, where would the stones have come from if not from the Temple walls, floors, and alters? Symbolically, then, even before the crucifixion, the scapegoating zeal that led to it had already begun to compromise the structural integrity of the hallowed sacrificial shrine in whose name the zealous were arming themselves. They were entering a world that would one day become the world in which we live, where every act of sacrificial violence (lapidation) contributes to the further di-lapidation of the sacrificial structures that lend legitimacy to violence. This di-lapidation has become as relentless in human history as it is in biblical history, and it will not cease until not one stone of the old sacrificial structure is left upon another (Matt. 24:2)." -Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy." -Martin Luther King, Jr. "'Politics' is a very poor substitute for 'Divine Wrath,' but, alas, it is all most perpetrators of sacred violence have left. And it isn't enough. It cannot envelop the violence it tries to justify in a thick enough mist. Whether it is called politics or the wrath of Yahweh, whether in the ancient records of Israel's wilderness wanderings or in the pages of the New York Times, the system of sacred violence strives fervently to exempt certain violence from the moral scrutiny that it righteously insists must be applied to all other violence." -Gil Bailie "Some of us engaged in struggles for social justice have been incredibly naïve about what has been happening in our own psyches. Our very identities are often defined by our resistance to evil. It is our way of feeling good about ourselves: If we are against evil, we must be good. The impatience of some activists with prayer, meditation, and inner healing may itself represent an inchoate knowledge of what they might find if they looked within. For the struggle against evil can make us evil, and no amount of good intentions automatically prevents it happening." -Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers "The Gospel's insistence on forgiveness is both profound and pragmatic, but we cannot fully appreciate either until we realize how routinely moral indignation leads to the replication of the behavior that aroused the indignation. Moral outrage is morally ambiguous. The more outraged it is, the less likely it is to contribute to real moral improvements. Righteous indignation is often the first symptom of the metastasis of the cancer of violence. It tends to provide the indignant ones with a license to commit or condone acts structurally indistinguishable from those that aroused the indignation. When moral contempt for a form of violence inspires so explicit a replication of it, there is only one conclusion to be drawn: The moral revulsion the initial violence awakened proved weaker than the mimetic fascination it inspired." -Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled "Even if we lose, we shall win, for our ideals will have penetrated the hearts of our enemies." -Joseph Goebbels "Jesus is not there in order to stress once again in his own person the unified violence of the sacred; he is not there to ordain and govern like Moses; he is not there to unite a people around him, to forge its unity in the crucible of rites and prohibitions, but on the contrary, to turn this long page of human history once and for all." -Rene Girard, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World "It is better that one man should die than that the whole nation be destroyed." -Caiaphas "The crucifixion both "accomplishes" the decisive demystification of the demonic powers and inaugurates the historical epoch in which these powers - and the social and psychological structures based upon them - will undergo a progressive delegitimization, as the Crucified One gradually draws all of humanity to himself." -Gil Bailie "No wonder so many people, gentle and kind people, quiet and unaggressive people, find themselves saying at long last: 'There is only one way to deal with the Marcoses and Enriles. There's only one way to deal with the Khmer Rouge. There's only one language these people understand - we say it not joyfully, but reluctantly and sadly - the only thing they understand is the gun.' To such people I say: Welcome home, welcome to the largest consensus the world has ever known: a consensus between east and west, between capitalist and communist, between mosque, church and synagogue. All agree that there comes a time when it is just to kill each other. Welcome home to the consensus on which our world is built. Ultimately we are faced with two choices: to accept the "myth" of the just war, that as a last resort killing is moral, or to accept the "myth" of nonviolence: we have no last resort; killing is never right. In the first case, sooner or later we will come to the moment when the conditions for using violence are verified, when we reach the "last resort." In the second case, believing in our "myth," that violence is never justified, having no 'last resort,' human beings come up with alternatives from the depths of their creativeness...We can and we will learn to live together, but only when we have closed off that escape route known as the last resort." - Niall O'Brien, "Making the Myth Real," in Fellowship, 1987. When the song of the angels is stilled, When the Star in the sky is gone. When the kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among brothers, To make music in the heart. - Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas Smithfield Monthly Meeting of Friends 108 Smithfield Road Woonsocket, RI 02895