Santa Monica Quaker Meeting

Santa Monica Friends:

We have a very special day, Sunday, August 4th, beginning with finger food lunch at 11:30 a.m. and then an adult education session at 12:30 p.m. (this part blended): Gail Thomas, our wonderful and valued member will be moving north to Santa Rosa, soon.

Please come and join us for lunch and for her presentation!

Here are the details as well as the zoom link for the August 4th session:

Santa Monica Quaker Meeting

Adult Education Program:

Inspiration for Living in challenging times, Jesus, Fox and us

August 4, 2024 at 12:30 p.m.

(Note the time change)

Blended meeting program (please email us for the zoom link at [email protected])

Presented by Gail Thomas

Assisted by Stan Searl, Elder

Adult Education will host a “finger food” lunch at 11:30 a.m.

Please for the online folks: have a pen or pencil ready and piece of paper for drawing!

All are invited to help celebrate Gail Thomas, who’s moving up north in September.

We will hold a wedding ceremony for Emily & Jose Pineda on September 28. Zoom information to be released soon.

Hello All,

This Sunday from 1 - 2 p.m. on Zoom, the Peace and Social Action committee will have its regular 4th Sunday of the month committee meeting and all are welcome to participate.

During the meeting we’ll take time to jointly (for those who wish)use the AFSC website to send a letter to our national legislators about our country’s involvement in the war on Gaza.
We’ll also review a get-out-the-vote letter writing program that some of us have used in past elections and will be using in our upcoming one.

If you would like a copy of the draft notes, the agenda, or the Zoom information, please email us at [email protected].

Best to us all,

Curtis with the Peace and Social Action committee

Someone who attended our meetings in person on Sunday, July 14 tested positive for COVID on Tuesday, July 16. We suggest anyone who was present in person on the 14th to be tested.

Hello Santa Monica Quaker Community:

Emily & Jose P. are having a celebration of marriage under the care of our meeting! Emily has been our zoom host for years and a wonderful member of our meeting.

In Stan’s words, “Quaker weddings are so special, loving, intimate, encouraging and celebratory. It's like the Holy Spirit infuses the participants with love and affection.”

The wedding will be Saturday September 28 in the afternoon, exact time TBD.

Would it bring you joy to help with the arrangements for this wedding? We have a couple of people but would welcome a few more. If so, Pastoral Care invites you to serve on the arrangements committee. The arrangements committee is responsible for making it a celebration with food, flowers and all things loving.

Please let me know,

Kate, for Pastoral Care ([email protected])

We will have a memorial meeting for worship for Carol Tantau on Saturday, June 22 at 4:00 pm at our meetinghouse. We will also offer it via Zoom. If you are interested in attending via Zoom, please email us at [email protected].

Carol Tantau Memorial program.pdf

We’d like to invite you to a memorial gathering in honor of Carol Tantau, a cherished member of our Quaker community. Carol passed away recently, and we want to come together to remember and celebrate her life.

The memorial will be held on Saturday, June 22nd at 4 pm at our Meeting House located at 1440 Harvard St, Santa Monica, CA 90404. Please join us as we come together to celebrate her life, service, and commitment to support the communities around her.

In the spirit of Quaker simplicity, we ask that volunteers bring flowers to adorn Carol's memory. Additionally, if you are able, please bring a dish to share for a simple potluck meal following the memorial.

Let us come together to honor Carol's life and the impact she had on our community. We hope to see you there.

Love and Light,

Pastoral Care Committee

Reminder that today, Jan 7, all of our meetings are on Zoom. The meeting house is currently closed, as they are working on our roof. Email us if you need the Zoom information at [email protected].

Adult Education greets you in the new year and invites all to join us on January 7, 2024 at noon (via zoom only) for our session about "The Ministry of Listening" by Paul Buckley.

Come and join us for an interesting conversation.

Here are the details:

Vocal Ministry and a Ministry of Listening

We will draw on Paul Buckley’s “The Ministry of Listening” in the June-July, 2022 issue of Friends Journal.

This will be a zoom only session on January 7, 2024 at noon (our meetinghouse will be closed for roof repairs). Please email us for the zoom link at [email protected].

This session will be clerked by members of Adult Education.

Ministry of Listening and Preparation: “Part of preparing to participate in a meeting for worship should be to expect that vocal ministry may be shared and to ready ourselves to hear it. Doing that well takes advance planning and regular practice.”

Queries about Practice and Preparation:

· “When we take our seats, do we glance around and silently greet those who are already present?

· As others arrive, do we wordlessly and joyfully welcome them– even latecomers – into the gathering?

· Do we recognize each of our fellow worshippers as a child of God?

· Do we bless them and hold them in the Light?

· When someone stands to speak, do we inwardly welcome and thank them for doing so – even those we might not have chosen to speak?”

“Let Those Who Have Ears Hear: “It can be a struggle to hear and understand what the stranger says. For example, I am comfortable speaking of Jesus, but only rarely use the term, `the Christ.’ These words are not interchangeable for me … Listening in the ministry requires fearlessly taking the risk to open ourselves and be tenderly attentive to such distinctions in the ministry presented. Sometimes it necessitates gently holding onto a message that we could not or would not give ourselves. Sometimes it means suspending our attempts to comprehend, sitting uncomfortably for a while, and lovingly taking in a way of speaking we would not choose.”


“What If I’m Hearing a Rant: “One of the earliest openings among Friends was that ministry was not the exclusive province of those who were educated at Oxford or Cambridge, which was to say, those who had been formally ordained. Friends boldly maintained that anyone could be divinely selected to speak. And if only God had the right to decide who was a minister, who were we to doubt it?


“This is not to say that we do not hear speakers who lecture out of their own wills and from their own minds; who deliver political discourses or personal messages: who rant. But the prophets sent to Israel and Judah often carried political messages. Jeremiah acted crazy – he modeled the act of going naked as a sign that some early Friends emulated – and so enraged his audience that he was thrown into a pit. Prophets, angels, and other messengers of the Holy One are not sent to tell us everything is okay.


“If we are faithful, we will listen. We will wrap the speaker in love, prayer, and Light. We will ask how this ministry is meant for us. When we are called to be listening ministers, our sole responsibility is to listen.”

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Carol Tantau, from our pastoral care team. No details in her death have been released yet. When we have confirmed next steps with the family, we will keep everyone informed. Carol Tantau

Friends:

All are invited to join us when we reflect about two different poems with the theme of politics and prayer.
We meet this First Day at 8:30 a.m., online and blended.

Enjoy the holiday gifts of these two wonderful poems!

Here are the details:

Adult Education Reading Group: Poems: Politics & Prayer

First Day, December 17, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. in-person and Zoom (Blended)

Please email us at [email protected] for the Zoom information.

One Prose Poem and Poetic Reflection about the Art of Poetry, including Jose Olivarez’s Ars Poetica and Joy Harjo’s “I Am A Prayer” (The New Yorker, November 27, 2023)

Clerked by a member of the Adult Education Committee

Ars Poetica

Jose Olivarez

“Migration is derived from the word `migrate,’ which is a verb defined by Merriam-Webster as `to move from one country, place, or locality to another.’ Plot twist: migration never ends. My parents moved from Jalisco, Mexico to Chicago in 1987. They were dislocated from Mexico by capitalism, and they arrived in Chicago just in time to be dislocated by capitalism. Question: is migration possible if there is no `other’ land to arrive in. My work: to imagine. My family started migrating in 1987 and they never stopped. I was born mid-migration. I’ve made my home in that motion. Let me try again: I tried to become American, but America is toxic. I tried to become Mexican, but Mexico is toxic. My work: to do more than reproduce the toxic stories I inherited and learned. In other words: just because it is art doesn’t mean it is inherently nonviolent. My work: to write poems that make my people feel safe, seen, or otherwise loved. My work: to make my enemies to feel afraid, angry, or otherwise ignored. My people: my people. My enemies: capitalism. Susan Sontag: `victims are interested in the representation of their own sufferings.’ Remix: survivors are interested in the representation of their own survival. My work: survival. Question: Why poems? Answer:”

(Poetry, December, 2019)

“I Am A Prayer

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of rain in the desert when the flowering ones need a drink

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of sun when there is no end to night

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of ocean when there is no more blue

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of clouds when few make rain songs

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of roads that lead everywhere but home

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of white birds who cannot fly through a storm of fear

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of fire who arrived to care for humans, then was misused to destroy

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of wind, whose breathing carries seeds, pollen, and songs to feed generations

I am a prayer”

I am a prayer of moon who wears the night as a shawl to hide that which should never be spoken

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of grief, when life gambled with death and gave up families for guns

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of smoke, wandering the broken houses, the littered ground looking for a white flag of reason

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of mountains, those tall humble ones who agreed to lift our eyes to see

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of forever making a path of beauty through the rubble of eternity

I am a prayer

I am a prayer of poetry speaking the soundlessness of the dead who return to speak in prayer

I am a prayer with children on my back roaming the earth house of destruction and creation

I am a prayer without end

Friends:

Happy Post-Thanksgiving! All are invited to the next Adult Education Session at noon, Sunday, December 3, 2023 at noon, blended and on zoom. If you would like the zoom information, please email us at [email protected].

This will be part I of two sessions about Paul Buckley's Pendle Hill Pamphlet #481, Quaker Testimony: What We Witness to the World.

Here are the details and note that the zoom link is at the end!

Paul Buckley’s Quaker Testimony: What We Witness to the World

(Pendle Hill Pamphlet 481, 2023)

This will be a blended session on December 3, 2023 at noon

This session will be clerked by members of Adult Education

Part I

This session follows-up Paul Buckley’s two-part keynote presentations at our Quarterly Meeting Fall Fellowship, November 4 and 5, 2023.

We start with a query from the “Discussion Questions” at the end of the pamphlet: “What role do Quaker testimonies play in your life? How do you testify to the power of the Inward Light? How does your life speak?”

“ … Quaker testimonies … has roots in appeals such as Fox made in 1661 in Epistle 200 [ A Testimony of the True Light of the World]: `Let your life preach, let your light shine, that your works may be seen.’ In other words, a testimony is an act that publicly witnesses or testifies to an aspect of our most basic spiritual beliefs; it is an outward expression of something that the Inward Light has revealed to an individual or a group of people.” … “I believe there are five essential characteristics that define a behavior as a Quaker testimony:

“A Testimony Originates in God “First and foremost, the behavior in question must be something we are divinely called or led to; not something we choose to do on our own. It arises out of `that of God’ within us, not `that of us.’

Contemporary Friends use a variety of terms to refer to the Divine: Spirit, the Inward Light, Christ, the One, God, Goddess, the unfolding of creation, and many, many others. The particular name doesn’t matter; what matters is that our reason, tradition, and personal preferences are not the source of our action. It comes from beyond us.”

“A Testimony Is a Public Behavior “Second, you must testify to a testimony. It comprises a consistent public behavior. Something I do only on occasion or in private, within my family or among close friends, is not a testimony. It may be a cherished practice, but it is not a testimony. For example, if I refer to Sunday as First Day when I’m among Quakers but call it Sunday whenever I’m talking to non-Friends – that is, when I am in public – it is not a testimony. It’s just a quaint custom. In older versions of Quaker books of discipline, it is even referred to as hypocrisy.”

“A Testimony Is Communal, Not Personal “Third, if we are to refer to something as a Quaker testimony, it should be representative of our community. I have personal callings – I write about Quaker history and theology; I travel in the ministry. These activities are divinely inspired, and they are certainly public behaviors. They are testimonies, but personal testimonies, not Quaker testimonies. They are good and valuable work, but I need to distinguish them from the work God has called the Quaker community to do.

“A Testimony is Challenging “Fourth, a testimony is challenging; it might be called `a cross to the will.’ This comes in two flavors: First, it’s a challenge to my own will because it requires me to act outside my comfort zone. Second and equally important, offering this witness is a challenge to the will of others.”

“A Testimony Is Rooted in Love “Fifth and finally, a testimony flows from and expresses love – God’s love and our love.”

“Few have stated this better than John Woolman. In his journal, he described making a dangerous journey to visit with Native Americans who were at war with white settlers in central Pennsylvania: `I was led to think on the nature of the exercise which hath attended me. Love was the first motion, and thence a concern arose to spend some time with the Indians, that I might feel and understand their life, and the spirit the live in.’

“Love came first. Woolman felt God’s love for himself and God’s equal love for the Native Americans. In going to meet with `the enemy’ and treating them as fellow children of God, Woolman publicly testified to that love. An action that it not consistent with God’s love cannot be a testimony.”

“Still, you might ask how it is an act of love to insult people by refusing to address them as they were accustomed to or by wearing hopelessly plain dress. The answer is that Friends were witnessing to the fact that all honor and glory are due to God alone (1 Timothy 1:17). People estranged themselves from God when they believed they were entitled to honorific titles or primped themselves with needless and self-aggrandizing ornamentation on their clothing. Love for them – concern for their souls – required that Friends preach humility and reconciliation with their plain clothes and plain speech” (Buckley, pp. 2-6).

Friends, as you know, Worship & Ministry has been exploring the question of what worship formats/schedule will best serve our community in this post-pandemic world. We have tested various options for in-person worship, online worship, and a blend of both. Thank you to the many Friends who have contributed their thoughts over these many months, including at the deeply helpful Listening Session.

With this input from our community, and with the guidance of the Light, W&M is finally ready to recommend a proposed schedule that we will bring to Business Meeting for approval:

We propose that our primary form of worshiping together be through blended Meetings, with the fourth Sunday of each month reserved for the holding of separate online and in-person Meetings.

It is our sense and our hope that we can find unity as a community on this schedule.

A few important additional points:

1) For practical reasons, we need to schedule our upcoming worship before this proposal can be taken up at Business Meeting, so we will implement this new schedule starting in November.

2) To give everyone a full month's worth of experience with the new schedule, we will plan to bring this proposal to the December Business Meeting.

3) The Blended Meeting Support Committee (the newly formed committee that is overseeing the technical aspects of our blended Meetings) will be dedicated to the work of sustaining and improving the technical experience of those worshiping both online and in the Meetinghouse. A HUGE shout-out and thank you to those volunteers who have been doing this work all the while, and to the new committee members who will be carrying this baton forward.

4) W&M is also exploring ways to set up an additional, regularly-occurring Meeting for Worship for those Friends who wish to experience tech-free worship more than once a month. Currently, we're looking into whether we could hold a tech-free Sunday Meeting for Worship at 8:30 am once or twice a month, in addition to the Fourth Sunday, when -- if the community adopts this new schedule -- worship would be tech-free in the Meetinghouse at the regular time (with separate online worship at the same time).

Thank you Friends, for all of your support and patience as we have undertaken this work. As always, we are very welcoming of feedback, and -- in particular -- if you would be interested in attending separately-scheduled, tech-free Meetings for Worship in the Meetinghouse in the 8:30 am timeframe, it would be very helpful to know of that interest. Feel free to contact any member of Worship & Ministry.

For our families impacted by the tropical storm.

Dear Santa Monica Friends:

Please mark your calendars for our Adult Education Session on Sunday, September 3, 2023 at noon (blended). The topic explores what it means for Friends to live in a process of "unity" and what it will take to put disunity behind us.

Here's the session's details and I will attach the session here as well.

Quaker Unity and Disunity

Brian Drayton’s Messages to Meetings (San Francisco, CA: Inner Light Books, 2021)

This will be a blended session on September 3, 2023 at noon.

This session will be clerked by members of Adult Education. Please email us at [email protected] if you wish to join via Zoom.

On Sunday, August 27 at 12:00 pm, W&M will hold a (blended) dedicated Worship Sharing session on the topic of our Meeting format(s). As Quakers, our path to unity is through shared worship. As stated by Friends General Conference:

"Worship sharing focuses on a particular question and helps us to explore our own experience and share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversation. It seeks to draw us into sacred space, where we can take down our usual defenses, and encounter each other in 'that which is eternal.'"

What is (and isn't) unity?

Unity does not necessarily mean agreement; it can encompass wide differences in opinion, emotion, and purpose.

A Friend may have a strong personal commitment to a preferred outcome, yet be in unity with the sense of the meeting that decides on a different path, recognizing that the decision is the right way forward for the group as a whole at a particular time.

Unity is love, not likeness; centering our affection for one another aids the process.

We do not necessarily expect unity to arrive from this initial session, but we would welcome it! Additional sessions may be scheduled as necessary. As the time draws closer, we will share the particular query to be focused on when we come together for this special worship. For now, please save the date and continue to hold this query in your heart and in the Light:

How do we best meet our members' and attenders' varying worship needs and preferences within an inclusive and cohesive community?

Given the changing nature of the pandemic and the government guidelines, Santa Monica Meeting will no longer require proof of vaccination before Friends may attend in-person worship. Although we recognize that the Covid virus is still very much with us, our sense is that we can trust Friends to act with integrity in deciding whether to attend meeting in person and to respect and care for each other's health and welfare in creating a safe space for all attenders. For example, to mask or not when attending, and refraining from attendance if one has symptoms that might be due to Covid.

We will continue to monitor the situation and make changes as necessary.

Two individuals who attended Sunday Worship in person on January 8th were diagnosed to have Covid infection on Wednesday, January 11. Where they became infected is not known.

This event is being put on by a Friends mtg on the east coast.

On behalf of our Adult Education Committee, we want to invite you to join us on Sunday, February 5, 2023 at noon via Zoom to listen to Abby A present her spiritual journey to our community.

Here’s what Abby wrote to us about her session: “At my second meeting for worship, I found myself standing up during joys and sorrows, and saying, `My joy is being welcomed into this meeting.’ In my presentation, I will share what led to me that moment and a little bit about what has followed.”

Please email us for the Zoom link at [email protected].

Friends:

I just wanted to say Happy New Year and to say that we will not be presenting one of our spiritual journey sessions on January 1, 2023.

As I indicated at the rise of Meeting on Christmas Day, I invite everyone to hold Tim V in Light and Love as he celebrates his birthday on January 1st, 2023!

We will be hosting one more (at least) spiritual journey session in 2023. Abby Adorney will present her spiritual journey on February 5, 2023 at noon, probably both via Zoom and in-person.

Please stay-tuned for more information!

Warm and loving holiday greetings,

Stan (for Adult Education)

Orange Grove/Pasadena Quakers are hosting an online Zoom meeting tonight at 7:30 pm. Here is their message: "Join us for a discussion about how we as individuals, as members of the OGMM community, and Quakerism itself can adapt so to better welcome, embrace, and provide for the spiritual needs of all who come through our doors. Whom do I include in my definition of ‘we’? How does the way I carry myself and interact with all I meet reflect the continuing revelation of Quakerism?"

If you would like the Zoom link, please email us at [email protected].

Contemplative Reading Group Session on Sunday, December 18 2022 at 8:30 will be in a blended format! As an experiment, we will present this reading session in a blended manner, meaning that some of us will be at the meetinghouse at 8:30 and in person yet doing the Zoom session from Harvard Street. We will provide coffee and bagels after the session and right before worship. Please join us either in person or via zoom! For the Zoom information, please email us at [email protected]

Please join us for the Peace and Social Action committee meeting this Sunday at 12:30 pm via Zoom. Among other things we will be discussing our plans for a January program to help us address the conflict in this country and our response. Bayard Rustin said, “The proof that one truly believes is in action." This committee is that active arm of our faith. Email us at [email protected] for the Zoom info.

Eleanor Barrett’s Spiritual Journey on December 4, 2022 at noon via Zoom

Please join us and listen to Eleanor Barrett’s spiritual journey. We will record her talk and then have an opportunity for a conversion with Eleanor. Please email us for the Zoom link- [email protected]

Friends,

Please join us for the Peace and Social Action program about the Friends Women's Association (FWA) of Burundi and their Health Clinic and maternity hospital. Santa Monica Friends have a long-term relationship with FWA and are happy to have Parfaite come and speak with us again. The program will be this coming Sunday at noon. Please email us for the Zoom link: [email protected].

Dear Friends: Please join us for the upcoming Peace & Social Action committee meeting this Sunday, Oct 23 at 12:30 pm. We will be discussing upcoming programs and the Urgent Call to Action among other things. We will met via zoom. Please email us for the zoom link at [email protected].

A local event that may be of interest.

Our peace & social action committee met today (Jan 23), via Zoom at 12:30 pm. To see what was discussed, click the link below.

Jan 23 peace & social action mtg - Google Drive