Friends Bulletin

PACIFIC, NORTH PACIFIC AND INTERMOUNTAIN YEARLY MEETINGS OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Volume 57, Number 4

December 1988

"Angels from nnj realms

OF GLORY,

Wing your flight o'er aix hie earth;

Ye who sang creation's

STORY,

IVow proclaim Messiah's birth:

Come and worship, come

AND WORSHIP,

Worship Christ,

THE NEW-BORN IilNG."

In This Issue:

Christmas and the Christian Ethic ... Shirley Ruth

Thoughts on a Theology of Service ... Asia Bennett

North Pacific Yearly Meeting Epistle ... Jane Snyder

Chartres, Poem by Phyllis Thompson

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FRIENDS BULLETIN

FRIENDS BULLETIN (USPS 859-220)

2160 Lake St., San Francisco, CA 94121 Telephone: (415) 752-7440 Shirley Ruth, Editor

Corresponding Editors Sarah Sarai, NPYM, 2603 N. 82nd,

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Thornton, CXO 80233 Elizabeth Church, IMYM, 4 ArcoN.W.,

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The official organ of news and opinion of Pacific, North Pacific and Intermountain Yearly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends.

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PACIFIC YEARLY MEETING OFFICERS

Presiding Clerk: Hermione Baker, 8885 Frontera Ave., Yucca Valley, CA 92284 Assistant Clerk: Marilee Eusebio, 1702 Baywood Lane,

Davis, CA 95616

Treasurers: Virginia and Walter Klein, 4509 Pavlov Ave.,

San Diego, CA 92122

NORTH PACIFIC YEARLY MEETING OFFICERS

Presiding Clerk: Gary Hubbe, 1060A W. 17th Ave., Eugene, OR 97402

Steering Committee Clerk: Anne St. Germain, 6201 - 15th N.E.,

Redmond, WA 98052

Treasurer: Norman Pasche, 6715 Olympic Dr., Everett, WA 98203

INTERMOUNTAIN YEARLY MEETING OFFICERS Presiding Clerk: Mary Dudley, 2628 Granada, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87105

Continuing Committee Clerk: Marian Hoge, 31 1 1 La Ronda PL, Albuquerque, NM 87110

Treasurer: Kitty Bejnar, Rt. 2, Box 94, Socorro, NM 87801

Christmas and the Christian Ethic

As I edited Asia Bennett’s address to North Pacific Yearly Meeting, preparing to publish it in this issue, I recognized its message of defending refugees in our country from government oppression as a response firmly rooted in the Christian ethic.

Rereading the New Testament accounts of the birth of Jesus, one is reminded in Matthew 2 : 13 - 15 that Joseph was instructed in a dream to take the newborn Jesus and his mother Mary, to leave all that was familiar and theirs, to escape to Egypt as exiles since Herod sought to find and destroy Jesus. No account was written of that early refugee experience. We are not told the homely details: the fears and anxieties, the possible deprivations and sufferings. They were a laborer’s family surely without wealth or power. Who aided them? Who fed and sheltered them? How did Joseph make a living in Egypt? We know only that the family eventually returned to Galilee and Nazareth. We do not know how long the sojourn in Eygpt extended.

Later in his public ministry, Jesus spoke out of a compassion that may have had its beginnings in this early experience of exile: “For I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me ...” (Matt. 25: 35 - 40) All these acts which are the bases of the Christian ethic, defined a new divine/human equation: “Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these my brethern, you have done it unto me.” The poor and homeless, the vulnerable and powerless are like me, Jesus said. Care for them as you would care for me.

Then in Ezekiel 22: 29 - 30 the prophet describes the corruption of a country in which “The people of the land are bullies and robbers; they ill-treat the unfortunate and the poor; they are unjust and cruel to the alien. I looked for a man among them who could build up a barricade, who could stand before me in the breach to defend the land from ruin; but I found no such man.”

It is always a risk to “stand in the breach” to

confront injustice done to the powerless. Many of the

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Asia Bennett at NPYM

Photo by Peter Schiitte

Thoughts on a Theology of Service, An Address to North

Pacific Yearly Meeting

by Asia Bennett, AFSC Executive Secretary, Philadelphia, and Friend in Residence, NPYM

Dear Friends, I am tremendously pleased to be here with you at North Pacific Yearly Meeting. As one who was a participant/observer in the founding of this Yearly Meeting, but who hasn’t been with you for more than ten years, this is a satisfying homecoming. Many of you I know well. Others are new friends.

The mix of old and new acquaintance made me uncertain what I might best say to you. I reflected that the process of preparing a talk is something like the process of centering down in meeting for worship. One slowly puts aside the busy-ness of the daily round. At first there may be formlessness, restlessness, even a touch of panic. Then a gathering of ideas begins and a testing of threads binding together a few thoughts. It takes waiting and patience and hard work. During the period of anticipation, one’s attention may be caught by the odd idea or anecdote, a bit of quotation or poetry. When preparation goes well and a kind of centering down is experienced, new patterns emerge.

There are three threads in the pattern I want to follow with you. First, I want to talk about growing up (or growing older) with the AFSC. Then, I want to consider a theology of service and in that context to discuss leading and preparation for Quaker work. Finally, I hope to share an example from the AFSC’s current expert ence which I believe illustrates the process through which preparation and leading are translated into work.

My direct involvement with the American Friends Service Committee began nearly two decades ago, right here in the Pacific Northwest. John Sullivan was the regional executive secretary. Ann Stever was active on committees. Soon, the two of them had drawn me into committee service with the high school program and the new urban affairs effort. Then John was called to Philadelphia and Arthur Dye succeeded him. Ann was

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(Theology of Service: continued from page 63) chairing the Urban Affairs Committee; and I was persuaded to chair an Education Committee formed out of interest generated within the last AFSC VISA program. In a pattern similar to generalist assign- ments overseas, several young men and women had various jobs in Seattle and Portland schools. I was working at the Little School in Seattle, with three and four year old children as I had in other places, as well as doing administrative work with teachers and parents. Our own kids were growing up; my husband Lee was in the Oceanography Department at the University of Washington; and I was going to the University around the edges.

I remember chairing the first meeting of the Education Committee. I was so panicked by the responsibility that I couldn’t have told you afterwards a thing about it. Fortunately, someone else was taking minutes. In the course of several months we devel- oped a program plan which was to be funded with left over VISA money from Philadelphia and at the end of a summer of uncertainty, I was hired as the staff. I had had to let Little School go forward with planning for the next year and give up the job I loved long before it was clear what the Service Committee would decide. In the years since, whenever someone complains about AFSC personnel processes, I think of that summer.

Two summers later, I recall telephoning Ann Stever from a pay phone, somewhere in the Oregon volcanic country where our family was vacationing, to hear that the Regional Executive Committee had offered me the job of regional executive secretary. It was 1973 and I was the first woman to have been appointed long-term to such a job, although several women (including Virginia Barnett), had done interim stints in various regions. I don’t know for whom it was scarier to plunk me into that job, the executive committee or myself! However, after all those years of teaching and working with teachers and parents, I fondly imagined I would find the “people relations” part of the job easiest and the budget work the hardest. I can remember sitting in our Seattle backyard that August trying to understand the regional budget Arthur Dye had prepared the previous spring. Once I got the hang of it, it was clear that budgets are easy compared to the dilemmas that

people and programs present.

During John’s, Arthur’s and my years in the region, the world was changing and with it the Service Committee. The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam war wrenched the country out of the complacencies of my adolescent and young adult years. The generation formed in the Second World War and particularly by the experience of Civilian Public Service continued in prominent leadership with the AFSC and the Society of Friends. The consciousness of younger people growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s confronted some of the ways the Committee had learned to work with young people and with communities in the United States. Partici- pation in the Civil Rights Movement, followed by challenges arising out of the Black Power Movement, began to transform our sensibilities. The Service Committee was challenged by an ethic of empower- ment to complement the ethic of caring to which Friends’ work is forever drawn. In the Vietnam war era, AFSC struggled to reconcile the experience of work “on the ground” in Vietnam with an active role in the peace movement here. During that time, as is currently true in relation to liberation movements in Africa and Central America, the challenges to religious pacifism became increasingly acute. The intensity with which many felt compelled to bend every effort toward stopping the war seemed to some to threaten the right balance of AFSC work.

In the same period, social optimism was fueled by the promises of the New Society and the Great Society despite the ominous tragedies of the King and Kennedy assassinations. The Nixon era retreat of our government from responsibility to all citizens, which the AFSC often called the “assault on poor people,” undermined this hopefulness. At the same time an increasing consciousness of the effect of international debt and trade relationships prompted new concern for economic as well as social and political justice. In the international area, AFSC work continued to include international affairs program as well as relief and reconstruction. There were programs located in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Small scale economic development efforts intended to reduce the vulnerability of communities became a favorite methodology often funded by European govemment/church sources to which AFSC

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gained access through the good offices of Friends in those countries. With the joining of two interna- tional divisions, service and affairs, into one, and with the post-Vietnam growth of peace education attention to Africa and Central America, there is now greater emphasis on applying the lessons learned abroad in our own country. The whole of the Committee’s experience over the past two decades has heightened consciousness about the evils of interven- tionism in U.S. foreign policy. Especially in this hemisphere, military, economic and political intervention has emerged as a theme over many decades to be confronted by peace makers and proponents of justice, alike.

Such a sweeping sketch is necessarily incomplete and only points up some of the ways the content and methods in Service Committee work have changed in two decades. During the same period, also in response to changes “out there,” we have changed internally. Sometimes the changes have been intentional, with well-articulated goals. At other points, we’ve set processes in motion without knowing what the outcomes might be, or we have simply adapted to demands from the environment on our complex organization. I’ll mention a few examples.

We very consciously developed an affirmative action policy and plan. Part of the impetus was from the outside. The U.S. government and laws prompted affirmative action as a follow up to imperatives from the Civil Rights Movement. In the Service Commit- tee, the development of an affirmative action plan responded to clear openings growing out of fundamen- tal principles as well as experience of the Civil Rights Movement and rising feminist consciousness. These movements were given organizational form during the 1970’s in the Third World Coalition and the Nationwide Women’s Program which have become institutionalized in the present day Service Commit- tee. In common with affirmative action, they influence our thinking about program, what we do and how we do it. Many practices that were identi- fied as problematic for a Quaker organization a decade or two ago were modified as our consciousness became more tender to distinctions of race, gender, class and sexual orientation. The intention is to institutional- ize our transformed consciousness in our practice, and in many ways we have succeeded. I doubt whether

that work is ever done in a prejudiced society where class, race and gender persist as impediments to relating to one another.

Two decades ago, when I came into the Service Committee, there had been a period of flowering of work in the United States, sustained with some adjustments into the present. One expression of this expansion was the growth of regional offices to a high number of thirteen in the mid-1960’s, back to nine at present, along with around three times that number of program offices scattered around the United States. Here in the Northwest, a Seattle region grew up in response to Japanese- American relocation in the early 40’s and later a Portland region was initiated out of response to material aids needs during and after World War II. Still later, Montana work was added as CPS men who had been “smoke jumpers” settled there.

One region was created out of all three offices in the late 1950’s for reasons of efficiency. All of the Northwest offices were distinguished from early times by work with Native American people. Virginia Barnett and many others still active in the Yearly Meeting can tell you the story of those beginnings.

The Service Committee is an amazing organization in many ways. It is a continuing wonderment to me, especially from the point of view of my present job, that we manage to live up to an ideal of decentralized program development and implementation, largely through this regional structure. At the same time that we are clearly one organization, mutually interdepend- ent and governed firmly by a Quaker Board of Directors, drawn (in contrast to 25 years ago) from all over the United States. We are trying to mirror forth the diversity valued in our affirmative action efforts. The consultative, cooperative and interdependent relationships required to keep us going are extraordi- nary and challenge the imagination of the uniniti- ated!

To make it work in the present day we’ve had to regularize and professionalize our fundraising, income- sharing and reporting arrangements. We have given more attention to selecting, training and supporting our staff members. We have become more self- conscious about program design and evaluation.

At the same time, we are chronically and often painfully over-extended. Among the myriad of

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(Theology of Service : continued from page 65) valuable and good things we might do, it is hard to rule out any efforts for which we can possibly raise up funds and release human energies.

One of the recent challenges given to me and my colleagues working in the Philadelphia office, which I would as soon have avoided, is the unionization of 110 of the staff working there out of 140 total staff. There were probably many reasons that those who voted to be represented by AFSCME District Council 47, in ratio of about 3 to 2, chose that course. Some felt troubled that they were not adequately able to participate in decisions about their working lives, including salary and benefits. Service Committee governance is complex, with responsiblity balanced between Board, committees and staff. At the same time, there is a promise implicit in Friends’ decision- making processes, of inclusiveness for those who have interest in the outcome. The kind of overstretched- ness I referred to earlier is also a problem. Not only is it hard to choose, but it can be hard to justify choices. Those things some of us think are very important may be much less a priority for others. While the Service Committee has supported the right of workers to organize since 1937, when the Board passed a minute to that effect, this is a new, and for many, a troubling prospect. Ironically, some have seen it as a sign of “unQuakerliness” in the AFSC while others just as strongly believe that Quaker ideals are well served by this new experiment. After months of anxiety and at points, real anguish, I am able to feel confident that we, together, those colleagues in the union and those with explicit management roles, will find the way to go forward to make it work out for the good of the Service Committee. The Board of Directors and Personnel Committee have had their own struggles in coming to terms with the prospect, but their evident care and concern for all of the Service Committee staff gives me heart.

Of course, as the Service Committee has grown up, become more complex and more diverse, the challenges of relating to the Society of Friends have sharpened. While the Service Committee has not belonged exclusively to the Society of Friends since early times, there now are perhaps fewer opportunities for broadly shared experience among Friends and AFSC folk than at other periods. Recall that many of

those who came into Quaker leadership as a result of the experience of Civilian Public Service, which was administered by AFSC, also came into Quakerism through that avenue. That process is still going on — I believe there are people in this room who found the Religious Society of Friends through the AFSC.

As I have reflected on a whole variety of attempts to promote interaction between the Service Commit- tee and the wider Society of Friends, it seems to me that there are connections missing which tend to undermine the effort. One set of problems may come from the scarcity of shared experience. This diver- gence is more noticeable in an era when the Service Committee is becoming less culturally Quaker. That in itself often sets up a difficult dynamic, where Friends get frustrated with the Service Committee for seeming to be awfully self-satisfied and sure of its own direction while at the same time it may appear to have abandoned the cherished patterns of earlier times. Then Service Committee folk are apt to respond defensively, feeling misunderstood or perhaps criticized on matters of form rather than substance. Often, we feel bound by responsibility to communities with whom and on whose behalf we work in this country and overseas, communities who have given us their trust and to whom we are accountable. This enormously complicates the questions of accountabil- ity to the Society of Friends. As one who believes that the Society of Friends and the Service Commit- tee need each other and have mutual stake in remaining engaged, I hope we can think freshly about our dilemma.

If we look back over seven decades, it’s clear the Service Committee was bom at a moment when there were enormous stresses and strains within the Quaker movement, both theological and experiential. There seems no question that AFSC became an effective vehicle of Quaker witness because, from its begin- nings, it gave expression to an essential aspect of our faith. A religious understanding of the Divine Seed within each human being translates into a commit- ment to respect others. In common with members of many faiths, we Friends believe we are required to express our love of God in service to others. I am always conscious of the special privilege I have had of working first with young children and then with the Service Committee. Most Friends act out our witness

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of service through our jobs, through our meetings and community organizations, and in sharing our financial resources or in small direct occasions of every day life. But, because our particular religious experience depends very much on community, we are drawn to the possibility of joining in particular organizational efforts to “see what love can do” and many of us agree with Rufus Jones that “the nature of religion is essentially social, an affair of the beloved commu- nity.”

I said earlier that the Service Committee also needs the Society of Friends. I mean that in several ways. We need to nurture the religious basis for our work. I especially value those Quaker instincts that help us look for small, practical ways to address large, complex problems. We depend on the balance of contemplation and action, testing and leading that characterizes the search for guidance as practiced by Friends. In a fine talk to an AFSC meeting last fall, Quaker physician Marjorie Nelson explored the role of religion in the AFSC. She suggests that the Committee “is an indispensable organ of the Society of Friends for it allows the Society of Friends to perform certain functions that are an inherent manifestation of their religion that cannot be as well done by any other vehicle.” She believes that the role of religion in AFSC “is to permit and prompt each one of us to ask always, in each new situation, ‘Where is God in all this?”’

The Service Committee is dependent on the discipline of Friends’ method, albeit adapted to fit our situation. As a maturing entity which has changed over the decades through the very dynamic of its work, the Service Committee flourishes from its roots in the insights and principles of the Religious Society of Friends. Both the Service Committee and the Society of Friends must depend on worshipful waiting and seeking for guidance as we try to apprehend the New Creation, a transformed society in which justice and peace will prevail.

The Society of Friends needs the windows of Service Committee experience. Through the Committee’s work in the world, the search by the extended human family for justice and peace is glimpsed in its beauty and pain, failures and courage. Friends are appropriately wary of vicarious experience, but value the impulse to work with and for others, for

reconciliation and understanding across boundaries of all kinds. We aspire to opportunities for ourselves and our children to do and see directly, but we also have a tradition of releasing others to travel and work on behalf of Friends.

If the AFSC, which indeed began as a vehicle for a service of love in war time for young Friends and a few others, is after seven decades no longer a ready avenue for service by Friends, what other opportunities are there? What is the meaning of service in our lives as members of the Religious Society of Friends? What are the definitions of service, witness, mission that we find true for us, now, as Friends in the world of the 1980’s?

I have a notion that these are topics that it would be useful to chew over among Friends and Service Committee-connected folk. I don’t know where that would lead and I think we risk some frustration and conflict if we try, but I think it might be worth it.

This is the idea I had when I spoke of a “theology of service.”

Some of you will have had a chance to read the talk Steve Cary gave at a consultation called by the World Council of Churches in Glion, Switzerland.

Hie Friends World Committee invited him to contribute on behalf of Friends to the Christian dialogue “Regarding Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation.” Steve’s message is about a theology of service.

Both in the Service Committee and among Friends, I hear service talked about in many different ways. Service is assumed to be a good thing, but often the motivation for service is not addressed and its character not discussed. Sometimes service and advocacy are juxtaposed, so that religiously-inspired service is contrasted with secular, political social change efforts. At other times, any well-intentioned activity is assumed to be rightly led. For some, the extent to which our efforts are based on analysis and skillfully planned are measures of their spiritual or secular nature. Put too starkly, service is “pure;” social change work is not.

Service may be recommended as a method for learning, or because it feels good, or builds commu- nity, or is a visible expression of an inward impulse. These and many other statements may be true and

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(Theology of Service: continued from page 67) valid but incomplete as descriptions of the essential reasons for Friends and Quaker institutions to be concerned with service.

I haven’t worked out the elements of my own theology of service let alone what a Quaker theology of service might include. Certainly, there would be room for a good deal of variety to accomodate the richness and diversity present within contemporary Quakerdom. There surely would be conflict and argument should the effort be made to articulate a statement that included and weighted all of the elements which those of us from different streams within the Quaker movement might find appropriate. Within a single Yearly Meeting or even Monthly Meeting, we could find ourselves in prolonged discussion if we were to reach unity in any systematic way.

I was fortunate to have the recent experience of participation in a Mission and Service Conference called by the Friends World Committee. I came away with the sense that trying to articulate a shared theology of service may not be so airy a notion as it at first seems. In April, 26 Friends from around the globe gathered at Woodbrooke, the Quaker study center in Birmingham, England. We were invited as general secretaries or representatives from Friends’ organizations. Since 1973, FWCC has convened five such gatherings intended as occasions for dialogue and deepened acquaintance among Friends’ groups with very different approaches to witness, as the title Mission and Service suggests. The days together were spent in worship and sharing of experience and perspectives. Our focus was on listening to each other rather than on arguing over differences. It is a poignant reflection of the state of the Religious Society of Friends that we were so delighted that we have much in common and that we were able (apparently for the first time in one of these gather- ings) to affirm our diversity as a strength rather than a problem. The varities of approach, reflecting varied theological emphases, included an account of the planting of new congregations through “telephone evangelism;” reports of Quaker international affairs work at the UN in Geneva; my shorthand (and borrowed) description of the AFSC as a 72 year old organization “devoted to making peace and trouble;”

the excitement of a fledgling Quaker service body in Australia with special interest in work in Kampuchea; and the difficulties of Friends’ relationships in Western Kenya. The presence of Friends from Latin America meant that all discussions were simultane- ously translated into English, or Spanish, as appropri- ate. The exceptions were tearful prayers in the Aymara Indian language, offered by a Friend from Bolivia, poured out with an intensity George Fox might well have found familiar. We managed to write a fine epistle and in good universal Quaker style drew up some queries. Among these: What is ministry?

Can ministry, service and mission be separated? How can we test our concerns and avoid being judgmental? How do we understand and use conflict among Friends in a creative way? And finally how can we pray for and support each others’ work — for all the work undertaken by Friends’ mission and service bodies?

In the same way that those of us at the Mission and Service Conference found a method to practice dialogue, I imagine that any theological discussions that might be undertaken between the Service Committee and the Society of Friends should focus on points of agreement before examining differences. Some months ago, John Sullivan sent me a quotation from an article by Dean Ronald Thiemann at the Harvard Divinity School, noting its applicability to the AFSC. Thiemann is speaking of the role of his divinity school in helping to construct a new vision in American public life. He thinks the divinity school must function as an intellectual and spiritual community and says: “We strive to be a community in which the conversation is rigorous yet open, critical yet candid .... The diversity and disagreements that surface among us are signs that we are a living and vibrant community . . .. The greatest danger we face is that our diversity will lead to fragmentation — to the creation of separate communities of discourse, each locked into its own sub-world of reality, with its own standard of judgment.”

Surely, a Quaker and AFSC theology of service would need to be expansive enough to embrace the impulse to mission and service to which you or I as individuals may find opportunities to give expression — the small, personal acts of caring that are part of being human. I think it should also encompass the

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witness of a complex organizational entity such as the Service Committee, able to bring the resources of experience, skill, testing of leading through commit- tee processes, the funds of contributors and capacity for sustained staff attention to addressing difficult problems. At the most fundamental level, it would help us address Marge Nelson’s wonderfully simple question, “Where is God in all of this?” Rather than removing conflict in our visions and making easy our choices, it would help us, I believe, affirm many avenues, many approaches.

The next level of discussion would be equally tough. How should we make choices among all those things that a concerned Friends’ organization (which does not belong only to Friends) might do? How do we know when we are rightly led?

I am particularly drawn to the thinking of two contemporary Friends on the matter of “leading” in the Quaker sense. Greg Cox, a professional philoso- pher and ethicist, spoke to our gathering of AFSC fundraisers last spring. His Pendle Hill pamphlet is called Bearing Witness: Quaker Process and a Culture of Peace. He decribes five stages from opening to action: quieting impulses, addressing concerns, gathering consensus, finding clearness and bearing witness. He notes that “The five can occur in worship, in meeting for business, in hassling things out with a spouse or employer, in working for a Nuclear Freeze. They can occur through all of life and they should. We can focus on one of the five at a time, in which case they seem like stages or steps. Alternatively, we can look at any given moment of the process and be aware of the ways in which all five should always be present.

In that case, they seem like levels or aspects.”

Paul Lacey, a professor of English at Earlham, who is also a Friendly philosopher, just spent a June weekend with our Board, helping us to think about roles and decision-making. His Pendle Hill series of essays includes: Quakers and the Use of Power (which we used as background for the Board’s discussion) Leading and Being Led and the brand new Education and the Inward Teacher. I recommend each of them. Paul kindly sent me the text of his talk to New York Yearly Meeting of last summer. A theme in this talk is how concerns arise and become leadings. He describes the process of gathering information, discussing facts and consequences, individually and

corporately, at the human level while “at the same time, because we are trying to discover a Divine Leading, we try to open ourselves to activity at a deeper level of intuition and insight.” We take all of our anxiety and uncertainty “into the light before the Divine intelligence and hold it there until patterns of understanding emerge, the facts take on their proper significance, the fragments connect themselves into meanings, in something like the way the words of spoken ministry are given to us.”

Finally, I want to turn to the example of prepara- tion and searching for a new level of understanding which is the third strand of my talk. At the same June Board meeting, to which Paul Lacey served as a resource, we shared an experience of being led much as described just now. A wonderful aspect of that experience was that the Board was able to say: We are clear that we are ready to take these next steps, without knowing where the path will ultimately lead. The particular discussion was on AFSC’s response to provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 or IRC A. The issues are complex, drawing on central aspects of Service Committee experience over many years. The risks of the course we have chosen are serious; the choice to put more effort here means other work will not be done. We are eager to share the concern “within the family” of the Society of Friends as we move forward on the way that is opening before us.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 presents troubling challenges to Friends, individually and as employers. It mandates employers to require new staff to produce two forms of identification that prove eligibility to work; both the new staff and the employer must sign a form under penalty of law, stating, respectively, that the presented documents are valid and that they have been examined.

This aspect of the law’s employer-reporting requirements is designed to make it illegal for undocumented people to gain employment and for employers to hire those designated as un-employable by the government. It is but one aspect of complex legislation that brings the full force of the federal government against those who have fled poverty, warfare or repression in countries like Mexico, Guatemala or El Salvador.

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( Theology of Service: continued from page 69)

Friends have long been engaged in service to immigrants and refugees in the U.S. and around the world. The Sanctuary movement is one contempo- rary example. Quaker work in Europe with refugees is another. Yet this law requires that we become an arm of the state as it seeks to protect U.S. privilege from newcomers.

Several Friends' organizations and other religious groups are currently struggling with the implications of the law for them as employers. AFSC is one of these. We are preparing to file suit claiming that the new law is a violation of our First Amendment rights to freedom of religion. We and others believe that the exclusionary nature of the current immigra- tion policy flies in the face of profound religious values. As employers, we must grapple with the issue as it relates to individual conscience; how will we respond to a new staff person who, on grounds of conscience, will not provide the required papers?

AFSC has devoted major resources to immigra- tion work over the past decade. We see it in relation to broad concern for inequities among neighboring nations and U.S. economic and military policies which force people to flee their homelands. We see it in relation to human rights issues and economic justice in our own society. For the last many months an ad hoc committee, appointed at the Board's request, has engaged in its own process of writing, reflection and deliberation. It has insured a wide consultative process throughout all of the Service Committee. The Board had several opportunities for its own discussions. This was the matter that came to the Board of Directors at its meeting late in June. The extended meeting time and the residential setting at Pendle Hill allowed for deliberate process. Finally, on Sunday morning, following meeting for worship, the Board entered into a long and powerful consideration of how we should move ahead. There was general recognition that the importance of the issue had implications for AFSC that might well propel us into a focus on this issue comparable to that which we gave to the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights Movement. The discussion revealed that we don't know everything we need to know, but that acknowledgement allowed Board members to say that we are ready to

embark on a journey. As the discussion went on, one member was inspired to make a basic value statement. She reflected on the testimony of nonviolence and on the fact that there are many kinds of violence. She felt that the violence we are all being asked to take part in, in relation to refugees and immigrants, was “to refuse food, to stand in places of power and stamp on the capacity for self respect, to use power to cut another human being off from a livelihood.''

The affirmative legal suit began to be seen as buying time “to behave decently while we search for more clarity on all of these points'' and engage Friends in further discussion. There was an important time of worship. An hour and a half into Sunday morning's discussion, the Board was clearly led to move ahead in a number of ways, which together promise to deepen our work on immigra- tion and make our witness more powerful.

The Board discussion confirmed that in order to minimize unnecessary risks and so as not to place the organization in the position of advising others to do what we have not done, we should avoid advocacy of noncompliance. We will, in the development of the lawsuit, be seeking every “friend in court" who shares our views, but that is not a program for urging noncompliance.

The American Friends Service Committee was founded in order to give expression to Friends’ belief that all human life is sacred. From our earliest days and throughout more than 70 years AFSC has met the needs of people displaced by war, famine, political upheaval and poverty through programs around the world. We have worked with refugees and immigrants in the United States, assisting them to find homes and jobs and to defend their rights.

AFSC has sought to provide such a system across lines of nationality and race which have described the “national interest" in terms which place some groups outside the protection of the law and beyond the reach of citizens’ concerns.

Now it is time to do more, in a particular moment in our own country. It is time to take some risks, confident in our faith that we can do what is given to us to do. We plan to make a major announcement of the legal challenge in the Fall when the suit is filed.

In the meantime, we seek opportunities such as are

cut-off line

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DECEMBER 1988 — PAGE 71

available here to talk together with Friends, to gain further understanding and to test the leading of the Board that immigration issues reach some of the deepest aspects of Friends’ beliefs.

In preparing for the IRCA lawsuit, we were reminded of Clarence Pickett’s book For More Than Bread which chronicled the Service Committee between 1929, when he became executive secretary, and 1952. Think of the period his AFSC experience spanned: The Great Depression, World War II,

Korea, the Cold War; times when the Committee’s work with immigrants and refugees was central to its experience. It was during that period that the Committee began to wrestle with issues of economic justice as well as peacemaking, relief and reconstruc- tion. The closing words of his story are fresh today. Our tasks are:

"... to bring religion and life into one common endeavor. Religion finds its fullest expression in daily life and not alone in worship . . . and ... to maintain an abiding faith in the power of good to overcome evil, to live in that way of loving service for which we all most deeply yearn: nothing less than this kind of energetic commitment of our whole lives can satisfy the inner sanctuary of the human spirit. ”

Friend Ann St ever, University Meeting, was honored by NPYM during its sessions for her nearly 25 years of Quaker service with AFSC and NPYM. Ann retired as Executive Secretary of the Pacific Northwest Regional AFSC Office on October l, 1988.

North Pacific Yearly Meeting Epistle

To Friends Everywhere:

In the clear hot light of Oregon summer days and cool, full-moon nights, Friends of North Pacific Yearly Meeting gathered on the shady green campus of Linfie la College in McMinnville, Oregon. There were 452 of us, spanning all ages of life: 7 precious infants, 68 children aged 3 to 10, 65 youths aged 1 1 to 18, and 312 adults, including many beloved white- headed elders. The joyful sound of our laughing youngsters interrupt us at the oddest moments — we are a large family!

As we gathered in worshipful silence on our first evening together, Friends were asked to reflect on what has brought joy to our Meetings in the past year, what has brought sorrow, and what has deepened the Spirit among us. Some Meetings have experienced divisiveness, illness and death, and continuing concern for care of relationships. Some have found growth, new tasks, and a renewed sense of spiritual purpose. Some of us have come to this annual session with questions in our hearts, some with deep hurts, reaching out for the healing compassion of friends. Others nave come bubbling over with joy and love. We realize that our task this year is to take care of each other. The Spirit of love and reconciliation moves among us.

We were reminded of how valuable “Quaker process” can be in problem solving. Simple things make a difference, like seasoning concerns, sharing responsibility with our clerks, listening respectfully, turning often to the Source of guidance in the silence, and trusting where we are led.

Asia Bennett shared lessons learned through the growth of the American Friends Service Committee and challenged us to evolve a “theology of service,” to examine service, witness, mission and ministry in our own lives. We were also inspired by moving accounts from Friends who have served in A.F.S.C. projects in the Gaza Strip and among Jews and Palestinians in Israel and the United States. Touched by the hope and courage they display in the face of such conflict and despair, we turn to our task of service here, in our own Quaker family.

Our best service at this time comes from opening ourselves to God working through us. By listening to each other, soothing, and healing, and finding inner peace, perhaps we are laying the best foundation for service in the world. We urge all of you, Friends everywhere, to take good care of eacn other. Nourish and protect each other, be patient, and listen to one another. For as we love, we remember how dearly we are loved by the One who first loved us.

Peace with you, Jane Snyder, Presiding Clerk

PAGE 72 — DECEMBER 1988

FRIENDS BULLETIN

CHARTRES

Saints in the old stone of the portals Bless us.

Rain drizzles on slabs at the entrance.

Drops shape and fall down the iron staves of the fence. When I touch the door, the wood is colder than dawn.

Inside, by tangible olive or lavender light,

I find in all the things men made in praise of Him Why God so loved the world He forgave us.

The strong cathedral walls exhale our striving Like a vapor, almost alive,

Like our own breath.

I’m alone here, very nearly.

December’s rain keeps other travelers away.

But ghosts crowd Christ’s airy altars Through changes of raw light Still telling their prayers.

They have no other place to stay.

I fall silent, listening to them.

Like them, I have no home, unless it is here.

The chill of fear. I shudder.

Saints

Intercede for me.

I kneel, barren before God.

My work is no fit gift. It fails.

Burning, I bear my fault,

And offer tears, graceless as I look up,

lost

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER 1988 — PAGE 73

In the windows, stilled wheels Turning light. How they jewel the pillars and stir blue stain into glooms Flooding these ancient wooden carvings — All the great work of man given God Lives saved in their labor For centuries.

These ghosts are strong.

But has that been enough for them?

Even if our labor redeems us —

Us who for labor are cherished and changed — Is that enough for a life?

O altitudes

we walk among

out of our human love

I want to believe

more

Ministers of light!

than I have

in my hands,

If the red fruit had been wind-fallen from the appletree, given to eat,

If we had not had to weep or suffer or leave Paradise, absent ourselves From all that we loved best, would we not have come to Chartres anyhow? I know that I am naked

and must labor

and will die

Alone.

But I want back what grace once gave.

Still

Forgive me.

by Phyllis H. Thompson, Albuquerque Meeting from The Qhosts of Who We Were , pp. 21 - 22, reprinted with author's permission.

PAGE 74 — DECEMBER 1988

FRIENDS BULLETIN

Neil Hadley & Peter Schiitte, Dining Hall, NPYM

*£fc*J* *£*

*^ ****** *** W ********* *** *4^ ****** ***

BOOK REVIEW

by William Scott , Reno Meeting

Fritz Kunkel, Creation Continues , a psychological interpretation of Matthew's Qospel, 1987, Paulist Press, pb. $11.95 (reprint of 1973 edition.)

The reprinting of this work by the religiously- oriented “We-Psychologist” Fritz Kunkel is an important event for the Society of Friends. Kunkel describes the range, depth, and power of Matthew’s method of bringing his own students through the growth in consciousness that Jesus induced in his disciples. The special significance for us of this account is that it focuses attention on the attainment of a life lived in contact with the divine element that we variously name the Inward Light, the Holy Spirit, the Christ Within, or that of God within and among us.

Kunkel claims that Jesus was interested in religious self- education and nothing else. He held out a difficult way for the disciples and for us. Many of us modems start with an unavoidably egocentric form of individualism; but Jesus’ disciples were originally tribal, caught in the rigidities of the Jewish law. Jesus exerted a powerful attraction on his followers by his teaching and healing, moving them out of tribalism to what Kunkel calls the intermediate stage of spiritual feudalism, in which Jesus plays the role of the admired and beloved feudal lord.

Much is learned by the disciples in this state, but the heart of Jesus’ plan was to bring his friends beyond

Visual

Memories from NPYM

Young Friends , NPYM: Photo by Peter Schiitte

Junior Friends , NPYM: Photo by Peter Schutte

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER 1988 — PAGE 75

that stage of dependence into the state of conscious- ness of finding and following that of God within. Kunkel uses the term Christ for what we might call the humanness of God, first seen in Jesus but found in a personal way by the followers of his teaching throughout history. The final stage of Jesus’ life was his self-sacrifice, enabling the spirit of Christ to be abroad in the world. Although Kunkel disclaims putting any theology in his book, I like this kind of Christian theology — a good Quaker heresy!

The central idea of Matthew’s Gospel, as Kunkel sees it, is the coming of the Kingdom of God in this life. Kunkel refers to the Beatitudes and the five rules of life that follow them as “The Magna Charta of the Spiritual Evolution.” He takes the central beatitude as the starting point: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness ....” This he interprets as hungering for spiritual growth. Next to be considered in Kunkel’s view of Matthew’s artistry are the meek who shall inherit the earth, or at least a little corner of it, and the merciful who shall obtain mercy, that is, maturity of the heart.

There is no space here for a general exposition, but I can say from experience that once having found an exposition of the Beatitudes that seems right, I became able to use all of some of them as fruitful starting points for worship in Meeting. The five rules mentioned above are: the importance of settling a difficulty with one’s friend before one tries to worship; of avoiding the egocentric misuse of sex; of not taking God as one’s weapon; of not resisting evil within oneself but making it a source of growth; and of overcoming the poison of hate with love.

Each chapter of Kunkel’s book corresponds to a chapter in Matthew — all 28 of them. The one on the Lord’s Prayer is called “The Practice of the Presence of God,” another rich source for Quaker worship. I like the verse about not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing, meaning watch out for pride in the active expression of our testimonies. I also like “Judge not that you be not judged.” It tells me as an old professor and would-be weighty Friend, “Lecture not that you be not lectured to.”

This is not a book for those who like their meditation or prayer to be peaceful and undisturbed. Rather it is for those ready to do a lot of hard spiritual work and to go through their inner storms. On the night sea journey when Jesus went to sleep and left his disciples to manage the boat, a frightful storm came up and terrified them. They had to call on him to

help them, and he calmed the waves. A metaphor, of course, for the inner life.

When the disciples got to asking Jesus who he was, he spoke of the Son of Man almost but not quite as if he were that figure. But Kunkel says the title represents the archetypal human and signifies in a mysterious way our own inner divine-human self.

Fritz Kunkel says he is not trying in the book to present a school of psychology, although he has elsewhere created the We-Psychology.* Rather, he throws out provocative challenges aimed directly at the condition of modern scientifically-oriented individuals. It is the most genuine Christianity I know, with a theology that is inclusive in the universalist sense, and with an approach to spiritual growth that commends itself by persuasion and not by dogma. It is thoroughly suited to Quakerism as I read it. It belongs to both sides of our so-called division.

* Fritz Kunkel: Selected Writings, John Sanford, ed., Paulist Press 1984, pb. $12.95.

*&*&*$* ^ ****** *** ********* *** ***

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation

(Act of August 12, 1970: 39 U.S.C. 3685) 1.

Title of Publication: Friends Bulletin . 2. Date of filing: 11/17/87. 3. Frequency of issue: Ten times a year. 4. Location of office of publication: 2160 Lake St., San Francisco, CA 94121. 5. Location of Headquarters of Publishers: 2160 Lake St., San Francisco, CA 94121. 6. Publisher: Shirley Ruth, 2160 Lake St., San Francisco, CA 94121. 7. Owner: Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 2160 Lake St., San Francisco, CA 94121. 8. Known bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 percent or more of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None. 9. For Completion by Nonprofit Organizations Authorized to Mail at Special Rates. The Purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for Federal income tax purposes have not changed during the preceding 12 months. 10. Total paid circulation: 1779. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. Signed: Shirley Ruth, Editor

PAGE 76 — DECEMBER 1988

FRIENDS BULLETIN

Ross Clarkson Miles

1896 - 1988

Ross Clarkson Miles was born February 24, 1896, in Newberg, Oregon, and died April 11, 1988, in Lacey, Washington. His parents Anna Cook Miles and Benjamin Clarkson Miles both came from families who had been Quakers for generations. Ross remained active in the Religious Society of Friends all his life, attending his last committee meeting three weeks before his death.

Ross was the second of four children. The family lived in Newberg when Ross was a boy. He had many chores including going to the stable for the horse when his father or the family wanted to go out. As a boy he spent time in Newport, OR, making rounds by horseback with his uncle Dr. Minthome. He studied in the Friends Academy and the college which is now known as George Fox College. After the family moved to Salem he studied at Willamette University and graduated from there. He sang in the Glee Club and played on the football team.

When the United States entered World War I Ross wanted to do something constructive for society in such a difficult time. He was sent to Fort Lewis by the Red Cross. Later he was one of the small group of Friends who went to France to do relief and recon- struction work, the beginnings of the American Friends Service Committee. Throughout his life he held to the belief that the Service Committee was on the right track in feeding people and helping with immediate needs, but not stopping there, instead going on to help them build new lives, seeking to find the seeds of war and do the less visible work of prevention. His contributions to the work of the Service Committee continued for at least 60 years. It would be hard to list them all because much of what he did was done quietly in the background. He did not seek recognition for himself but only for the work. He collected and packed thousands of pounds of material aids to send overseas including school supplies. He served on many committees, wherever he was needed. He helped establish the Portland office of AFSC. Later he was one of the small com- mittee which spent several years working out the joining of the offices in Portland and Seattle. He remained on the Executive Committee of the Northwest office for years after its establishment.

Ross and the family were active in South Salem Friends Church and Oregon Yearly Meeting for many years. Then in the 1940’s unprogrammed Friends began meeting once a month as the Willamette Valley Association of Friends. As the number of unprogrammed Friends increased in the Valley, separate meetings were formed. Ross and Laura were among the founders of Salem Friends Meeting. They also welcomed any newcomers to the meeting, going beyond Sunday morning graciousness to helping new people establish their lives in the area. He attended Quarterly Meetings regularly and Yearly Meeting. Again he worked behind the scenes, doing jobs like “arrangements” where work is noticed only if something goes wrong. As soon as they moved to Panorama City, Ross and Laura became active participants in Olympia Meeting. They rarely missed a Sunday. For several years Ross represented Olympia Meeting at the North Pacific Yearly Steering Committee, and the committee met in their home.

He always sought out visitors and new attenders at meeting to learn of their interests and dreams. He will be sorely missed.

His needs were better met through the unprogram- med meetings for worship but he maintained activity with both groups of Friends for a number of years and continued contact with Friends of Northwest Yearly Meeting until his death.

Ross married Laura Beil Sept. 18, 1920, in Salem. They made their home in Salem while Ross was manager of the family gravel plant. After the plant was sold he held various jobs and they moved several times between Portland and Salem. He worked for the Oregon Department of Highways for several years, but most of his work was in business, particularly small businesses which he operated.

Ross and Laura have three sons and daughters-in- law, Ward and Alice of Olympia, Frank and Pat of Burlington, Ontario, Rodney and Eleanor of Salem,

12 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.

For the past ten years Ross and Laura have made their home at Panorama City in Lacey, WA, near Olympia. Ross had a small stroke on Feb. 28. He received visits from many of his friends and family including his three sons together. He said he was ready for the transition from this life. That came April 11.

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER 1988 — PAGE 77

Jimmie Lee Morgan

1952 * 1988

Jimmie Lee Morgan, known to us as Jim, died of complications resulting from AIDS, July 13, 1988 in Seattle. He had attended University Friends Meeting for four years and had previously attended Santa Barbara Meeting. At the time of his death, he was preparing to apply for membership in the Society of Friends. A Memorial Meeting was held Saturday, August 13, at 3:00 P.M. at University Meeting.

Jim was bom September 15, 1952 in Susanville, California, and grew up in Southern California. He earned a B. A. in Spanish language studies at Univer- sity of California at Santa Barbara. In California and Hawaii he worked in daycare. Work as an aide in the Santa Barbara library system sparked Jim’s interest in becoming a librarian, and in 1984 he moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington’s library school. He received the Master of Library Science degree in August, 1986.

After completing his degree, Jim returned to Santa Barbara, where he worked for four or five months before deciding to move back to Seattle. It was his plan to seek work in his field, but he became too sick to work. He was diagnosed with AIDS in March of 1987.

J im wanted to raise consciousness about AIDS within the Society of Friends. Partly for that reason, he traveled to Friends General Conference last summer. At home, he was instrumental in the beginning of the AIDS Care Committee and the AIDS Education Committee, and took part in planning and presenting educational programs about AIDS for University Friends Meeting. The support network of Friends that grew up out of Jim’s concern was the same group that cared for Jim as his health declined. Just before being admitted to Swedish Hospital, Jim applied his organizational skills to plan and participate in the Pacific Northwest Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Friends.

In August 1987 Jim began to make quilts. He completed three beautiful, entirely hand-stitched and hand-quilted quilts and left two incomplete. The quilts embody Jim’s spirit — he planned each one as a gift and worked on it with precision and care.

Jim’s gentleness, abundant good humor, and centered presence among us will be deeply missed. He is survived by his father Buddy Morgan, his step- mother Joan Morgan, his mother Mary Joy Bass, sisters Linda Cooks and Bobbi Brown, and two nieces.

Those wishing to make a gesture in memory of Jim can send a contribution to Northwest AIDS Founda- tion, 1818 E. Madison, Seattle, WA 98122.

*** ‘I'Jjy vj* vy* vy*

Edward Bruder

1915 - 1988

Edward Bruder was born May 10, 1915 in Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest of eight children born to Morris and Anna Bruder, who, in the early 1800’s, emigrated from the northeast corner of Romania.

Ed grew up in an orthodox Jewish home, attending Synagogue with his father, and absorbing the strong sense of moral values and family responsibility which ordered his whole life. By the age of ten Ed was helping in his brother-in-law’s laundry. Later, working with his brother Lou as a movie usher, he put himself through Temple University, and graduated with a degree in education.

Ed turned to the only other type of work available to most college graduates in those years — govern- ment employment — in which he worked for the Post Office and then for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Assistance where he met Christine Okie whom he married in 1940 following a move to Texas where he became an inspector for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The family began attending Ridgewood Meeting in New Jersey. Following a move to Arizona in 1956, the Bruders joined Phoenix Meeting where Ed was instrumental in the construction of the Phoenix Meeting House. Ed directed the Arizona District Office of the INS, providing advancement opportuni- ties to Hispanic workers, liberalizing border-crossing regulations, and hiring more black workers.

The Bruders moved to Downers Grove, Illinois in 1961 and Ed soon found a new job in the agency which later became the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He had a wider field in which to apply his knowledge of government and his growing interest in environmental matters. One of Ed’s associates wrote that “To my knowledge he was the first HUD supervisor to practice equal employ- ment opportunity.”

In his private life, Ed was becoming more involved in social concerns. Along with several others from Downers Grove Meeting, he took a leading part in the

(Continued on page 78)

PAGE 78 — DECEMBER 1988

FRIENDS BULLETIN

(B ruder Memorial: continued from page 77 ) formation of the Downers Grove Human Relations Council. He also chaired the committee that guided the Youth Opportunity Program of the American Friends Service Committee, and served for several years as chairman of the Continuing Committee for Intermountain Yearly Meeting during a period of organizational change.

By 1970, shifts in government policy were becoming oppressive and Ed took an early retirement. Later, he became Executive Director of the DuPage Environmental Council.

As Chicago’s cold weather began to affect Ed’s health, he and Christine started spending their winters in Phoenix. During this second Phoenix sojourn, Ed served a term as Clerk of the Phoenix Friends Meeting. After nine years in Phoenix, they moved back to Illinois to be near their sons.

Ed Bruder died June 3, 1988. On hearing of Ed’s death, a close friend and colleague was moved to write that his “love for life and social justice made a most significant contribution towards a better life for hundreds of thousands of people.”

Announcements

Edward F. Snyder (FCNL) Plans a Visit to Northern California

“Peace Prospects In The New Administration” and “Redefining National Security” are two of the issues that will be addressed by Edward F. Snyder, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee On National Legisla- tion, Washington, D.C., during a visit to Northern California January 11 - 15, 1989. The place, time, and contact person for each speaking engagement is listed below.

Ed Snyder is by no means a stranger to West Coast Friends, but his visits here are infrequent. This visit has special meaning as he will be retiring from FCNL in early 1990 after 35 years of distinguished service as a lobbyist representing Quaker concerns. He has been the Executive Secretary of FCNL since 1962. This may be the last opportunity for Northern California Friends to see and hear Ed Snyder in his official capacity with FCNL.

Schedule for Edward F. Snyder is as follows: January 1989

1 1 Sacramento, First Methodist Church, 21st

and J Sts., 7:30 P.M. Contact person: Steve Birdlebough, (916) 929 - 4892.

12 Davis, University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, 7:30 P.M. (Place to be announced). Contact person: Ted Neff, (916)

753 - 5890.

13 Palo Alto, Stanford University, Bechtel International Student Center, 12:00 Noon. Contact person: Lincoln Moses, (415) 851 * 8182.

14 College Park Quarterly Meeting, Friends House, Santa Rosa. Contact person: Sandra Gey, (415)524-4369.

15 Berkeley Friends Church, Sacramento St., 12:30 P.M., Pot-luck lunch followed by address and discussion. Contact person: Sally Laidlaw Williams, (415)530- 7382.

Orange Grove Meeting Appeals to PYM Friends for Assistance

The Central America Committee of Orange Grove Meeting has established a scholarship fund for Mario Ernesto Corea, age four, to attend the nursery school of Pacific Ackworth Friends School. Mario’s mother Yanira Corea is a Salvadorean activist who last year was kidnapped and brutalized by the death squad operating in the Los Angeles area. In spite of continued intermittent threats, including a threat to behead Mario Ernesto, she continues her work to which she feels called by God. Pacific Ackworth promises to be a helpful experience in healing for the child, who has not yet fully recovered from the effects of his mother’s trauma and the continued environ- ment of fear.

Pacific Ackworth presently has a three-days-a- week opening for Mario; the cost is $165 monthly. One-time donations have covered the first month’s tuition, and as of this writing there is $35.00 in the ongoing fund. The Central America Committee requests that other members of PYM consider making a monthly pledge for a period of one year. Pledges of any size, large or small, would be gratefully received.

Contact Gracia Fay Ellwood, Clerk, C.A. Commit- tee, at 2011 Rose Villa St., Pasadena, CA 91107 to state your intentions. Send pledge monies to Karin Hilsdale, Treasurer, c/o Orange Grove Meeting, 526 E Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91104. Checks should be earmarked C.A.

i Gracias!

FRIENDS BULLETIN

DECEMBER 1988 — PAGE 79

(Editorial: continued from page 62)

refugees from Central America seeking survival in the United States have had to flee their countries because they have resisted corrupt governments, have worked for human rights, have been leaders in their labor unions or teacher’s organizations or lay leaders in their churches. Each of us are challenged by the courage of others, including the AFSC, who are clear that they are called to witness by standing in the breach. What is it God would have each of us do personally? The New Life we celebrate at Christmas eventuated in such searching questions.

One of the earliest Quaker queries asks, “Has thee been faithful?”

“Love came down at Christmas / Love all lovely / Love divine . . .” And that made all the difference.

Shirley Ruth

CALENDAR

December 1988
27 - Jan. 1	Year-End Retreat, Quaker Center, Ben Lomond, Marybeth Webster facilitator for meditations, movement, creative writing, Quaker Dialogue. Contact: P.O. Box 686, Ben Lomond, CA 95005 or phone (408) 336 - 8333.
28 - Jan. 2	Young Friends New Year’s Gathering, Camp Myrtlewood, OR.
January 1989
14	College Park Quarterly Meeting, Friends House, Santa Rosa, CA, Ed Snyder, speaker.
21	NPYM Steering Committee, Portland, OR.
27 - 29	“Building Alliances Between Races,” Quaker Center, Ben Lomond, Lillian Roybal Rose, counselor and educator in cross-cultural communication. Contact Ben Lomond Center, address above.
28 - 29	World Disarmament Weekend of Prayer and Vigils.
February 1989
4	Willamette Quarterly Meeting, Sunnyside Methodist Church, Corvallis and Salem Meetings, Hosts.
17 - 19	Southern California Quarterly Meeting Midwinter Fellowship, Pacific Palisades, Presbyterian Conference Grounds.
18 - 19	Montana Gathering of Friends, Boulder Hot Springs, MT, Jenny Walker, Contact: (406) 549 - 0659.

March 1989

4 PYM Representative Committee, Claremont Meeting House, Claremont, CA.

18 NPYM Steering Committee, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA.

PAGE 80 — DECEMBER 1988

FRIENDS BULLETIN

CLASSIFIED ADS

AFSC 1989 Calendar

Now is a good time to order 1989 AFSC wall calendars, for yourself or as a gift. Each month has a photo depicting AFSC program work and a quote that illustrates the spirit in which we work. The format allows space for personal notes. Major Christian, Jewish, Moslem and Buddhist religious holidays are shown. For each calendar, send 08.00 to: AFSC Calendar, 2160 Lake St., San Francisco, CA 94121.

POSTMASTERS: SEND FORM 3579 FRIENDS BULLETIN

2160 Lake Street, San Francisco, CA 94121 Second Class Postage Paid at San Francisco, CA

Jane Snyder, Presiding Clerk, NPYM Photo by Peter Schiitte

Do You Read A Friendly Letter Every Month?

If not, maybe you should. Few Quaker publications have caused as much talk and controversy per page as A Friendly Letter since it first appeared in 1981. That's because it has brought a growing number of readers a unique series of searching, crisply written reports on today's key Quaker issues and events, in a convenient newsletter format. Many of these reports have been the first and some the only coverage of these important topics. A year's subscription (12 issues) is $13.95; sample copies free from A Friendly Letter, P.O. Box 1361, Dept. B2, Falls Church, VA 22041.