Mark your calendar
Our Summer Picnic will be July 11
at Beacon Hill Friends Meeting!
We'll be singing, so bring your Friends Hymnals and Rise Up Singings (and your guitar if you have one!) Pack a lunch and bring fruit or veggies or dessert to share. There will be NO BUSINESS, NO EDUCATION, NO EDIFICATION allowed - just fun!
- 10:30 AM Worship with Beacon Hill Friends Meeting
- 11:45 lunch followed by singing until 2:00
Walk with Salem Quarter in Pride
Join Salem Quarterly Meeting at the Boston Pride Parade, June 12. Last year Friends from 6 area meetings and Beacon Hill Friends House walked with this banner. Wellesley Friends have participated for several years. (photo: Jeff Hipp)
Draft Minutes & Approved Budget
Draft Minutes for April 25 meeting at Framingham
Approved Budget for Fiscal Year beginning 5/1/2010
Recent Meetings:
Sexuality and Spirituality, conversation starters
January 24, 2010,
Salem Quarterly Meeting
at Fresh Pond Meeting
The NEYM Working Party on Spirituality and Sexual Ethics has
asked the Monthly Meetings to join in its work discerning and
"articulating the Yearly Meeting's sexual ethics and the spirituality
of sex, recognizing that we cannot effectively criticize the sexual
ethics reflected in the FUM personnel policy without first defining our
own." (Sessions 2008-15) Our Faith & Practice calls on us to
"achieve a more adequate understanding of the proper place and purpose
of sex and sexual relationships in our lives." Many of us long for
greater integration of our sexual and spiritual selves; many of us wish
that we were better equipped to talk with our children about our sexual
values; many of us would like our meetings to be better places to find
information, support, and guidance relating to issues of sexuality. How
do we encourage the conversations that will lead us to deeper
understanding? How do we ensure that they're honest and productive? How
do we share the truths about sexuality and spirituality we discover?After meeting for worship for the conduct of business, young adult Friends Ben Guaraldi (BHMM), Will Jennings (FMC), and Molly Lidz led Friends in exercises and conversations designed to move us past our fears and embolden us to contribute to our dialogue about the ethics and spirituality of sexuality in our Monthly Meeting communities. First, the entire group brainstormed concerns and issues present in our Monthly Meetings. Then we chose a few of these issues to discuss further in small groups. The entire group heard reports from the small groups on their discussions. Friends were grateful for this opportunity to share and explore today and expressed interest in working further together within the Quarter. SQM Ministry and Counsel Committee will hear reports from the Monthly Meetings at its spring meeting and will discern appropriate forums and venues for the Quarter to facilitate further sharing and discernment.
Racial Justice in the Religious Society of Friends: An Unfinished Story
Reading about how Friends have been as prone to racism and discrimination as our compatriots in Vanessa Julye and Donna McDaniel's new book, Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship can be a real challenge. Recognizing this, Friends General Conference's Committee for Ministry on Racism is endorsing the release of the book by providing skilled workshop leaders to help meetings and groups explore the issues raised. At our October 26 meeting two of these facilitators, Dwight & Maureen Lopes, led us in a sampling of the exercises that would constitute a full workshop. For notes from our meeting click here. To learn more about inviting a facilitator to your meeting, click here.How can we talk about it?
Click here to see materials on Talking about Sexual Ethics - Where to Start - a description of the process for effective exploration of challenging topics that Melody Brazo led us through at ourJanuary workshop.News of previous meetings.
Meetings in Our Quarter
Salem Quarterly Meeting is made up of nine meetings, one preparative meeting and several worship groups in the Greater Boston area. These links lead to web sites for the meetings which are on the internet and information sheets for those which do not have web sites.
Quarterly Meeting Schedule
Quarterly Meetings generally fall on the fourth Sunday of October, January and April. Our Summer Picnic date and location are set at our April meeting. Quarterly Meeting Ministry and Counsel committee meets about a month before the October and April meetings.
- 11 July 2010 - Summer Picnic - Beacon Hill Friends Meeting
- 25 October 2010 - Friends Meeting at Cambridge
- 23 January 2011 - South Shore Preparative Meeting
- 24 April 2011 - Wellesley Friends Meeting
- 23 October 2011 - Acton Friends Meeting
- 22 January 2012 - North Shore Meeting
- 22 April 2012 - Amesbury Friends Meeting