NPYM Annual Session Daily Bulletin Decrees of the Editor

Dear Friends,

I am writing as your Daily Bulletin editor. Here are some tips to help get our daily bulletin out on time and in forms that Friends can enjoy and use during NPYM Annual Session.

Daily Bulletins will be published Thursday July 14-Sunday July 17 of NPYM Annual Session.

Deadline for submissions is 7 pm sharp the night before each edition. Submissions may be made by posting a comment here, equivalent to emailing RantWoman, on paper in the designated box in the Annual Session office, or by phone / voice mail (number available in other fora) . If you make submissions on paper, it would be helpful to have a way to contact you in case of questions. If you make submissions by phone, please spell names of people and places. I am happy to receive submissions for the Thursday edition in advance by email.

Submissions should be brief and may be edited for clarity, space, and other considerations.

In consideration of NPYM minutes on earth care and resource conservation, only a limited number will be printed; if you would like to receive your Daily Bulletin by email, please either post a comment here or send a request directly to the posted email address.

In consultation with the Presiding Clerk and the Clerk of the NPYM IT committee, we suggest using the Twitter hashtag #11npym to help people find topical Tweets. This is an experiment. Please DO NOT submit Daily Bulletin announcemetns by Twitter because they may not be read!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at Annual Session.

In the Light.

(RantWoman)


PS In case you think RantWoman has only bureaucratic interest in Annual Session, RantWoman highly recommends a preliminary peek at the queries for 4 days of Worship Sharing:

http://theredelectric.blogspot.com/2011/07/practically-spiritual.html

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Vocal Ministry Stats

Warning: the following is only part of RantWoman's spiritual excursion during Meeting for Worship this week. Only part of this got shared and only by phone.

RantWoman of late has been compiling a mental list of frequent flyer Friends, Friends who seem rather often to feel called to offer vocal ministry. Some of the ministry turns out to be weighty. Some of the time RantWoman finds herself wishing that Frequent Flyer Friends would subject their leadings to particularly fierce scrutiny. In particular, should these Friends take care, sit in expectant waiting rather longer than usual to see whether their message gets delivered from others' lips?

RantWoman admits to a certain flair for the quantitative. Inspired by the world of baseball where RantWoman wanders only rarely, RantWoman even found herself formulating a numerical frequent flyer index, the percentage of a Friend's messages that RantWoman wishes would wait to emerge from others' mouths.

Bear in mind, RantWoman is judgmental and opinionated, but even RantWoman would never permit herself to assign a frequent flyer index of 1, the suggestion that 100% of a Friend's messages should be forced to wait to be delivered through others' mouths. Meeting for Worship, after all is an act of faith. Messages meaningless to one are sometimes deeply moving to others. Friends who can muster absolutely no faith or forebearance for the Light as it arrives to their neighbors, either those who speak or those who listen, should at least face stern eldering. This most definitely includes RantWoman.

Nor would RantWoman make more than rare exceptions and assign a frequent flyer index of 2, equivalent to batting 500 in baseball. Okay, okay, in the case of one Frequent Flyer, RantWoman gets simply to be grateful that the Friend moved away before RantWoman got around to deciding what index to apply.

Today's worship featured Hold Friend in the Light Traumatic circumstance Pastoral Concern Definitely Due Friend flanked on either side by two Friends, Friends RantWoman respects and esteems but to whom RantWoman would still assign Frequent Flyer indexes somewhere between 5 and 6, Poetic Friend and Call Me Up and I will Figure it out For you Friend.

Lately Poetic Friend's messages have all been short, Heminwayesque. RantWoman appreciates brevity but herself tends to favor more florid word flow. RantWoman persists in her frequent flyer rating even though there is a great risk that Poetic Friend's messages would emerge more verbose and muddled if the Holy Spirit gave them to someone else. RantWoman is aware of many circumstances calling her voice to vexation around Poetic Friend so RantWoman feels especially called to check whether others assign Poetic Friend any kind of Frequent Flyer index at all.

Call Me Up Friend's messages run longer and frequently more judgmental and tied to specific circumstances than those of Poetic Friend. Today's offering came right at the end of worship. It was a "Thank you so much; maybe someone else will share on this difficult theme" message. RantWoman would SO like it if that Friend had exercised restraint RantWoman's gripe with today's offering: RantWoman had ALMOST gotten her mental broom closet lined up well enough to do exactly that, but Call Me Up Friend sucked away the last of the time and someone closed worship rather directly. So now, is RantWoman actually going to call up Call Me up Friend and say this...?

OR...

Is RantWoman going to call up Call Me Up ... Friend and talk about her beloved baseball, say fantasy baseball teams? See, RantWoman thinks just MAYBE Call Me Up ... Friend would relate to a long passed away gay friend of RantWoman's who compiled fantasy baseball teams based not on the statistics some fantasy baseball team compilers rely on but on long passed away friend's ratings of players' physical appearance.

Here RantWoman must acknowledge a problem, a full-on testimony on equality problem in the realm of gender equality: RantWoman would unquestionably consider long-deceased friend's ogling practices sexist if he directed them at women. RantWoman does not think it terrible if men also experience frank ogling, either by Call Me Up ... Friend or by long-deceased friend. Either way, though, RantWoman finds it all just a bit much but she is amused to get from frequent flyer vocal ministry to fantasy baseball to questions of gender equality around the Religious society of Friends

http://petersontoscano.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/gender-equality-and-the-religious-society-of-friends/


Just imagine where RantWoman could get with a real travel budget.

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Freedom Project Fundraiser July 15

Led by long-standing Quaker involvement and a personal concern for Prison reform and Nonviolent Communication, Seaoned Friend has recently joined the board of directors for Freedom Project.
http://www.freedom-project.org/

Freedom Project is a Fremont based non-profit that fosters community by teaching Non-Violent Communication and Mindfulness to convicts in Washington State prisons
and works with returnees in our local Seattle neighborhoods. It is an impressive organization that does wonderful work with almost no resources. Freedom Project is holding a fundraiser at Om
Cultural Center at 7pm on 15 July which will feature Dave Dahl of Dave's Killer Bread. All members of the UFM community are invited to attend. A $10 donation is requested at the door and we invite guests to bring their checkbooks for an evening filled with Playback Theater, Music, and Stories of Courage and of Heart!

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The Greater Tacoma Peace Prize

RantWoman phone conversation in connection with a visitation by the 2011 convention of the Lions Club international:

I will trade you one Greater Tacoma Peace Prize
http://www.tacomapeaceprize.org/


http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/news-and-events/international-convention/about-the-convention/parade/index.php

full disclosure: when RantWoman put OSSB Lions Seattle into the search engine of her choice, the entry from her non-Quaker RantWoman blog popped out on top. Than RantWoman realized she had reprinted the press release above.

from the Rose Parade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SavfY5gHV70#Rose Parade video

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Healed, Blessed, Jesus!

If Readers want a concise excursion through a single topic RantWoman is also highly familiar with, you could do worse than this item.

http://www.matildaziegler.com/2011/07/05/feature-writer-alena-roberts-prayer-will-not-cure-my-blindness/


RantWoman is more of a believer than the writer above; RantWoman is unclear whether that helps in such moments.

If you are game for another ride at the RantWoman Spiritual Amusement Park, allow RantWoman to discourse further about a similar adventure. Recently RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack were fogging home along a busy street from the RantFamily Fourth of July Festivity.

A white pickup truck pulled up alongside RantWoman and then turned into a driveway ahead of RantWoman, blocking RantWoman's path in the sort of intrusive way that, if RantWoman still had active stalker issues in her life would make her immediately want to cross the street, unfeasible at that point. By the time RantWoman reached the driveway, a man had gotten out. He placed his hands on RantWoman's arms and proclaimed "Jesus loves you."

RantWoman "and he loves you as well" (GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME BEFORE I HAVE YOU CHARGED WITH ASSAULT!)

Man from Pickup "In the name of Jesus, I proclaim you healed."

RantWoman (Okay, sure. Lord knows, there's A LOT I probably need to be healed of; it did not occur to me to ask, healed of what? I THINK he meant vision and I sure cannot tell any difference I must have been healed of SOMETHING. Maybe it didn't take. Or maybe it only lasted a nanosecond or two. But, sure, thanks ever so much.) "Thank you."

Man from Pickup "Have a blessed day!"

RantWoman, beating a fast path further on her spirited journey, (Oh heavens, another white person who uses the word "blessed" in the 'hood!) "You too!"

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Crazy Holy Hungry Ones / Apostatepalooza

RantWoman's summer travel plans are leaning heavily toward books on her new Kindle and a couple weekends heavy on indoor obligations and and hopefully not too heavy on insects. None of that is preventing her from being enthralled by opportunities for vicarious enjoyment of other people's encounters with spirituality, diversity, and as needed insects.

RantWoman's blog roll served up several items about the first Wild Goose, an interfaith festival of art spirituality and action:

http://www.wildgoosefestival.org/intro


Julie Clawson
“Blessed are the good-hearted, poets, and the dreamers. And all us crazy, holy, hungry ones who still believe in something better.”

http://blog.sojo.net/2011/06/30/crazy-holy-hungry-ones-my-wild-goose-festival-reflection/


RantWoman especially wants to uphold the bravery of parents who travel to such events with young children. That is something the RantParents never would have attempted.

Sojourners staffperson Heather Wilson
http://blog.sojo.net/2011/07/01/dissenters-monastics-and-doubters-my-kind-of-faith-at-the-wild-goose-festival/


and Peterson Toscano reminding readers that comfortable as one can be in some locales, congregations and individuals still stuggle mightily:
http://petersontoscano.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/what-i-carried-into-wild-goose/


RantWoman had a conversation recently about how "speaking Baptist" sometimes helps her find ways to speak across Friends lines of history; n the case of Wild Goose, RantWoman is wondering whether any Friends were led to participate. Personally, RantWoman thinks this event sounds like FUN even though she is confident she would not automatically fully "fit in" any better than she does anywhere else, RantWoman always being able to find some vexation leading to some or antoher form of apostasy.

RantWoman is also busily upholding everyone gathered at FGC
http://www.fgcquaker.org/gathering

and MAY even trak thinks via #11fgc.


And for nostalgia's sake:
http://peacecampherstory.blogspot.com/

Full disclosure: this blog is part of an oral history project for something RantWoman in her youth and sometimes Amazing Artist Friend spent a lot of time at. RantWoman participated in an interview but for eccentric reasons has not felt clear to sign a release for use of her image.

Last time RantWoman and Amazing Artist Friend talked by phone, we were reminiscing about peace camp, the peace camp witches, and numerous threads that someone who has not lived through might or might not even want to fathom. We were especially bemused both by references to the tracks left over in state bureaucratic practice from Woodstock and by interpersonal drama way beyond the imaginings of a couple church lady peaceniks who just wanted to hang out with our girlfriends and talk about peace. There would also be the exasperating and exhilarating realities of interfaith collisions, Jews, Christians, agnostics, quite the range of goddess worshippers and feminist spirituality.

RantWoman also remembers LOTS of challenges about accessibility. A wooden path was constructed to make it easier for people to get around. Construction involved lots of heroic efforts, in a few cases by complete novices about construction work. RantWoman supposes that attributing the challenges of group meetings to different cognitive styles would be the height of diplomacy. Meals presented innumerable challenges for instace for Blind Roommate when she visited. Lots of women found taking a shower outdoors with solar-heated water kind of a trial though RantWoman is especially prone to nostalgia about that practice. Maybe reminiscence is as close to insects as RantWOman should try to be this summer.

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Agnes Schmoe

Welcome to this Memorial Meeting for Worship to remember and rejoice in Agnes Schmoe's life. We ill sit together, at first in silence; at times an individual may be moved to speak, offering a memory or a message. All are welcome to do this. This celebration will come to a close when we shake hands with our neighbors.

RantWoman does not know when she first met Agnes Schmoe or how Agnes so deeply and immediately impressed RantWoman. RantWoman thinks it must have been at Annual Session, either in a worship-sharing group or interest group where she first met Agnes. RantWoman only knows that a few weeks ago when she learned that Agnes had passed away, RantWoman immediately knew she would be called to try to attend the memorial held June 25 at Eastgate Church of Christ in Bellevue.

RantWoman apologizes: RantWoman tried to find a link for an online obituary but completely lost patience with the torrents of ads and general electrified muddle spewing out of her search engine. RantWoman is going to settle for correct spelling of Agnes' name and let her readers filter for themselves.

Agnes was tall and gracious and dignified long past when it was easy for her to stand to her full height. Agnes was the daughter-in-law of our founding member Floyd Schmoe who also was tall. RantWoman thinks Agnes' height alone probably helped her hold her own with the Schmoes. In worship the Sunday after Agnes' death was announced a Friend shared a point RantWoman already knew: Agnes' husband of 52 years Ken, was killed by a falling tree while walking in the woods after a snowstorm. RantWoman did not know, until she heard in worship, that Ken died pushing Agnes out of the way of the falling tree.

Agnes was born in Canada but grew up in Seattle. Her mother died when she was three and a brother died while she was in her teens. Agnes went to nursing school in MN. She and Ken worked for a time in New York at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital before returning to the Seattle area, eventually settling near Issaquah and Tiger Mountain.

Agnes was passionate about children, education, cooking, gardening, bees, education, schools, peace. Agnes became a US citizen so that she could vote in school levy elections and maintained lifelong engagement in peace causes and politics including longtime service as a precinct committee officer, protestor at Bangor submarine base, letter-to-the-editor writer.

The memorial bulletin writes:

Agnes never stopped trying to change the world for the better, beginning with herself, and never lost faith that such change was possible. She ...truly liked everyone she ever met.

RantWoman acquired most of this info from the memorial, but first RantWoman was called to show up in full-bore RantWoman to the rescue, RantWoman WILL speak up mode. RantWoman thanks the bus driver for pointing out that her destination, the church with a sanctuary three times as large as the worship room at Eastside Meeting, was right across from the bus stop RantWoman requested. RantWoman is grateful for a worshipper who, seeing RantWoman fog into the packed room a few minutes after the start of the memorial, moved and yielded an easily findable seat in back to RantWoman.

A Friend spoke, with noticeable microphone fortification shortly after RantWoman entered. Then a family member spoke without using the microphone. RantWoman was immediately beset by a neighbor and several nearby voices murmuring things like "what's he saying?" RantWoman decided that she must impose absolute Bereaved Relative forebearance; she also decided she could not just shadow the speaker for her hearing-impaired neighbors. Instead RantWoman concentrated on hearing the bereaved relative.

Then someone else rose to speak, again without the microphone but this time clearly not a relative. At this point, in the middle of the other Friend's message, RantWoman was almost dragged to her feet with words something like "FRIENDS, WE ALL LOVED AGNES and WE WANT TO HEAR all the messages about her life. WILL YOU PLEASE USE THE MICROPHONE AT THE FRONT OF THE ROOM so we all can hear your messages. I cannot see the mike but I can tell it is there and WILL YOU PLEASE USE IT?" RantWoman feels very blessed that Interrupted Friend graciously maintained equanimity, moved to the microphone and set an example followed by almost all of the people giving the remaining messages.

Someone spoke of a visitor expressing concern about a bear known to be in the woods near their home on Tiger Mountain and of Agnes saying "Where else would the bear be?"

Another Friend spoke of Agnes' enthusiasm for his new interest in beekeeping and an offer to give him a beehive. It took two tries on two different nights and between, Agnes sewed a special cloth bag to cover the hive and keep the bees in while the hive was being moved.

RantWoman is especially fond of a peek into the language of another Meeting: one Friend spoke of Agnes complaining about stop lights as if the stop lights were a conspiracy specifically to slow her down. This Friend spoke of how she and Agnes came to make peace with the stop lights over and over in their conversation

Toward the end of worship, a Friend offered a quote about "sometimes we receive blessings that are a little hard to live through." RantWoman grabbed that one for multiple reasons!

Someone else spoke of Agnes' passion for a group called Faith in Action and somewhere shortly worship closed.

RantWoman hopes that by the end of her own memorial at least half as much courage and inspiration is still hovering in the room as was in the sanctuary at Agnes' memorial.

RantWoman also hopes that if someone has to stand up at a RantWoman memorial and make a loud call so everyone in the room can see or hear or participate better that the person gets thanked at least as many times as RantWoman did at the end of Agnes' memorial. And RantWoman still feels the courage infusion.

From the program:

Decide to be peaceful

Render others peaceful.

Be a model of peace.

Irradiate your peace.

Love passionately the peace of our planet.

Do not listen to the warmongers, hate seekers, and power seekers.

Dream always of a peaceful world.

Work always for a peaceful world.

Switch on and keep on in yourself the positive buttons,

those marked by love, serenity, happiness, truth,

kindness, friendliness, understanding and tolerance.

Pray and thank God every day for peace.

Pray for the United Nations and for all peacemakers.

Pray for the leaders of nations

who hold peace of the world in their hands.

Pray God to let our planet at long last become the planet of peace.

and sing in unison with all humanity,

"Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.:

Robert Muller

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