We are Christ-centered Friends who equip and encourage all people
to respond to God's love and transforming Spirit.

Minutes of Peace and Social Concerns Meetings
April 6, 2008
April 27, 2008
May 25, 2008
June 29, 2008
July 27, 2008

Minutes - Peace and Social Concerns Meeting
May 25, 2008

Present were: Kate Murphey, Tony Swan, Faith Marsalli, Ken Magee, and Shari and Bill Burke

The first order of business was to verify that next month's food theme would be peanut butter, jelly, and crackers. Since this is the last Sunday in May, the tuna, mac and cheese and peas would need to be picked up. Kate brought boxes and will call for pick-up.

Next we discussed the banner that will be hung in honor of End Torture Month (June). It has not arrived yet, but Kate will let everyone know when it does and then will enlist help in placing and hanging it. Faith will look further into available materials for an upcoming meeting for worship so that the theme of ending torture can be addressed.

We moved on to talk about the community garden. Ken said it would be ready to plant in a couple of weeks. In addition to the vegetable garden areas, there will be a meditation area with flowers and comfortable places to sit. This was requested by a church member. Ken thought that the best way to accomplish this would be for the existing covered seating area to be spruced up-furniture repainted, and a nice arrangement of flowers, rocks, etc, created by the children. Everyone thought this was a great idea and Kate said she likes to paint furniture, so she will do that part. Ken will remind people that they are welcome to bring in some plants for either the vegetable garden or the meditation area of they wish. Kate has discovered some interesting grant possibilities, so this is something we will look into for next year as we consider expanding the project.

Shari suggested that perhaps we might want to hold a used book sale later in the summer instead of the yard sale that has been held in past years. Proceeds would go to the Kenyan scholarship fund. Tony suggested that we might bring some books to a 3rd Thursday event. Bill thought maybe we should limit that to paperback books and we all agreed with both of them. So we will try to bring some books to the July 3rd Thursday and use it to both raise a little money for the scholarship fund and publicize the larger sale, which will be in the church parking lot on August 2nd. Shari will be organizing this, so any questions can be directed to her at shariannburke@gmail.com

Continuing with the 3rd Thursday theme, we discussed the Quaker Bakers and how to get more people involved. Kate will give First Words on June 15th. We will make phone calls just to remind people that the event is close. And we will have available CDs of people talking about why they find a spiritual home in the Friends Church. This will be given to anyone who would like to know more about what the church is all about.

We are in the process of scheduling a Peace Supper for September. More details should be available soon.

Finally, we discussed the guidelines for the Community Giving Fund and we agreed on the direction we wanted to go with that, so Kate will write them up.

As always, feel free to contact Shari with any comments, questions, suggestions, or ideas at shariannburke@gmail.com

Food collected for the May Food Drive
Items are macaroni & cheeze, canned tuna, and canned peas