5th Query - Personal Way of Life Do you live in accordance with your spiritual convictions? Do you seek employment consistent with your beliefs and in service to society? Do you practice simplicity in speech, dress, and manner of living, avoiding wasteful consumption? Are you watchful that your possessions do not rule you? Do you strive to be truthful at all times, avoiding judicial oaths? Do you strive to develop your physical, emotional and mental capacities toward reaching your Divinely given potential? Do you cultivate healthful and moderate habits, avoiding the hazards of drugs, intoxicants, and over indulgence generally? Do you try to direct such emotions as anger and fear in creative ways? One Year Ago-In The Light (The NATO bombing of Kosovo ended in June of 1999.) "While the FCNL continues it’s lobbying efforts to end the armed conflict in Kosovo, the AFSC is concentrating on relief efforts. The Older Kids First Day School Class raised almost $450 through bake sales and solicitation in order to produce emergency kits including candles, antibiotic cream, soap, towel, and bandaids for the use of Kosovar refugees. Debbie Kirkman organized the purchase of the items and Katherine Cole got the kits in the mail." (On May 22, 1999, the Middle Kids First Day School Class visited AFSC headquarters in Philadelphia to see how the emergency kits were prepared and shipped) Minutes from Meeting for Business 5/21/00 The Meeting united with the proposal from Asa Janney to arrange an evening session in July with Robert Pennoch to discuss his recent book on the New Creationism, with the possibility of opening it to the public. The Meeting united with the Spiritual State of the Meeting report presented by Dennis Jones for the Ministry and Oversight Committee. Meeting for Business authorized the committee of Don Chamlee, Priscilla Chamlee, Gretel Von Pischke, Harry Tunis, Dennis Jones, and Meg Wallace to expend up to $1000 from the Capital Fund to pay for a consultation with an architect to develop a proposal for expansion of the Meeting House on these grounds. The meeting united with the call for a moratorium on the death penalty in Virginia as presented by Paul Murphy and the Peace and Social Concerns Committee. The Spiritual State of the Meeting Report and the Peace and Social Concerns Minute on the death penalty are included in the newsletter. The Spiritual State of the Meeting report will be forwarded to Baltimore Yearly Meeting for presentation at the Yearly Meeting in August. Paul Murphy will forward copies of the death penalty minute to the governor, state legislators, local government officials, and area newspapers. Debby Kirkman reported that the Big Kids Bake Sale raised $95 today Treasurer’s Report Ting Yi Oei presented the treasurer’s report. Contributions continue to lag behind expenses. The Meetings yearly budget totals $26,499. At the end of May $8179 (80% of budget contributions to date) had been received by the Treasurer. Cash flow has been maintained with income from the use of the building; these funds are designated for the Capital fund. Friends are encouraged to space their contributions to the meeting throughout the year to simplify planning and ease anxiety for the Treasurer and Finance Committee. Support New Friends School with Giant Grocery Certificates The Northern Virginia Friends School, a Quaker elementary school scheduled to open in Fall 2001 in Loudon or Fairfax County, is selling grocery certificates for use at Giant Food. The school receives five percent of all purchases made with certificates, which are as easy to use as cash, check, or credit card. Contact Shelly O'Foran (703-406-2565) to buy certificates or learn more about this fund-raising effort. Bike To Meeting Week!     Herndon Festival Plans The annual Herndon Festival occurs June 1st through 4th. For the last three years, the Meeting has operated a parking concession during the Festival to raise money for a Peace and Social Concerns project. Paul Murphy will post a sign up sheet at the Meeting House for Friends who are willing to operate the concession and collect $5 a car for visitors to the Festival. Paul Murphy and Debbie Kirkman will work with the older kids First Day School Class on a bake sale to raise money for the child the class is sponsoring. The meetinghouse parking lot will be reserved for Herndon Friends on the morning of First Day. However, because the Green Funeral Home parking lot, which is usually available for overflow parking, will be blocked off, parking for meeting for worship may be limited. Friends for whom it is possible are encouraged to carpool with other Friends, ride their bicycles or walk to meeting that day. Middle Kids Class and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Religious Education sponsored a movie and pizza party for the Middle Kids First Day School Class on May 13th, to watch a video of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This was the final piece of the Middle Kids unit on stories form the Hebrew Bible. The Religious Education Committee wants to extend special thanks to Margie Shepherd for organizing the event, and keeping order. (The editor wants to know what Anna McCormally meant when she told her classmates that if they didn’t settle down and get ready to watch the show right now, she was going to ask her father to sing along.) The video version, which has been aired on PBS, features Donny Osmond as Joseph, Richard Attenbourough (as Jacob) and Joan Collins (Portiphar’s wife). It’s a stitch. The video is available in the meetinghouse if anyone would like to borrow it. Reston Interfaith Activities The Reston Interfaith Food Pantry will be the beneficiary of a Jubilee Concert presented by St. Thomas a Becket and St. John Neumann Catholic Churches. Violinist Jody Gatwood and pianist Brian Ganz will perform a recital of classical music on June 24th at 8 pm at St. John Neuman Church, 11900 Lawyers’ Road, Reston. Jody Gatwood is a Julliard graduate, associate professor of violin at Catholic University and concertmaster of the National Chamber Orchestra. Brian Ganz has performed with major orchestras worldwide, and is also on the faculty of Catholic University. Tickets will be available at the door, $12 for adults and $6 for students and seniors. The First Annual Reston Multicultural Festival will be held at Lake Anne Plaza on Saturday September 23 from 10 AM to 5 PM. Call 703-264-2091 for more information. Clerk’s Corner    Ting Yi Oei Spiritual Journeys You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. From "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" Martin Luther King Washington was full of activists in the last month: mothers marching for stricter gun laws, gays and lesbians rallying for human rights, and all sorts of people protesting the inequities of the international economic order symbolized by the gathering of the World Trade Organization. Many of us have been involved in events like these, and our participation is conscious testimony to deeply held spiritual beliefs. On Sundays, we gather for silent worship. Action and contemplation: both important parts of a spiritual whole. Yet most of the time I have to remind myself of the connection between my everyday actions and the beliefs that I think really define who I am. How is it that these aspects of my life have grown separate from each other? Our everyday lives tend to be focused. We know where we have to go and what we're supposed to do. Calendars and checklists help monitor our progress. We feel satisfaction when we accomplish what we set out to do. Even when activism doesn't yield immediate results (in fact, it often brings frustration, pain, and disappointment), one can still focus on a goal and see hope in legislation and subtle changes in attitude. We look outside of ourselves and try to take stock of what impact our actions have had. Our contemplative side forces us to look inward. The clarity of purpose that guides our daily life suddenly evaporates as we search for truth. It sounds simple. More often than not, however, the word that best describes what I go through each week in meeting for worship is wrestling. I wrestle with why I fail to act in ways that really reflect my beliefs. I wrestle with self-doubts that I don't allow to surface in everyday life. I wrestle with why things are the way they are and why they are so difficult to change. I wrestle with the very notion of God. My spiritual journey has no clear end in sight. It actually consists of many shorter journeys — some clearly defined; others murky, full of obstacles and detours. The active and contemplative lives are not two separate existences meant to be balanced like an equation. They are different stretches of one long journey, each encounter and experience providing new challenges. Martin Luther King's movement wasn't fundamentally political. To be sure, progress in civil rights was marked by political, legal, and legislative milestones, but the movement had a spiritual truth, the struggle for justice, that transcended politics and moved people's hearts. I don't know whether King worried much about the distinction between the active and the contemplative life. Or George Fox or Jesus, for that matter. Probably, like so many other things in my life, I've just managed to make things more complicated than they need to be. From the Interchange A publication of BYM BYM Clerk Lamar Matthew, writing in the May 2000 BYM Interchange, had this account of the first meeting of what became BYM: ‘"In the 2nd Month, 1672, I appointed a meeting at West River in Maryland, for all the Friends in the Province, that I might see them together…and when the time appointed came and Friends from all parts began to come, George Fox, with several brethren came from Jamaica…and we had a very large meeting, which did continue for several days…and George Fox did wonderfully open the service thereof unto Friends, and they with gladness of heart received advice in such necessary things, as were opened unto them…and all were comforted and edified." And so it is from this account by John Burnyeat that we claim 1672 as the first gathering of what was later to be known as Baltimore Yearly Meeting. In 1677 this annual gathering was formally recognized as Maryland Yearly Meeting. In 1673, one year after the first West River Meeting, Virginia Yearly Meeting was settled. Friends met in those early times to see how Truth prospered among them. And it did and Friends flourished and their numbers grew. In time, patterns of settlement and concentrations of Quaker populations changed, and in 1780 Baltimore Yearly Meeting was formed from what had been Maryland Yearly Meeting. Within its virge were "all the Maryland Meetings west of the Chesapeake and a few meetings along the southern border of Pennsylvania and in Western Virginia." The later meetings were part of a territory shift and were "traded" with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for the Meetings on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.’ Also from the Interchange May 2000: ‘Baltimore Yearly Meeting is one part of the structure of Friends. It is made up of every individual within each monthly Meeting that is a part of the Yearly Meeting. Geographically, it is not the largest Yearly Meeting, nor is it the largest in numbers of members and attenders…Baltimore Yearly Meeting has meetings as far north as West Branch Meeting in Grampian, PA, to Floyd Meeting in Floyd, VA, in the south and including all of Maryland, except the Eastern Shore, and the District of Columbia in the middle…BYM has approximately 4500 members.’  Easter, Simplified The Easter Potluck was simplified based on suggestions from Friends: instead of providing a ham and/or a turkey for a special dinner theme, a brunch theme was suggested. Two waffle irons, efficiently operated, could barely keep up with the crowd. The fact that there were any edible leftovers at all reminded some of the loaves and fishes miracles. Thanks to all who pitch in to set up, wipe down, pick up, put away, wash dishes, vacuum, restock toilet paper, take out the garbage. Million Mom March The newsletter wants to recognize those Herndon Friends who spent Mother’s Day with the thousands from around the country in the Million Mom March, highlighting the need for a response to gun violence. Ting Yi Oei, Diane Curling, the Marquardt family, Cathy and Harry Tunis, Shelly O’Foran and Judith Fox were among those who attended. Be sure and check out Brief Notes" in this issue for another non violence activity on the Mall.