WINTER 2020
POUGHKEEPSIE FRIENDS MEETING
Advice 7: Friends are advised to work toward removing the causes of misery and suffering. They are urged to support efforts to overcome racial, social, economic, and educational discrimination; to bear testimony against all forms of oppression; to exert influence for such treatment of prisoners as may help reconstruct their lives; and to work for the abolition of the death penalty.
Query 11: Do we foster reverence for life? Do we strive to find, to understand, and to remove causes of misery and suffering? Do we, in loving concern, extend assistance to those who require it?
In preparing the first edition of this New Year, thoughts of home became the leading for Friendly News and are shared throughout the Winter 2020 issue.
Empty Vessels by Diane-Ellen McCarron
Which is home? Is it this? Or…is it that? Can I go in? Or am I already in?
What’s stirring? Who am I really? Maybe…everything? Maybe…nothing? Perhaps…everything and nothing?
Am I stuck in the dream?
Or am I awake? Am I listening in? Is stillness alive?
Does it have voice?
Is this an invitation? Am I being born? Here and there?
Now?
Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting 249 Hooker Avenue Poughkeepsie NY 12603
Emergency Housing for the Homeless
submitted by Claudia Ansorge
In 1982, Hudson River Housing (HRH) was incorporated with a focus on providing resident services for the homeless in the Hudson Valley, opening pathways out of homelessness through emergency, transitional, and permanent housing. To the question “Are you homeless and in need of housing tonight?” HRH is committed to the answer by furnishing overnight emergency housing 365 days a year for all people of all ages and incomes to live in the Hudson Valley. HRH partners with the Dutchess County community to secure safe, welcoming facilities. In November 2019, The Friends Poughkeepsie Meeting House became one of them.
15 cots and mattresses are available to set up for sleeping in the dining and nursery rooms downstairs at the Meeting House.
Fred Doneit initiated the outreach after learning about it through a friend at Christ Episcopal Church Poughkeepsie, an HRH-affiliated homeless shelter. Once inspected and approved, the Meeting House was opened to women and men ages 18+ for overnight stays. Families are housed at other locations.
A New York State ordinance, “Code Blue,” requires all homeless services/facilities to accommodate anyone seeking shelter when the temperatures fall below 32 degrees. It normally takes places from November 15 to April 30 each year, depending on the temperatures.
An HRH staff person is on site each evening. Dinner, shower, and laundry facilities are available elsewhere. Breakfast and bus passes are provided in the morning.
Hudson River Housing Vigil submitted by Rachel Ruth
On Thursday December 19, Hudson River Housing held a candlelight vigil for Homeless Person’s Remembrance Day, at its new Housing Resource Center at 310 Mill St, in downtown Poughkeepsie, across from their main offices. Rachel Ruth and Paul Gorgen participated on behalf of the Meeting and also to honor those who work there.
Attendees brought donations of warm clothing, and listened to remarks by the HRH Director, Christa Hines, highlighting the key role that HRH plays in finding shelter and support services for the local homeless. She spoke about the new resource center which provides many support services for people trying to find permanent housing, its staff and key accomplishments this year, including the overflow centers such as the one provided by PFM. Mayor Rob Rolison spoke eloquently about the essential partnership that the city and HRH have formed to meet these urgent needs – we would each be less without the other. In a reminder of the critical needs being met, and the work still to be done, the names of local people who passed away this last year while homeless were read and remembered. The cold of that evening brought home to all how vital the need for shelter and housing can be. This struck close to home because in Russia, where our daughter was born, the majority of children in orphanages become homeless when they age out of the system at 16.
After the outdoor vigil, attendees went into the new center to warm up and tour the building. It is a lovely restored Victorian home, tastefully converted to office space upstairs with large welcoming parlors and a kitchen downstairs, where clients can visit for help and respite, from shower facilities to assistance with applications. Robyn Seale, who grew up in our meeting, is a current staff member working with older teens and young adults, and she filled us in on the many projects they are bringing to fruition.
WITNESS
To the question, “But who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 2). Jesus welcomes into his kingdom those who could see in the unfortunate of the world his presence.
Faith & Prctice: The Book of Discipline of the New York Yearly Meeting
Pause Again by Diane-Ellen McCarron
Pause again as the Doors swing open: forgiveness, compassion, and equanimity—each greet you as you float along bubbling in joy. Your reality-heart, traveling feet, working hands, expressive voice now soak in kindness where all manner of things are well… regardlesss.
Kreiger School Outreach
submitted by Claudia Ansorge
Ann Costello-Rockrohr was aware of the Kreiger Elementary School (K-5) that had been a neighbor across the street from the Meeting House for years— long enough, in fact, for Fred Doneit to have attended school there when he was growing up. But it was article in the Poughkeepsie Journal in 2015 that brought the school and needs that existed there into focus for Ann .
Through the school nurse, Meredith Benanti, and school secretary, Bonnie Babcock, Ann learned that the racially and ethnically mixed student body drew kids from all over the city of Poughkeepsie and there were challenges the school faced including kids coming to school hungry and with poor personal hygiene, and clothing that might not be appropriate for the weather. According to the school website, G.W. Krieger School is one of “the most diverse public schools in New York” with 77% of its 553 students currently receiving free or reduced lunch.
Ann brought the concerns to the Meeting and a new relationship began. An annual budget of $500 was approved to come out of the Initiative Fund to supply holiday food baskets to four families who were selected based on need. Baskets were prepared by Ann and her husband, James, and distributed by the school social worker on the last day of school in December.
In addition, a clothing collection box was put in the Meeting House. Since then, an on-going contribution of sweatpants, sweatshirts, socks and underwear has gone across the street to the Kreiger School throughout the year, every year.
In 2016, school supplies were added to the needs list. $100 out of the original budget was shifted to cover the purchase of items that would be distributed in September.
School supplies were no longer needed in 2019 and, rather than food baskets, the request was for Shop & Shop gift cards that allow the selected families to make their own purchases. Clothing contributions are needed and collection continues through the year.
LETTERS FROM FRIENDS
Nan Fogel joined the Meeting some forty-five years ago. In her “About Poughkeepsie Friends”* profile, Nan shared her recollection of her first contact with Poughkeepsie Friends: Several years before she had “…heard a Quaker speak of ‘that God in everyone,’ and realized how well that expressed her own belief.” She began attending and came to love the silent meeting and the Quaker testimonies. In 2019, Nan moved to Arkansas to be near her daughter Lisa and her family. Friendly News asked her to share her feelings about home.
Nan
“Home” is a place where I feel valued, my thoughts and ideas respected and open for discussion.
Although I have met dozens of people and have visited Fayetteville many times in the last fifteen years, I do not feel “at home” here. That will take getting to know my grandchildren better. They are both teenagers who seem to change daily. It will mean making friendships with people I feel a connection to here in the retirement community, knowing in which aisles to find baking soda and detergent at the local grocery, searching for a doctor/dentist/hairdresser, finding my way to Quaker Meeting.
“Home” is familiar. They tell me there are hiking trails all the way from Fayetteville to Bentonville, Walmart’s corporate headquarters, but it’s a complicated route, over bridges, under highways and through tunnels for 30 miles. It sounds strange.
There’s so much that goes into a place we call “Home.” I miss seeing the profile of the Catskill Mountains and the sunsets from my apartment in Poughkeepsie, taking daily walks on Vassar’s campus, watching movies at Upstate Films. Here in Arkansas apples are mostly eaten out of hand. I miss the varieties we use for applesauce and pies. Every day I miss the River.
“Home” is safe. You know what streets in the neighborhood you can go down at almost any hour of the day or night and what streets to avoid. Ideally, “Home” is where I feel I belong, a place where I can be myself — relaxed, comfortable, accepted. I’m not there yet in Arkansas but I hope to be one day.
I picture you on Sunday mornings in the places where you usually sit, waiting for the Light. I miss you. Merry Christmas. Nan
Great Heart
by Diane-Ellen McCarron
One great heart, grounding your life and all life.
There is room to heal, to connect, to understand and to sing each and every intimate sole song of self alone and in communal harmony.
Let’s imagine the love and celebrate what’s possible.
LETTERS FROM FRIENDS (continued)
Alvin Brown became a member of the Green Haven Prison Meeting in 1992. His 2015 profile in “About Poughkeepsie Friends”* shares his experience of having helped to start a Quaker meeting there with the help of four Friends from Cooperstown meeting. He also expressed his desire to establish a “know you and you know me” communication with Poughkeepsie Friends. “Promise to Love Yourself” is his continued sharing from Five Points Correctional Facility.
Promise to Love Yourself
To be strong. That nothing can disturb your peace of mind…
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something valuable in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, to noble for anger, too srong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble, and have the greatest love and honor for that of God within you.
Peace Alvin
Tim Lietzke was a steady part of the Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting for a number of years before moving to Costa Rica. In his 2012 profile in “About Poughkeepsie Friends,”* he writes about an early calling to missionary work that eventually
…”became a devoted conviction to a life of self-giving love and a vital force to manifest transformative change” that currently finds him in Monteverde, Costa Rica.
Tim At the end of December I finished my three years as clerk of the Monteverde Friends Meeting. In spite of various difficulties, it has generally been a good experience. Being clerk brought me into the center of the life of the community. It gave me additional purpose for being here. I hope that I was able to help the Meeting grow spiritually, in the mutual ties that we have, and in our work for the environment, peace, and human rights. Normally clerks are rotated every two years so it is good to have someone different in that role. I will still be doing what seems to be the most important work I’m engaged in, namely fostering and participating in spiritual sharing groups, serving on Care and Counsel and the Peace and Social Concerns Committees, and editing “Seeds”, our newsletter/forum for sharing ideas and experiences on set themes. So I still have plenty to do for the Meeting.
I have given some preliminary thought to how I will use the extra time I will have. One project, if I have the energy to do it, is to organize, edit, and digitalize my writing over the years. Perhaps something publishable will come out of that. I definitely want to spend more time gardening and, if suitable land is available, developing another community garden for one of the poorer neighborhoods.
As always, there is more reading and studying I want to do than I have time for. I also want to meditate more, take additional steps into simplicity, spend more time in visitation, and explore ways to develop a measure of intentional community on my small piece of land. I have ideas about this latter, but won’t say more at this point. I believe that human communion is central to life and that community goes a long way towards solving the world’s problems. Recurring feelings of loneliness, sometimes very intense and almost unbearable, motivate me even more in that direction. (continued next page)
(Tim Leitzke letter continued)
During the last several months I have suffered from what appears to have been a parasite problem. I have used a variety of natural remedies to combat that, and am much better as a result.
My garden is being slowly developed. Raspberry plantings are increasing and should expand the percentage of the year that they’re producing since they go into and out of production several times a year, and not all at the same time. At present I think I have raspberries to eat more than half the year. Pineapples and papayas are becoming mature enough to start bearing edible fruit. I already had my first pineapple–very sweet. Low rates of germination are the main problem with vegetables, but generally I have a number of things to harvest viritually every day of the year. So I am blessed with good food.
Below are two poems written by students at Monteverde Friends School and included in the last issue of our Meeting newsletter, “Seeds.”
Generation Z
Mónica Chinchilla Moreno, Grade 10
We are born in the age of technology. We are cursed with too much time and not enough.
We are the generation with the weight of the world on our shoulders because the ones before us are too scared to do it.
We are suffering the consequences of actions we never took.
We are believers and We are hopeless.
We are full of dreams titled selfish because
we don’t have the future for them.
We are young, running against the clock shouting for help to the ignorant, but it’s time for our revolution.
We are tired of not being heard.
What Future
Samara Paz Saenz Totz, Grade 9
The clouds are disappearing along with the icebergs.
Animals are going extinct by the day. Politics are corrupt, the people in charge are ignorant.
The educated are ignored and shunned.
There’s evidence in your face:
Snowstorms where there were barely even flurries Sun burning in Antarctica
Sea levels rising and so should we.
You ask me what my plans are for the future But I don’t even know if I will have a future to make plans in.
Rid the ocean of all its plastic and put an end to oil spillages. No more fossil fuels.
We have to change our ways, replace plastic with something environmentally friendly.
There’s no planet B.
We must respect our mother.
*ABOUT POUGHKEEPSIE FRIENDS:Memorials,
Biographies and more. This binder of profiles dates back to January 2000 and are drawn from the Friendly News and other sources. The collection can be found in Meeting House Library.
FRIENDS EVERYWHERE
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Dear Friends,
I write to share with you the work of Emma Membreño, a Honduran immigrant, who learned to paint while spending 21 months in Sanctuary at the Albuquerque Friends’ Meeting from 2017-18. Emma’s charming paintings – often depicting flowers, birds, moonlit skies and landscapes – have been converted into popular greeting cards, “Paintings for Peace.” Sanctuary Works is the sole US distributor for Emma’s work, and as such, celebrates not only the works created by Emma in Sanctuary, but also the process of Sanctuary as an avenue for undocumented individuals to pursue legal status in the United States. In that sense, Sanctuary truly works!
Thank you for sharing Emma’s cards with your friends, colleagues and congregations. Proceeds from card sales go to support Emma’s immigration process. Further information is available at: www.sanctuaryworks.org or on Facebook.
Appreciatively,
Sarah Malone, Albuquerque Friends’ Sanctuary Task Force
Sanctuary Works affixes photos of Emma’s paintings to 6.5” x 5” or (in a few cases)
5.5” x 5.5” off- white card stock, with envelopes and identifying labels.
Paintings for Peace Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Environment, and Your Taxes
submitted by Lynne James
Members of the Friends Meeting at Cambridge (MA) community have produced a 28 minute video, “Peace and the Planet: War, the Environment, and Your Taxes,” addressing the common bonds among environmentalists, peace activists, and advocates for economic justice. The video reviews the impact of war and preparations for war on the environment and on the availability of public funds for health, education, infrastructure repair, and other social needs. It is suitable for individual as well as group showings. Peace and the Planet references the estimated million peace, justice, and environmental sustainability organizations world-wide. It discusses successful efforts at conflict resolution and the relatively new concept of Just Peacemaking as formulated by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinkers. You can view a 5-minute trailer or watch the entire video. The video can be downloaded for public viewing from the Friends Meeting at Cambridge website, under “Outreach”. fmcquaker.org
This Still Room
submitted by Rachel Ruth
And so, I find it well to come For deeper rest to this still room, For here the habit of the soul
Feels less the outer world’s control: The strength of mutual purpose pleads More earnestly our common needs: And from the silence multiplied
By these still forms on either side,
The world that time and sense have known Falls off and leaves us God alone.
–John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Whittier, a Quaker and abolitionist, was one of New England’s group of “Fireside Poets” of
19th century America.
Where will I go if
I can no longer live in my house?
submitted by Dare Thompson
A few weeks ago when I was visiting with my twin sisters in the Baltimore area I went over to Sandy Spring, MD to visit Friends House, a continuing care community founded by Quakers in 1967. I’ve visited my parents in a non-Quaker continuing care facility in western North Carolina and I have visited friends in Kendal-on-Hudson in Sleepy Hollow, NY and in Woodland Pond in New Paltz, but I had heard that the Sandy Spring facility was more reasonably priced and I was curious about why that was.
My sisters and I have forever been grateful to our parents for retiring the way they did, saving us most of the downsizing work, and I wonder if Doug and I can afford to do the same for our kids. Also, Norma Ellis of the Scarsdale MM has recently moved there and I wanted to say hello. At one point she and I were co-clerks of the New York Yearly Meeting’s Committee on Aging Concerns and we’ve sometimes roomed together at Silver Bay..
I sent an email in advance, and Barbara Brubeck (yes, she IS related to jazz great Dave) agreed to give us a tour. She was full of good cheer and very helpful information and explained way more than I can share here. But what I CAN share is that Sandy Spring is a very Quaker institution. No other place I’ve seen is busily constructing more affordable housing units, no other has only one non-Quaker on its board (a medical doctor), and no other has so many happy people greeting visitors in the halls. Quaker values prevailed throughout and I felt right at home. If you want to learn more, go to friendshouse.com.
I don’t know if this is the place I’ll end my life but it was very reassuring to feel that it could be, It helped that the visit gave my sisters and me a chance to share what all of us are thinking about for our final years. The most organized of the three of us has a file drawer full of helpful files for those who need to deal with her death – sad, but also an inspiration to the other two of us! I need to send them copies of the end-of-life workbook that our NYYM ARCH program has created and Doug and I need to finish filling out ours.
So thank you Barbara Brubeck, Norma, and all the other good people at Sandy Spring for our Friendly visit. I was surprised to learn that the Baltimore Yearly Meeting office is actually on the same property – as is the Sandy Spring MM – but our tour took up a long time and I had no time to check them out. Next time!.
Flute, cello & violin—Frank deLeeuw with his grandaughters , Lydia and Leslie
Christmas Candlelight Service 2019
December 22
An evening of sharing silent worship, music, & fellowship with supper & cookies afterwards in the Monthly Meeting Room
Cover art: “A Long, Long Way”
by Diane-Ellen McCarron
Enoch Nixon playing “Mary Don’t You Know”
Rachel Ruth lights the Christmas candle
LOOKING AHEAD
1/5-3/15 On-going collection for Hudson River Housing: men’s and women’s hats, gloves, scarves, gloves
1/5/20 Sun Quakerism class on The Roots of Vocal Ministry w/ Ed Seliger, New Paltz Meeting
1/11 Sat Repair Café at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 9am-12
1/12 Sun Quakerism class on Early Friends’ Faith w/ Anne Pomeroy, New Paltz Meeting
1/19 Sun Monthly Meeting for Business, after bag lunch at rise of meeting
1/26 Sun Social time at the rise of meeting
2/2 Sun Nine Partners Quarterly Meeting (possibly at Poughkeepsie)
2/9 Sun Coffee hour and Advancement Committee after rise of meeting
2/16 Sun Monthly Meeting for Business, after bag lunch at rise of meeting
2/23 Sun Quakerism Class, Early Friends and Spiritual Growth, with Don Badgley
4/3-5 Spring Sessions 2020
Fri April 3, 2020 – 5:00pm to Sun April 5, 2020 1:45pm Oakwood Friends School 22 Spackenkill Rd, Poughkeepsie
Upcoming Powell House Gatherings:
Jan 17-20 Dwelling Deep, a Contemplative Retreat with Linda Chidsey and Carolyn Moon
January 17-20, 2020 (Through Monday lunch)
During this extended weekend, Friends are invited to enter more fully into the silence and to experience the deeper rhythms in which we might live. This retreat will include the opportunity for solitude, individual and corporate worship, silent meals, and “active” silence.
Please note:
All Quakerism classes are held 11:30am- 12:45pm with coffee and tea served.
Up-coming Meeting events are subject to change.
Repair Café
First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 325 Mill Street, Poughkeepsie —submitted by Rachel Ruth
The Café (Co-sponsored by Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting) meets in the informal, welcoming atmosphere of the church dining room. Our repair stations ring the room and our volunteers direct you to the right spot once you have signed in. We provide some basic repair supplies and tools and our coaches bring their own tools. If you know what is needed, it helps if you bring any special or replacement parts and materials.
Participants and coaches share stories and dilemmas as they work. If one coach isn’t enough, others get involved! While you are waiting there is a fix-it book table. And we provide coffee and tea for free, with baked goods and fruit available for a donation. Stop in to visit, bring an item for repair, join a yoga mini class or share your skills! We appreciate your donations to help us purchase supplies and advertise.
Our accessible central downtown site, with free parking in the city lot across the street and easy 2-block walk to the bus plaza, supports our mission to be a service to the entire City of Poughkeepsie. We promote not only skill-sharing by our professional and volunteer repair coaches, but also skill-building and other self-help activities for our community. Re-use is an important economic and environmental commitment at the heart of Repair Café that we believe is good for Poughkeepsie, too! We hope you will also bring donations to support the food ministry of First Evangelical Lutheran and St.Paul’s Episcopal churches.
LOOKING AHEAD (continued)
Diane-Ellen McCarron—Paintings, Prints & Publications
Thru Jan 26 Diane-Ellen is the spotlight artist in “Magical”, a group art show at the Artists’ Collective of Hyde Park, 4338 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park artistscollectiveofhydepark.com
Poems and painting from her book, Empty Vessels are shared in this issue of Friendly News.
Emily Provance
Sun Mar 29
Emily will visit Poughkeepsie Meeting for meeting for worship, bag lunch & program.
She will share a little with us about her experience as a Quaker, her leadings and travel in the ministry. The core of her visit will be to help us focus on possibilities for growth as a congregation, both individually or inwardly and through outreach or outward practices. More details will be shared in the coming months as the theme is developed.
In the meantime, we are all invited to contact Emily as individuals, to share hopes and concerns about our life together in Poughkeepsie Meeting now and moving into the future. Her contact info is:
Emily Provance 802-338-7688 eprovance@hotmail.com
Emily Provance is a member of Fifteenth Street Monthly Meeting in New York Yearly Meeting.
“I spent seventeen years looking for a faith tradition. I knew that my people would say “God speaks to everybody,” and the day I found Quakers was the day I found home.
“We are a covenant people called to establish the kingdom of God on Earth. (To be clear–I doubt Quakers are the only ones called to do this.) To be a covenant people means that we have each given ourselves to God and that God, in turn, has given us to a group of people. We have a mutual responsibility to identify each Friend’s spiritual gifts and to provide the necessary recognition, support, and accountability to enable each of us to explode into the fullness of who God has made us to be – and then, also, to do this beyond the boundaries of our own denomination. To do that is to begin the work of establishing the kingdom of God.
“My own unique work is with Quaker institutions, be they local meetings or regional/yearly meetings or umbrella organizations: to see where the systems and structures that we have built are supporting God’s purposes and where those systems and structures are getting in the way. I work to see these things, to explain them, and to experiment with changing them, across this covenant people called the Religious Society of Friends.”
Emily travels in the ministry full-time.
Weekly reflections and updates from the road (excerpt above) can be found on her blog: Turning, Turning—Holy Experiment Among Friends quakeremily.wordpress.com/about-emily/
On her blog she explores an outreach model for Quaker meetings that is geared towards the experience of seekers. If you’ve met Emily in person you realize very quickly how passionate she is about making Quaker faith and practice more visible and accessible for anyone seeking a deeper spiritual journey. (excerpt from Words by Friends, an interview with Emily by Marta Rusek for Friends General Council
fgcquaker.org/news/words-friends-emily- provance