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Quaker News Newcastle Local Meeting
Consider which of the ways to happiness offered by society are truly fulfilling and which are potentially corrupting and destructive. Be discriminating when choosing means of entertainment and information. Resist the desire to acquire possessions or income through unethical investment, speculation or games of chance. (Advices & Queries 39)
March 2012
Sun 4
8am Early Morning Meeting
10.30am Meeting for Worship followed by Local Meeting for Worship for Business
Tues 6
10-30 Coffee Group followed by lunch at 12*
Thu 8
10am – 1pm Proggy Wall Hanging*
Sat 10
10am – 1pm Proggy Wall Hanging*
Sun 11
8am Early Morning Meeting
10.30am Meeting for Worship
1.15pm Area Meeting at Monkseaton
Tue 13
10am – 1pm Proggy Wall Hanging*
Thu 15 Walking Group – Newburn*
Sun 18
8am Early Morning Meeting
10.30am Meeting for Worship followed by lunch and fundraising event for the ‘proggers’*
Mon 19
10am – 1pm Proggy Wall Hanging*
Walking Group – Repeat Penshaw walk*
Tue 20
10.30 – 12.30 Coffee Group
Thursday 22 Deadline for items for the April newsletter
Sat 24
10am – 1pm Proggy Wall Hanging*
Sun 25
8am Early Morning Meeting
10.30am Meeting for Worship
Wed 28
10am – 1pm Proggy Wall Hanging*
Advance Notice - 7pm Weds 20 June 2012 - visit of the new Recording Clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, Paul Parker*
During the coffee session after meeting on the 11th March we would be happy to discuss membership issues with you.
Please send articles and images for the next newsletter to newcastlequakers@yahoo.co.uk by 22nd March.
Rosemary Adamson 12th August 1923- 31st December 2011
If you wish to read about Rosemary Adamson's life please email ask@quakers-in-newcastle.org.uk
Events in March
Coffee Group
The dates of the coffee group for March are the 6th and 20th. On the 6th we are adding a two course lunch on to the end of the coffee group so people can come to both or just one event. Dorothy Marshall is taking names of anyone who is interested. Lunch will be at 12.00 and we can cater for thirty and have about 20 names at the moment. If anyone else is interested in joining us Dorothy will be happy to hear from them.
Proggy Wallhanging
The wallhanging is progressing well and giving lots of fun and chat to all who are joining in. Dates for March are:8th, 10th, 13th, 19th, 24th and 28th - each of these sessions will be from 10-1pm and everyone welcome to come for all or part of the time of any of them. Also - we are still in need of one or two blankets: contact Marcia Lemon if you can help.
Lunch on 18th March will be provided by the 'proggers' as a fund raising towards the wallhanging costs. In addition to coming to the lunch you are invited to bring books and jams/preserves to sell, and please be prepared to buy!
Quaker Walk in March
Our March walk will take place on Thursday 15 March. We will walk from Newburn westwards along the river, then up a fairly steep hill, past Close House to Heddon on the Wall. We then meander back to Newburn. The walk is about 6 miles. Tea and cakes are being provided by Jean Chettle at her house in Newburn afterwards.
I suggest we meet at 10.50 by the Keelman pub, west of Newburn centre. There is a regular bus from Newcastle to Newburn. The number 22. It leaves Newcastle Central Station Neville Street at 10.15 and arrives in Newburn at 10.38 (10.10 at Monument Market Street and 10.12 at Monument Grainger Street).You need to get off at Newburn Road Community Centre.
Walk down Westmacott or Boyd Street (steep streets) to Grange Road at the bottom, turn right and walk along to the car park beside the Keelman, a 5 - 10 minute walk. Otherwise park at the car park near the Keelman, but not the pub car park. The toilets should be open at the Tyne Riverside Country Park.
Please bring a packed lunch, and please let Margaret Bozic know if you will be joining us.
PROGRAMME OF WALKS
I have put together a programme of walks until June, which I hope helps with your availability:
Monday 19th March: A repeat Penshaw Walk for those who could not join us on 23 February.
Wednesday 18th April: A coastal walk
Wednesday 30th May: A walk in Roman Wall country from Jean and Howard Maskill’s house.
Wednesday 27th June: A summer walk led by Jill Foister from Allendale.
Shared Meals
Overseers are once again organising shared meals. The meals are a great way for you to get together in an informal setting to share a meal and good conversation.
There are usually four or five people at each meal. You can choose to be a host or a guest. The host will arrange the time with their guests and the guests will each provide a course for the meal.
If you are interested please sign the form on the noticeboard indicating whether you would prefer to be a host or a guest (or either). The lists will stay on the board until the first weekend in March. Overseers will then organise the groups and inform the host who their guests will be.
BBQ
Traditionally we have held a BBQ in June. The new Meeting House has limited space at the rear of the building. It would be possible to have a BBQ in the car park if the car park was cleared early after meeting. Alternatively we could have a BBQ in a Friend's garden or a Park. Overseers will be discussing this soon and would love to hear your views.
Do you have difficulty walking ? Overseers have become aware of the Nexus TaxiCard, which might possibly be of help to you in your daily life.
There are two opportunities to obtain a TaxiCard: March and September. For a cost of £10 (March joining) or £5 (September joining) the TaxiCard entitles a reduction of £3 each journey (or you pay half your taxi fare if it is under £6). For March joining the TaxiCard has £100 worth of fares on it and can be used between the end of March and the beginning of October. For September joining the card has £125 worth of fares on it and can be used between the start of October and the end of March 2013. The TaxiCard application form can be obtained by phoning 0191 2020777 or emailing access@nexus.org.uk.
Legacies
Margaret Bozic (our Treasurer) writes:
We have recently received some good news. Florence Margaret Regnart, who died in December 2009 and is the mother of Horace Regnart, has left us £10,000 in her Will. The gift is for charitable purposes. Therefore I have invested it so that it is now part of our legacy money capital.
United Service in January
Sue Lawson writes
On the afternoon of January 22 the Quakers hosted the United Service for the Gosforth Churches to mark the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. We were touched and pleased, as we are still very new arrivals in Gosforth, to be asked by the others to do this. They in turn were interested in the use of silence as a form of worship.
It was worship after the manner of Friends, with a short introduction for those unfamiliar with Quaker silent worship. The Meeting Room was almost completely full. Spoken ministry was spread pretty evenly throughout the hour, and ranged from a reading of Draw Breath, through Quakers as seekers after truth in many guises (but still only people), via a reading from the Bible on what we share, to a reminder that we in this country should remember those who even today are in physical danger because of their faith. Spoken ministry was also pretty evenly distributed between hosts and visitors, which was nice too.
Tea and coffee afterwards, with home made cakes and biscuits, gave everyone a chance to get to know each other. There was certainly no rush to leave, and we hope that our neighbours enjoyed, or at least were intrigued by, our manner of worship.
From Area Meeting at Sunderland 12th Feb.
Area Meeting was pleased to welcome Joel Wallenberg into membership.
Joan Snowdon and Reg Snowdon were appointed Overseers until the end of 2012.
Yearly Meeting will be held in London 25th-28th May. The business on Monday will be arranged so that those unable to stay, because this is not a Bank Holiday, thanks to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, will not miss important items.
AM budget
The quota for each member and attender is £24 this year.
For the first time several AM committees will receive a budget allocation: Elders to develop spiritual capital, Overseers for bursary support, Standing Nominations Committee to enable Friends appointed as Elders, Overseers, Clerks, trustees etc to go on training courses, and for conferences.
Dates for AM this year
All meetings are on Sundays.
11th March Monkseaton,
13th May Durham,
June 10th Allendale,
then new-style AMs
July at Alnwick,
assisted by Newcastle,
October at Tynedale,
December at Newcastle assisted by Monkseaton.
Paul Parker, the new Recording Clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, will be speaking at Newcastle Meeting House on the evening of Wednesday 20th June.
World Conference
Barbara Adshead writes:
I wonder if you would draw attention to the forthcoming World Conference. It has become clear to me that our Representatives and those who are choosing to go are feeling somewhat apprehensive and in need of support. Some local Meetings have set up prayer circles weekly for upholding the Friends they know, and others are giving time to use the study materials in their Meetings so as to feel involved.
At Sunderland we have held a session to study the material used, and asked Mary Waldmeyer of Middlesborough Meeting to facilitate it for us. She is a self-funded representative, and is feeling excited, but daunted by the task ahead. We hoped that by exploring the material with her we were showing our support.
The following paragraph is taken from the report sent from the Friends in Residence at Pendle Hill Study Centre in the USA. (You will remember the visit we had from Margaret and John Compton last year. This report is from Gerald and Gwyneth Hewitson) I think it shows clearly how Friends feel when travelling in Ministry to other countries.
" .........One of my most outstanding impressions is of my own parochialism as a Quaker. I am used to thinking of Britain Yearly Meeting as the birthplace of the Quaker movement, and therefore, by implication in my mind, as the epicentre of Quaker experience. Quite suddenly, I began to see American Quakerism, and its offshoots in East Africa, as a source of diversity and rich variety. It was very interesting talking to an Afro-American Quaker, an ex-professor, about the current intellectual strains in BYM – particularly liberal, liberal Quakerism, and non-theism - contrasting BYM with the experience of the wider Quaker family. The Friend was very clear that BYM needs to be aware that it may become increasingly irrelevant to the world-wide Quaker experience: a shock to me and my Britcentric experience to that point........."
I ask all Meeings to include a time for reflection and prayerful support for those living adventurously in our name.
Friends can engage fully by signing up to the online study materials themselves, and also interact with the online circle forum at www.saltandlight2012.org; or by email to info@saltandlight2012.org for more information.
Names and Addresses
The meeting holds two lists of members and attenders. One is an internal list called the "tabular statement" and is used to calculate how much the meeting has to pay to area meeting and the Society nationally. The other is published like a telephone directory so we can contact each other. If you are an attender and want to be on the internal list or if you have a change of address or email please contact Martin Lightfoot on email overseer@quakers-in-newcastle.org.uk