Hartford Monthly Meeting
Religious Society of Friends
September 2005

Do you respect the value of all useful work, whether paid or unpaid, whether physical or intellectual, whether performed in the home or in the larger community? Does your daily work use means and serve goals which are consistent with the teaching of Jesus? Are you honest and trust worthy in all business transactions, prompt and just in payment of debts? By counsel and example, do you encourage young people to enter vocations which will serve society?
Tenth Query, New England Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice

Calendar

Sept 11 8:45 am First Day School Welcome Back Breakfast Gathering
9:50 am First Day School Classes begin
10:00 am Meeting for Worship
11:30 am Fellowship Lunch
Noon-6 pm Hope Out Loud Peace Festival in Bushnell Park

Sept 16-18 Hartford Monthly Meeting Retreat, Wisdom House Litchfield, CT
(see p. 2 for more info)
Sept 24 2 pm Dick Boulton Memorial Meeting
Sept 25 11:30 am Meeting for Business
Oct 8 10 am Elsa Cullen Memorial Meeting

Meeting for Worship is held every First Day at 10 am.
Mid-week Worship Thursdays at 7 pm in the Williams Room.

Inviting all Parents and Kids!

Come to our Annual Breakfast
8:45 AM at our Meetinghouse dining room,
September 11, 2005
Enjoy bagels and cream cheese, coffee, juice and fruit.
Meet your teachers! See your Friends!
Come play together as we explore our theme.
"What is a Friend?"

First Day School begins promptly at 9:50 AM this Sunday and every First Day.

Hartford Monthly Meeting Retreat
Wisdom House, Litchfield
September 16-18, 2005

The bi-annual retreat is a time to deepen our connections with one another, worship with one another and have fun together. If you have a musical instrument or an interest you want to share, bring it. We'll have time for impromptu music and interest group discussions on Friday evening or Saturday afternoon and scheduled time for music on Sunday morning. When we met at Wisdom House two years ago, Friends experienced delicious meals, comfortable accommodations and outdoor spaces to walk and sit. Wisdom House also has a labyrinth that some may wish to walk together or alone.

Program
All retreat participants high school age and older will be divided into affinity groups (approximately 7 people in a group) that will meet three times over the weekend to consider queries related to building our beloved community. The affinity groups will use discussion and worship sharing to explore our lives together. On Saturday afternoon at 4:15, we will all meet together to share our experiences and reflections from affinity groups.

On Saturday morning, Jonathan Vogel-Bourne will present a program about building the beloved community based on his experience as a Friend and as Field Secretary for New England Yearly Meeting for the last 14 years. Jonathan travels among meetings in New England as well as within the wider body of the Religious Society of Friends. He and his family are members of Cambridge Monthly Meeting.

1st session-Our Social Life Together
What do you remember of the first few times that you came to Hartford Meeting? What helped you learn names? Is it important to you to know people in Hartford Monthly Meeting better? Do you feel the need for more or less social interaction with people in the Meeting? What does "building the beloved community" mean to you?

2nd session-Our Spiritual Lives
How is God leading me? How is God leading our Meeting?

3rd session--Our Faith Community Life
How do your social and spiritual experiences in Hartford Monthly Meeting shape your commitment and your life within and outside of the Meeting?
How can you put into action any insights gained from the first and second affinity groups?
What does it mean to be stewards of the beloved community?
To the care and maintenance of the meetinghouse?
To financially support the meeting?
To service on committees?
To leadership as clerk, recording clerk, committee clerks?
How do we build the beloved community of Hartford Meeting?

Katrina and New England Yearly Meeting Activity
Our hearts are grieved by the losses from Katrina and its aftermath. Many Meetings and individuals are responding in all manner of ways. Please let me know what you're Meeting is doing. I will endeavor to compile and circulate information among us as seems appropriate.
-from Jonathan Vogel-Borne, Field Secretary, 617/354-3808 (Home Office)

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Meeting Ministry
Cicada song catches my prayer,
Spirals it up in a widening arc.
Transformed.
Distilled.
It mists down upon us.
--from Anna Moberly
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Milestones
Elsa Cullen, longtime and beloved member of Hartford Monthly Meeting, died Monday, August 26 at Seabury in Bloomfield, CT. A memorial meeting for Elsa will be held at the meetinghouse on Saturday, October 8 at 10 am.

Dick Boulton, long-time member of Hartford Monthly Meeting died on September 3. A memorial meeting for Dick will be held at the meetinghouse on September 24, 2005.

A great honor has come to our friend Hugh Ogden and he is eager for Friends to know of it. His recent book of poems, Bringing a Straight Fir Down, has been nominated for the prestigious Kingsley-Tufts Prize for the best poetry book of the year. The nomination alone will promote wider reading and consideration of the book, but not only is the nomination itself of great importance, if selected as the winner, the prize carries a $100,000. award!

From Bill Taylor
You're cordially invited to join a project exploring similarities between military and pacifist values and practices. The task involves critiquing a list of 34 similarities between the two groups. About twelve members or attenders at Hartford Meeting have expressed interest thus far, and two people with extensive military experience are also interested. We are seeking not only HMM folks, but also names of people in the military and in the peace community we can invite to participate.

For more information (or to suggest names of others), email, call, or write Bill Taylor, williamtaylor@alum.wpi.edu or Box 1388 West Hartford, CT 06127-1388 860 236-3709.

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The Greater Hartford Interfaith Coalition for Equity and Justice
INVITES YOU TO A FORUM FOR ACTION
CHALLENGING THE STRUCTURES of RACISM
in Public Education : Health Care : Immigration
Featuring john powell, Author, activist, policy analyst
Thursday November 10, 2005 6:00 p.m. Registration; 6:30 p.m. Worship; 7:00 p.m. Forum
The Learning Corridor, Theatre of the Performing Arts, 359 Washington Street Hartford,
For more info: phone: 860.548.1744 email: info@ghicej.org

HARTFORD MONTHLY MEETING
Of the Religious Society of Friends
144 South Quaker Lane
West Hartford, CT 06119