Greetings Friends!
Because of the current risk of gathering together, Buffalo Quakers have suspended all in-person activities. We continue to hold all events possible online via the Zoom web conferencing platform. We gather on Sunday mornings at 10:15 for a fellowship period and settle into worship at 10:30. We have also expanded our midweek online meeting to occur on a weekly basis, every Wednesday beginning at 7:30. The connection information for these meeting is shared in our weekly email updates. If you do not receive these updates but would like to participate, please use this form and we will send the technical details needed to connect.
We have also created an online form to submit prayer requests to substitute for the forms that were available during our in-person gatherings. If you would like to submit a request for prayer, please use our new online form. Your request will be handled in confidence by a small group of people in our meeting who have agreed to pray for concerns in our community. If you would like to join our circle of individuals who pray for needs in our community, please contact Mari McNeil.
Jim Fitzgerald shared this image by Annie Blanchard, Yellow Springs (OH) Meeting.
Our recent online gatherings have been rich and full of sharing. Some of the thoughts shared are included below.
Nadine Hoover shared a poem by Kitty O’Meara titled “And the People Stayed Home.”
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
J. David Swift shared a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
And Karen Peissinger shared the poem “Prayer for a Pandemic” from Cameron Bellm.
May we who are merely inconvenienced
Remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
Remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home
Remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close
Remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips
Remember those that have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market
Remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home
Remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country,
let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other,
Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors.
Amen.
What is inspiring you during these times?