A poem
Beginnings with Nurture Committee
We hope that Nurture will foster more willingness to give and receive personal support within our Quaker community. I have learned something about help and equality both through conversations within Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) and New York Yearly Meeting’s ARCH (Aging Resources Consultation Help) program. It is a form of privilege culture to project a status imbalance between those who give help and those who receive help. This is not just or healthy in terms of our humanity and spiritual practice. We receive the loving spirit from any experience in giving and receiving from the heart.
Buffalo Quakers and the Network of Religious Communities (Part 3)
Church of the Wild
In late January, seventeen Friends from Buffalo and Orchard Park Meetings met on a mild day in a Church of the Wild experience to connect with nature. Held at Sue Tannehill’s home on Tonawanda Creek, participants listened and communed with each other and the other-than-human beings in the environment. Fellowship followed with a potluck indoors
Friends Decision-Making and Clerking
Buffalo Justice and Peace Library
Buffalo and Orchard Park Friends Meetings are collaborating with Friends Peace Teams North America to start a new Buffalo Justice and Peace Library! The hope is to organize community volunteers to nurture personal relationships across diverse communities in Buffalo, as we are one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Sharing skills and knowledge goes a long way in creating just, peaceful communities and families.
Resettling one refugee family at a time
We’re a rag-tag team of over 100 volunteers named Kathy’s Happy Helpers, after our founder, Kathy E. Our two-year-old group collects home goods, then cleans and furnishes apartments for refugees. Under the direction of several Buffalo resettlement agencies, we prepare for the “strangers” that Jesus commanded us to care for, and like our name says, we do it happily.