As Way Opens
I started 2022 by reading devotionally Victoria Loorz’s book, Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred. In the fourth chapter, Loorz writes of how we are to enter sacred places.
Reading her words, I could not help but think about how we often enter the New Year. Some of us almost crash into the New Year hoping that a handful of resolutions or a new exercise plan will make the change we have needed in our lives. Others reluctantly enter the New Year with trepidatious and anxious tiptoeing hoping not to disturb anything. Loorz suggests another approach which I have adapted for entering the New Year – sauntering.
Loorz points out that the ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, John Muir loved to utilize the word, saunter, to emphasize our need to enter slowly and intentionally into life. Muir used to explain it this way.
“Away back in the Middle Ages, people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they are going, they would replay, ‘A la sainte terre,’ ‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they become known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers.”
To say we are sauntering into 2022, means that we are invited and allured by a desire to wander, deeply listen, pay attention, and step off the “hamster wheel” of life. Loorz says, “This is an invitation to depart from what is familiar and easy in order to step into what is wild and unknown.”
We do not know what 2022 will bring, yet how we approach it will be vitally important. May we saunter into 2022 and allow ourselves to be allured and surprised by all that the Divine is presenting to us in the present moment.
Grace and peace (and Happy New Year),
Bob
Announcements, Reports, & Opportunities
You’re Invited to Alhuda Mosque Tour ~ We will be taking a trip to Alhuda Mosque in Fishers on Saturday, January 15th at 10:00am. We will have a tour and a time for questions and answers. Please let Beth know if you would like to join us—there is still time to sign up! beth.henricks@indyfriends.org.
Adult Quaker Affirmation Coming Soon ~ We are glad to offer an adult Quaker Affirmation class series which will begin on Sunday, January 16, from 11:30-1:00. This is an 8-week study of what it means to be a Quaker. It will cover Quaker history, theology, and what Quakers are doing in the world today. Spots are still open! If you’re interested, please contact the office at office@indyfriends.org or Beth at Beth.henricks@indyfriends.org.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that in an abundance of caution, for the month of January, we will not serve any snacks or drinks for Fellowship Hour after Meeting for Worship. We will still gather with masks on for this time of fellowship. Thank you for your cooperation!
Gnostic Gospel Group ~ Everyone is invited to join us on Thursday January 13 from 6-8pm for a group study on the non-canonical/Gnostic Gospels. This time we will study the Book of Thomas. A light supper will also be served. If you are interested, email the meeting office (office@indyfriends.org, 317-255-2485).
A Girl from Galilee - Beth Farris has published a book titled A Girl from Galilee. The book is targeted for high school aged readers, but can be enjoyed by anyone interested in the Jewish roots of Christianity. Anna is a shepherdess in first-century Galilee, passionate about God and driven to learn more. But Anna's faith is suddenly challenged when an altercation forces her to defend her life.
Encompassing an exploration and celebration of the roots of Christianity, this is the story of a girl who can do nothing else but seek the path forward, a girl learning to trust God not only with her marriage but with her life. It is for sale on the Barnes and Noble website, or through Amazon.
Meditational Woods Bird of the Month
For January: Song Sparrow
Anticipation
In the Christian calendar we will in a couple of months begin Lent, a period of anticipation leading up to Easter. Recently we celebrated Advent, looking forward to Christmas. The anticipation for Christmas seems to stretch the “secular advent” until it begins, in stores at least, around Halloween.
In the bird world the anticipation is celebrated by the males of many species, as they sing and perhaps begin to display courtship rituals far earlier than the actual time for nesting. In the Meditational Woods the champions of this early stretching behavior are, among others, Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, and this month’s selection, Song Sparrow. All it takes is a bright sunny day in January, cold temperatures or not, and snow covered or not, and the hormones in some of these males seem to wake up and cause the males to break out in full song. Perhaps they are practicing for later. I can just imagine the females responding with a loud groan and, “Hey, hold your horses!! It’s not time yet!!”
For me, it brings a smile to my face. I share the anticipation of the boys. The bright sun and resulting singing remind me that, although much of winter is still ahead, part of God’s creation is anticipating springtime.
Brad J
First Friends to Meet Afghan Evacuee Family Virtually Because of COVID!
Exodus Refugee Asks Us to Interact Virtually as Much as Possible.
First Friends welcomes our co-sponsored family to Indianapolis and our First Friends community! Our co-sponsor, Exodus Refugee, matched us with an Afghan evacuee family of seven— a mother, father and five children. Their native language is Dari and they don’t speak English.
The family settled into their new home with help from Exodus’ housing team and their home was stocked with food and furniture from Exodus. Later the family will select items from First Friends’ donations. Steve S., Point Person for the Setting Up Activity Group, may need volunteers to help move items later.
Soon the Afghan Team and helpers will meet the family virtually because of COVID. Once we meet them we will be better able to assist them.
Thank you everyone for your gifts of prayer, time, talent,
household goods, knowledge, and dollars to support the First Friends Afghan Project, Exodus and ultimately the family with whom we have been matched.
Re: Furnishings and household goods
From: Barbara O., Afghan Project Coordinating Committee,
Set Up Activity Group
Many thanks to everyone who has offered furniture and other household goods to our family! They have seen our list and have chosen a few pieces that they need. We are not actively asking for more, nor will we schedule any pick-ups until we receive word from them. We’ll let you know as soon as we have their complete list of needs.
Re: Monetary Donations
From: Jim D.,
Afghan Project Fundraiser
If you would like to assist the Afghan Project, send a check to First Friends with “Afghan Family” noted in the memo section. Or you can donate on our website at indyfriends.org/support by choosing “Afghan Evacuee Assistance” as the fund or text 317-768-0303 with keyword “Afghan.” Thank you for supporting this cause.
For your convenience we are including the two links to articles about Afghan culture and customs that we have featured previously. Here is a guide from Riley, and here is another guide from Southeastern National Tuberculosis Center.
—Nancy S, Clerk, First Friends Afghan Project
Mark your calendars for Oak Leaf: Meeting for Reading book club titles for 2022!
January 25 ~ The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
February 22 ~ Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
March 29 ~ The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson
April 26 ~ Let the Lord Sort Them by Maurice Chammah
May 31 ~ Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
June 28 ~ The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
July 26 ~ The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
August 30 ~ Love Your Enemies by Arthur C. Brooks
September 27 ~ The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
October 25 ~ Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
November 29 ~ The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
December 27 ~ The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
The group meets at 7pm either on Zoom or in the Parlor. To sign up for the email list, please contact the office at office@indyfriends.org.
Oak Leaf: Meeting for Reading would like you to join us from virtually anywhere in the world as we discuss The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich ~ Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction ~ Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.
Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”? Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.
We will gather via Zoom starting at 7 pm EST on Tuesday, January 25th led by Rhonda C.
Here is the NYTimes review:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/books/review/night-watchman-louise-erdrich.html