Bulls Head-Oswego Monthly Meeting for Business
January 11, 2009
Present: Julia Giordano, Nettie West, Robert West, Valerie Suter, Mary Foster Cadbury, Christopher Cadbury, Karen Snare, Denise Sherman, Mary Williams, Elizabeth Prenot.
Minutes are numbered from the beginning of the calendar year.
The meeting opens in worshipful silence.
The Clerk begins with a reading from New York Yearly Meeting’s Practice and Procedure on Meeting for Business.
2009-2. The treasurer brings the final report for 2008(attached), and she will submit this report to the auditor. We accept this report and note that we have operated with a deficit of $2329 for 2008.
2009-3. The clerk of the finance committee brings forward the budget for 2009, and we accept this budget. She notes that the finance committee believes this budget may end in a deficit, which they will make up from the general reserve. They also propose to send a letter to members and attenders explaining our
financial situation and asking for estimates of the amount of money they plan to contribute in 2009. If the estimates fall far short of the budget, the finance committee will have time to decide what to do about the 2010 budget.
2009-4. Ministry and Counsel present a minute which they have been working on for our approval:
“In a predominantly heterosexual world, even where society has become more open to various gender differences, barriers remain for non-straight people. On entering a new group, these people must often test the waters to see if they are truly included.“Bulls Head-Oswego Monthly Meeting affirms the traditional testimony of equality of the Religious Society of Friends, and includes in that testimony people who identify themselves as bisexual, gay, heterosexual, lesbian, or transgendered. We seek that of God in everyone and welcome all to worship with us. We strive with Divine assistance to recognize and honor the intrinsic value of all forms of sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity.”
We approve this minute, and we note that we find much of the disapproval and intolerance for diverse sexualities in our culture irrational. We plead, not for total sexual freedom, but for broader awareness and more profound thinking about the complicated issue of sexuality.
2009-5. Ministry and Counsel presents another minute:
“Ministry & Counsel is concerned about a recent pattern in which minutes brought to Monthly Meeting are returned to committee multiple times in response to new and different concerns having been expressed at successive Monthly Meetings. In cases where unity could be reached with minor editing, this has not been a problem. However, there are cases in which the substance of a minute evokes deeper concerns. It has not been effective to send a minute back to committee without a full exploration of these concerns. The committee for Ministry & Counsel recommends that when there are deep concerns expressed, the Meeting be willing to labor with those concerns until unity is reached and a minute approved at that time.”
We accept this minute, and we add that when such concerns arise we may call a meeting especially to address them.
The meeting ends in worship and adjourns to meet again February 8, 2009.
Respectfully submitted,
Julia Giordano, clerk
