Bulls Head –Oswego Monthly Meeting
Monthly Meeting for Worship with attention to Business
June 10, 2018
Minutes
Present: Mary Cadbury, Julia Giordano, Denise Sherman, Solange Muller, Nettie West, Bill Leicht, Mary Williams, Ramses, Mary Anderson, Leif Anderson, Rob Dweck, John Perry, Sybil Perry, Wolf Horan (recording clerk of the day), Vonn New (clerk)
Meeting opened with silent worship.
2018-42 Wolf Horan is approved as recording clerk of the day.
2018-43 The state of the meeting report for Greenhaven Preparative Meeting was read, it is attached here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2H3uspbj7kAYnpweVYwY2NxV3hsbWtfYmNWVEFCTjhfTHpn The worship group's desire to host Quarterly meeting will require work by Nine Partners Quarterly Meeting and New York Yearly Meeting with DOCS (Department of Corrections) to change the definition that DOCS has of "Quaker".
2018-45 Solange reported for Ministry & Counsel. M & C will be sending money for postage to a member.
2018-46 Wolf Horan reports for the Naming Committee. We bring forward the name of Sybil Perry for first reading the nominating committee. The Naming committee is in discernment with a second person and will report again next month.
2018-47 Wolf Horan reports on Stanfordville Community Day. It will be held on Saturday 9/15/2018. The meeting is invited to place an ad in the program. Friends approve spending $100 or less on an ad. Vonn will provide camera ready copy in collaboration with Wolf.
2018-48 Bill Leicht Reported on AVP and Gaza, attached. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2H3uspbj7kAc2hJcHJPaHU4S0pRLVlFR2R3QTNpRHFIdjNR
2018-49. The proposed Bulls Head-Oswego monthly meeting statement of sexual ethics was read and discussed. Some changes in wording were proposed (see below). The revised statement will be reviewed at the next business meeting.
"Our Meeting community is a small part of God’s family. Each of us is precious in God’s sight, and each of us in the meeting, whether gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, married, unmarried, celibate, sexually active, or polyamorous, has gifts that can benefit the whole.
We want a meeting where each of us is encouraged and helped to be our best, a place where each person, young and old, feels welcome and accepted. Each adult needs to model a respectful caring attitude, with no inappropriate sexual innuendo or harmful behavior.
We affirm the value of covenant relationships, such as marriage and we recognize that healthy relationships can occur in other contexts. Each of us must by guided by how our sexual behavior affects family or others.
We see the importance of sexuality in becoming the people we are. As humans, our experience of the Spirit is necessarily embodied. In our sexual experience some of us have felt the same Spirit that covers us in worship. Not all our sexual experiences fit this pattern, but we all aspire to live our whole lives, including our sexuality, in faithfulness to the leadings of the Spirit.
We affirm that sexual relationships should be loving and respectful, non-coercive, between fully consenting adults where one does not exercise significant power over another."
