18.07.10 Monthly Meeting Report

July's Monthly Meeting was held at Quaker House and was attended by about 20 friends.

The First Query for Serious Consideration was read, followed by a summary of the previous month's minutes.

• The meeting welcomed two new members: Niamh Hardiman who has joined Churchtown Meeting, and Siobhán O'Doherty who has joined Eustace Street.

We also learned of the marriage Edenderry Friend Alison Bewley to Michael Cullingsworth.

• A report from the Eustace Street Property Management Committee was read, which can be summarised as: leases for Eustace Street properties are now coming up for renewal, and in these more financially challenging times this could be a cause for concern, however, in the meantime the management of the properties continues to run efficiently and provides a valued income.

• The plans for the proposed open day, during which the Dublin Society of Friends will welcome anyone who is curious about or interested in what goes on within our buildings, continue to come into focus. It now appears that there will be a succession of open days, held by several Meetings at different times.
  For a while it looked as if there would be a coordinated open day across all the Meetings taking part but it now looks like Eustace Street will tie their open day in with other activities taking place in the Temple Bar area; Churchtown will not have an open day this year as they are knuckling down to fundraising for repair work; Monkstown open day will be on 9th October (I'm sure that there's going to be more about this in future postings!)

Meeting for Worship 18.07.10.

Today's reading:
18.07.10 Matthew 6: 25-34; Do not worry

Mt:6:25: Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26: Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27: Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28: And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30: Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31: Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32: (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34: Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

 
Next week's reading:
25.07.10 William Henry Davies: Leisure

WH Davies is a Welsh poet of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He travelled as a tramp throughout the US and Canada, lost a leg jumping onto a freight train, and returned home to write.


What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.