To request log-in information for Zoom Worship: Zoom [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: %E2%80%9CWorship%E2%80%9D%20Zoom%20Link%20Request) .

Even Missionaries get discouraged at times.

~ Mack Wilberg

(American composer, arranger,

conductor, and choral clinician)

The Meeting Calendar

Join us at rise of Meeting on Sunday, April 7 when the PSECC committee is preparing a Native American inspired meal of corn bread and Three Sisters soup, (no contributions required) for worship sharing and discernment in response to the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) request for our discernment on national legislative priorities. We are asked to identify five priorities (in no particular order) to share with FCNL, which, when combined with similar discernment from other Meetings, will form the basis of FCNL's legislative lobbying for 2024. Below is a link providing examples of priorities in previous years along with other background information about FCNL.

As you go about your group's discernment on what should be FCNL's Legislative Priorities for the 119th Congress, we want to inform you of the main areas in which FCNL is currently placing its resources -- time, lobbyists, and grassroots networks -- as more context for how FCNL does its lobbying.

These issue areas are: Economic Justice, Sustainable Energy and Environment, Justice Reform and Gun Violence Prevention, Just Migration, Native American Concerns, Middle East Policy, Nuclear Nonproliferation, Pentagon Spending, International Peace Building, U.S. Wars and Militarism, and Voting and Elections.

Most of the priorities that groups have brought forward in the past have fallen into one of these broad areas. As individual bills come up in Congress, FCNL staff decide whether to work on it by considering the content and purpose of each bill, whether it has been designated a priority through the discernment process, how it fits into FCNL's strategy for each of these areas, FCNL’s value added in advocating on the issue, congressional opportunities, and whether FCNL staff have the expertise, capacity and resources to work on that bill. Please click on the link below for more information.

https://www.fcnl.org/about/world-we-seek/legislative-priorities [3]

The draft minutes for the March 2024 meeting for worship with attention to business are available at:

• https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/2024-03-10_CMM_Minutes [4] or via
• https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/Minutes_of_ConcordMonthlyMeeting [5].

For corrections, missing documents, and/or clarifications of the minutes, please reply to web clerk, Concord Friends Meeting <webclerk [at] concordfriendsmeeting [dot] org>.</webclerk [at] concordfriendsmeeting [dot] org>

With love, and peace, and tenderness,

Anne is on the road again and writing about the adventures of Moominmama in her blog.  Read the blog and see her beautiful pictures of New Mexico and Arizona. at:

https://moominmamasadventures.blogspot.com/   [7]

Hello Friends,

Dover Quarter will meet on April 14 at 1 pm. This will be a hybrid meeting - on-site at Dover Friends Meeting and on Zoom. We are meeting this day because the 5th Sunday, March 31st, is Easter. I hope Friends are able to make this new time. Concord has let me know that this is the day of their Meeting for Business but I am hopeful that with the hybrid option some Friends will be able to join.

An important item on the agenda will be consideration of New England Evangelical Friends request to formally become a monthly meeting within the Quarter. A committee from the Quarter met with members of NE Evangelical Friends recently and are clear to recommend this step.

I will send out the rest of the agenda and minutes from our last meeting later, if you have additional items you would like to add, please let me know.

—Jeremiah

By the time you read this, the last, I hope, of a winter storm, will be over and we can really think about spring and notice its signs: flowers sprouting from the ground; buds of trees and shrubs; sun and blue skies; and the smell of warm earth,

It is a good time to explore your own backyard or visit downtown Boston this spring!

Beacon Hill Friends House Director, Jen Newman, visited Concord Friends Meeting in March for both worship with us and a guided fourth Sunday program on Gifts. Jen and her staff have invited Friends from Dover Quarter to visit BHFH.  Hope you will be one of them!

BHFH is an independent Quaker nonprofit organization, located at 6 & 8 Chestnut Street in the downtown area of the city, a short walking distance from the State House and Boston Common. Staff and residents provide Quaker activities both in the building and Zoom. It is also a residential intentional community, which is held up by Quaker principles, providing opportunities for spiritual deepening and personal growth towards collective action.

The building is also home to Beacon Hill Friends Meeting.

Here are three dates offered for our visit to Beacon Hill. One of these dates will be chosen based on how many of you can attend.

• Tuesday, May 21^st starting anytime.
• Wednesday, May 22^nd after 12 noon
• Thursday, May 23^rd before 3 p.m.

Please email me with your preferences, Date 1, Date 2, Date 3, and your name, and telephone number.  This announcement will be sent out again with the last day to reply.