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When: 5:00 pm August, 8th, 2010
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Parker Palmer: What I learned early on from some great teachers is that violence is not just a matter of dropping a bomb on someone or shooting a bullet at them or hitting them in the face. Violence is done whenever we violate the identity and integrity of the other. Violence is done when we demean, marginalize, dismiss, rendering other people irrelevant to our lives or even less than human. Violence is done when we simply don't care or don't look hard enough to evoke our caring for another. Interview w/ Krista Tippet
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Palmetto Friends Gathering is a fellowship of Quaker meetings in South Carolina that follows the unprogrammed manner of worship. The meetings include Aiken Worship Group, Charleston Monthly Meeting, Columbia Monthly Meeting, Five Rivers Monthly Meeting, and Greenville Monthly Meeting. Unprogrammed meetings traditionally meet in silence until someone in the group rises to speak, usually for a short message. After a period of about an hour, the clerk of the meeting closes the silent worship by welcoming everyone. People then greet each other, announcements are made, and people visit, return home, or continue with subsequent planned activities.
The Gathering meets annually each Spring for a weekend of worship, programs, and fellowship. The location of the gathering moves around the state from year to year.
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Columbia Meeting for Worship Each First Day |
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10:00am - 11:00am |
Held at Harmony School, 3737 Covenant Road near Bethel Church Road. |
11:00am - 11:30am |
An informal time for conversation and fellowship over tea or coffee |
11:30am - 12:30pm |
A presentation and discussion on a variety of religious and social topics |
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SAYMA is the Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association. Columbia, Aiken Worship Group, and Greenville meetings are affiliated with SAYMA.
Attachment 3: Faith and Practice Revision Committee Report
Proposed Revision to Faith and Practice, August 2009'
Community
"As many candles, lighted and put in one place, do greatly augment the light, and make it more to shine forth, so when many are gathered together in the same life there is more of the glory of God." Robert Barclay (1678)
"When we focus on our oneness and unity in the Love that is God, it's tempting to believe that we will all live happily ever after together, with never an unkind word or misunderstanding, much less legitimate complaints, anger or real nastiness. The challenge of course is to hold up and live out the vision while acknowledging and accepting the reality of our own flawed humanity and that of those we live with."
Patricia Loring, Listening Spirituality: Corporate Practice Among Friends page 37
Community is one of the important foundations of Quakerism. This testimony arises from our experience that a group worshiping together encounters God. Since the first generation, Friends have had a practice of discernment where unity is the focus, looking not only to individual inspirations but also to the movement of the Spirit in their midst. Friends followed this practice in meetings for worship with a concern for business. It was not the person with the most money, age, or length of history with Friends who made the decisions; it was the group as a whole that discerned the will of God. That sense of the meeting, that Spirit which the worshippers recognized in unity, was the authority.
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Afghanistan: Ask Senators to Speak Out
Good news! Some members of Congress are starting to question the president's war strategy in Afghanistan. A few senators, including Carl Levin (MI), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have given speeches opposing administration attempts to send more U.S. troops into that conflict.
Already this year, 21,000 additional U.S. troops are headed for Afghanistan. Some voices in the military are calling for even more. Next Thursday, September 24, President Obama will send Congress a report on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan that will reveal whether the administration will ask for more troops this year.
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Click read more for images
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Faithful Security: a Faithful Response to the Complex 2030 Proposal
The administrations plan to develop new nuclear weapons must be stopped. Under the Complex 2030 plan, up to 125 new plutonium pits would be produced every year, posing a threat to public health and creation. In addition, the renovation of the nuclear weapons complex is expected to cost upwards of $150 billion dollars. It is immoral to spend our resources on unnecessary weapons when there are so many other human needs left unmet. We should partner with other nations to eliminate nuclear weaponsnot build more! Join thousands of religious Americans who oppose nuclear weapons in perpetuity by singing the statement below.
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