Calendar of Events:

Mar. 13            2^nd Hour Discussion:  Discipline Review

Mar. 18            Getry Agizah, Coordinator of Friends Church Peace Teams, Cincinnati Friends, 7:00 pm

Mar. 27            Monthly Meeting for Business

Apr. 10            2^nd Hour Discussion: Quaker Quest

Apr. 24            Easter Potluck at the Boyce-Viehmann’s after rise of meeting

Apr. 29-May 1             Wilmington Yearly Meeting, hosted by Cuba Friends

May 15            Miami Quarterly Meeting, Miami Meeting

May 22            Monthly Meeting for Business

Additional Information:

• Religious Education needs teachers for the younger age group for March, April and May. Please sign up on the sheet on the bulletin board in the meetinghouse.

• Mike Henson and Rhonda Pfalzgraff-Carlson have had poems accepted in the 2011 annual edition of For a Better World: Poems and Drawings for Peace and Justice.

• Getry Agizah, Coordinator of Friends Church Peace Teams in Kakamega, Kenya, in the Great Lakes Region, will be speaking at Cincinnati Friends Meeting on March 18^th at 7:00 pm.

• Three workshops entitled Transitions will be held Apr. 15-16 at Quaker Hill in Richmond, IN. See http://www.qhcc.org/events.html or info@qhcc.com for more information.

• On July 27-31, the FUM Triennial will meet in Wilmington. There is need for a variety of volunteers including ushers, flower providers, luggage carriers, greeters at the campus and at airports. Also, we need to decide if we would we like to host visitors at our meeting on the Sunday morning. To help, contact Libbie Curry (937-382-4608) or Lois Hachney (937-382-5053). 

Spiritual Practice - from Eastern Hills Ministry and Counsel

Do you pray, or do you hold someone in the Light? It seems that some unprogrammed Friends seldom or never use the words “pray” or “prayer.” Instead, in circumstances in which others would pray for someone needing God’s presence or healing, these Friends hold the person in the Light. Are prayer and holding someone in the Light merely synonyms for the same experience ,or is there a difference between them?

A common explanation of the phrase “holding in the Light” is that it is the same as imagining someone being held in God’s love. Our culture usually thinks of prayer as words—spoken or not—addressed to God (in the belief, of course, that God is listening). Nevertheless, using imagination to express a desire for God’s guidance and care of a person, holding someone in the Light certainly qualifies as prayer of supplication or intercession, even if unspoken.

Of course, supplication and seeking God’s intercession are not the only purposes of prayer. If we only “hold one in the Light” and don’t draw upon the other particulars of prayer, are we stunting our spiritual growth or hindering our relationship with the Divine? What about prayers of devotion and of thanksgiving and prayers that nurture our spiritual growth? (More on other uses of prayer next month.)

Also, what about the means by which we pray? There is certainly nothing wrong with using imagination to pray/hold someone in the Light. St. Ignatius developed an entire system of spiritual practices engaging the imagination. But why not engage other aspects of our being? Why not use our bodies in prayer?

In most cultures or faith systems, prayer is commonly accompanied by gestures or movement (often ritualized). Native Americans regard some dancing as a form of prayer. Some Sufis spin. Orthodox Jews sway their bodies back and forth. Muslims kneel and prostrate. Most Christians fold their hands; some raise their hands toward heaven. Catholics also pray the rosary, moving their fingers from one bead to another. Tibetan Buddhists sometimes spin a prayer wheel.

We unprogrammed Quakers sit...silent and unmoving. (OK. Maybe we squirm sometimes.)

This month, create for yourself (or perhaps follow an example from above or elsewhere) a prayer expressed through some sort of body movement. Your prayer might involve movement of your entire body, a gesture of some sort, your fingers. It’s your choice. Your prayer may be supplication, a desire for God’s intercession, devotion, thanksgiving, or any other prayerful intent you can think of.

Try to practice your body/movement prayer daily.