In
This Issue
1.
Caring
2. Reducing
Your Carbon Footprint
3. 2008
FGC Gathering
4. Religious
Education
5. Finance
and Stewardship
6. What
New Gardeners are Reading
7. Other
Considerations
8. Flea Market
9. Looking Ahead
at New Garden
10. NC-USFW Annual
Gathering
1.
Caring
This week we remember:
Franklin
D. Beal, who died on
If you
would like a loved one remembered in this way, contact the Meeting office,
292-5487 or newgardoff@aol.com.
The memorial service for Elmer Brown will be held at the
meeting house on Monday, July 21,
Friends may wish to hold
in the Light
the following persons presently facing medical problems: Wendy Greene, Rachel
Meschan (Jane Foy’s mother).
2. Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
A
Few Things You Can Do to Conserve Energy
From
The Power Scorecard website www.powerscorecard.org.
Home appliances
² Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly.
² Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater.
² Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and use the energy saving setting, if available, to allow the dishes to air dry. You can also turn off the drying cycle manually. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 percent of your dishwasher's total electricity use.
² Turn down your water heater
thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually
fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric
water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its
water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million
tons of annual CO2 emissions - the same amount emitted by the entire nations of
Select the
most energy-efficient models when you replace your old appliances. Look
for the Energy Star Label - your assurance that the product saves energy and
prevents pollution. Buy the product that is sized to your typical needs - not
the biggest one available. Front loading washing machines will usually cut hot
water use by 60 to 70% compared to typical machines. Replacing a typical 1973
refrigerator with a new energy-efficient model saves 1.4 tons of CO2 per year.
Investing in a solar water heater can save 4.9 tons of CO2 annually.
3. 2008 FGC Gathering
Communing
with Quakers at the FGC Gathering
On June 28, I left my
husband and three children and flew to
I am so glad that I went! The
Gathering gave me an opportunity to learn more about Quakerism and to connect
with Quakers from all over the country. Over 1,500 Quakers were in
attendance, which someone told me was the equivalent, as a percentage of the
faith, of having 300,000 Methodists in one place or 3 million Roman
Catholics!
The agenda included many more programs
and meetings for worship than any one person could attend, but I went to as
many as I could. A central part of the program offered at the Gathering
consisted of workshops that met each morning Monday through Friday. I
attended a workshop called "Walking with Gandhi" with a group of 25
people. Over 50 other workshops were held at the same time on topics
ranging from clerking, prayer, yoga, chanting, speaking peace, and the gospel
of Matthew to bicycling, leadership, grief, and early Friends.
In addition to my workshop on Gandhi,
I attended a meeting for worship to hear a speech that Martin Luther King, Jr.,
gave to the Gathering 50 years ago. I also heard presentations on AFSC,
FCNL, war tax resistance, and parenting and a talk sponsored by the FGC
bookstore, where I also spent time perusing Quaker reading material. In
the evenings, I attended the general sessions, one of which included a show by
a Quaker comedian, Peterson Toscano.
I am really looking forward to
attending the Gathering again next year, this time with my family. The
best part is that it will be held at VA Tech, so it will be very close
by! I hope lots of New Gardeners will go. If the program is as good
next year as it was this year, you will have an uplifting and energizing time
if you attend, so mark your calendars now for June 27 to
4.
Religious Education
First Day
Forums, 9:45 AM, Sundays, in the parlor
July 20 & 27: Open
Discussion from Queries
Brotherhood
Class, 9:45 AM, Sundays, Bible Study in the Brotherhood Room
July 20: Christ as Servant
July 27: Christ as Messiah
5.
Finance and Stewardship
THIS MONTH AND EVERY MONTH AT
NEW GARDEN MEETING!!
² Gathering for worship, prayer, affirmation, and
renewal in meeting for worship each Sunday.
² Wonderful music in meeting by Michael Greene and
talented guest organists.
² Inspirational messages in meeting by
² Cards sent, phone calls made, meals prepared and
taken to New Gardeners in special health
or grief situations.
² Committees attending to business while
strengthening community and friendship.
² Informational and stimulating classes and
forums on many various subjects in our
Religious Education Program.
² Young Friends Programs.
All are welcome to attend
Donations accepted anytime.
New Garden Friends Meeting needs your continued generous financial support.
6.
What New Gardeners Are Reading
A list of the books
New Gardeners are reading is posted by the Library door. A few of the books
currently listed appear below. Let us know what you are reading! A sign up
sheet is posted along with the listing.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
“Danielewski's eccentric
and sometimes brilliant debut novel is really two novels, hooked together by
the Nabokovian trick of running one narrative in footnotes to the other.” - Publisher’s Weekly
Human Smoke: The Beginnings
of WWll, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker
"This quite
extraordinary book -- impossible to put down, impossible to forget -- may be
the most compelling argument for peace ever assembled. Nicholson Baker displays
in astonishing, fascinating detail mankind's unstoppable descent into the
madness of war -- slowed only occasionally, but then invariably most movingly,
by the still, small voices of the sane and the wise." -- Simon Winchester,
author of The Man Who Loved China and
The Professor and the Madman
In Defense of Food: An
Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
Pollan looks at the
American diet and the industrialization of our food supply. His wisdom on the
way we should be eating can be summed up by: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly
Plants.”
Island Summer by Catherine Stock
Kindergarten-Grade 2. “A
lovely mood piece. Stock follows the seasonal changes that take place on an
island resort in
Mennonites, Amish and the
Civil War by
James O. Lehman, Steven M. Nolt
"The first serious,
comprehensive study of this important and neglected subject. A well researched
and carefully argued treatment that reminds us that not all churches fell into
lockstep support for either the
Thank you to Natalie
Teichman for this information.
7. Other Considerations
Friends Homes
at Guilford needs a Volunteer Librarian. Our wonderful librarian at Friends
Homes Guilford has asked to be relieved of her duties, and so we need a
replacement. Someone interested in books and libraries, ideally someone with
library training or experience, might find this to be the ideal volunteer job.
A committee of about twenty-five people will help with the work, but a planner,
motivator, and organizer is needed to pull all the efforts together. The
library has about 6,000 books and audio-visuals and is an important part of
Friends Homes life.
Please call Hank or Gene
Semmler at 292-6528 if you are interested.
Job Opening: The North
Carolina Yearly Meeting is now accepting resumes for the position of Quaker Lake Camp Facilities Manager.
Send resumes by
Registration
forms for the North
Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends 2008 Annual Sessions are available in the
meeting office. They are also available on-line at www.ncym-fum.org. The 2008 Annual Sessions
will be held at Blue Ridge Assembly,
8. Flea Market
Please bring in
your clean, new or used, items for the Fall Flea Market. You may leave
them in Norvell Hall. Come to the meeting office if you would like a receipt.
Your donations to this important fundraiser are greatly
appreciated.
You may purchase items in the Flea Market now, if they have been
priced.
9. Looking Ahead at New Garden