HAMILTON MONTHLY MEETING

STATE OF SOCIETY REPORT - YEAR 2000

This year Meeting for Worship has been well attended and generally has quickly settled into deep silence. There has been a good balance of silence and vocal ministry, which has come through many people and reached us on a profound spiritual level. There has been an improvement in late arrival although Friends still need to be aware that coming into Meeting with hearts and minds prepared includes being fully present when meeting settles. Nonetheless, we welcome children and those who for whatever reason feel unable to worship the full hour.

We have joyfully received into membership three adults and two children.

We have been enriched by new attenders some of whom find their spiritual home with us and for some of whom HMM is a stage on their journey.

A number of our members and attenders have been stressed in their interpersonal relationships and in the major transitions they have faced.

We have tried to hold and nurture these individuals and families, both individually and with committees of care. In these undertakings we seek God's healing presence. We recognize that both those who give care and those who receive it need patience and understanding in working with each other, acknowledging that none of us has a corner on truth.

We continue to value and enjoy the presence of children in our Meeting for Worship and First Day School. We have a lively group of seven in the primary class, and one or two in the senior group. We are challenged to find a curriculum to suit the breadth of ages from baby to nine years and are concerned about the small size of the senior class. Our focus is on instilling love, care and understanding of God's creation. This has been accomplished through stories (native and non-native), the Parables, outings, demonstrations and crafts. Our well-attended outings have helped illustrate our theme and encouraged interaction between the children and adults in the Meeting.

During the year 2000, we have had two active groups under Peace and Social Action. The Sustainability Group has worked to educate themselves and the Meeting in environmentally friendly initiatives. A peace discussion group has studied alternatives to violence, and participated in the UN Decade of the Culture of Peace by promoting it within our Meeting and by publishing newspaper articles to reach a wider community. These two sub-groups form the Peace and Social Action Committee which encourages the participation of all friends in social issues.

The wildlife garden was and continues to be a major ecological project in 2000 and 2001. We wish to rejuvenate an unkempt yard into an ecologically sustainable space as a teaching and demonstration garden for children and adults of the Meeting and for the community. We gathered to plant native species and the children have made bird houses and planted seeds as part of the First Day School programme. We have been grateful recipients of two substantial grants to help with this project, one from the Rogers Trust and one from the CYM Meeting House Fund. Some Friends were discomfited by the large expenditure on the garden.

It has been a busy, perhaps overactive, year. We had monthly potluck dinner/discussions on interesting and challenging issues, with variable attendance. There were parties at Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, a cleanup day, a baby shower, a 90th birthday party, a swapfest, and regular gardening sessions. We supported financially two young Friends (one on a Quaker Pilgrimage, one as a co-clerk of FGC High School Friends), and one adult to attend Pendle Hill. Many helped with the smooth running of Neekaunis. An adult discussion group which has met regularly each Sunday has been a major contribution to the Meeting for Worship which followed. A Meeting website was inaugurated.

We took a very active role helping the Interfaith Committee on Child Poverty to create a Wall of Faces of children, which hung at City Hall and then at the Meeting House. We have been represented at the Ecumenical Committee on Refugees, the Hamilton Interfaith Group, and The Bridge, a support for released prisoners. With the generosity of a Friend, we sponsored a bench on the waterfront trail in Hamilton, the plaque on which reads, "live simply that others may simply live".

We have also dealt with conflict. After moving to a 10:00 o'clock meeting hour for the summer, not finding unity , we reverted to the former 11:00 am start. We were invited to participate in a demonstration to close the Hamilton Air Show and were divided in our response. Concerns have been expressed about our nominating process lacking transparency and our need to encourage wider participation. We considered a proposal that Meeting purchase a house nearby, and decided not to do so at that time. Our deliberations on this issue set in motion a visioning process for our Meeting which will occur early in 2001. Among the benefits of this process, we look for guidance in putting an unanticipated budget surplus to the best use. Despite efforts to simplify business meetings, the press of issues on the agenda frequently challenges our ability to maintain a worshipful atmosphere.

It has been a demanding year in which many of us have felt stretched. It has also been a year of growth and richness.