We continued our 2nd Sunday letter writing... opposing permanent military bases in Iraq, against further funding of the war in Iraq, against casino gambling in Massachusetts, against military offensives in Iran, expressing our concerns about global warming, and thanking those who we feel are making the world a better place.

We expanded our Peace and Social Concerns library.

We put up a "Pray for Peace" sign in Montague Center and Turners Falls.

We led a worship-sharing discussion of Northampton Meeting's "minute on Ecological Integrity", a summary of which was presented at Quarterly Meeting in October.

We sponsored the "Care Calls" group, initiated by Irene Michaud and involving several Mt. Toby attenders, who are calling Katrina victims who have not yet been contacted by social workers.

We presented an 11:40 hour on the Queries concerning Peace and Social Justice from the NEYM Faith and Practice.

We held a separate meeting of the committee with one Friend concerning his call to undertake a personal fast out of concern for the invasions and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The discussion that ensued was deep and enlightening to all involved.

In response to the Governor's casino-gambling proposals, we asked Meeting for Business to confirm its 1995 minute on gambling. This was done and the minute was sent to legislators and printed in local papers. The proposal was defeated.

We agreed to fund a counter-recruitment stand at Holyoke High School.

We co-sponsored an event on February 20 in opposition to starting an Iran war, a talk on 4/27 given by two Iranians, and the upcoming talks on June 19, 26, and 27 by Rudy Perkins, sponsored by the Coalition to Prevent War on Iran. The Meeting agreed to cosponsor the events.

For the March 29th "Quaker Salad Day" event we:

Led a workshop on Climate Change and our "carbon footprint".
Held a worship-sharing session on FCNL priorities. The results of which were used to inform FCNL of our concerns.
Held a well-attended "Kenyan Dinner" which was a great success and raised $1162 for Kenya. This required a lot of effort by many people, on our committee and others. Sukie Rice, who spoke about her work in Kenya and the situation there has sent her thanks for our work.

We presented another 11:40 Hour on the topic of "Good intentions, right action, finding balance." It was well attended, many people spoke, and it was a lively time.

We set up a work day for the Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity with ten Friends coming to help at the Turners Falls Habitat site. The potential homeowners, John and Christine Speek, were there doing their "sweat equity" work also and it was good to meet and work with them.

We will sponsor an extra food collection at the Hadley Stop-and-Shop on June 28 for the Survival Center in collaboration with the Amherst Interfaith Service Council. This is in addition to our regular September collection, we welcome any who would wish to help with this.

"Friends' Concerns"

In 7/8/07 the Meeting approved these statements: "That Peace and Social Concerns Committee be charged with overseeing the general process of communicating among ourselves about our individual and corporate engagement with Quaker-related groups and organizations. We ask the Committee to create ways to enable Friends to share information about, and their involvement in, these organizations. We ask Peace and Social Concerns to report back to business meeting regularly on the results of this effort."

And, "That the Other Organizations category consist of groups to which we would like to make a modest contributions to indicate our support for their work. The amount would ideally be the same for each group...From time to time, during the course of the year, Peace and Social Concerns Committee would come to Business Meeting with recommendations for groups to be included in this category, with a brief presentation of each group and its work, and a recommended contribution."

We came up with, and implemented a procedure for dealing with such "Friends Concerns", but given that we were also asked to report back to Meeting for Business after May '08 about our experience of the process, I will leave a full report on the matter until the July meeting when we may have a full report on our experience to date.

As usual, putting this report together has been enlightening and satisfying. The many things that we do over the year add up a work which seems larger than the sum of its parts.

We are fortunate this year to have some new attenders at our meetings. Don Stone, Adele Smith-Penniman and Andy Grant have brought some new blood and life to our meetings.