Pacific Yearly Meeting of Friends

VOL. 29, NO. 4

COULD HE SPEAK DIFFERENTLY?

How do Friends seek God’s guidance? Do Friends know how to hear His voice? Do Friends know how to listen for His guidance? Do we all depend upon God’s guidance in our daily living?

Could God speak differently to different ones of His children on the same subject? Can it be God’s will that some Friends are gainfully em- ployed in producing H-bombs? Does God guide other Friends to protest the making of those bombs?

Does God intend for some of us to be brothers of all men? Can He guide some Friends to re- main aloof from any effort toward bringing equality of opportunity to all racial groups? Does God guide other Friends in spend their lives in such effort?

Does God want His children to fight wars among each other? Does He guide some Friends to build bomb shelters in their yards? Does God guide us to prepare for war, and to try to survive that war?

Do we really know how to hear God’s voice?

— Gretchen Tuthill

La Jolla Meeting,

ARRANGEMENTS FOR YEARLY MEETING, 1961

Yearly Meeting this year will be held on the campus of Westmont College in Montecito, Calif., about four miles from the center of Santa Barbara, two miles in- land from the ocean. The dates are August 7 to 11: Monday dinner through Friday lunch.

The 150-acre campus, somewhat rolling, is made up of several beautiful older estates, with trees and lawns, walks and attractive gardens. There are sufficient class- rooms for committee meetings, and appropriate facilities for the children’s program and for Young Friends. The general meetings will be held in Page Hall, which is on the ground floor of the new Residence Hall. It is but a few minutes walk from Kerwood Hall, that will provide offices and committee rooms for the Yearly Meeting. Meals will be served cafeteria style in the new Dining Commons nearby. Worship-fellowship groups will meet in appropriate places indoors or out.

In addition to the new Residence Hall, Friends will be lodged in Catherwood Hall, but five minutes distant by footpath, and less by ear. The Cold Springs dormi- tories are a similar distance by trail, a bit farther by car. Emerson Hall is a mile and a half from the main campus; here Young Friends of senior high school will be housed with certain adults and will have their own program. A bus will shuttle between the two centers and will also provide transportation for planned recre- ational outings; this will preclude the need for using individual cars.

Young Friends, families and all who wish, will enjoy

APRIL, 1961

the excellent beach and safe swimming, picnics and sightseeing, for the recreational periods. Santa Bar- bara itself, a city of 50,000 has many cultural interests —Museum of Natural History, Botanic Gardens, art galleries. The University of California, Santa Barbara, is some ten miles distant at Goleta. The Santa Ynez Mountains, which here meet the sea, offer opportuni- ties for picturesque walks and drives, with clear-weather views of the Channel Islands.

Santa Barbara is reached by car (U.S.101), by Grey- hound bus ( Coast Highway Route ) , by Southern Pacific Railroad (Coast Line), by United Air Lines and Pacific Air Lines (with limousine or taxi service to the center of Santa Barbara). It is expected that volunteers will, by arrangement, meet trains, busses and limousines, to provide transportation to the West- mont campus, but that they will not be asked to meet planes at the Goleta airport.

Costs will be somewhat higher than last year. The rate will be $25 per person ( for the four-day period ) , with $5 reduction for children under 12, and no charge for babies under 2 years. For Interim Committee mem- bers and others wishing to occupy their rooms begin- ning Sunday afternoon, there will be a charge of $5 per person for the additional day, board and room.

These are the charges set by Westmont College for the use of its facilities. There will be an additional fee of one dollar for each adult above high school age, to cover certain of the expenses of the Yearly Meeting itself.

Persons who do not stay in the college dormitories, lodging in Santa Barbara, may purchase meal tickets: $15 for the four-day period, $18.75 for the five-day period. Individual meals in the cafeteria ( Dining Com- mons) will be as follows: $1 for breakfast, $1.50 for lunch, $1.75 for dinner.

It is to be noted that sheets and pillow cases will be provided in the Westmont dormitories, but that each individual must bring his own towels and blanket. How- ever, if requested in advance, a blanket may be rented for 60c from the college.

As accommodations in the dormitories are limited to 400, and as no further housing is available nearby, reservations must be made well in advance. The Reg- istrar is Asenath Young, 234 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasa- dena, Calif. Even motels must he reserved in advance— August is the peak of the vacation season, and Yearly Meeting overlaps Santa Barbara Fiesta. (The Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce will, upon request, make motel reservations in nearby Montecito). It has not been possible to make arrangements for families to camp, though every effort has been made to do so.

The co-chairmen of the local arrangements commit- tee are Charles and Emus Cooper. 250 Cloy don Cir., Santa Barbara, Calif. No mail should be addressed to Westmont College until the time of Yearly Meeting: but at that time those attending Yearly Meeting ma> have mail addressed to them c/o Westmont College. 955 La Paz Road, Santa Barbara, Calif.

— Charles W. Cooper Santa Barbara Meeting

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COMMITTEE MEETING IN KENYA

The eighth meeting of the Friends World Committee for Consultation will be held in Kenya, August 26 to September 4, 1961. The three representatives of Pacific Yearly Meeting are Floyd Schmoe, Ferner Nuhn, and Gretchen Tuthill. All three are deep in plans for making the most of this opportunity, and all feel that this meeting, which will bring Friends from all over the world to the first such committee meeting to be held in Africa, is a privilege to attend.

Only one catch appeared as Interim Meeting heard the plans of these Friends. Yearly Meeting, last year, in a way typical of its optimistic type of financing, had budgeted funds to pay minimum expenses ( about $1500) for only one representative, but had appointed three! With all personal resources taken into account, it appears that about $1000 more would be needed to make it possible for all three to attend. Interim Meet- ing authorized the chairman of the Finance Committee to circularize Monthly Meetings in an attempt to meet this supplementary need through voluntary contribu- tions. Ferner Nuhn writes: “I am grateful that Friends, after having walked a mile with Floyd— always an in- teresting companion— may be willing to walk most of a second mile with Gretchen and me.”

The conference has two themes: “Beyond Diversities to a Common Experience of God”, and “Anplication of Quaker Principles in Situations of Tension.” Our repre- sentatives have been studying the advance papers, and some copies are still available for Monthly Meetings if requests are made soon. (Write to Gretchen Tuthill, 3840 Skyline Rd., Carlsbad, Calif. ) The representatives would welcome, questions or suggestions on these themes from Meetings or individual Friends which they might carry to the meeting. They will be glad to visit Meetings to discuss the coming session.

All three representatives will fly round-trip, economy class. Floyd expects to go by way of Canada, Green- land, and London, and to return via Madrid, Lisbon and Montreal. Ferner plans a week of visitation in Eng- land and stops in Cairo, possibly Addis Ababa, and at Makerere College in Uganda on the way, and will re- turn by way of Nairobi, Salisbury, Johannesburg, Ni- geria and Ghana. Gretchen plans to attend East Africa Yearly Meeting, August 9 to 14. She will also visit some of the families of Kenyan students now in the U.S., whom she met in various southern colleges. She will be in touch with British Friends working for the Friends Service Council in Nairobi and Mwea District, and will visit some of the Kikuyu people whom she met in 1958 and with whom she has been in correspondence since. On her way home, she will visit Friends in Copenhagen and Berlin.

All three representatives will be prepared to make reports to Friends on their return in September. Friends have an investment in this journey and it is not too soon to plan to collect on it through scheduling visits with one or more of the representatives next fall and winter. Write directly to them: Floyd Schmoe, 13434 40th Ave., N.E., Seattle, Wash.; Ferner Nuhn, 420 West 8th, Claremont, Calif.; Gretchen Tuthill, 3840 Skyline Rd., Carlsbad, Calif.

FOURTH ANNUAL SUMMER SCHOOL

The Friends Summer School will be in session again this year from June 20 to July 16 at the Mindego Ranch, 15 miles southwest of Palo Alto. The subject is creative arts, and the curriculum will offer a most stimulating experience.

The staff will include Francis Duveneck Jr., mem- ber of Palo Alto Meeting, a licensed building contractor and formerly junior high industrial arts teacher, and

Rosemary Goodenough, also of Palo Alto Meeting, a vocational nurse and well known to Bulletin readers as organizer of the Santa Clara County Jail Auxiliary. Both have been on the staff of the Cambria Teenage Friends Conference. Also well known to Friends are Foy and Elizabeth Van Dolsen, at present directors of Peninsula School, Palo Alto, who have had wide experience in teaching art and drama and have partici- pated in a number of Young Friends conferences and summer projects. The director is Ken Stevens, of Delta Meeting, engineer and farmer, who led the Teenage Friends Adventure to Hawaii in 1960 and directed the Cambria Conference as well as the 1959 Secondary Summer School.

The program will be arranged to “allow those with- out artistic talent’ to discover and unfold their latent creative impulses as well as to encourage ‘talented’ students into further exploration and expression.” The curriculum will include landscape painting, sculpture, dramatic and manual arts, and it will provide unhurried opportunities for stimulated creativity. All necessary tasks, including meal preparation and clean-up, will be done cooperatively. The place is a ranch owned by Arnold and Corinne True of Palo Alto Meeting, in beautiful wild country on the hills above the coast. “We will be living,” writes Ken Stevens, “in the shade of trees beside a stream and have 1000 acres to explore and enjoy.”

Applicants should be presently in the 8th, 9th, 10th or 11th grades. Interest in the faith and practice of the Religious Society of Friends is desirable, but ap- plicants need not be members of a Meeting. Enroll- ment will be limited to just over 20, so prompt inquiry is essential. The cost will be $165 per student, but scholarship funds are available. The school is under the care of the College Park Friends Educational Asso- ciation, under the care of College Park Quarterly Meet- ing. For entry blanks and fuller information, write to Ken Stevens, Route 8, Box 820, Modesto, Calif.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HALF-YEARLY MEETING

The fourth session of the Half-Yearly Meeting will be held May 14 at Pasadena.

The clerks expect that the first hour will be used for reports on “The State of the Society,” written by the Monthly Meetings. The question of affiliation with the Council of Churches has been considered by local groups and will be discussed further. Monthly Meet- ings may also bring forward concerns for Yearly Meet- ing, 1961, and thought will be given to ways of assist- ing our delegates to the Friends World Committee in Kenya and using them when they return. The Interim Committee has also asked Meetings to consider pro- posals for incorporation of the Yearly Meeting.

The third session, which met in Claremont, Novem- ber 13, 1960, showed structural growth and signs of “jelling” as an active subsidiary Meeting of Pacific Yearly Meeting. It was agreed that its functions are three-fold: the recognition and oversight of new Meet- ings; sharing reports of the various Monthly Meetings which have become too numerous to report to our growing Yearly Meeting; and making arrangements for Yearly Meeting when it is held in this area.

The reports from the nine Monthly Meetings and one worship group were met with appreciative inter- est. Santa Barbara was warmly welcomed as a new member. An interim body was authorized, to be made up of representatives of each Meeting, along with the officers of the Half-Yearly Meeting. Consideration was given to means of fostering intervisitation and closer contacts among the Meetings in the area.

The shared concerns, such as the “Friend in Wash-

APRIL, 1961 — PAGE 3

ington” project, the activities of Young Friends, the voluntary tax for the United Nations, as well as the interchange of information about each other, played vital parts in enabling the larger body to know some- thing of the inner life and spirit of its member Meet- ings. The words of one Meeting on its relationships, applies in the broader sense to tbe whole Half-Yearly Meeting:

"Out of the increased sharing of concerns, talking and doing, comes a renewed awareness of how much we mean to each other.”

—Betty Douglas Jansen C laremont M eeting

QUOTAS DUE

At Interim Committee meeting, last month, several Meeting’s representatives had red faces when the re- port of the Finance Committee was given— an embar- rassing number of Meetings had sent in no part of their ouota of $5 per member. This makes it difficult for the officers and committees appointed by the Yearly Meeting to carry out the work expected of them.

AND CONTRIBUTIONS WOULD BE NICE, TOO

Last month the Bulletin sent its readers reminders that donations would be welcome to help with the costs of the paper (about $2 per year). Besults have been gratifying, but perhaps some Friends mislaid the notice or set it aside for further action. The Bulletin Committee thinks that this time of year is as good as any: and the Ides of April reminds us that the finances of the Bulletin are part of the Yearly Meeting finances, and a contribution to the Bulletin is a donation to the Yearly Meeting.

WE WALKED. SO — WHAT NEXT?

"My only fear is that we may feel we have clone something,” is a fairly typical reaction of an individual who took part in one of the peace walks. The demon- strations across the country this Easter involved a number of persons who had never before taken part in any such activities. As one wrote, "After our dis- cussions at Yearly Meeting, who would have thought that I would be out on the street with a placard in mv hand?” Many entered with earnestness, of course, but with questions still in mind as to the efficacy of such protests. Apparently almost all participants have felt that it was an educational experience for them- selves, but many wonder if it is the right activity for Friends. It s a British technique,” one points out, “fine Jor England, but it doesn’t fit the American scene.”

Other doubts go deeper. One man, who had worked actively on organizing a walk, said: "It’s too super- ficial. We ought to be thinking about this question, ‘What would a world without war be like?’ This is where Friends ought to be making a contribution.” Another, trained in science, believes that in our ig- norance of the complexities of science and politics, we might even oppose agreements which would be steps toward understanding and cooperation, for instance, experiments in small underground nuclear tests, which would help work out an inspection system. Others think we should be putting more attention on eco- nomics, and the transition from a war economy to a peacetime one.

Still another view is expressed in this thoughtful letter: “I feel the peace-walk sort of thing may have at best only limited value. Our ‘peace witness’ people ought to think out more clearly what they want to say, rather than make a public exhibition of the trite things they are now saying. Besides, a witness is a religious testimony to an inward experience; and 1 myself ques-

tion the idea of promoting a professional statement that we have witnessed peace in ourselves ... I prefer trying to engage the Convair people in respectful con- versations, or inviting them to take part in an earnest seminar on the problems of negotiation, disarmament, and the economics of peace, rather than to wig-wag at them with signs at the door of their plant.”

And one Meeting Newsletter asks: “Do we lull our- selves, saying, ‘This does little good except as emotional release for the demonstrator’? ... If we don’t want to ‘peace walk’ or keep vigil publicly, what are we doing instead? Which of us will be the Jeremiah who can arouse Jerusalem before it is too late?”

-E. C. B.

NEWS FROM HERE AND THERE

A number of Meetings in California are profiting by a visit to the West Coast by Rachel Davis DuBois, re- tired director of the Workshop for Cultural Democracy, New York City. Scheduled are several 2-hour discus- sions or “dialogues” with a limited number of partici- pants for the purpose of “bringing new awareness of the meaning of the Quaker meeting for worship and the meeting for business, and of the religious experience that makes for dynamic Quakerism.” The method is an adaptation of an eminently successful technique worked out by Rachel DuBois for racial and inter- cultural exchanges. April 25-27 she will be at Santa Monica Meeting, and May 5 to 7, will lead a retreat at Forest Farm near San Francisco, as well as holding a series of discussions at the Center, 2160 Lake St.. San Francisco.

A special retreat will be held at Hidden Villa, Los Altos, under the auspices of the Palo Alto Meeting, May 12, 13, 14. The Meeting Newsletter quotes an attender from a similar group of “dialogues”: “Those of us who shared the Quaker Dialogues felt so drawn together, so appreciative of old insights and the awak- ening of new ones that it enabled us to participate more fully at worship. On Sunday, when Rachel DuBois worshipped with us, after our intensive dialogues to- gether, we felt like a truly gathered people.”

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On March 8, reports the San Fernando Meeting News letter, Harry and Lois Bailey were appointed by the American Friends Service Committee to direct the VISA (Voluntary International Service Appoint- ments) program in Tanganyika, East Africa. It will be an assignment for 2 years— and the job will involve the supervision of 12 American young people of college- graduate level, in various special assignments in the areas of rural community development, education, sani- tation, and construction.” Harry leaves about May 1. for a six-weeks exploratory trip. He will then return to the United States, and the rest of the family, and the 12 volunteers, will go to Africa to begin work early in the fall. The first seven weeks will be spent in orientation courses given by the government of Tan- ganyika. It will include intensive study of the Swahili language.

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Mary Louise Hooper of Palo Alto Meeting has

gone to Africa to attend the Pan-African Conference

in Cairo. She will return about the middle of May.

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The Albuquerque Meeting was host to Unitarians from Santa Ee, Los Alamos, and Albuquerque, March 18. The occasion was to honor the Reverend Mr. Elmo A. Robinson, minister of Los Alamos Unitarian Church, who gained first award granted in the 1961 contest sponsored by the Albert Schweitzer Education

page 4 — APRIL, 1961

Foundation, 55 East Washington St., Chicago, 111. The contest was for a sermon or reading on The Challenge of Albert Schweitzer, and was available to all leaders of religious or ethical groups in the United States and Canada. The competition honored Dr. Schweitzer’s 86th birthday.

The certificate of award was presented by Mary Louise O’Hara of Albuquerque Meeting, who won honorable mention in 1960 in the layman’s category of the contest. The Albuquerque Meeting hopes to present a series of talks on Albert Schweitzer’s philosophy in the spring.

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Ed Sanders of Orange Grove Meeting and Robert Lyon of Cambridge, Mass., Meeting, visited the Yearly Meeting of Cuban Friends, held Easter week in Hol- guin, Oriente. They went as individual traveling Friends, not as official representatives of the American Friends Service Committee. Ed will report to Orange Grove Meeting, Wednesday, April 26, at 8 p.m.

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Born: to Harold and Lois Barton, of Rt. 4, Box 319, Eugene, Oregon, a daughter named Rachel Louise Barton, February 25, 1961.

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Born: on February 25, 1961, to Helen and Dick Bruner, 108 Frost Dr., Woodland, Calif., members of San Luis Obispo Meeting, twins named Margaret Jean Bruner and David Mark Bruner.

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Born: on February 5, 1961, to Harry and Jane Sil- ver Carlisle of Seattle, Wash., a son named Clark Joseph Carlisle.

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Born: on March 17, in San Francisco, Calif., to W ii .bur and B’Anne Hofe, 6049 Skyline Blvd., Oak- land, Calif., members of Berkeley Meeting, a son named Mark Daniel Hoff.

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Bom: on December 29, 1960, to Jim and Ginger Vetrano, of Woodland Hills, Calif., a daughter named Gina Marie Vetrano. The parents are members of San Fernando Meeting.

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Died: on February 22, 1961, at 82 years of age, following a long illness, Herbert F. Dear, husband of Louise Dear, member of Phoenix Monthly Meeting. A memorial service was held February 25. The meeting writes as follows:

“Herbert and Louise Dear had made their home in Phoenix for the past nine years, and it was a center of love and service. His cheerfulness and good humor even when in pain were a source of inspiration to his many friends, and he will be greatly missed.”

Died: on March 5, 1961, at his home in Berkeley, Calif., as he was about to set out for meeting, Andrew Erskine. Though never officially enrolled as a Friend, lie attended, supported and participated in Friends ac- tivities since his childhood. He is survived by his wife, Hannah Erskine, who lives at 1649 San Lorenzo^ Berkeley, Calif. A minute from Berkeley Monthly Meet- ing says in part:

Andrew and Hannah Erskine have been part of our Meeting since its beginnings in Oakland with some Rye members, 45 years ago. Andrew’s quiet support of tne Meeting and loving concern, particularly for the child- ren, have meant a great deal to Friends.

“Andrew valued uprightness and generosity very highly. He was severe in his judgments and in later years suffered and caused suffering on this account. He was hard working and independent and endeared himself to many who knew him well, particularly by his stubborn, outspoken clinging to these values, com- bined with a willingness to grant the possibility and reality of his own shortcomings as well as other people’s. That these shortcomings in himself and others are ac- ceptable to God or forgiven by God he could not quite feel — he was so sure people should be the virtuous persons that it is right for people to be.

“Andrew was genuine and whole-hearted, stubborn and often mistaken, but such a bravely indignant and direct person! So willing and helpful and bright and straight-forward; so thoughtful of other people in many special ways; so devoted to Truth and Right!”

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Died: on February 1, 1961, Lewise Langston of Claremont Meeting. The minute from her Meeting says:

“She has been with our Meeting from its very incep- tion as a Wider Quaker Fellowship; indeed, she was one of its founders. And through the years she has been the staunchest of supporters of the aspirations and activities of Friends in this area. Her bright spirit will long pervade and inspire the Meetng.

“The years of residence in Georgia before she came to California were a time when she could give expres- sion to her strong convictions regarding interracial un- derstanding; and in all the later years in the association with Friends she took a vigorous stand on every social concern in the community, serving as hostess for Con- scientious Objectors during the war, as a visitor at the Chino Institute for men, as early member of the Intercultural Council in Claremont, as untiring witness to all concerns for peace. Her life was an inspiration to young and old alike.”

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