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1WARM
I see that there are at least two Australian meetings here. Is anyone from any country other than Australia and the U.S.? We're a small group here. Want to introduce yourselves?
I'm Janice. I've been an attender at the Mt Lawley Meeting of the West Australia Regional Meeting for five years. I've been a library volunteer and chief librarything data-inputer for three years. I moved to Perth (on the Indian Ocean side of the continent) six and a half years ago.
I was born in San Diego, California (which is supposed to have the same climate as Perth), lived most of my life in Texas (a little Austin, a lot Houston) and spent almost ten years in South Carolina, where I attended a Unitarian fellowship.
I have been divorced since the earth was young, and I have two married sons (one who lives in Sydney, the other in Denver) and five grandchildren from these families. I have four honorary grandchildren, the most recent being Ebo, a four-year-old I met on the bus two days ago who introduced himself and asked me to be his grandmother.
I am a writer, editor and all-around book nut. In my Quaker library, I am in heaven. For the past forty years, the meeting I attend has been housed in the Regional Meeting House, a lovely old home built in 1919, just a few yards/metres from the crest of Mount Lawley, for which our historic suburb was named (more a small, steep incline than a mount). The library is in one of the two ornate rooms, with elegant deep, curved cornice, ceiling rose, and wood carved mantle piece surrounding a decorative ceramic tile fireplace. We have a few old and valuable treasures, but mostly our collection has been donated by members, both in life and as a legacy. Our annual budget for new books is $200, but members frequently donate new books that they have purchased for themselves to read.
West Australia Regional Meeting (WARM) has around 200 members and slightly more regular attenders. A typical meeting at Mt Lawley (which is one of seven meetings strung out along the bottom half of Western Australia) is a gathering of about 25 adults and 2 children. A few weeks ago, for no apparent reason, we had 37 adults and 7 children. After years of shrinking, there is a sudden swelling in attendance, including a number of young adults. Fremantle Meeting, WARM's second largest, is also experiencing growth, with average attendance about five less than Mt Lawley. The other five meetings are all smaller than ten in regular attendance.
Australia Yearly Meeting is of the unprogrammed, silent tradition, and until a few years ago, all Australian Quakers were of this tradition. Since then, a number of African Quakers from Burundi have immigrated here from the refugee camps in Tanzania. In Queensland, where their former pastor settled, some of them have merged with the local silent meeting, which periodically holds an African-style Quaker meeting, with lots of singing, preaching, and bible reading. (I want to mention that Pastor Sibonio grew his flock in the refugee camp from a few dozen to thousands during the ten years he was there. They were active in taking care of widows, orphans and other needy people, as well as forming men's groups to combat domestic abuse.)
In Perth, one among us took it as a leading to help the Burundians establish their own church. With help from others, she has found them a place to worship (an old Presbyterian church, which is now part of an alternative school owned by a Quaker couple), regular use of vans to transport people to church (also owned by the school), and endless hours of help with babysitting during choir rehearsal, trouble shooting with immigration, and house hunting for their large families, among other things.
Most of the Burundian Quakers were born into Quaker families who belonged to churches set up by Quaker missions (Ohio Conservative, I think). Like people from other countries, Burundians have tribes that have been traditionally at war with one another. In Perth, the various Burundian Christian churches have merged to establish permanent peace among all the tribes. Thus our local Quaker Burundian F/friends have become part of this consolidated church, rather than to isolate themselves as Quakers.
I started to say something briefly about myself and my meeting, and got carried away.
I'm Janice. I've been an attender at the Mt Lawley Meeting of the West Australia Regional Meeting for five years. I've been a library volunteer and chief librarything data-inputer for three years. I moved to Perth (on the Indian Ocean side of the continent) six and a half years ago.
I was born in San Diego, California (which is supposed to have the same climate as Perth), lived most of my life in Texas (a little Austin, a lot Houston) and spent almost ten years in South Carolina, where I attended a Unitarian fellowship.
I have been divorced since the earth was young, and I have two married sons (one who lives in Sydney, the other in Denver) and five grandchildren from these families. I have four honorary grandchildren, the most recent being Ebo, a four-year-old I met on the bus two days ago who introduced himself and asked me to be his grandmother.
I am a writer, editor and all-around book nut. In my Quaker library, I am in heaven. For the past forty years, the meeting I attend has been housed in the Regional Meeting House, a lovely old home built in 1919, just a few yards/metres from the crest of Mount Lawley, for which our historic suburb was named (more a small, steep incline than a mount). The library is in one of the two ornate rooms, with elegant deep, curved cornice, ceiling rose, and wood carved mantle piece surrounding a decorative ceramic tile fireplace. We have a few old and valuable treasures, but mostly our collection has been donated by members, both in life and as a legacy. Our annual budget for new books is $200, but members frequently donate new books that they have purchased for themselves to read.
West Australia Regional Meeting (WARM) has around 200 members and slightly more regular attenders. A typical meeting at Mt Lawley (which is one of seven meetings strung out along the bottom half of Western Australia) is a gathering of about 25 adults and 2 children. A few weeks ago, for no apparent reason, we had 37 adults and 7 children. After years of shrinking, there is a sudden swelling in attendance, including a number of young adults. Fremantle Meeting, WARM's second largest, is also experiencing growth, with average attendance about five less than Mt Lawley. The other five meetings are all smaller than ten in regular attendance.
Australia Yearly Meeting is of the unprogrammed, silent tradition, and until a few years ago, all Australian Quakers were of this tradition. Since then, a number of African Quakers from Burundi have immigrated here from the refugee camps in Tanzania. In Queensland, where their former pastor settled, some of them have merged with the local silent meeting, which periodically holds an African-style Quaker meeting, with lots of singing, preaching, and bible reading. (I want to mention that Pastor Sibonio grew his flock in the refugee camp from a few dozen to thousands during the ten years he was there. They were active in taking care of widows, orphans and other needy people, as well as forming men's groups to combat domestic abuse.)
In Perth, one among us took it as a leading to help the Burundians establish their own church. With help from others, she has found them a place to worship (an old Presbyterian church, which is now part of an alternative school owned by a Quaker couple), regular use of vans to transport people to church (also owned by the school), and endless hours of help with babysitting during choir rehearsal, trouble shooting with immigration, and house hunting for their large families, among other things.
Most of the Burundian Quakers were born into Quaker families who belonged to churches set up by Quaker missions (Ohio Conservative, I think). Like people from other countries, Burundians have tribes that have been traditionally at war with one another. In Perth, the various Burundian Christian churches have merged to establish permanent peace among all the tribes. Thus our local Quaker Burundian F/friends have become part of this consolidated church, rather than to isolate themselves as Quakers.
I started to say something briefly about myself and my meeting, and got carried away.
2DSLM
Hello, James here from Devonshire Street Local Meeting in Sydney. Lovely to read your bio - I thought I'd respond briefly in kind.
I am a native of west Georgia in the US where nearly all of my family still resides. As an adult I moved around a bit including a spell in Atlanta, GA, and Sarasota, Florida, before taking root in Washington, DC, for about 12 years. I migrated alone to Oz aged 33 in 2005. I settled in Sydney and have since found an Aussie partner (and an Aussie housecat).
I grew up marginally Catholic, attended the oldest Catholic (Jesuit) university in the US (Georgetown, where I studied theology and philosophy - I do neither for a living, lol), but drifted through Unitarian Universalism before finding a home in Quakerism. I attended at Devonshire Street for a couple of years before committing fully to membership last year.
In the last year I've become the nominal librarian at Devonshire Street, and adopted LibraryThing as our online cataloging solution. It has been a solo venture to date. So far I've focused on simply cataloging the books (to update and perhaps replace the old card catalog); providing richer information - such as book descriptions, etc - will come later.
The library at Devonshire Street is in a sad state, tucked away behind a dividing wall, and not at all a part of the life of the meeting. I hope to help change that!
I've visited the meeting house in Mount Lawley - and its library is a beautiful place, much to be admired.
I am a native of west Georgia in the US where nearly all of my family still resides. As an adult I moved around a bit including a spell in Atlanta, GA, and Sarasota, Florida, before taking root in Washington, DC, for about 12 years. I migrated alone to Oz aged 33 in 2005. I settled in Sydney and have since found an Aussie partner (and an Aussie housecat).
I grew up marginally Catholic, attended the oldest Catholic (Jesuit) university in the US (Georgetown, where I studied theology and philosophy - I do neither for a living, lol), but drifted through Unitarian Universalism before finding a home in Quakerism. I attended at Devonshire Street for a couple of years before committing fully to membership last year.
In the last year I've become the nominal librarian at Devonshire Street, and adopted LibraryThing as our online cataloging solution. It has been a solo venture to date. So far I've focused on simply cataloging the books (to update and perhaps replace the old card catalog); providing richer information - such as book descriptions, etc - will come later.
The library at Devonshire Street is in a sad state, tucked away behind a dividing wall, and not at all a part of the life of the meeting. I hope to help change that!
I've visited the meeting house in Mount Lawley - and its library is a beautiful place, much to be admired.
