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Chris Andres Memorial
Chris Andres (72), formerly of Putney, VT died peacefully on May 20,2022 in Derby, Vt after a period of declining health and well-being.
Chris was born on May 23, 1949 in Cleveland, Ohio to Paul and Kaye Andres. Chris picked apples in Vermont and citrus in Florida in the 70’s. He then settled in Putney and worked at a variety of jobs.
Chris was generous with his time and money. In addition to tending his own crops of asparagus, garlic, and squash in the Putney Community Garden, Chris nurtured the entire gardening community by maintaining paths and preparing beds. He danced at the Vermont Jazz Center and wherever music was playing. His response to turmoil and suffering in Bosnia was to volunteer as a supply truck driver.
A long-term member of Putney Friends Meeting, Chris was active on committees. He enjoyed spiritual discussions as well as festive events. He was a most attentive caretaker of the Meeting House.
Chris was eccentric, talkative, and quick to smile. Chris was both kind and challenging, both thoughtful and impulsive. His words and actions were at times considerate and, at other times, hurtful.
Chris leaves many friends at the Putney Friends Meeting, the Community Garden, and throughout the community. We are grateful to Ethan Perry of Derby, VT for the kind care provided to Chris in his final months. Chris is survived by his siblings: Tim Andres, John Andres, and Laurel Andres.
Chris was deeply moved by suffering in Palestine; memorial contributions can be made in his name to the American Friends Service Committee to provide school supplies for children in Gaza.
To donate go to: https://www.afsc.org
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Sheldon Weeks Memorial
Sheldon Griswold Weeks was born on 18 November 1931 in Manhattan New York, and died peacefully at home on 4 May 2022 in Brattleboro Vermont at the age of 90. He was a humanitarian, educator, researcher, author, peace activist, conscientious objector, Quaker, beloved father, grandfather, great grandfather, and husband. He lived with a passion for world travel, nature, the arts, and was a voracious reader and movie watcher. He enjoyed hiking, scuba diving, kayaking, camping, going on safari, visiting galleries and museums, attending music events and theater performances, and often had a hat on his head and a camera in his hand. He attended Swarthmore BA ’54, Antioch MA ’60, and Harvard EdD ’68. He was a professor specializing in comparative education at universities in Uganda (1969-72), Tanzania (1972-74), and Papua New Guinea (1974-91), and was founding dean of graduate studies in Botswana (1991-2002). He is predeceased by his parents Harold Weeks and Virginia Travell, sister Virginia Weeks, brother Willard Weeks, wives Sally Shoop, Mary Kironde, and Gudrun Schulz. He is survived by his sister Elinor Weeks, children Sara, Abigail, Harold, Edisa, and Kristina Weeks, two stepchildren, one unofficially adopted child, fourteen grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
An extended obituary, that Sheldon wrote about his life, can be found here: sheldongweeks.weebly.comDonations: If you’d like to donate in memory of Sheldon G Weeks you can do so to the “Robert S Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center” at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where his work and legacy will be held in the Quaker Archives.
— Grandchildren
The delicious relationship between grandparents and grandchildren: “The considerable mutual attraction of the very young and the very old may derive something from their common, secret knowledge that it is they, and not the busy generation between, who are concerned with a poetic play that is eternal and truly wise.” — Joseph Campbel
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Love: A Boundless Gift
With a spiritual eye, I can see that while material goods are gone once given, spiritual treasures are not lost but are expanded when given. Gratitude begets gratitude. Kindness begets kindness. Joy begets joy. A simple smile begets a smile. All this whether or not the person near me responds in kind. When I am grateful, respectful, kind, loving in the world around me, the spiritually healing presence of Light settles in. The little expressions of gratitude, respectfulness, kindness or caring are magnified, sanctified by the Divine, and all around are blessed in the Light.
Candace Cole-McCrea
Photo; RVJart.com -
Quakers Wrestling with White Supremacy
PUTNEY FRIENDS MEETING CALLED MEETING TENTH MONTH 3RD, 2021
A called meeting coordinated by Quakers Wrestling with White Supremacy addressed our meeting’s relationship to people in our community with ties to the Native Americans who lived on the land now occupied by our meeting. People of the Sokoki community of the Abenaki nation lived in the part of the Connecticut Valley where Putney now lies, but had mostly departed from this land before people of European (mostly English) descent started to settle here in the mid-1700s. The system of land ownership which we now follow dates from that occupation.
Friends agree that we are called to deepen our understanding of the people who lived on this land before we came to it. We ought not to burden Native people to explain this to us.
We understand that this concern is not limited to our particular local story. The need to understand the people who have lived in the Americas for millennia is widely defined.
We strive for understanding of why we are called to acknowledge our relationship to indigenous peoples … of what our right relationship to our indigenous fellow members of the community is … and of what the future of this conversation should be. We seek a deeper understanding of what indigenous people would like us to contribute.
We understand that our own perception of our relationship to the land is challenged here. We hear from our indigenous neighbors a sense that the land is not ours. We are of the land. How do we respond to that challenge? What do we have to learn?
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Covid Restriction Update
We are asking all attending to wear masks.
Worship Times Sunday Mornings:
Early Meeting: 8:30am to 9:30am
Intergenerational Singing: 10:00am
Late Meeting: 10:30am to 11:30am
Zoom with Late Meeting: 10:30
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Denouncement of Political Violence
“We are a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love and unity; it is our desire that others’ feet may walk in the same, and do deny and bear our testimony against all strife, and wars, and contentions … Treason, treachery, and false dealing we do utterly deny; false dealing, surmising, or plotting against any creature upon the face of the earth, and speak the truth in plainness, and singleness of heart.” ~Margaret Fell, June 1660
Putney Friends Meeting is deeply distraught by the criminal invasion of our capital building on January 6, 2021.
We denounce the violence to our democracy, the loss of life and the threat to the lives of our legislators. We endeavor to model the testimonies of truth and integrity as we struggle to understand and to actively respond during this dark time in our country.
Minute 2021:01:01: Denouncement of political violence approved by Putney Monthly Meeting 1-17-21
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Black Lives Matter, Putney, Vermont
September 27, 2020 As Friends are no stranger to process, its worthwhile to share the recent Black Lives Matter Street mural in Putney started months ago.The Town Equity and Inclusion Committee, invited a collaboration with the WIndham County NAACP, who proposed the project to the Putney Selectboard.That started many meetings and months to get to last Sunday, when about 50 locals met, starting at 7am on First Day, 9-27.
Among them were a dozen Friends from Putney Meeting, who were encouraged to come and offer Peacekeeping Services. Concerns arose from when a similar event in Bennington Vt was visited by opponents of the project who disrupted th proceedings and led to 4 people being arrested.
As far as I know, No problems arose , and I don’t think it was the intimidating presence of all these Quaker Pacifists, sitting and milling about. There was a general aura of community, gathered in a common purpose. To use art to state our town support for Black Lives Matter and adressing systemic racism. The mural was completed, and the real work addressing Systemic racism continues.
Mike Mrowicki
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Quakers In Support of Equity and Inclusion
To the community of Putney, our Town, State and Federal elected officials and other Towns taking up the work of understanding systemic racism.
In Jan 2016, the Putney Friends Meeting (Quakers) agreed to hang a Black Lives Matter sign in front of the Meetinghouse. We also agreed that we wanted to become a body that is actively involved to make our Quaker Meeting and our community as a whole, active participants in the change that needs to happen to become more anti-racist.
Part of that understanding is that white people in our congregation and community need to learn the history and impact of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, continuing disparites in opportunities for housing and education and mass incarceration of african americans, as a result of white american denial and indifference. We need to understand how the resultant white privilege is not simply a matter of individual acts of blatant violence, but in fact the truth that unwittingly all white people have inherited systemic racism. It shows up for all white people, and it is our responsibility to work on intimate understanding of how that system of racism plays out all the time in our interactions with people of color.
On September 2, Steffen Gillom, President of the Windham County NAACP, attended a Select Board meeting in Putney. That meeting, like all public meetings, was recorded and broadcast by Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV). Watching this meeting is a great example of a person of color speaking up about systemic racist activity that he had experienced. It took great courage for him to address a room of white people about behavior that white people find difficult to acknowledge, because of the enormous discomfort it provokes in themselves.
The outcomes of that meeting for Putney were profound. White participants were able to:
- Admit their own moments of unintended racism.
- Invite one another into conversation and study about systemic racism, at a time when talking openly about race is still almost impossible for white people to do.
- Challenge one another to step up our game, to examine closely how people of color are treated in our Town, and how to begin to recognize how micro-agressions are currently and actively experienced here.
We see it as helpful and educational as white people, to invite feedback from people of color to point out racist comments, acts etc, such as Steffen gave us all at our Select Board meeting.
Members of Putney Friends Meeting continue to be troubled by, and wrestle with, white supremacy. Our congregation has undertaken reading racial healing
material (anti-racism) material, sharing with other Friends Meetings taking up this work, and participating in local groups working for justice and addressing systemic racism.
Putney Friends Meeting will do the following:
- We will join in the community with continual work on systemic racism by supporting conversations and action that do just that.
- We will participate in Town wide book groups.
- We will support the Equity and Inclusion Committee.
- We encourage the Select Board to take up active anti racism training as a model of getting educated about how systemic racism works in Vermont.
- We will encourage our membership to join the September 27 Black Lives Matter street painting in Putney.
We appreciate that mistakes are essential to learning, and the real question is how we are creating a trusting enough Town, where honest feedback from people of color can be heard, believed and responded to by our largely white community. This is for all of us.
Putney Friends Meeting 