Past Events (2022-2023)

 

Memorial Service
Celebrating the Life of Marian Carter

Friends Meetinghouse
October 21, 2023
10am

(also on Zoom: Click HERE to join us)

(Zoom ID #976 0522 6497 — passcode: 194077
— Phone: +1 346 248 7799, then enter ID#)

 

Remembering Marian
(1930 – 2023)

Marian Hedleston Carter was born on a cattle and sheep ranch in Coleman County, Texas, southwest of Dallas. One of her childhood memories was of a Shetland pony named “Tony”, which her uncle Jim taught her to ride. She would ride out with the workers tending the ranch sheep, and when the sheep got under the brush, she would go in on Tony and holler them out. She said, “It was very important work that only I could do.”

In the mid-1950’s Marian and her mother moved to Indianapolis, where she met and married Elmer “Rusty’ Carter in 1956. He came from a Quaker family. She recalled, “My family was conservative in religious matters. They did not know enough about Quakers to be for or against. They asked if it was a Christian faith. I said, ‘Yes, definitely.’  There were no follow up questions, so it was okay.” Marian and Rusty soon moved to Houston, where they adopted their children John and Susan as infants. After a teaching stint in Europe, they moved to San Antonio in 1962, where Rusty taught at Trinity University. Marian became a Special Education teacher, a career that she followed for 30 years.

 About a year after they arrived in San Antonio, the small Quaker worship group in San Antonio was laid down. Marian and Rusty then began a worship group that met in their home. It grew slowly, meeting for a while at the Esperanza Center, then at the Methodist Student Center at San Antonio College. It was thriving by the time Rusty died in 1994 of early onset Alzheimer’s. Marian cared for him at home through his illness; after he was no longer able to attend, Friends met with the couple at their home.

Marian was active in the Meeting’s wish to build its own Meetinghouse. After the Meeting purchased our current property on North Vandiver, she became very involved with the Property Committee and was especially concerned with the landscaping of the site. Among other things, she often arranged care of our trees and worked hard on the wildflower field that we love to see come into bloom in the spring.

Marian seldom spoke in Meeting, but more than once spoke of how much she loved it and the members. She cultivated long-term, caring relationships with several members and was especially good at drawing out shy or withdrawn people with her interest in them and their lives.

Click HERE to download the full Memorial Brochure (PDF)

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MANIPURA YOGA WORKSHOP

6pm – 7pm CST Wednesday May 10, 2023
At the Meetinghouse — Zoom available to registered participants
Price: Pay What You Want — Suggested $10 to Cover Supply Costs

Please arrive 5-10 minutes early to give yourself time to set up

When our Solar Plexus / Navel Chakra is aligned we experience a sense of power and self-confidence. This class will build on our study of Muladara and Svadhistana Chakras, combining the elements that bring power to new life as we enter spring: earth (Muladara), water (Svadhisthana), and fire (Manipura), bringing the light of the spring sun into our lives as we celebrate the turning of the seasons. This workshop will include a short introductory reflection and a guided vinyasa sequence.

Registration deadline Monday 7pm
RSVP to Sara @ starfish15@gmail.com
Please indicate if you will be attending online

Bring: mat (limited mats are available)
Optional: water, towel, blocks and/or other props

Instructor: Sara Ramey: Sara has been exploring yogic practice for over 10 years and recently began her journey as an instructor. She is excited to share her training and experience with others. Sara leads medium-paced holistic classes designed to strengthen and relax the body as a pathway to more fully connect with the self and the pranic energy in the world around us.

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Meeting Visitor

March 12th, in the trees behind the Meetinghouse

 

(We think it’s a barred owl, but it didn’t respond when we asked.)

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Two Special Events This Week
at the Quaker Meetinghouse

Wednesday, Feb 22nd

6-7:30pm CST

MULADHARA YOGA WORKSHOP

Instructor: Sara Ramey

The Muladhara Chakra is the root or base chakra, the seat of our energy and power. This class will be all about centering and grounding ourselves as a foundation for starting the new year strong. After an introductory reflection to help anchor us, we will move through a guided vinyasa sequence, wind down with a short Bhastrika breath work exercise (pranayama), and finish with an optional warming hand oil treatment.

Bring: mat, blanket
Optional: water, blocks, or other props
Registration: Sara @ starfish15@gmail.com
Please arrive 5-10 minutes early to give yourself time to set up.

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In Person or on Zoom

Meetinghouse: 7052 N Vandiver Rd,
an Antonio, TX 78209

Zoom link will be provided to registered participants.

Price: Pay What You Want
Funds will be gifted to our Quaker hosts

Suggested donation $10

Cash, check, or Zelle to treasurer@saquakers.org

 

 Friday, Feb 24th

6-8pm CST
A ZHIKR CEREMONY OF DIVINE REMEMBRANCE
free and open to all 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Brother Outsider
The Life of Bayard Rustin

7pm, Saturday, January 14th
at the Quaker Meetinghouse

7052 Vandiver, San Antonio 78209


Join us for a screening of the film Brother, Outsider, the Life of Bayard Rustin. Rustin was a close adviser to Martin Luther King and the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.  He was also a gay Quaker.

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

 

Bayard Rustin was an early and incalculably important force behind the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the Twentieth Century. Although his contributions to the movement remain largely unrecognized by the general public, he was of invaluable assistance to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many of the other well-known heroes of the era. Rustin was a behind-the-scenes power during the 1956 Montgomery, Alabama, Bus Boycotts, and the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which Dr. King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech. Born to a West Chester, Pennsylvania, Quaker family, Rustin made a lifelong study of the principles of peace and social change through nonviolent resistance and was an important influence on Dr. King’s adoption of the precepts of Gandhi.

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 Join us for Christmas Eve Worship
and Simple Meal


Continuing our tradition, we will hold an in-person candlelight Meeting for Worship on Christmas Eve.  We have had to cancel our traditional Simple Meal because of the extreme cold and the recent rise of COVID in San Antonio.

Saturday, December 24th
6-8pm

  • 5:30-6:00 pm: set up the candles.
  • 6:00-7:00 pm: Candlelight Meeting for Worship. In-person and masked; vaccinations highly recommended.

(There is not enough light to offer a Zoom option.)

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FCNL Advocacy Team Workshop

Saturday, June 25 — 1-4pm
at the Quaker Meetinghouse

Friends are hoping to form a grassroots Advocacy Team in San Antonio, TX, supported by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, to advocate for federal policies on peace and justice. These teams work to influence Congressional action through persistent advocacy, media engagement, and public outreach as part of a national network of 125 teams in 44 states.

If you’re interested in learning more about the team, or just strengthening your grassroots advocacy skills, Please join us on Saturday, June 25 from 1:00-4:00 PM CDT for an interactive hybrid workshop with FCNL. You can register here: https://act.fcnl.org/event/advocacy-teams/2795 or learn more about the program at www.fcnl.org/advocacyteams. 

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Migrant Center for Human Rights Workshops:
Lunch Advocacy for Letter Writing

April 18-22 at noon CST on Zoom

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/3748216758?pwd=U3JjTFk5bHB5WEJHNDcrRm56UlVyUT09

We will start with a conversation on where we’re at after a year under the Biden Administration and identify issues together that we believe the Administration and/or Congress can work on. Then we will write letters together. Give yourself an hour to help make a difference!

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2022 South Central Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions 

LED BY FAITH TO WORK FOR JUSTICE

Online April 10-13
In person at Greene Family Camp and online April 14-17

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​Updated Draft Schedule

Read the details for 2022 Sessions before registering

Register Now!

The time for action is upon us! This was Spirit’s message for us as Cielo Grande Quarterly Meeting began to consider the theme for Yearly Meeting 2022. How then to act upon this message? Surely, our faith must lead us. That was the course of discernment that gave us the theme for this year’s Yearly Meeting: Led by Faith to Work for Justice. We envisioned our program as both hearing from Friends and others, young and old, near and far, about the relationship between their faith and activism and learning about and discussing the tools that we use to realize and support these leadings to work for justice.

 

In our week of events, we wanted to give preference, when possible, to young people, people of faith (not necessarily Quakers), people of color, and also, if possible, to those who are active in the area of South Central Yearly Meeting.  To that end, we will hear from activists working to abolish the death penalty, activists for indigenous rights, and climate and environmental activists. We invite all Friends to tell us about the paths that they have traveled in their work for justice and to share what tools and support have worked for them.
     Kallan Benson, will be with us online and in-person as our keynote panelist and giving two workshops. Kallan is 18 years old and has been an environmental activist since the age of 9. She has been involved in issues involving the local environment in her Chesapeake Bay home area, and she has been involved in climate change activism. She is the US national coordinator for Fridays for a Future, which was started by Greta Thunberg to organize school strikes to advocate for climate justice, and she founded Parachutes for the Planet, an international community art program (active now in over 70 countries) to raise awareness of climate change.
​     Her activism helped get fracking banned in Maryland and restrict fossil fuel dependence there and in the District of Columbia. She was co-recipient with Greta Thunberg of the UN’s Champions of the Earth Award, which she refused and offered back to the assembled world leaders to earn for themselves. 
     Kallan will participate in the keynote panel along with her mother as they discuss the influence of their Quaker faith and the role of their family life in their work for climate justice. 

Register Now for SCYM 2022 Annual Sessions

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Friends Couple Enrichment: Caring for Your Relationship While Caring for Others
Mar 5, 6, and 12, 2022


An Online Couples Enrichment Retreat via Zoom. 
How can couples care for themselves and each other while also caring for children, supporting aging parents, or tending to the needs of others? Read more and register

 

 

Blessing Darkness
Feb 18-20, 2022 


A virtual weekend workshop with Rev. Rhetta Morgan.
Out of the winter season, participants in this program will explore the darkness together. Then we will turn toward how we each define the dark and enter into a journey of reflection, mirroring insights, singing, movement, journaling, and communing in silence to deepen our relationship to the dark.　Read more and register

 

Memorial Service for Mark Hickman

Saturday, February 5th, 10am (Central Time)
(at the Meetinghouse and on Zoom)

To join by Zoom: Click HERE
Zoom ID #976 0522 6497
passcode: 194077
Phone: +1 346 248 7799, then enter ID#

 

 

January 30th: Forum / Discussion on Vocal Ministry, led by Gary Whiting & Jim Spickard

We will be joined for this 5th Sunday event by Friends from the Cielo Grande Quarterly Meeting.

Unlike many religious groups, Quakers in the unprogrammed tradition do not give prepared sermons during our Meetings for Worship. Instead, we speak only when we are led by the Spirit to do so. How does this work? How do we know when we are called to speak? Gary and Jim will lead a discussion of these matters on January 30th, drawing on their and your experiences of being called to present vocal ministry in Meeting for Worship.

We will use a short QuakerSpeak video as a discussion starter. Here are two useful ones. (Click on the picture or the link to view.)

We encourage you share what kinds of vocal ministry work best for you, either giving or receiving.

Join us either in person or by Zoom.

Zoom ID #976 0522 6497
passcode: 194077