Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

State of the Meeting Reports

2018 Germantown State of the Meeting

Written on:

The Process

Germantown Friends Monthly Meeting 2017 State of the Meeting Report
In response to the January 9, 2018 call from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Life Council, we undertook an examination of the state of Germantown Monthly Meeting (“GMM”). Following is our report, which we submit with gratitude for having been led to engage in this meaningful process.

In gathering the information for this report, the Meeting decided to involve as many members and attenders as possible. We recognized at the outset that simply appointing an ad hoc committee, or convening the committee clerks, to write the report would not allow us to arrive at a right and true spiritual assessment of our Meeting. Over a period of several months the Meeting undertook the following:

On January 31st, 2018, all committee clerks met to discuss the strengths, challenges and future aspirations of each committee. This group of about 25 people decided that each clerk would meet with their committee to discuss these questions and then provide a summary of the state of their committee.

  • The next phase of the process was a meeting-wide Retreat on March 10. Sixty-five members and attenders participated. This daylong event included group activities such as singing, games, a shared meal, and breakout groups to discuss the queries provided by Yearly Meeting. After lunch each breakout group reported its findings to the larger gathering for discussion.
  • On March 17th there was a follow-up Adult Class, with focus on the query about how the meeting helps its members prepare for worship.
  • The Standing Nominating Committee created and sent out a survey to assess interest in committee service and to learn of any concerns.
  • The clerks’ committee reports, summaries of our discussions at the Retreat and the Adult Class, minutes from the 2017 monthly Meetings for Business, and letters and concerns from individuals were summarized in a draft report. Penny Colgan-Davis (clerk of Meeting) then convened a group consisting of Becky Johnson (recording clerk), Karen Lightner (clerk of Worship & Ministry), Ed Nakawatase (clerk of Racial and Social Justice), David Mettler (clerk of Standing Nominating Committee) and members Ruth Seeley and Moira Clare Duggan, who reviewed, supplemented, and edited the draft.
  • The report was sent out to all members and attenders on May 9th and discussed in Meeting for Business on May 13th.
  • On May 27th there was a follow-up discussion and final meeting to approve the report. The Queries

What are the challenges to and opportunities for enhancing the worship of our Meeting, and what are we doing to address these? And what opportunities are provided to address topics important to deepening both personal spiritual journey of member and the spiritual life of the Meeting?

As with many Meetings, the drop in general attendance has been challenging. Some of our older members recall 60 years ago needing to arrive early on First Day in order to be guaranteed a seat; today, we fall far short of filling the room. In a meeting room that can sit 400, a weekly attendance now of 45 to 55 imparts a feeling of emptiness and a lack of vitality; the echo quite literally makes it harder to hear one another’s testimony. This decrease in attendance has had a ripple effect on many aspects of the Meeting, which will be addressed later in this report.

Despite these challenges, much has been done to enhance the worship of our Meeting, expand on the spiritual life of the Meeting, and to promote attendance.

  • 5th Sunday – Three or four times a year there are five Sundays in a month. Like some other Meetings, GMM uses 5th Sundays as a way of experimenting with or providing a different format for Meeting for Worship to help revitalize attendance. During the past year we have used bible stories, singing, meeting outdoors, exploring how other religions use sacred music in their service, and had a special meeting for worship led by our Young Friends.
  • Quaker Basics – On consecutive weeks in the fall of 2017 we held short informative sessions after Meeting for Worship for new attenders and anyone else who wished to participate. Meeting members gave short presentations on worship, the testimonies, how Quakers do business, the work of committees, Quaker alphabet soup (local and national organizations like AFSC, PYM, FGC, FCNL, etc.) and invited questions and discussion.
  • In light of decreasing attendance, we have experimented with roping off part of the meeting room and asking everyone to sit closer together. We have also met in our committee room, which is much smaller than our meeting room. Some Friends felt the worship was deeper and more gathered when we sat physically closer. Many Friends commented that they could hear better, and some felt the group seemed larger and more vital. We have not, however, reached unity about making any significant change, as some Friends feel strongly about the historical connections to the meeting room, or that roping off a section could be perceived as unwelcoming.
  • The Worship & Ministry and Care & Visiting Committees held their annual joint meeting and discussed William Taber’s Pendle Hill pamphlet, Four Doors to Meeting for Worship. We then used the pamphlet for an all-meeting read and discussed it during an Adult Class.
  • Once a month during Meeting for Worship and Meeting for Business, we read one of the twelve queries from Faith and Practice.
  • Our vital Adult Class program addresses diverse topics that both deepen our spiritual growth as individuals and as a faith community; many of the topics are listed under the anti-racism query.
  • Our annual “Bring a Friend to Meeting” month encourages members and attenders to invite friends, family and acquaintances of like mind to worship with us.

What is most needed to strengthen the communal witness of the Meeting to the local community and beyond?

We have an active Outreach Committee which sponsors many programs and events. In group discussions at the Retreat we acknowledged that we could be doing more, both with respect to Germantown Friends School (“GFS”) and the larger Germantown community. The Meeting needs to grow and sustain membership to be able to continue outreach. We need to learn how to become more open and welcoming to all kinds of visitors and seekers. Our hope is that, as we become more diverse, GMM will be more welcoming to the Germantown community.

Ways in which we have sought to strengthen our ties with GFS have included a jazz concert featuring GFS jazz bands, and a GMM outreach table at the school’s Fun Day. To help us maintain a connection with our older and treasured Friends, each year we plant and maintain a vegetable garden at Wesley Enhanced Living, a local continuing care facility formerly known as Stapeley Hall. Our Outreach Committee, in cooperation with individuals from nearby Green Street Monthly Meeting, held a Germantown Summit to which we invited “Men Who Care of Germantown” and several other organizations for a chili lunch, fellowship and discussion, and will sponsor the event again in June. Several members have become very involved with the John B. Kelly Elementary School in Germantown, where fifteen volunteers now provide library classes and activities for the 650 students. Looking outward to the greater Philadelphia area, last year GMM joined POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Renew) on the recommendation of our Racial and Social Justice Committee. Our Outreach Committee prepares and serves an annual breakfast for families staying at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House.

In addition to the corporate community events and relationships formed by the Meeting, many of our members and attenders are engaged in work for Germantown and Philadelphia-area non- profits and community groups confronting issues such as food insecurity, youth, housing, parks, and the arts. These individuals draw strength from and are nurtured by our Meeting just as we are enriched by their participation and ministry.

What specific issues of concern has your community experienced in the past year? What threshing, dialogue and or discernment has your community recently experienced regarding the purpose and importance of membership?

Racial inequality and racism continue to be weighty concerns for this meeting. Please refer to other sections of this report for a description of our ongoing work in this regard.

As noted above, attendance at Meeting for Worship has dropped over the last ten years or so. Likewise, attendance has decreased in our First Day School and Young Friends programs. For the second year in a row, we canceled the yearly Meeting Retreat at Camp Swatara. There has been much exploration by the various committees on how to best address this. Cogent questions raised are, “Whose role is it to promote the importance of membership?” and “What are the benefits of being a member?”

The total membership of GMM is 393 (this is not an accurate representation as many members do not live in the area and this number does not include regular attenders). On any given 1st Day as mentioned earlier we have approximately 45-55 attending, this is down from a few years when it was closer to 65-75. There are 117 members and attenders who fill approximately 230 committee positions. In recent years, as membership and attendance have declined and the outside pressures of time, family, travel, and other commitments increase, the Standing Nominating Committee has found it difficult to fill some of the open positions. We must address how we will continue the work of the Meeting with fewer individuals. We are truly grateful to all those who serve so diligently on committees; however, during this assessment process we heard that some feel marginalized and left out. Wishing to ensure that no one feels excluded from committee service, the Standing Nominating Committee quickly sent out a survey to the membership regarding this concern. We ask ourselves: Do we adequately call upon and utilize all of our members’ and attenders’ wealth of talents and skills? Have any committees become stale, and are any in need of a fresh point of view?

Germantown MM has served as an official sponsoring meeting alongside Green Street MM for Quaker Voluntary Service Philadelphia for a number of years. Recent years, however, have been disappointing as meeting members and Fellows have not felt connected or supported. There does not seem to be one specific cause for this deterioration, but a confluence of differing personalities and events have conspired to erode the relationship. The 2017 QVS Fellows sent a minute to the Meeting relaying their experience of coming to meeting and certain things they noticed that made them feel uncomfortable. Worship and Ministry invited the fellows to come, meet and discuss their concerns, and later invited them for a picnic at a member’s home. While W&M thought the issue was resolved, in actuality, communication just stopped and the gap was not bridged. In 2018 the Fellows have been even less receptive to invitations from Germantown community members to participate in the life of the meeting. In April, a called meeting with Mike Huber, the Program Director at QVS, allowed for members and attenders to publicly address this dissatisfaction. The sense of the meeting was to move forward from a place of love and care, rather than expect a transactional relationship in which success is defined by reciprocal exchange and benefit.

Other concerns we have addressed in our Meeting include:
Concerns raised in connection with FCNL, including letter writing campaigns; several Adult Classes dedicated toward what we see as priorities
Minute on the moratorium on fracking in the Delaware river watershed
Minute on the prohibition of nuclear weapons

A called meeting on racism (further described under the query on anti-racism).

What anti-racism work has your community engaged in or explored in the past year?

The Meeting has incorporated anti-racism work as part of its basic identity. The identity is still being forged and is not sustained easily. Through the commitment of Meeting members, it has been built upon several years of external activities, public events, historical presentations, as well as ongoing and sometimes painful internal discussions and struggles.

That extended process within the Meeting has resulted in a foundational document, the Meeting’s Declaration on Racial Justice; an increase in connections with local community organizations; participation in city wide and national coalitions on racial and economic justice issues; and during the past year, approval of a minute, since supported by the Philadelphia Quarter, on the impact of racism in our country and our obligation as Friends to address it.

The Adult Class Committee has focused consistently on racism and related topics, and has invited speakers and sponsored book groups, including:

  • A book group on Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy DeGruy
  • Sa’ed Atshan, Palestinian Friend, on the topic of Joining the Struggles against Anti-Semitism, Christianophobia, and Islamophobia: Reflections from a Palestinian Quaker
  • Pat Bass, board president of Johnson House, discussing its renewed local activities
  • Rochelle Bilal, president of the Guardian Civic League, the association of African American Philadelphia police officers
  • David Mosenkis, POWER, analyzing the racial bias in the funding of Pennsylvania’s public schools and the efforts to remedy it
  • The Racial and Social Justice Committee (RSJC) functions within the Meeting to deal with issues of racism and social justice. Their work during the past year has included the following actions:
    Facilitated the membership and participation of the Meeting in POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Renew), an ecumenical citywide, congregational based social justice coalition of over 40 religious bodies
  • Co-sponsored and provided committee resources for Uprooted, a photo exhibit of Japanese American internees who worked in labor camps during World War II; the exhibit was organized by GMM member Teresa Maebori
  • Dispersed Corporate Giving funds, administered by RSJC, as strategic support to the Ujima Peace Center initiative of the Friends of African Descent; financial support was also given to the Crossroads Women’s Center in Germantown, and other Friends and community based initiatives
  • Helped facilitate activities after a special called meeting in May 2017, on racism among Friends; those activities included communications with public officials on the police shooting of an African American parent of a Germantown Friends School student.

To what priorities does God call our Meeting? How do our annual budget, our Meeting’s standing committees and other aspects of the Meeting’s life reflect those priorities?

We are called to increase our membership, with special focus on young adults and young families. We may be doing a good job of sharing our values, but that doesn’t necessarily attract people to membership. Also, we are called to examine whether we are meeting the needs of those people who don’t come back, or don’t stay.

Recognizing that our school is the biggest outreach we have — and feeling led to help GFS be an even better member of the community — we are called to strengthen our connection to our school.

We are called to increase the level of social activism among our members and attenders.

We are called to provide a spiritual home and community so that Friends are grounded and can go out in the world and do the work they are called to do. An important part of “walking cheerfully” is to be a model of true community and to support each other in our individual and corporate work.

We are called to examine whether our current committee structure needs updating, and whether we can reduce the number of committees and positions while still doing the work of the Meeting with efficiency and care.

The Quaker Life Council has asked how our priorities are reflected in our budget. In reviewing our annual budget, we see that 92% of it is spent on four large areas: scholarship assistance for Quaker education, PYM giving, taking care of our Meetinghouse and grounds, and running our office. Together, corporate giving, PQM support and childcare make up roughly another 6%. Each year our Meeting struggles to reach its financial goals; though we use what we bring in wisely, it feels at times that we are trying to live up to our past, when our membership was both wealthier and larger.

In Summary

Despite the drop in attendance and many other challenges we face, what we continue to witness is a vitality among the membership and committees to continue as a strong and vibrant community.

All total there are 25 committees and 13 individual appointments. There is no way that we can give justice to all the work that has been undertaken, beyond those committees mentioned above we would like to at least recognize them.

CARE AND VISITING for the pastoral care of our community

CHILDCARE, 1ST DAY SCHOOL, YOUNG FRIENDS for taking care of our youngest members and attenders

FELLOWSHIP and RETREAT COMMITTEES for their continuing efforts to build our community

PROPERTY COMMITTEE for stewardship of our physical home

MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL ARRANGEMENT COMMITTEES for guiding us through some of life’s transitions.

There is also the quiet behind the scenes work of ASSISTANCE COMMITTEE, BURIAL GROUNDS, COMMUNICATIONS WORKING GROUP AND SCHOLARSHIP.

OFFICE AND RECORDS for the daily running of our Meeting.
SCHOOL COM ITTEE for their service and guidance to the School
FISCAL, FUNDRAISING, TRUSTEES for managing all of our financial matters.

Special thanks to the individual appointments; for our Clerk, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, Custodians of Records, Coordinator for Refreshments and Closers and the many other appointments to Quarterly and Yearly Meeting.

2018 Frankford State of the Meeting Report

Written on:

  • What is the name of the person submitting this report? Jesse White
  • In what role does the person submitting this report serve in their community? Clerk
  • What is the email address of the person submitting this report? pigeonarts01@gmail.com
  • What is the date that this report was submitted? 05/02/2018

What practices and strategies are employed by our meeting to help members and attenders of all ages prepare for worship—whether in meeting for worship or in meeting for business?

Frankford Monthly Meeting has strong leadership in our Clerk, who offers helpful reminders, queries, readings at the beginning of each Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business. For worship, we provide written information to newcomers about Quakerism and about what to expect in worship. We offer adult educational opportunities through Quakerism 101, informal dialogue, and spiritual discernment sessions on second Sundays. We greet visitors, attenders and members and model how to remain centered in worship. Children have a vibrant First Day School program each week.

What are the challenges to and opportunities for enhancing the worship of our meeting, and what are we doing to address these?

Our Meeting’s challenges involve: our small size – we often set unrealistic expectations of what we can accomplish together. We also have difficulty with keeping track of our commitments and protocols. Our opportunities for enhanced worship involve greater education for Meeting members and attenders. (Quakerism 101, coaching, welcome packets, and First Day School are examples.)

What opportunities are provided to address topics important to deepening both personal spiritual journeys of members and the spiritual life of the meeting?

Our opportunities to deepen spiritual journeys for members include: adult religious education through the promotion of Pendle Hill programs, our spiritual discussion group, Quakerism 101, sharing our afterthoughts following worship, and fellowship with refreshments together. We could be better at sharing information around meeting news and sharing copies of Faith & Practice.

What is most needed to strengthen the communal witness of the meeting to the local community and beyond?

We feel a general sense that we are not doing enough to strengthen our relationship with the local community. Some members feel a great sense of overwhelm by our school/Meeting commitments which affects our ability to be more engaged with the local community. Others have a great desire to do more towards this effort, and have suggested ideas around our public presence, but these hopes feel insurmountable at this time.

To what priorities does God call our meeting? How do our annual budget, our meeting’s standing committees and other aspects of the meeting’s life reflect those priorities?

God calls our Meeting primarily to foster the care relationship with Frankford Friends School. We are in a process of clarifying our current care relationship and defining our hoped-for care relationship. As a small Meeting, many members feel called to this vital work, while many others feel overwhelmed with the responsibility. Our budget reflects our support of the school, providing tuition support and funding for Quaker Life educational programs. We have made commitments to pay for quality religious education for children and adults. We see opportunities for growth in our standing committee structure (our small numbers has made our standing committees pretty ineffective, and more often, individual members take on tasks and responsibilities as they are led), hosting events on our property for local community groups, and better supporting personal ministries/callings of Meeting members.

What specific issues of concern has your community experienced in the past year?

Our primary concern is the need to clarify and strengthen our membership application process. Also, our Meeting demographics have changed in the past 5-10 years and we have very few active elders in our community. We have a need for Meeting guidance and are considering asking for help from a wider Quaker community. Additionally, we need to practice how to speak our truths with respect and compassion for one another. Finally, we are actively considering our care relationship with Frankford Friends School, and if separately incorporating the school feels right at this time.

What threshing, dialogue and/or discernment has your community recently experienced regarding the purpose and importance of membership?

We have a great deal of work to do in the area of membership. Recent applications for membership were met with an unclear and extended process, and this resulted in rifts within our community. We hope to begin a dialogue around membership after we have sat with our concerns around our care relationship with the school, and after we have discerned if separate incorporation for the school is the right way forward.

What anti-racism work has your community engaged in or explored in the past year?

We have had limited anti-racism dialogue/training/work in our Meeting. We did have a called meeting in response to a request from PQM. At that meeting, we committed to educating ourselves further about anti-racism work but so far, have only had one discussion. We are aware that there are other resources in the Quarter that we could tap. We might also engage in some work with our local community which is quite diverse racially, ethnically, and religiously.

2018 Birmingham State of the Meeting Report

Written on:

  • Six Friends met to Worship Share around 3 queries, considered one at a time.
  • Half were female and half male, representing points of view of young people, new Friends and attenders (4 years or less), and long time members (more than 20 years at Birmingham).
  • Query 1: What practices does our meeting provide to improve or help us prepare for worship?

Ministry

  • There was appreciation expressed for opening exercises, both the music and the ministry from various members and attenders of the meeting.  The fact that everyone is welcome to give opening exercises and tell about their thoughts and experiences is something that draws the meeting together.  It’s good to hear the queries and notice how responses may change over time.  The silence beforehand prepares us to hear the queries.
  • Singing helps settle the group, creating a common experience and connecting us in the worship that follows.
  • There is an intention that Friends come to worship, which is important to the quality of worship.  Some Friends come and settle early to prepare the space for worship as others gather.  This helps set the tone for the worship that is to follow.  We come into a space where it’s easier to settle.
  • There is an openness and calmness to the silence that helps us to let go of our work and worries and to help us center.  There is a feeling of connection with each other, rather on individual thoughts.
  • Worship and Ministry Committee has been intent on keeping the meeting room as a space for worship.  They have helped deepen our worship and remove distractions by encouraging us to end Meeting for Business 15 min before worship begins.  They also have moved the Greeter’s table away from the door to the meeting room and into the hall, where the initial socializing doesn’t interfere with preparation for worship.
  • Query 2: What could the meeting do better to improve our worship and the spiritual life of the meeting?

Ministry

  •  There is a desire for more adult education and discussion.  Worship and Ministry has organized some discussions around videos or pamphlets, but there needs to be more of these opportunities. Hearing different points of view in discussions help push us out of our own comfort zone and expands our understanding.
  • More intergenerational opportunities would give both young and old to learn from each other.  There is much to learn from our young people.
  • There was a desire by young and old to learn more about the Bible and the specifics of the stories.  There was once a Sunday evening Bible Study that is missed, including the conversations and bonding that went on during that time.  The youth did express appreciation for activities like the plays that reinforce the Bible and Quaker stories.
  • There was a desire for the children to spend more time in worship.  Fifteen minutes is not sufficient time for them to get the full experience of worship and the messages.
  • Query 3: How does God call our meeting to witness to the needs of the world?  What could we do better?

Ministry

  • Birmingham Meeting as a meeting gives to local groups such as Friends Association as well as national Friends organizations.  We hold two dinners each year where the proceeds go to charities.  We do other fundraising and activities such as gardening at the Barclay Friends’ garden.  Children participate in gardening, raising money for UNICEF with pennies for pumpkins, and activities that lead to donations for the children at Friends Association.
  • Many individual members and attenders and groups within the meeting have leadings that help people in need, such as work with the homeless, the food banks, refugee support and prison work.  These Friends provide inspiration and volunteer opportunities for others within the meeting and the wider community.  Many Friends raise our awareness to ways we can become involved in letter writing, marches, and local action.  The meeting is a touchstone to access information about these actions.
  • We recognize that Quakerism is more than a religion, but a way of life.  It leads to a desire to help the world, community and people in need.
  • How could we do better?  Some members and attenders who live at a distance would like to know more about local charities, centered in the West Chester community.  Our meeting may want to focus our engagement in a single issue by discussion and witness.  For instance, race relations is a topic that the wider Quaker community is focusing on.  This would add another layer to our witness in the world.

2018 Doylestown State of the Meeting Report

Written on:

Doylestown Friends Meeting Annual Report to Bucks Quarterly Meeting
Held on February 18, 2018
At the Quakertown Friends Meetinghouse

In 2017 Doylestown Monthly Meeting continued to experience a steady growth of regular attenders, some of which were families with young children. We enjoyed another year as a vibrant worship and socially active community.

Pastoral Concerns Committee replaced our membership database while continuing its work to update our membership records. Membership now stands at 155: we had two resignations, suffered one death and added two members, one of which was by transfer.

Pastoral Concerns also felt moved to make a written statement concerning the Meeting’s beliefs, values and concerns, emphasizing that the meetinghouse is a place to experience unity, connection, dialogue and mutual respect. It was intended for our newsletter, web site and the editor of the local newspaper.

To support our attenders, Worship and Ministry Committee created guidelines for vocal ministry based on Faith and Practice. They were laminated and put on the benches in the meetinghouse. Feedback was mixed, some attenders saying that, after reading the flow chart and guidelines, they felt intimidated to give a message.

Worship and Ministry organized two retreats in 2017: an all Meeting, one-day retreat in May at Camp Onas which 17 adults and 9 children attended. The ropes course, again, proved to be very popular. A women’s retreat was held in late October at Grove Hall in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Ten women attended. Both events were a great opportunity for members and attenders to get to know each other better.

There were other opportunities during the year for fun and social interaction: Rick Howe arranged for a showing in the meetinghouse of the opera, Lucia Di Lammermoor, social groups were reintroduced (there are now four such gatherings a month in members’ homes) and we had an outing to a Phillies game in June (every time we’ve attended over the past five years the Phillies have won so we’re hopeful that the Quaker magic will hold again this year!).

Property Committee is still exploring how to make the lower level of our building handicap accessible. Installing a chair lift would be very expensive as there is some additional work that would have to be done to connect the existing ramp to the set of back stairs. Some outside painting was completed, a new thermostat installed and an overflowing toilet fixed. We have many more outside groups using the meetinghouse and testing the limits of our facilities—Save Bucks Votes, Moms Demand Action, Rise Up Doylestown, a men’s group and an AA group meet regularly in the meetinghouse.

First Day School began the year with a unit on music as a means of expressing emotion. Other highlights included a trip to the Pearl S. Buck House as an experiential part of a unit on Circles of Friendship and a holiday play with lots of singing. Each year the children create out of recycled goods a 3-D community of their design. For the last few years the Mayor of Doylestown has graciously visited FDS to hear the children’s ideas and proposals for making constructive use of potential space in Doylestown Borough. The FDS garden, planted and harvested by the children, produced 70 pounds of fresh produce which was donated to the Bucks County Housing Authority food pantry.

Our finances were healthy in 2017. We had a surplus of $1,900 that went to our endowment fund, after giving to various Quaker schools and to the Borough of Doylestown.

We decided to start using name-tags in 2017 and it has now become a kind of ritual to find your nametag before entering the worship space. The children especially enjoy it.

In addition, we initiated the practice of asking for any joys or concerns or after thoughts that didn’t make it into a message after MFW. This has helped us be aware of who is in need of help or who has enjoyed some kind of blessing that we might not otherwise know about. I think it has helped create greater intimacy amongst us.

In November we celebrated the life of beloved member, Bob Trepeta in a memorial service that filled our meetinghouse to capacity. At Christmas, members Joe Simek and his wife, Alexis Ridge-Simek put up a Christmas tree in the meetinghouse. Each ornament had written on it a request for clothing and items for foster children in transition. All the items were put into backpacks and distributed throughout Bucks and Montgomery counties.

Peace and Social Concerns Committee chose four focus topics for the year: immigrants/refugees, gerrymandering, money in politics and peace. Jenny Isaacs and others were involved in efforts to support residents of Doylestown and surrounding areas impacted by immigration enforcement. Jenny used her Spanish skills on numerous occasions to inform immigrants of their rights and to help them obtain representation. She spoke in NYC about our legislative letter- writing project, had direct engagement with those affected by detentions and deportations, and had face-to-face lobbying visits with

State representative Quinn, State Senator McIlhinney, and US Rep Brian Fitzpatrick as well as the Regional Police Commissioner.

Another outreach event was the Hiroshima Day vigil on August 6th at the corners of State and Main Streets in Doylestown. We held banners, focusing specifically on abolishing nuclear war and handed out paper cranes as symbols of peace. We have held this vigil since the 1980s. Representation from several other meetings in the Quarter attended and there was coverage in the Intelligencer and the Bucks County Herald.

Respectfully submitted, Wendy Steginsky, Clerk

 

2017 Abington State of the Meeting

Written on:

Abington Friends Meeting
State-of-the-meeting Report to AQM for 2017

Friends at Abington Meeting continue to prosper as a vibrant community of seekers after Truth. This good news, which we are pleased to share with others in Abington Quarterly Meeting, is the result of the dedicate effort of our active members and attenders. These everyday prophets are committed to a vision of the beloved community that makes the life of our meeting a loving, safe and joyous place for Friends and their children to worship.

Yet our life together is not without its challenges. As Friends elsewhere have experienced, the number of Friends active in the life of the meeting has steadily declined over the past ten years and the task of maintaining our large membership, facilities and grounds can be daunting at times.

A recent survey of active members revealed that almost 80% serve the meeting in more than one capacity. This has led to a review of our meeting committee structure and whether it is appropriate given the number of Friends willing to serve. This work will continue into 2018 and probably beyond as we adapt to the changing environment of religious life in our society.

2017 was the first year that the Abington Meeting Secretary, Loretta Fox was employed full-time to serve the administrative needs of the meeting. This year Loretta’s title was changed from Meeting Secretary to Meeting Administrator to better reflect the scope of her duties, which have evolved to include managerial and organizational responsibilities. Friends at Abington feel fortunate to have such a competent and devoted administrator in Loretta and the enthusiasm and alacrity with which she performs her work is inspiring.

The decision to hire a full-time administrator in 2016 created an increase in our annual budget, which along with a grounds maintenance, created a sizeable deficit in our projected budget for 2017. The Abington Meeting Finance Committee proposed addressing this situation with a more planned and predictive approach to membership contributions.

In addition to creating an opportunity for Friends to thresh through this issue at a special called meeting, the committee initiated a process of asking members and attenders to commit to pledging their contribution at the beginning of the fiscal year. This process allowed for the meeting to receive more accurate financial reports during the year regarding our budgeted income vs expenses. And, this reporting, in turn, helped Friends at Abington to close our budget deficit significantly.

The called session on meeting finances also highlighted that currently AFM is funded by a donor model (as opposed to a membership dues model) in which 20% of our membership contributes 80% of our income. While we ask each member to contribute financially, in fact, we have Friends who are major donors (about 25 households.) These Friends contribute the bulk of the funds we used to run the meeting. This issue will continue to present a challenge to our ability to sustain ourselves into the future.

This past year, AFM also conducted a called meeting on the safety and accessibility of our meetinghouse and our facilities and grounds, to those differently abled. As a result, Friends have made a commitment to prayerfully pay attention to the experience of all our senses/abilities while at meeting and engage in personal discernment on this issue. We realize that there are Friends who no longer engage in the life of the meeting due to the limited accessibility of our spaces and grounds and others who do not approach us due to physical barriers and limitations in our facilities.

We concluded that everyone is disabled or will be at some time in their lives. But because some are more challenged than others, our testimonies (equality) and beliefs (that of God in everyone) urge us to make our buildings and grounds more accessible and welcoming. Safety and accessibility are imperative to center ourselves in Worship and to continue to pursue our vision of a peaceable and welcoming world for all of God’s children of whatever ability or age.

In 2017, Abington Friends Archives Committee began to create a digital record of historic items at the meeting in an effort to catalogue and declutter our fellowship and library spaces. This made possible the move of some of our upstairs library collection to the first floor for greater accessibility. Our Adult Education Committee continued its theme of “reaching out and reaching in” by presenting programming on over to 20 FD’s on the topic “How does Quaker history guide our walk as Friends today?”

The AFM Peace and Social Concerns Committee continued its work as part of a collaborative of local churches assisting a Congolese family in their resettlement in the US. We learned late in the year that the greater part of this family will be relocating to Kentucky. However, three young adult members have decided to stay in this area and the meeting and others will continue to support their resettlement.
The meeting also approved sponsoring another Memorial to the Lost event which the committee will coordinate. This event will publicly memorialize the names of people who have been killed by gun violence in the past two years, since the last time we did a memorial event, in Montgomery County, PA.

The P&SC in conjunction with Local Emergency Action and Response Network (L.E.A.R.N.), also sponsored two training events at the meetinghouse which invited local immigration attorneys to conduct a public discussion of immigration. This Know Your Immigration Rights training was well attended by Friends and members of the local community.

In the fall of 2017, the meeting approved undertaking a spiritual self-assessment of the Meeting to reflect on where we are as a community of Friends and to better understand the ground upon which we stand as we seek to move forward. The spiritual assessment committee consists of members from Worship & Ministry, Care of Members, and other members of the community. The first event in the self-assessment process will begin in January 2018.

In October, AFM hosted an evening lecture and book signing by Marcus Rediker the author of the recently published, “The Fearless Benjamin Lay.” The lecture which was attended by over sixty people was Marcus’ second visit to AFM to talk about Benjamin Lay. Benjamin Lay, a 18th century abolitionist and member of AFM before being released formally from membership through disownment, continued to worship at our meeting and is buried in our grounds. In November, Friends approved the placement of a traditional Quaker grave-maker in our burial grounds acknowledging the interment of Benjamin Lay and his wife Sarah. In December, Friends approved a minute of unity with Benjamin Lay, which recognizes the true intention of his abolitionist efforts. This minute will be presented to Abington Quarter in February 2018.

This year, Abington Friends School, began a 10-year accreditation process with the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools. The process will examine all aspects of our school including: mission and philosophy, governance, and community relations. Simultaneous to this, the school will engage in a Quaker Renewal Self-Study in collaboration with the Friends Council on Education. AFS continues to be a significant Quaker witness and outreach to the community.

In conclusion, Friends at Abington Meeting through these activities strive to be a witness to the world amid the darkness of fear and violence we see around us. We do this through our faithfulness to the Light: the Quaker way as it is revealed among us, discerned and acted upon.

We understand that if we do not address our weaknesses we may fail in this faithfulness. We are confident that the Light not only shows us our life as it actually is with all of its pain and shortcomings. But, that this same Light leads us to renewal and recreation within ourselves and the world. This is an experience capable of renewing hearts and minds in ways which conform to our vision as a gathered, peaceful people.

Peace with us all,

George Schaefer, clerk
Abington Friends Meeting

January 11, 2018

Reviving State of the Meeting Reports

Written on:

Download a PDF version of this letter.

Dear Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting,

It is with joy that we write to you about our revival of state of the meeting reports! We, the Quaker Life Council, invite all monthly and quarterly meetings to restart or continue the annual custom of conducting a spiritual self-assessment. As our new Faith & Practice illuminates, this tradition provides, “a deep and meaningful opportunity that draws the community together.”

Issuing a state of the meeting report that details the process the meeting community undertook and the insights at which the meeting arrived also helps other Quaker communities. When we see what others are celebrating, mourning, and witnessing across our yearly meeting, we can be inspired, drawn even closer together, and moved in our spiritual development.

We have been working on how best to steward the revival of the practice of issuing state of the meeting reports. Overtime, we will develop an online archive of state of the meeting reports so that anyone in our yearly meeting community can be inspired at any time! Of course, we will redact anything that needs to remain confidential.

We outline below the process that we will use to steward state of the meeting reports:

  • All monthly meetings are encouraged to forward their state of the meeting reports to their respective Quarterly Meetings.
  • In turn, the Quarterly Meetings are encouraged to forward their own state of the meeting report in addition to the reports of their monthly meetings to the Quaker Life Council.
  • Worship groups and any other community that is part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting may also submit a state of the meeting report, forwarding it directly to the Quaker Life Council.
  • If desired, monthly and quarterly meetings can use this online form to submit their state of the meeting report. Friends can also email the reports directly to the PYM office. Or mail hardcopies to: Quaker Life Council, c/o Zachary T. Dutton, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1515 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
  • The Quaker Life Council will read every state of the meeting report that it receives and use the reports as a basis for its assessment of the state of the spiritual and religious life of our whole yearly meeting community.
  • The Quaker Life Council will issue its own state of the meeting report to be presented at the July 2018 Annual Sessions and then shared widely with Friends thereafter.

This year, we encourage meeting communities to refer to the queries in our new Faith & Practice as a guide for conducting a spiritual self-assessment and for writing the state of the meeting reports. We also encourage meetings to include a description of any specific issues of concern they have experienced in the past year.

Lastly, the Quaker Life Council is especially curious about how meeting communities are thinking about the purpose and importance of membership. We’d also like to hear about any anti-racism work that any meeting communities might be exploring, large or small.

We hope to receive and review state of the meeting reports during our meeting in June of 2018 and request them by May 31, 2018, if possible.  We acknowledge that every monthly and quarterly meeting has their own way of writing and managing their state of the meeting reports. Some meetings will not yet have completed their most current report, so we invite meetings to send the report from the most recent year in which one was completed by May 31, 2018.

Sincerely,
Amy Taylor Brooks
Interim Clerk, Quaker Life Council

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