We celebrate Indigenous Peoples all year and invite you to join us during National Native American Heritage Month. Throughout November, we’re highlighting the “original people,” “The Grandfathers,” the Lenape People of the land where we reside. [Read more…] about National Native American Heritage Month
News
Cropwell Meeting Reaches out to Neighborhood Families with “Trunk or Treat”
Cropwell Meeting held its first annual Trunk or Treat on Sunday, inviting neighborhood families over for games, treats, a pumpkin hunt, and tours of the meetinghouse.
The area around Cropwell Meeting has changed quite a bit since Friends first settled there in the 1780s. A patchwork of Quaker family farms has given way to twenty-first century suburbs, and today the meetinghouse property is an oasis of open space in a built-up area of housing developments. Few of the neighbors have ever visited the meetinghouse. [Read more…] about Cropwell Meeting Reaches out to Neighborhood Families with “Trunk or Treat”
The Plight of One of the Middle East’s Quaker Schools — Brummana High School
Brummana High School, founded by Quakers Eli and Sybil Jones and Theophilus Waldmeier 150 years ago, is high in the hills east of Beirut, Lebanon.
Brummana Friends Meeting together with Ramallah Friends Meeting in Palestine comprise Near East Yearly Meeting. Each Meeting has care of a school. Brummana High School and Ramallah Friends School, each co-ed day schools, are the only two Quaker schools in the Middle East. [Read more…] about The Plight of One of the Middle East’s Quaker Schools — Brummana High School
Middletown Friends Reach for Their Roots on World Quaker Day
It was a meeting 340 years in the making and it happened Sunday, October 2, 2022 at Middletown Friends Meeting in Langhorne as congregations from England and America worshipped together for the first time on World Quaker Day.
In 1682 members of Settle Friends Meeting in the north of England followed William Penn’s promise for religious freedom in Pennsylvania and emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean. The group landed in Philadelphia and by 1683 had founded Neshaminah Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, known as Quakers. Early Meetings for Worship were held at the home of Nicholas Waln and others. [Read more…] about Middletown Friends Reach for Their Roots on World Quaker Day
Rethinking “First Day School”
On Thursday, September 29, Friends gathered online for a presentation and discussion exploring the roots of Quaker religious education and our condition in meetings today. PYM Participants were joined by Friends from meetings across the US (all the way to Hawaii) and Costa Rica, to “rethink” the way we approach children’s religious education in meetings. Is it time to release a scholastic, lesson-based model focused only on Sunday morning?
Queries anchored both small group and whole group discussion and themes that emerged included: sharing about intergenerational programs, including youth in activism and witness, and understanding religious education as the responsibility of the whole meeting. It was an inspiring conversation! [Read more…] about Rethinking “First Day School”
AFSC Seeks Corporation/Board Clerk – Call for Nominations!
The American Friends Service Committee is seeking a new presiding clerk of the Corporation and the Board of Directors to begin service in April 2023 on approval of the AFSC Corporation. We are asking everyone in the Quaker and AFSC communities to help identify potential nominees who can serve in this important leadership role in AFSC during a challenging and exciting period in the organization’s history.
[Read more…] about AFSC Seeks Corporation/Board Clerk – Call for Nominations!
Ujima Friends Sewing for Africa
Since 2019, members of the Ujima Friends Peace Center have partnered with Sankofa Artisan Guild to make reusable, environmentally friendly menstrual pads, pouches, and under garments for African girls’ whose educations are compromised due to “period poverty.” The group, now known as the PanAfrican Sisterhood Health Initiative (PASHI), is led by a group of Black Women elders most of who are community workers, keepers of the culture, educators, activists, counselors and lovers of the arts. The Friends Foundation on Aging supports funding for the project. [Read more…] about Ujima Friends Sewing for Africa
Young Friends Support the Peace Fair
A small but enthusiastic contingent of Young Friends helped make the Bucks Quarter Peace Fair, on September 17, a great success. The Peace Fair brings dozens of nonprofits doing work aligned with Quaker values to a wider audience, along with craft vendors, live music, a book sale, kids’ games and a range of food offerings. Starting the day bright and early, before the opening of the Fair, the Young Friends helped set up vendor booths, unloading the vendors’ materials and putting up tents to keep things moving swiftly. [Read more…] about Young Friends Support the Peace Fair
A Seeker’s Story
There was a collective feral growl from the four corners of the 30-odd members of the Gallagher extended family.
“He’s doing what!?”
“Dad is attending a recruiting meeting next month,” announced the Gallagher family matriarch. He’s on the brink of renouncing Catholicism and becoming a Quaker.”
I swear, you’d think I was filing divorce papers.
The feral growl became a feral roar.
“HE’S DOING WHAT!?” [Read more…] about A Seeker’s Story
Reflections and Updates: The African American Museum of Bucks County
Friends from Bucks Quarter met virtually once again on August 21, 2022. It was meant to be our first venture into hybrid meeting, and our host, Fallsington Meeting, was up to the challenge. The coronavirus, however, had other plans for us. Meeting in person was contingent upon low transmission levels of the virus; unfortunately, the transmission level was stubbornly stuck at moderate, and we made the disappointing decision to meet only on Zoom. [Read more…] about Reflections and Updates: The African American Museum of Bucks County