1. How is Spirit moving our worship, and how have we nurtured deep, Spirit-led vocal ministry?
• Our weekly Assembly (adult education) discussions that happen one hour before the Meeting for Worship, are inspiring more vocal ministry. Assembly discussions have helped make use of a variety of resources that have centered our group discussions on the SPICES. Such resources have included Quaker Speaks videos, Faith and Practice Queries, and two books which have served as long-term discussions throughout the year. Last year we read, Testament of Devotion, by Thomas Kelly, and for 2023-2024 year we are reading The Sustainable Life by Douglass Gwynn . In addition, music, poetry, and bible readings have been included in our Holiday worship on Thanksgiving, MLK Day, Easter, and serve to spark very meaningful and varied vocal sharing and contributions that have strengthened our community.
• We conclude our Meeting for Worship with joys, comforts, and sorrows. We are now working on including “afterthoughts” prior to the joys, comforts, sorrows to help settle thinking coming out of Worship in preparation for fellowship. It is a time for Friends to share something they may have been thinking during worship but did not feel that they should break the silence to share it. We are pleased with this new revived spirit of vocal ministry as it marks a shift away from our previous silent worship.
2. How has our meeting fostered an environment in which members and attenders of all ages and abilities know they are loved, cared for, trusted, and respected?
• To foster trust and respect in our Meeting we host a variety of events, programs, and activities that are inclusive of our meeting’s interests and individual interests. We need to think more strategically about this question and are poised to do so as a Meeting. We’ve recently experienced the loss of five members who served key leadership roles in our meeting for the last twenty years. They have left their mark on the Meeting and we miss them dearly. However, this is an exciting challenge and opportunity to develop and grow our Meeting.
• We let our First Day School students know they are loved by including them in our yearly programming, holiday events, and celebrate their success at the End of Year Celebration.
• Stemming from our Care and Counsel (C & C) Committee’s Caring Lists, we do have formal and informal outreach to members who are no longer attending or have demonstrated a gap in attendance. During the Holidays, C & C puts together fruit baskets and thoughtful notes to those Friends who are not able to come to meetings due to illness.
• Our weekly Fellowship after the rise of Meeting helps to generate community, gives birth to new ideas, strengthen relationships, and allows us to get to know new attenders and visitors.
3. How has our meeting sought to be neighbors and in relationship with other communities, and how have we been changed by these connections?
o Through the Peace and Social Action Committee, we are founding members of the Local Interfaith Community Builders (ICB) that sprung out of our work as a committee. This ICB group helps us connect with our neighboring Grace AME Church, Methodist Church, Islamic Leaders, the neighboring Bordentown B’nai Abraham Synagogue, and others to promote interfaith and community dialogue. This group sponsors at least 6 events each year and supports the events of our faith partners as well.
o Again, the Peace and Social Committee helps to orchestrate the bi-monthly provision of meals to between 30 people who are temporarily being housed in a local Motel. Several of our members have been faithfully doing this for more than a decade now, in partnership with people from a couple of other churches. Through the leadership of one of the Trustees and the Treasurer, who attend the Burlington Quarter Trustee meetings, we are growing – more engagement with the Quarter, expanding outreach to other meetings, and event meetings. There has been some healthy disagreement about the Social Outreach of the Meeting. This year we quadrupled our giving to outreach groups and to Committees of the Yearly Meeting. This tension is causing us to reinforce our governance and committee practices.
o These affiliations have changed our Meeting for the better. Both new and older relationships have been strengthened. These connections have ushered in new ways of thinking, challenging our community’s thinking about Care and Counsel, Finance, Worship, Social Outreach and the overall purpose and function of the committees. Through this, our commitment and alignment to the Quaker SPICES has also strengthened and allowed our clerk’s leadership to be nimbler.
o We like to concern ourselves first with the local community, through taking care of the poor, the hungry, and the displaced in our own community, and the surrounding communities and cities. We augment our outreach by supporting the work of FCNL and other PYM agencies doing good work to advance the well being of people near and far.
4. Do we have any success stories we would like to share with PYM among any of the following topics (or others)?
▪ We organized and held our 250th Anniversary Celebration which brought in over 125 people in person and virtually. Among other responses, we appreciated the beautiful letter of commendation we received from the Princeton Friends Meeting,
▪ Our First Day School re-started three years ago and continues to serve between 10 and 14 of our community’s children every other week. We are pleased that the parents of the young people support this and attend our events when they can.
▪ Assembly -Adult Education Opportunity. Restarted now three years ago. Between 5 and 10 adults regularly come to discuss topics relevant to our Quaker testimonies. One of the attenders Zooms in from King of Prussia, and another from New Haven Connecticut.
▪ Zoom Technology served us well during the pandemic and continues to allow us fellowship with people as far away as New Zealand, Spain, the west coast, and at a memorial service for our dear friend, Russell Caldwell, friends and family from all over the world we able to participate in the service – many offering such beautiful words of comfort to his family.
5. General Questions or Needs – Crosswicks Friends wishes that PYM would address and prioritize some questions not addressed in this outline.
• Membership retention strategies
• Membership management (power church)
