Who are we? Why are we here? What do we intend?
We are asked to reflect on our spiritual state in four ways; our worship, our mutual care, our community, and justice.
At February Meeting for Worship for Business, we considered the questions for this report.
Quality of our Meeting for Worship
We continuously and openly inquire and reflect upon worship — how we open, how we close, how we speak, how we listen. We may tend toward silence; some Friends appreciate that—though we risk truth going unspoken. It’s desired that vocal ministry enhance the silence.
If we seek to grow our numbers, can we be sensitive to the unfamiliarity of silent, unprogrammed worship to those new to us? A concern was raised that younger people are not as exposed to diverse spiritual experience, which many of us find supportive of deep
worship.
Music has a salient role. Friends may sing or chant messages during worship. We sing after rise of meeting. We have other gatherings: song circles, music practice, times before worship dedicated to song or chant, and concerts.
We recognized a Music Ministry of a Friend, and established a Music and Singing Committee.We arranged for a pianist for some practice and worship.
We organized three teaching events with the general theme Quakerism in a Nutshell. These were thrice purposed — education for our Meeting; service to the wider Friends community, outreach to other seekers. In February 2023, we introduced the concepts and history of
Quakerism. In September, Rebecca Mays went deeply into Meeting for Worship. In January2024, Doug Miller spoke in detail on the spiritual life (and challenges) of William Penn.
We observe the Christmas and Easter holidays by special programs that reflect Quaker beliefs and values through readings, music, and activities. When children are present some effort is
made to give them meaningful roles.
Worship and Ministry plans and leads First Day programs (and the aforementioned Quakerism in a Nutshell sessions) to provide spiritual guidance and encourage seeking a deeper understanding of the Spirit within each of us.
We encourage Friends to grow spiritually through reading, prayer, meditation, and attendance at workshops, meetings, and other programs. We value the leadership this growth.
Care for one Another
Our Care and Concern committee works quietly and faithfully for support of those with emotional, financial, health or other needs. Often Friends wish to keep these needs private, so confidentiality and sensitivity are also observed.
Clearness Committees are formed as major decisions are faced. There were three Clearness Committees for Membership
There is Meeting for Worship for Healing monthly, with a recognized Ministry of Healing. We hold those in need in the Light.
We maintain communication — sharing and hospitality after rise of meeting, a monthly newsletter.
We have a Meeting library with many resources for growth — both Quaker writings and more
general spiritual and other works
Though we have few young people, we are attentive to childhood education. As youngsters grow, we acknowledge full participation in Meeting life.
We maintain our property, not for vanity, but to be ready for worship and service. This year there was effort to clean out and repurpose disused spaces.
We have technology to allow participation in worship and other events by those unable due to distance or health to join in person.
Connection to Community
We mention elsewhere Quakerism in a Nutshell and Music. We invite the wider community to participate in these activities, they are in some sense dual purposed for our growth and community service.
The local organization, Historic Fallsington, has fair in October and a Tree Lighting inDecember. We are present as Quakers at these events, providing service and visibility.
We work with a child care provider, Wm Penn Center. They occupy our second (formerly Hicksite) meeting house. We serve on their Board. Our focus recently has been on improvements to for their HVAC and insulation to be more environmentally sustainable.
We are in a relationship of care with Bristol Meeting. which seeks to grow its membership and become independent. We provide some oversight and attendance.
Addressing Issues of Social Justice
In October, we had a talk on Gaza with Friends who had worked in the area. This was at the time of the outbreak of the war.
Last Spring, we met at the request of FCNL to assist in formulating a position on abortion and reproductive rights.
We have two discussions scheduled in April 2024 — a discussion of FCNL priorities, and a discussion of peace testimony in time of war.
We are hosting a series of singer-songwriter social justice concerts, with Annie Patterson lastJune and Crys Matthews (and most recently John Flynn) this year.
We allow use of our property Bucks County Mutual Aid. Monthly, they provide a meal, shower, and supplies to those in need.
We maintain a program of giving, which we review every two years. We seek to identify and support local organizations involved with racial justice and reconciliation.
APPENDIX
How Falls Meeting is taking on environmental concerns:
Fallsington Meeting has been gradually upgrading the campus to reduce energy use, and to supply the remaining heating, cooling, and lighting needs with clean energy. We are mindful of the wastefulness of discarding equipment that has a good service life remaining, so the preference is to replace the oldest things first. Catching up on deferred maintenance takes priority, as a “stitch in time saves nine”. The Meetinghouse is most often used only one day per week, and the pre-school at the William Penn Center (WPC) is open 5 days per week, so the benefit of improvements there is proportionately greater. These principles set our direction over recent years and will continue to do so.
Improvements to the WPC have been a joint project between the Meeting and the board of directors. We are currently installing a heat pump system to heat and cool the second floor. It has a much higher EER for cooling than the old window units it replaces, and it avoids the drafts around the windows year round. It is sufficient to provide all the heat for that floor without auxiliary heat, although the gas baseboard heat will still be used for faster recovery from setbacks. In the last few years, the ancient oil heat was replaced with a 95% efficient gas boiler. The furnace room was closed off to the outdoors, with PVC pipes for combustion air and exhaust. The attic was spray-foamed for insulation and air-sealing. The original windows were removed, repaired, re-glazed, painted, and re-installed. Most of the storm windows were replaced with new higher-quality ones. LED lighting was installed. This work has addressed maintenance issues and greatly reduced the energy needs and operating costs for the WPC, using cleaner energy, and it will improve comfort for the students and teachers.
At the Meetinghouse, in recent years most lighting has been replaced with LED or compact fluorescent. We switched to a renewable electricity supplier. The Library was insulated and a ductless heat pump was installed. The sanctuary furnace is a newer model. Heat pumps would work well in the Sanctuary and Social room. They would reduce fossil fuel use, but will not save much money, and the existing equipment is still working well. We plan to migrate to heat pumps when it makes sense – “waste not, want not”.
Looking forward to the long term, we could power the entire campus with solar panels on the social room front roof. This would be wonderful, but expensive. There is considerable deferred maintenance still needed, and costs for solar power are falling all the time, so it makes sense to work through the backlog of maintenance first. But we expect to have the means once that’s done, and we very likely could achieve “net-zero 2040” ten years early.
