Greenwich Friends Meeting Spiritual State of the Meeting Assessment
Greenwich Friends Meeting is gradually growing with increased attendance and a positive, collaborative and inclusive spirit within our community. We cultivate an openness among members and attenders that can potentially welcome and foster vocal ministry. However, the majority of our meetings for worship take place in silence. Not a stifling silence but a resonant quietude that connects, for many of us, with the vivid natural world surrounding our rural meetinghouse(s) and a sense of ancestral continuity. In the past year, we initiated a conversation time over coffee following meeting for worship and many thoughts that may not have risen to the level of spirit led witness are shared informally during that time.
Through our Esther R Wasson Education Fund, we stay vitally connected to young people with family roots in out meeting and who, due to academic, athletic, and extracurricular activities, are unable to attend regularly during their teenage years. With support from the D’Olier Foundation, we recently completed a ramp at Upper Meetinghouse which allows for assisted access for people of all abilities. Thanks to a grant from the PYM Membership Committee, we have been able to continue offering hybrid meetings three out of four First Days each month to hold our community together. During winter months, we shift our Third Thursday potluck supper discussions to First Day following meeting for worship to accommodate those Friends uncomfortable with driving in the dark. We warmly welcome newcomers.
Each year, we partner each year with Greenwich Presbyterian and Greenwich Baptist Churches to provide holiday gift cards to local families in need, doubling our financial contribution to this project in 2023 in direct response to a rise in food insecurity in our local community. We provide financial support for nearby Bethel A.M.E. Church and open the grounds of Lower Meetinghouse for an annual inter-denominational Easter sunrise service which includes moments of Quaker silence, remaining ever mindful of our resident eagle family. We also voluntarily open Lower Meetinghouse as part of an annual winter holiday open house of Greenwich’s historic homes and buildings sponsored by the Cumberland County Historical Society.
Our projects in the nearby City of Bridgeton include contributions to a homeless program and a longtime partnership with a local Catholic soup kitchen (which entails both financial contributions and volunteer hours provided by a meeting member). Each of our philanthropic activities rely on our meeting’s fundraising efforts, which in 2023 centered on our fall Lasagna Supper, which drew participants from well beyond our immediate Quaker circle.
In Sept. 2023, Greenwich Friends Meeting hosted Salem Quarterly Meeting and our program featured Karen Barnett and Mums (Mothers Uplifting Mothers), a Cumberland County peer support organization of women who have lost children to gun violence. This was the third program focusing on social justice that Greenwich Friends have presented for the Quarter in recent years.
That same month, several of our members participated in the march protesting the use of fossil fuels held in NYC, with transportation provided by Medford Friends Meeting. Greenwich Friends appointed Shoshana Olsofsky as our Eco-Justice Collaborative Liaison and we presented a well-attended workshop on Food Waste offered by Ruth Darlington of Medford Friends Meeting as part of our adult education discussion group.
We have been able to amplify the impact of such programs thanks to Salem Quarter Coordinator Carlton Crispin who videotapes and posts our presentations and workshops on the South Jersey Quakers website.
