In July 2021, PYM approved minutes of action to be taken on anti-racism and climate change. How has your Meeting been called to address these issues? What other concerns and initiatives has your meeting been led to address this past year?
The topic of racism will be handled throughout 2022 during our community’s 300th anniversary events treating Quaker interaction with the Black and Native American populations of our area. We face specific challenges since learning that our Meeting’s founder and her father were slaveholders, and we wish to incorporate an honest examination of that truth. We will have discussions about this sad legacy and history, produce a formal document of apology, hold a Threshing Session, and also a Meeting for Healing. Our Meeting’s current and historical relationship with the African American town of Lawnside is being investigated. Relations with the Lenape Nations of New Jersey will be explored as well. Discussions of racism on the world stage have already happened during a book study of David Austin’s Small Miracle, which deals with the Holocaust.
Addressing climate change concerns: Our Meeting has replaced all our incandescent bulbs with LEDs, although we still have a few compact florescent bulbs. These will be replaced with LEDs as they burn out. We have installed new polyfoam roofs over the classroom wing and the hallway leading to the auditorium. This roofing has a high R value and improves insulation. We have installed automatic thermostats in the Meetinghouse to regulate heat and energy use. We have replaced some of our old xenon exterior security lighting with new LED fixtures. We replaced our drafty old double front entry doors with tight-fitting insulated doors. Finally, we replaced our two old refrigerators with new high-efficiency models that use half the electrical power consumed by the old ones.
How has your Meeting evolved as a spiritual community given the ongoing opportunities and challenges of the pandemic?
Our evolution as a community is evident at hybrid worship. Haddonfield has been offering “hybrid” worship through most of the pandemic, opening our worship to several far-away attenders as well as those unable or unwilling to come to our building. Although most have enjoyed the possibility of Zoom services, we have a group of worshipers who strongly advocated for a “technology-free” worship. A small group attends worship at 8:30am Sundays with no Zoom participants. Discussions have revealed very strong attachments to worship, albeit in different modes. We have done our best to listen well and to accommodate as well as we can. We have also expanded our social media presence, using it as tool for outreach, and have happily discovered several new attenders as a result.
We have offered several well-attended hybrid “First Day School” sessions that have allowed us to think more deeply and hear each other’s thoughts about spiritual concerns. And once a month we invite new attenders to meet in person with several long-term members to get to know each other better.
An atmosphere of togetherness also has been fostered by the creation of small groups with like interests and a new system of circulating prayer requests which seems to pull the community together. What practices and strategies are employed by your meeting to help members and attenders of all ages prepare for worship – whether in Meeting for Worship or in Meeting for Business? – Faith and Practice p. 214
This is an area hard hit by the pandemic. The “Kindling” effort in place prior to COVID seems not so effective when the community is worshiping in a hybrid fashion. Our FDS sessions on Queries, Daily Spiritual Practices, Vocal Ministry, and Worship Sharing have no doubt been helpful, however, and our reading of queries at the beginning of MFWFB to prepare the community for Quakerly participation is an effort as well. There seems room for improvement in this area.
What is most needed to strengthen the communal witness of the meeting to the local community and beyond? – Faith and Practice p. 214
Social media is a path to reaching our local community and beyond. So, also, is participation in local civic events. Our 300th anniversary committee is inviting local participation in the year’s events and a subgroup is working closely with an annual town-wide historical reenactment committee to develop a Meeting presence in the event.
Is there a query (or queries) that your meeting would like to respond to that has not been included here? Please share it (or them) and your response.
1) In these COVID times, how can we attract and maintain membership?
Our offering both hybrid and non-tech meetings for worship, our FDS sessions, and special events like our evening discussions, “cozy book chats” and the outdoor “Simple Gifts” morning (before Christmas, a Meeting tradition) are some ways that we’re making efforts in this area.
Most recently, we have reactivated a PYM Membership Development grant to hire a dynamic young member who is now charged with working 15 hours monthly to increase participation of members, attenders and newcomers in Meeting events and enhance a feeling of belonging among us. His responsibilities include helping committees with special events, improving communication within the Meeting and providing increased personal follow-up to help newcomers feel connected to Meeting.
2) How can we attract younger generation(s) to Quakerism as a means of investigating and connecting to the Divine?
In our experience, social media seems to be the key to reaching young folks. We are fortunate to have a few young members willing to lend their talents in this area and have attracted several young attenders though their efforts.
Respectfully submitted by David Austin Clerk, Haddon Monthly Meeting 13 March, 2022
