Maintaining and strengthening our community has been a focus over the past year. We returned to hybrid Meeting for Worship in March of 2022, after a few months of Zoom only. We required masks and have just begun, a year later, considering making masks optional. We continue to hold both our Meeting for Business and our Adult Religious Education programs on Zoom only, as we find it’s easier to manage discussions and it allows our Tech Team to participate without the added responsibility of managing the tech equipment.
In our on-going concern for the health and safety of our members we installed an air filtrator in the nursery. We began discussion of “air quality” in May and formed an ad hoc committee in July. After months of extensive research and lengthy discussions regarding the need for a feasibility study, the surprisingly high costs of improvements, and the various possible financing scenarios, we held a called Meeting for Business in January, believing way would open. We did find our way forward and approved a Minute in February to hire Connie Lezenby Architect and her recommended engineers to provide us with possible solutions to our air quality needs.
Meanwhile many activities were held outdoors–we were lucky the weather cooperated. The Connections Committee facilitated gatherings of outdoor poetry readings and a “Share Fair.” They also organized Christmas carol singing outside the apartments of beloved Friends residing in retirement homes. The Worship & Ministry Committee led an outdoor “Attenders Breakfast.” The Religious Education Committee invited families to a Canal Boat Ride accompanied by a lecture about Quaker Josiah White’s involvement with the development of the Delaware-Lehigh Canal. The Social Concerns Committee held our annual Harambe Meal outdoors, raising money to pay for the continuing education of four girls in Kenya.
Other ways we’ve stayed connected: Our Library committee began “mobile library delivery” at the start of the pandemic and they’ve continued this service. Our Outreach and Communication Committee oversees our website and social media pages, as well as our monthly newsletter and weekly Light Board. These publications, distributed via email, are engaging and informative.
Connections to the wider community: We hosted Bucks Quarter Meeting in November with a presentation by our members who were engaged in partnering with incarcerated women to write spiritual autobiographies. We opened our Meeting House to be one of six regional gatherings for the PYM Continuing Sessions in March. We’re holding two special sessions in April to provide feedback to FCNL on setting their Priorities regarding Reproductive Health. Our members are involved with area interfaith groups: Bethlehem Interfaith Group sponsored a “Faith Crawl” in June and our Meeting House was a stop on the tour. Some members participated in the Lehigh Valley Conference of Churches Homelessness Awareness week by sleeping outdoors on our grounds in November. We joined with the GreenFaithCircles of the Lehigh Valley to collect and recycle plastic film.
Our Social Concerns Committee continues to keep us informed about key issues, encouraging us to contact our legislators once a month. They facilitate a monthly meal preparation & serving at Safe Harbor. The children participating in First Day School raise funds and collect donations for Safe Harbor, as well.
With 18 committees (including 2 ad hoc committees) and 27 “named positions” it is challenging for our Nominating Committee to fill all our committees. With this in mind, our Care and Concern committee facilitated a threshing session on what it means to be a member; one of the queries for this session was “Is it necessary to be a Member to serve on Care & Concern and Worship & Ministry committees?”
Our membership seems stable. We lost one member to resignation and one to death; we gained one new member. Our membership at the end of 2022 was 128 (including 6 children under the age of 21 and 6 associate members). Our giving is also fairly stable; the number of people contributing is slightly down, but the total contributions is adequate to meet our budget. Our Worship remains vibrant, with about equal numbers attending and providing vocal ministry, in-person and on Zoom. In recent months in-person attendance has been slowly growing. First Day School has also seen some increase in participation in the past year with reopening in-person in April of 2022.
We’re thankful for the spiritual strength, shared wisdom, and commitment to social action evidenced in our Monthly Meeting. We believe our community will grow stronger as we grapple with some very big decisions regarding our improvements to air quality systems. These improvements will facilitate the transition to completely re-opening our building, and provide opportunities to engage more fully with each other and in the wider community.
Respectfully submitted,
Martha Christine, clerk
