1. In this past year, how has your meeting worked to create and strengthen the reality of a Beloved Community? How has your meeting fostered an environment in which members and attenders of all ages know they are loved, cared for, trusted and respected?
Worship and Care Committee meets monthly and reviews the status and needs of our aging members and attenders and outreach is made to offer assistance as needed. We continue to offer hybrid worship, in person and on Zoom to accommodate the needs of our members and attenders. We have strengthened the technical aspects of our Zoom worship so that there is better and more consistent connection. One member is actively engaged with the Concord Quarter Working Group on Aging Concerns. The group meets monthly discussing the aging process in their own lives and how the aging process affects the members of their Meetings. The group also produces workshops for Quarter members and attenders on topics that explore critical aspects of aging from the spiritual to the financial. The group has been active since 2017.
2. How have you sought to be neighbors and in relationship with other communities?
Our meeting collaborated with our township emergency management department to develop a disaster preparedness plan for our meeting property; we offered our assistance to first responders if the need arises. We developed a list of organizations shared with our meeting which provide assistance to Ukraine and its refugees.
3. How has your meeting been called to address issues of racism this past year? What additional concerns and initiatives have your meeting or meeting members been led to address?
The Meeting dealt with the way our majority European-centric culture approaches our indigenous peoples by providing a Quarterly Meeting program that informed us of PYM’s First Contact Reconciliation Collaborative work to enhance respect and dignity for tribal nations that exist and thrive in the present. It also highlighted past colonial events which forced indigenous peoples out of their homelands. One member wrote an article for our Quarterly Meeting newsletter demonstrating how the influx of Quaker settlers did this for our own Lenape people in the 17th and 18th century. Four of our members also attended an exhibition of indigenous photographer Will Wilson at the Delaware Art Museum which portrayed negative stereotypical images of Native peoples alongside present-day images which gave a more respectful presentation of their lives.
Our meeting has done some initial discussion in the past on racism but continues to struggle with how to address racism.
4. How has the Spirit guided your work on climate change? How has your meeting addressed the five action areas identified in the Climate Change Sprint Report? Has your meeting appointed a Climate Witness Liaison?
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4:10)
We strive for our meeting to be good stewards of God’s creation and God’s loving presence in our greater community in times of disaster and recovery. Although our meetinghouse is not equipped to offer temporary shelter to disaster victims, we can be a resource to our community in other ways: a gathering space for worship/meditation, prayer vigils, healing services, support and relief to emergency responders (coffee, soup, etc).
We developed a Disaster Preparedness Plan for our meeting, which included a year long process of participating in educational workshops hosted by Concord Quarter Climate Action Working Group (CAWG). We hosted an in person worship sharing around climate loss and hope.
Members of the meeting participate in climate actions, volunteering in groups addressing climate change.
We have appointed Climate Witness Liaisons. We are participating this year in the series Greening Sacred Spaces, a joint venture by The Eco Justice Committee and Concord Quarter Climate Action Working Group.
5. What learnings and yearning particular to your meeting would you like to share?
Our focus and deep concern always is to ground our actions in faith. We are aware we can’t will our way to spiritual health on our own by trying to perform our testimonies without the power that is available to us through Christ. To that end, eight adult education classes were held to discern the question “ What did Jesus query?” from the accounts of Mark’s gospel and Luke’s gospel in May and June of 2022 and Matthew’s gospel and Luke’s gospel in October and November 2022.
Our meeting is very small and discussion is ongoing related to growth and sustainability of our meeting. The worship and Care committee used the booklet Grow Your Meeting from Friends General Conference as a basis for this discussion. What is God calling our meeting to do with energy, love and caring? We continue to take opportunities for prayer and sincere soul searching on this question.
6. What are things the Yearly Meeting might do to support your meeting?
We look to PYM for help with ideas and resources for attracting and keeping young people and young families.
