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?
Richland Monthly Meeting’s Sprint Group on Anti-racism partnered with the James Logan Elementary School in Germantown, a school with a majority of African American students. We raised funds for a project the school wanted to implement and may provide additional help in the future.
Our Adult First Day School (Contemporary Quaker Concerns) studied and discussed numerous articles in Friends Journal concerning racism and climate change, among many other topics. Food For Friends (FFF) has continued to offer free meals to the community by adjusting to preparing meals for take-out only during the pandemic. The number of meals served increased during the pandemic to well over 100.
A new Richland sprint group has formed to take up a concern for the banning of books in a local school. The books in this instance include LGBTQ concerns and books by black authors.
How has your meeting evolved as a spiritual community given the ongoing opportunities and challenges of the pandemic?
Soon after the pandemic started, we began to use Zoom for meeting for worship, meeting for business, Contemporary Quaker Concerns, and committee meetings. We eventually were able to set up Zoom in the meetinghouse for blended worship with those at home or traveling away from meeting. This has been very helpful for maintaining a feeling of connection and good communication among Friends. From the beginning of the pandemic and continuing until now, there have always been at least a few Friends in the meetinghouse on First Days. Currently, we often have about an equal number in each venue.
Light Group Meditation continues Tuesdays at 7 PM except in case of bad weather or Covid issues. This is an intimate group using guided meditation for worship. We have felt the loss of our weekly pot luck lunches after meeting for worship. We are unsure if and when we might be able to start sharing meals and fellowship again. We have been blessed with a number of new attenders for meeting for worship; however, there are also some Friends—members and attenders– who attended regularly, whom we have seen less often or not at all. We understand that discomfort with Zoom and COVID are discouraging them from participation, and hope that they will return when they feel able.
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?
Our Contemporary Quaker Concerns group reads and discusses many articles, mostly from Friends Journal concerning spirituality and worship. We also discuss Pendle Hill Pamphlets from time to time and two of them in particular are on the benches in the meetinghouse, Four Doors to Meeting for Worship and On Vocal Ministry. Also, on the benches are copies of the Bible and Faith and Practice.
Since the pandemic, we have been unable to hold Youth First Day School and we have been concerned about our young people. We are trying to find a way to restart YFDS at least in a limited way.
What is most needed to strengthen the communal witness of the meeting to the local community and beyond?
We have an ad in Penny Power. We also have a large sign on our property with changing messages expressing Quaker beliefs such as “Be a Partner for Peace,” “Put Faith into Practice,” and “Love Thy Neighbor, No Excuses”. We participate in the local Ministerium and Code Blue Shelter. Our Food for Friends is also a very important outreach.
What we feel is most needed is an end to COVID so that community activities such as Quakertown Alive can resume and RMM can participate again. We are hopeful that may happen before too long.
Is there a query or are there queries that your meeting would like to respond to that have not been included here? Please share it/them and your response.
We have no other queries we wish to respond to at this time.
Submitted by: Barbara Zucker, Clerk, Care and Worship Committee of Richland Friends Monthly Meeting
