ABINGTON of the Religious Society of Friends NNEEWWSSLLEETTTTEERR

APRIL 2018 FOURTH MONTH 520 Meetinghouse Road • Jenkintown • • 19046 APRIL MEETING ACTIVITIES SUNDAY 1ST Happy Easter! 9:45 a.m. Multigenerational Easter Program, and our annual Easter Egg Hunt—Please gather in the John Barnes Room; Children, bring baskets for the egg hunt! 11:15 a.m. MEETING FOR WORSHIP SATURDAY 7TH 11:00 a.m. Dedication of Memorial to the Lost (see page 5) SUNDAY 8TH 9:00 a.m. MONTHLY MEETING FOR WORSHIP TO ATTEND TO BUSINESS—Reports: Library, Finance, Nominating, John Barnes Trustees, Inc., AMM Trustees, Inc. 11:00 a.m. Children’s First Day School—classrooms 11:15 a.m. MEETING FOR WORSHIP SUNDAY 15TH 10:00 a.m. First Day School: Adult Class, The Gathered Meeting, Tom Gates, JB Room 10:00 a.m. Children’s First Day School—classrooms 11:15 a.m. MEETING FOR WORSHIP 12:15 p.m. Coffee Hour—hosted by our Care of Members Committee 12:30 p.m. Worship & Ministry Committee Retreat, Short Stable WEDNESDAY 18TH 7:00 p.m. Women’s Meeting for Worship, Meetinghouse SATURDAY 21ST 2:30 p.m. Unveiling of Grave Marker for Sarah & Benjamin Lay, with Re-Enactment of Benjamin Lay’s Abolitionist Activism, Graveyard then Meetinghouse (see page 4) SUNDAY 22ND 10:00 a.m. First Day School: Adult Class, Project SALAM, John Barnes Room 10:00 a.m. Children’s First Day School—classrooms 11:00 a.m. Sandwich Making—Short Stable (see page 2) 11:15 a.m. MEETING FOR WORSHIP Continued on page 2 Abington Monthly Meeting Abington Quarterly Meeting www.abingtonmeeting.org www.abingtonquarter.org www.pym.org Meeting Administrator: Loretta Fox, phone: 215-884-2865, fax: 215-884-3264, [email protected] Office hours vary. Deadline for May NEWSLETTER is April 9th. Please give information to Loretta Fox. : George Schaefer Contributions may be sent to: Abington Monthly Meeting, c/o Assistant Treasurer Wanda Wyffels, 520 Meetinghouse Road, Jenkintown, PA 19046

APRIL 2018 ABINGTON MONTHLY MEETING PAGE 2 12:15 p.m. Coffee Hour—hosted by our Library Committee 12:30 p.m. Peace & Social Concerns Committee meeting, Short Stable SUNDAY 29TH 10:00 a.m. First Day School: Adult Class, Worship & Ministry, John Barnes Room 10:00 a.m. Children’s First Day School—classrooms 11:15 a.m. MEETING FOR WORSHIP 12:30 p.m. Spring Fling! — Potluck Lunch (see page 5), John Barnes Room

Please visit our website www.AbingtonMeeting.org for information on ways to donate to our Meeting.

Sandwich Making & Mission Day Sandwich Delivery

Sandwich Making and Mission Day will take place on Sunday, April 22nd with Friends gathering in the Short Stable at 11 a.m. to prepare sandwiches to be taken to Face to Face in Germantown. We are asking that volunteers come back at 1:40 to head to Germantown to hand out the sandwiches, because Face to Face has a new start time of 2 p.m. on Sundays.

A message from our Care of Members Committee:

Our Meeting is like a swimming duck: quiet on the outside, but there is a lot going on underneath that most people never see. Care of Members recently took a survey of all the small nurture groups that we now have in our Meeting. These include a number of spiritual nurture groups, a memoir group, a theatre group, a drumming circle, an exercise group, and a book group. Fifty-two people from the Abington Meeting community take part in fifteen groups. Seventeen of these people belong to more than one. Our Meeting is now forming a new spiritual nurture group, and if this interests you, please contact Mara Wai. If any of the other groups sound appealing, contact Patricia Conroy, and she will point you in the right direction. Many, if not most, of these groups started with a leading and blossomed into a thriving small community. Each group contributes to the spiritual, social and emotional life of our Meeting. If you have an interest that you think others might enjoy, you are encouraged to follow your own leading.

Schedule Your Meetings & Activities Now for Our 2018-19 AMM Calendar

It’s time for clerks and group leaders to start planning dates and meeting times for the next academic year! When you have your dates finalized, please don’t delay in contacting Loretta Fox in the office at [email protected] or 215-884-2865 to reserve space. We are an active Meeting community, and our spaces fill up quickly, so please reserve your dates as soon as possible. Please note that dates from previous years do NOT carry over automatically; we do not assume that groups are continuing on after summer unless we are notified of new dates. Space is reserved on a first come, first served basis.

APRIL 2018 ABINGTON MONTHLY MEETING PAGE 3 Clerk’s Corner: April 2018

I am writing this two days before the first day of Spring and I see nary a bud outside my window. In the spirit, new life, we know as Friends, is buried deep within, a seed of hope that carries the promise of renewal. The seed, a favorite metaphor for early Friends for the inner life, contains our hope in these dark times. When it is warmed by the strength of our dedication to each other as Friends, we find our lives renewed by the gentle movement of love in our hearts.

To this end, we are all invited to gather as a community on Saturday, April 7th at 11:00 the AFS Triangle Building to dedicate a Memorial to The Lost as part of Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence, of which Abington Meeting is a congregational partner.

The solemn T-shirts memorial will symbolically commemorate each homicide by gun in our county during the past five years. The purpose of this visible, public memorial is to help us become a more civil society and resist our apathy to the epidemic of violence plaguing our communities. It also invites us to unite in solidarity with other persons of faith seeking to realize the vision of a peaceable world.

In April, on Saturday, the 21st at 2:30, we are also all welcome to the unveiling of a burial marker for Sarah & Benjamin Lay in our historic burial ground. Following the unveiling, a dramatic reenactment of Benjamin Lay’s anti- activism will be performed in the meetinghouse. As has been noted, this event will be of historic significance not only for the legacy of Benjamin Lay but for the memory of the enslaved people for whom he worked so tirelessly.

At our Third Month (March) Meeting for Business, Friends accepted a recommendation reported by the clerk of our Nominating Committee to lay down three meeting committees: Attenders Committee, the Inreach/Outreach Committee and Music Committee. These committees have been struggling for several years now with finding Friends to serve as clerks or even members. Some of this work, our concern for the welcome and nurture of new attenders, will be taken up by Worship and Ministry Committee. However, other parts of it will be let go.

The difficulties the Nominating Committee has been facing in finding Friends to serve, participate and or clerk committees has been a constant refrain of its reports for many years now. In response, at the MfB, Friends approved the recommendation by Nominating to hold a Threshing Session (scheduled for Saturday, May 19 from 10 to 12:30 p.m.) to consider the idea that the meeting take a rest from certain aspects of its work, a sabbatical period, “for deep reflection and a reassessment of our needs” as a Meeting.

Our meeting committees are forms our communal life takes to serve its purposes. The forms in themselves are not living things. They are life-giving if they originate and are energized by the call of service to each other through selfless love and devotion. If they arise from the vitality of “The Life” in our meeting, as our ancient Quaker forbearers would have phrased it, they will work just fine. But, if they are not in the Life but only in our heads, notions of what should be or shouldn’t be, they will wither and die.

Please plan to attend the Threshing Session in May so that every voice may be heard and every thought and feeling expressed. In the “Spirit and Life” is how we must orient ourselves when we consider giving new form to our concerns. It requires that we open ourselves to the energy and creativity emerging

APRIL 2018 ABINGTON MONTHLY MEETING PAGE 4 from the divine depths within ourselves and from the collective wisdom of the discerning group. This is the essence of our practice as Friends. And, it is the central to our faith that this process can lead us to new life and new forms of re-creation in harmony with God and each other.

Peace with you, George Schaefer, clerk

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Unveiling of Grave Marker for Sarah & Benjamin Lay And Reenactment of Benjamin Lay’s Abolitionist Activism

All are welcome to the Unveiling of a Grave Marker for Sarah & Benjamin Lay in our historic graveyard, followed by a Reenactment of Benjamin Lay’s Abolitionist Activism. We will unveil the marker in our graveyard on Saturday, April 21st at 2:30 p.m., then gather in our meetinghouse in the manner of a Friends Memorial Meeting. Meeting member and professional actor Benjamin Lloyd will portray Benjamin Lay in a Reenactment. The grave marker was purchased through the generosity of Rosie Bothwell, with a contribution from Marcus Rediker. This event will be of historic significance not only for the legacy of Benjamin Lay, but for the memory of the enslaved people for whom he spoke.

Threshing Session on Proposal of Sabbatical

All members and active attenders are encouraged to participate in our Threshing Session on Saturday, May 19th at 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., including lunch. (Please bring your own lunch.) The threshing will focus on to discussion and discernment of the way forward regarding the proposal that was brought forth by our Nominating Committee at our March meeting for worship to attend to business. The proposal raised the idea of possibly having the Meeting take a sabbatical from some of its work with the purpose of allowing the Meeting a time of reflection while identifying our priorities. While the Nominating Committee was not in unity about the sabbatical itself, they agreed that a discussion was in order. The Meeting approved this Threshing Session.

Attention Gardeners!

To our Members and active Attenders: We are currently accepting requests to be a part of the Community Garden for the 2018 growing season. You can reply to Carol Reeder, Garden Coordinator. Feel free to contact Carol with any questions.

If you have a concern about one of our members or attenders, please let anyone on the Care of Members committee know. Linda Lelii is currently the clerk of care of members.

APRIL 2018 ABINGTON MONTHLY MEETING PAGE 5 Memorial to the Lost

On April 7th at 11 a.m., our Peace & Social Concerns Committee invites everyone to the dedication of our Memorial to the Lost. This will be a temporary outdoor display with t-shirts representing the victims of homicide by gun in Montgomery County in the past five years. Join us on the lawn of the Triangle Building at the corner of Meetinghouse and Jenkintown Roads.

Quaker Visit Day at AFS

The Quaker Action Committee (QuAC) of AFS invites you to Quaker Visit Day at on Wednesday, April 18th. The day will begin at 8:00 a.m. in the Faulkner Reading Room with a light breakfast. After a welcome, you will have the opportunity to visit classrooms, observe student activities and attend Meeting for Worship with students and teachers. The morning concludes with Lunch from 11:55 am to 12:30 pm. Please RSVP to Polly Sanford at [email protected] if you are able to attend. If you have questions, please contact Jenny Burkholder.

Join us for our annual Spring Fling!

All are welcome to attend our Spring Fling on Sunday, April 29th in the John Barnes Room at the rise of meeting for worship. This annual event welcomes newer attenders, and it is a wonderful way to build community at our Meeting. Please plan to attend, and bring a dish to share!

by Spirit for worship, fellowship, to conduct our Abington Friends School shared business, learn from one another, organize our work and witness, and have fun at th Quaker Visit Day: April 18 (see page 5) Continuing and Annual Sessions.

For information on AFS events, visit the AFS website at www.abingtonfriends.net Annual Sessions are from July 25-29, The College of New Jersey. We'll be announcing more details as plans are discerned. PHILADELPHIA YEARLY MEETING Contact: Zachary Dutton

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) is a Quaker faith [email protected] or [email protected] community, an association of over 100 Quaker meetings, and an organization - all working together Mid-Week Meeting for Worship, Arch Street to nurture Quaker faith and practice in today’s Meeting House world. Members come together in annual or special 6-6:45 pm (Recurring every Wednesday) sessions for assessment of the life of the Society, the www.pym.org/event/mid-week-meeting- conduct of business, spiritual refreshment and worship/?instance_id=1003 commitment, and the renewal of the bonds of friendship. “Turning to the Indwelling Presence of the

Divine” led by Marcelle Martin Annual Sessions 2018 March 30 & 31, 2018, $20 tickets Volunteers are needed! Friends of every age from our local meetings gather together, guided

APRIL 2018 ABINGTON MONTHLY MEETING PAGE 6 Gwynedd Friends Meetinghouse April 20, 2018 (all day) $230 Adults/ $115 Ages 1101 Dekalb Pike 13-22/ $58 Infants-12/ $165 Commuters Gwynedd, PA 19436 Powell House, 244 S 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA The spiritual Power the First Friends experienced 19106. This powerful way of being with children set their hearts on fire, bonded them to one can transform your First Day School or Friends another, and sent them into the world with great school classroom, and nurture your own spiritual energy and courage. This happened after they life. Learn and practice skills to help had learned to still their minds, drop into their children explore the existential limits of their hearts, and together wait in silent expectation. lives through wonder, play, and core stories Turning to the indwelling presence of God may from the Bible and Quaker faith and practice. be even more difficult in our busy, distracted age These stories are scripted and tested to work than it was in theirs. In this workshop, we’ll take well with multi-age groups of children, as well guidance from early Friends and accompany as in multigenerational settings. A certified each other in making that inward turn. Opening trainer will model stories, and you will have an to the “Fountain of Love” enables the living opportunity to practice them with your peers. waters of the Spirit to flow more strongly into Discussions and teaching modules include: our lives of love, service, and witness. exploring the spirituality of children; considering Reading and discussion of short passages by the “unspoken” lessons of the teaching space and early Friends; experiential exercises; small group classroom structure; supporting the circle sharing; group discussion; prayer; meeting for of children and working with multi age groups worship. and diverse needs, and weaving Godly Play/ Faith & Play stories into a First Day School Sustainable Spirit-Led Activism program with other religious education and April 6, 2018 @ 4:30 pm – April 8, 2018 @ 1:00 spiritual nurture resources available to Friends. pm, $495/private room; $435/shared room; $300/commuter Our Spiritual Mothers: Women of the Early Pendle Hill, 38 Plush Mill Rd, Rose Valley, PA Quaker Diaspora, 1650-1800 19086. A large number of Americans have been Free, April 22, 2018 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm drawn into political action for the first time. At Medford Leas Campus Theatre, 1 Medford Leas the same time, fewer of them identify with any Medford, NJ 08055. Haddonfield Quarterly particular religious faith or spiritual practice. The Meeting will feature Michele Lise Tarter, who combination is a recipe for burnout. Over the has been researching ’ “Spiritual centuries, socially engaged Quakers have been Mothers” for the past 25 years. Her latest book able to maintain their efforts in decades-long “New Critical Studies on Early Quaker Women, struggles for justice and peace because they 1650-1800” features new research on the first experience their actions as Spirit-inspired and 150 years of the Quaker movement. These guided — an experience available to all. Not healers, prophets, imprisoned writers, itinerant acting out of impulse or ideology, they move preachers, abolitionists, educators, and authors deliberately, inwardly listening for direction formed a transatlantic literary network promoting when the worldly noise is at fever pitch and full the earliest Quaker practices of prophesying and volume. It is easy to get caught up in the anxiety writing. Their manuscript and published writings of the moment and to act from fear, or anger, or were perceived as The Milk of the Word of God even despair, but these fuels are soon spent. In to feed the Children of Light. this workshop we will draw on the richness of Michele has published and presented extensively the Quaker tradition, insights from Depth on 17th-century Quaker women, transatlantic Psychology, and a spirituality of to witch hunts, and early American prisoners. She explore together practices that will sustain us as is co-editor of two book collections: A Centre of we engage the powers of oppression, injustice, Wonders: The Body in Early America (Cornell and violence. University Press, 2001); and Buried Lives: Incarcerated in Early America (University of Playing in the Light: Godly Play/Faith & Play Georgia Press, 2012). She is currently writing

APRIL 2018 ABINGTON MONTHLY MEETING PAGE 7 about the memoir-writing program she started in New Jersey’s only maximum-security prison for women in 2001. Michele is a member of Haddonfield Monthly Meeting, NJ. Meeting for Worship will begin at 10 AM, followed by Michele’s presentation at 11 AM. This will be followed by lunch. Please RSVP to [email protected] or via Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting’s Facebook page.

Pub Theology Location TBD, April 19, 2018 @ 5:30 pm Young Adult Friends (Quakers and Friends-of- Friends age 18-35-ish) are invited to get together and talk about our spiritual lives! Expect awesome conversations and meeting/reconnecting with excellent people. These events happen at age-inclusive venues so if you are not 21 you are still welcome to come and participate in the conversation! More details coming soon! Pub Theologies happen on the Third Thursdays of each month and we plan to switch up locations!

For more information about our Yearly Meeting, please visit the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting website: www.pym.org

A quote to consider:

The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.

~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

ABINGTON MONTHLY MEETING of the Religious Society of Friends 520 Meetinghouse Road Jenkintown, PA 19046-2934

The FOURTH on NURTURING OUR COMMUNITY: CARE FOR THE MEETING will be read and considered at Monthly Meeting for Business on APRIL 8TH, 9:00 A.M.

Nurturing Our Community: Care for the Meeting

a. Do we help each other to live with integrity and contribute that integrity to the life of our meeting? b. How does our meeting learn of members’ needs and offer its assistance? c. How does our meeting nurture members in all stages of life? d. How does our meeting welcome those new to Friends and integrate them into our community? e. When a member’s conduct or manner of living gives cause for concern, how does the meeting respond?

f. Am I ready both to offer and to accept meeting assistance when needed? g. Do I treat adults and children alike with respect and without condescension? h. What opportunities have I taken to know, work and worship with Friends in the larger spiritual communities we share?