Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting Newsletter January 1984 Natalie Kempner, Clerk Roberta Kramer, Treasurer 825-1799 455-1966 Karen Cromley, Clerk of Overseers Selden Smith. Newsletter 242-3432 248-3202 Query for First Month: Education Does your Meeting encourage its members to do their share to support and improve public education? If your Meeting maintains a Friends school, is the school conducted by persons who are in sympathy with the principles of Friends and ljhose character encourages the spiritual growth of their pupils? How is the Friends school contributing to the mental and spiritual growth of the comnity about it? Does the Meeting endeavor to see to it that its children are not prevented by lack of the necessary financial resources from obtaining appropriate education? How do you show concern for the improvement of public education in your community? Are you aware of what Friends schools are doing and of their plans for the future, and do you give them encouragement and support? Meeting for Worship is held each First-Day at 10:30 a.m. First-Day School and Child Care Provided. Calendar for January Wed., Jan. 4 Meeting of Committee of Overseers, 7:45 p.m. at Marion Fischer's home. Sat. , Jan. 7 Seminar, "From Myth to Reality: The Soviet Image." Plans are to have a representative of the Soviet mission to the United Nations. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friends Center. Sun., Jan. 8 Monthly Meeting for Business, after Meeting for Worship and before lunch. Bring your own lunch; beverages will be provided. Sun., Jan. 15 Forum, after Meeting for Worship. The subject will be war tax resistance; the speaker will be announced. FRIENDS are urged to read carefully the enclosed minute from Yardley Meeting regarding world govennent. CHFM joins Yardley in asking that this subject be addressed at Yearly Meeting 1984. --Neighbors: We welcome the Cerebral Palsey Foundation as the new residents of the former Spring Garden College property. Friends will continue to be able to use the parking lot. Representative Meeting: It was decided at November Representative Meeting to make some scholarship funds available for students who lose government scholar- ships because they have refused to register for the draft. The Treasurer reported that we are able to pay the second half of our pledges to Friends' and other groups, and Monthly Meeting agreed to do so. Karen Cromley was nominated as the new Clerk of Overseers, starting Jan. 1. The nomination was warmly approved. First-Day School starts the "Sparklers" unit of the PYM Religious Education program, and plans a trip to the Please Touch Museum sometime this month. Stapeley in Germantown seeks an Executive Director for its continuing-care facility. The position will start spring 1984. Applicants should be licensable as a nursing home administrator in Pennsylvania', have three to five years'experience in all phases of nursing or related health care administration, and have a college degree. Submit resume in confidence to: Search Committee, c/o R. D. Samuel, Suite 920, 1500 Walnut Street, Philadelphia 19102, before Jan. 20, 1984. Witness for Peace in Nicaragua Near the Honduran border of Nicaragua, a 14-person Witness for Peace team is maintaining a presence of U.S. Christians intended as a protective shield between U.S.-sponsored contras (counter-revolutionaries) based in Honduras, and Nicaraguans living near the border. It is hoped that the constant presence of North American church people in the war zone will hamper the operations of the contras, who are reported to have massacred and terrorized the people of the border region. The Witness for Peace will be carried on by successive rotating groups, broadly ecumenical, coordinated by a national steering committee and supported by groups throughout the United States. At the last Monthly Meeting, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee briefly explained this innovative use of nonviolence to confront terrorization and military interventionism, and pointed out the urgent need for funds for air fares, organizing and support. Individual contributions (not tax-deductible) may be sent to the Philadelphia steering committee, with checks payable and addressed to Witness for Peace, 307 W. Mt. Pleasant Ave., Phila. 19119. Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to the national steering committee, payable to the Jubilee Foundation, 300 W. Apsley St., Phila. 19144 (earmarked Witness for Peace). Best wishes for a Happy 1984: Let's prove OrweZZ wrong. Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting Newsletter February 1984 Natalie Kempner, Clerk Roberta Kramer, Treasurer 825-1799 455-1966 Karen Cromley, Clerk of Overseers Selden Smith, Newsletter 242-3432 248-3202 Query for Second Month: Outreach Eat me ycm doing as a Meeting to interpret to non-Friends our religious principles and beliefs? What are you doing to invite persons not in membership to attend your meetings for worship, and how do you encourage their continued attendance? What are you doing to make others aware of Friends' principles? Does your manner of life as a Friend attract others to our Religious Society? Meeting for Worship is held each First-Day at 10:30 a.m. First-Day School and Child Care Provided. Calendar for February Sat., Feb. 4 Quarterly Meeting, at the Arch Street Meetinghouse. A speaker from the Friends Committee on National Legislation will address the meeting. Sun., Feb. 5 The Meeting Faces Peace Issues. After worship, Friends will consider some of the issues raised in Bill Fischer's recent contribution to the vocal ministry. See note, over. Wed., Feb. 8 Meeting of Committee of Overseers, 7:45 p.m. at Lois Taber's home. Thurs., Feb. 9 Meeting of the Peace and Social Concerns Committee at Jesse Bryant's new apartment: 7901 Henry Ave., Arbor Building, 104-C. 7:45 p.m. Sun., Feb. 12 Monthly Meeting for Business, after Meeting for Worship. Bring your own lunch; beverage provided. Sun., Feb. 19 Forum, after Meeting for Worship. This month Phyllis Taylor, clerk of the Peace and Social Concerns Com- mittee of the Germantown Friends bleeting, will speak on her experiences with the "Witness for Peace" team on the Nicaraguan border with Honduras. Please fiZl out the enclosed Nominating Committee form -soon and return it to the Veetinghuuse. Thank you. Fri., Feb. 24 Workshop on Social Justice: "In Search of Refuge," Sat., Feb. 25 a workshop on Central American refugees presented by the Medical Mission Sisters. The Friday evening pro- gram will include testimony by Salvadoran refugees and begins at 7:30 p.m. The Saturday program is from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The address is 8400 Pine Road, in northeast Philadelphia. News and Notes The Meeting Faces Peace Issues. It is not difficult to assume that members of the Meeting, if polled, would conclude that our society faces a dangerous threat to its existence. How to best relate to the problems at hand? At a threshing session following Meeting for Worship, Friends will consider these questions: (1) What are the best means for preventing a nuclear exchange? (2) What do we have in common with the Soviets? C3) How can we implement an improved climate? (4) What organizations can 6e instrumental in pursuing our goals of limiting or reducing the ams race? (5) Finally, what can our Meeting best do to give voice to our conclusions? There will be a chairman and a rapporteur to take note of our thoughts. This is a large subject, but let us not be discouraged, but let us face the fact that divine guidance will generate conclusions of merit. First-Day School is starting the unit, "Our Daily Bread," and, appropriately, plans to do some pretzel baking. Anyone interested in such twisted pursuits call Marthajane Robinson for details. Remember that the Combined Appeal helps put our faith into practice. There will be some literature on the table outside the meeting room; we hope you'll read it and give what you can. Bon voyage to Natalie Kempner, and our hearts are with you! Natalie will be picking cotton in the Nicaraguan mountains as part of the Witness for Peace. According the Treasurer's Report, as of January 1984 we were $4000 short on contributions. That's meant to be a subtle hint. We note with sadness the death of Charlotte Taskier, a member of our Meeting who for many years attended Cambridge, MA meeting. A letter from Cambridge attested that she was loved, admired and active in their meeting as in ours. Ideas are still sought for this spring's Meeting retreat. If you have a topic or speaker in mind, call Bryce Kemp, Trudy Hubben, Phil Anthony or Betty Tiffany. Will Hagner and Linda Shaw were married at Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting Dec. 17. The Rev. Wesley Crowther of Mt. Airy Presbyterian Church performed the ceremony. Their address is unchanged; their phone number is 271-5235. Congratulations! Note: postage costs prevent including Natalie's thorough and thoughtful Annual Report with this Newsletter; look for it with the next one. Once again, please fill out and return the enclosed Nominating Committee sheet as soon as you can. Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting Newsletter March 1984 Natalie Kempner, Clerk RoGerta Kramer, Treasurer 825-1799 455-1966 Karen Cromley, Clerk of Overseers Selden Smith, Newsletter 242-3432 248-3202 Query for Third Month: The Social Order How does your meeting work to overcome social, economic, and political injustices in your comnity as well as in the state and nation? What is your meeting doing to assure freedom of speech and religion? What is your meeting doing to aid those outside the meeting who are in need of help? How are you helping to develop a social, economic, and political system which will so function as to sustain and enrich life for all? To what extent do you feel personal responsibility for aiding those outside the meeting in need of help? In all your relations with others, do you treat them as fellow human beings and equals? Meeting for worship is held each First-Day at 10:30 a,m.