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SPRING
1999Coordinator: Phil Anthony
(609) 769-0066 (voice)
(609) 769-1416 (fax)
phila@pym.org (e-mail)A miracle happened in Salem Quarter over the past Christmas season.
One of our friends in the Quarter went into the hospital with all the signs of advanced breast cancer. This is someone who has been very active in Quarter affairs in the past, and many people were concerned for her.
Our friend has been on a roller coaster ride ever since. Hopeful surgeons’ reports have been followed within a week or so by less sanguine pathologists’ findings. As I write, it’s believed the original lesions were in the early stages of metastasis.
I’m not going to guess how what looked like unmistakable signs of far advanced illness turned out to be at least somewhat better than tbey might’ve been. Was it the Deepak Chopra tapes on healing that a member of Mickleton lent her? Or the sessions of therapeutic massage provided by a member of Salem?
Or the yoga exercises of a Greenwich member? The Light sent by loving folks at Mullica Hill, and at Friends School? The prayers and meditation of Friends from Woodbury and Seaville—the latter spreading the news of our concern in its newsletter? Woodstown’s loan of the meetinghouse for a special meeting for worship to hold our friend in the Light? Cards of support and personal visits from members of several different meetings in the Quarter? (“I was sick, and you visited me. ...”) All of the above—or none of them?
I won’t slight the efforts of the surgeon, nor the pathology, radiology, and oncology staff at the University of Pennsylvania, of course. But I’ve never seen an “Overseers concern” that didn’t have its spiritual component, either.
This isn’t a miracle cure story. Our friend’s cancer is still being handled medically and surgically. Chemo- and radiotherapy lie ahead, and she still needs all the prayers and Light we can give her.
So the miracle doesn’t lie in what the doctors found at biopsy. From where I sit, at least, I saw the miracle in the outpouring of care that members of this entire Quarter showed during the busiest season of the year; the miracle of love that gave a troubled, frightened woman strength. I’m proud and humbled to be part of it.
A miracle of a totally different kind happened back in November. PYM was able to attract 196 Friends who took over the Arch Street Meeting House to thresh out the divisive issues of Friends’ education and Quaker teachers in public education—and they came to unity. A follow-up gathering of 50 Friends in mid-January developed proposals that the Education Concerns Group will bring to Yearly Meeting.
Tom Hoopes, PYM coordinator for education programs, played a major role in facilitating the two gatherings We’re fortunate to have Tom speaking about these concerns with us at Quarterly Meeting. We’ll gather at Woodstown at 9:00 am on Sunday, 14 March, so that Tom’s presentation can begin promptly at 9:30. I look forward to seeing you there.
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Last modified:
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
