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SUMMER
2000 Phil Anthony
Usually I start off each issue of Salem Quarter News by writing about events in the meetings of the Quarter. This time I’d like to do something different—focus on some of the moments I’ve shared with the meetings and their members that have meant the most to me.
Like the Friend at Mullica Hill MM whom I call once every month or two about the Quarter’s business. At least, that’s how it starts out. By the time we’re done, an hour and a half later, we’ve talked about everything from her recollections of growing up in a meeting in another Quarter, to our experiences of Friends School, to our hopes and wishes and dreams.
Or the after-meeting conversation with a Friend from Salem MM and another from Mickleton MM. Our meeting had tackled some of the thorny questions about child abuse and the safety of both children and the adults who work with them. Afterward, we stayed for another hour to talk about our own childhoods, and to think why it seems so much harder now to keep children safe.
At the end of April I happened to be at Friends Center. As I was leaving, I met a friend from Greenwich MM and his son, in town for the day. I had the chance to show them—with almost as much pride as if I’d built it myself—the meeting room at 1515 Cherry Street where Central Philadelphia MM worships.
Then there was the evening with two Friends from Woodbury MM, one of whom will have undergone surgery for breast cancer by the time you read this. Over dinner we solved half the problems of the world, and then the three of us stared the big black place of mortality square in the face.
One morning I showed up at the office to find a plant and a small gift sitting in front of the door. A Friend from Seaville MM, having heard of the Woodbury Friend’s cancer, had stopped by on the way through Woodstown to leave a present for me to pass on to her.
I’ve also been in close touch with two Friends from Woodstown MM who organized a bus to the Million Mom March in the middle of May. Helping them publicize the event has been a joy to me, and I’ve gotten to know two wonderful people a whole lot better because of it.
Events are the public part of the Coordinator’s life. But the personal times, I think, are the ones that tell the most about the life of the Quarter.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting held its Annual Sessions at the Arch Street Meeting House two weeks after our March Quarterly Meeting. It was a wonderful, Spirit-filled time; you can read about some of what happened in the outreach article.
Most heart-warming was the number of first-time attenders from Salem Quarter I saw there, including five each from Greenwich and Seaville MMs. I’m very glad you made it to Arch Street, and I hope you’ll think about attending PYM’s Residential Yearly Meeting 17–22 July 2001. If you have comments or questions about this year’s sessions, please call.
Of course we have our own Quarterly Meeting coming up on Sunday, 11 June. We’ll gather at the historic Lower Alloway’s Creek Meetinghouse, which is under the care of the Quarter, for exploration of what the meetinghouse means and could mean to the Quarter, for worship, for picnic lunch, and for business.
Our clerk, Gloria Horvay, has written about some of the possibilities for the meetinghouse in the Quarter’s future in her column. I won’t repeat what she’s said so well, except to tell you that I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible there.
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Last modified:
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM
