FALL 2002Phil Anthony
(856) 769-0066 (voice)
(856) 769-1416 (fax)
salemqtr@verizon.net
t’s funny how friends grow closer imperceptibly. When I first came here to serve as your Coordinator, over five years ago now, I only knew a double handful of people in Salem Quarter—four of them teen-agers I’d worked with in the PYM Young Friends program. I didn’t even know most of you existed.
For the first couple of years I spent a good deal of time getting to know you. This person was clerk of Religious Ed at that meeting, that person was treasurer at the other meeting, and so on. As time went on, I connected names to faces to meetings. I came to appreciate the Friends I’d met, but there was still a little distance.
SEPTEMBER QUARTERLY MEETING
Greenwich Monthly Meeting
Sunday, 8 September 20022:30 pm Gather: coffee and doughnuts 3:00 pm Meeting for worship for business 5:00 pm Brown-bag supper: beverage provided by Greenwich MM, dessert by Mickleton MM 6:00 pm Program: Salem Quarter’s Worship & Ministry Committee leads us in examination of responses to 9/11 7:00 pm Candlelight Worship
couple of months ago I was startled to realize how that had changed. Oh, I knew all along that I’d made personal friends over the years. I’d been involved in the joys and sorrows of several individuals, and become aware of the personal lives of quite a few more. But then someone I know at one of our meetings was operated on for thyroid cancer.
No longer, I realized, was she Judy, overseer at Such-and-such Monthly Meeting. This was my Judy, the friend who had made me so welcome when I visited, who had kept me in touch with what was going on in her part of the world, whom I’d felt free to talk with about all sorts of things and who had shared parts of her past with me. She wasn’t just a member of one of our monthly meetings any more; she was a friend.
She’s on my mind, and in my prayers, a lot. So are many others in Salem Quarter—a member of one meeting who’s introducing me to a friend interested in Quakerism, for instance; a man moving out of the area who just told his meeting how their support helped keep him from suicide two years ago; a woman who’s agreed to serve with me on a Friends School committee; another friend who’s taking her first two-week retreat. And many more, too. Thank you all for welcoming me into your lives and becoming friends.
he Quarter has continued being very active while I finally came to this realization. Most of you will receive this issue of Salem Quarter News before the Quarter Retreat, 23-25 August—and we still have room. The coordinator of FGC’s children’s programs will run our own young people’s program this year; Christie says that the more children we have, the better the program will be. Then on 21 September, for all of you who’d like to help make meeting for business into a deep, rich experience, the Quarter will host Arthur Larrabee in a workshop on clerking and being clerked at Mickleton MM. Check the calendar for details of both events, or give me a call.
Dear friends, I hope to see you there.
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