his has been a busy and exciting
year in Salem Quarter. We continued our custom of providing rich
program offerings, worship, and meal fellowship at each of our quarterly
meetings. We had a quarter-wide FDS picnic, a quarter retreat, quarter
children’s events, an all-day workshop on spiritual eldering led by
Margery Larrabee, a clerking workshop led by Arthur Larrabee, a canoe trip,
several monthly meeting events which were open to the entire quarter, and more!
With delight and hope, we have followed the expansion plans of Woodstown
Friends Home. We made major improvements and comprehensive repairs to our
historic properties, particularly to the meetinghouse at Alloway Creek. By
endorsing her letter of support from Seaville Monthly Meeting, and by giving
some financial support, we became "partners" with Karen Paarz in her peace and
reconciliation ministry to youth in Northern Ireland. The quarter endorsed
Greenwich Monthly Meeting’s minute concerning Iraq, then sent it to PYM
interim meeting. At PYM’s request, we changed the evaluation cycle for our
full-time paid coordinator, Phil Anthony, to put it in synch with yearly
meeting staff. The quarter and its Steering Committee are excited about our new
quarter goals, which have provided focus for our work together this year.
Enumerated below, they are:
- Nurture awareness of God in ourselves, in others, and in the
world.
- Make our communities more aware of our work for peace in the
world.
- Educate ourselves about what it is to be a Quaker.
- Explore ways to more fully involve children in the life of the
quarter.
- Build community in the quarter with intervisitation, fun nights,
meaningful work together, care of members, and other means that might present
themselves.
- Focus on filling the empty spaces on the meetinghouse benches.
C. Michael Gibson, clerk
WINTER 2003