SPRING 2005Drew Smith
Head of School
very Thursday morning, our lower school, first through fifth grades, file into the Mullica Hill meetinghouse for meeting for worship. The middle school students, sixth through eighth grades, have their own meeting time next. Worship for the middle schoolers is entirely unprogrammed, while lower school worship is introduced by queries to help the students re flect. Our teachers attend with the students, and sometimes a parent, or a board member or two, will join them. The Friends School meeting for worship is a tradition that many of our alumni tell us they miss when they leave after eighth grade.
Fourth-grade Teachers Chris and Glenn asked their students to write down their thoughts about Quaker Meeting for Worship. Here are some of their responses:
- Meeting for Worship is peaceful—Daniel Kramer
- Meeting brings you out of stress—Kaitlin McCaffrey
- It’s a time to think about the day—Theresa Patti
- What I like about meeting for worship is you get to just relax and calm down—Chris DiMaria
- I like it because you can share your ideas—Aileen Denzler
- At meeting for worship, many people usually talk, but there are days when almost nobody talks—Molly Cristiano
- You get to think about other people’s thoughts—Colin Reitman
- When you’re there, you can just let everything off of your mind—Alison McCardell
- I like meeting for worship because it’s nice and quiet—Sydney Tan
- Everybody thinks about the query and once he or she has an idea they can stand up and say their idea—Eric Karpowicz
- Meeting makes me feel happy because I hear good answers to queries—Ryan Roscoe
- It gives you a chance to think of memories—Ali Bennett
- It may not sound fun, but it is a peaceful thing—Ben Herman
- Meeting for worship is great because you have lots of time to think—Noah Brice
- A query is when a person stands up and reads a sentence; for example, what is the most peaceful place in your house?—Olivia Cabry
- Meeting for worship makes us think how to be a better person and that is what I like about it—Tia D’Costa
- Knowing what kids’ and adults’ opinions are on certain things really brings the community together—Olivia Bowman
- Meeting for worship can be good by standing up and speaking your heart—Michael McDonald
- I like the queries because they give you something to think about in meeting for worship—Michael Belfiore
- The fourth grade get first grade partners—Tyler Gottlieb
- Every Thursday, fifth through first grade go together to meeting for worship—Alexandra Gallicchio
Meeting for worship is open for parents, relatives, and Friends to attend. Meeting takes place every Thursday at 9:00 am for the lower school and 10:30 am for middle school.
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Last modified:
Saturday, February 26, 2005 at 08:59 PM
