SPRING 2008Phil Anthony
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salemqtr@verizon.netAt Interim Meeting, general secretary Arthur Larrabee has opened space during his report to hear how Quakerism in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is “vital and growing.” During the January session, three Friends spoke from the floor.
First, Jack Mahon of Woodstown MM told about his meeting’s purchase of metal detectors to locate mines in war-ravaged countries. The first two, along with one donated by the manufacturer, went to Tajikistan. Then an article appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In response, the meeting has received over $11,000 from outside contributions. Another twelve metal detectors were purchased, and the manufacturer matched the purchase. The second round of 24 devices has gone to Vietnam to help locate mines planted 30 years ago.
MARCH QUARTERLY MEETING
Woodstown Monthly Meeting
Sunday, 9 March 20089:00 am Gather 9:30 am Program 10:30 am Worship 11:30 am Music from Friends School 12 m Lunch 1:00 pm Business meeting Child care provided Judging from the letters that accompanied the donations, Jack said, “The arms companies made money off these things, and the governments used them. Now individual people are paying out of their own pockets to clean them up.”
Frank Lenik, clerk of Woodstown, recognized how the devices, made for use in surveying, could be used to find mines. I hope to have a more complete report on the project and how it is continuing, in the Summer issue of Salem Quarter News. In the meantime, Woodstown MM will continue to receive contributions at PO Box 13, Woodstown, N.J. 08098.
A second Interim Meeting announcement also involved Salem Quarter. It concerned the possibility of a new worship group being formed in Millville, under the care of Salem MM.
This start-up is in its infancy. But Salem’s Overseers and Worship & Ministry have been released to explore jointly how it might be done, and what resources will be required. If the decision is made to proceed, Friends at Salem will welcome help from the Quarter in nurturing the newcomer in our midst. They expect to bring news of the venture to Quarter Worship & Ministry on Friday, 3/7, and then to Quarterly Meeting the following Sunday, 3/9.
The third announcement also affected me personally. At its January business meeting, my home meeting—Chestnut Hill—decided to move forward to build a new meetinghouse. We’ve simply outgrown the old one. To support our own members and the neighboring community, we need more, and more flexible, space.
The turning of the year was a sad time for Salem Quarter, too. In a week’s time, we lost Mullica Hill’s Carolyn (Connie) Lange, Woodstown’s John Warner, and the mother of Mickleton’s Barry Sloane. All three memorials were held the same day, and I could only get to one. I chose to go to Mullica Hill.
The wonderful thing happens that occurs so often at Quaker memorials: Though I never met Connie, I came to know her through the stories that were told. I learned of her bossiness as a child, seated in the olive tree that she christened the Mayflower. I heard of her teaching, and how she kept track of her students long after they had left her second-grade class. I heard of her anonymous donations of Christmas dinners and gifts.
One day, when she and I come face to face beyond the Pearly Gates, I expect to say to her: “We never met when we were alive. But I know your sisters, your nieces and nephews, your closest friends—and even your cat, Russifer!”
And listening, hearing the stories of Connie Lange’s life unfold, I was reminded of an old Rabbinic tale. In the early years of the first millennium CE, a Roman official asked a rabbi: “How can you worship God, when you have no statues to tell you what God looks like?”
“We don’t need idols,” the rabbi replied. “Our tradition tells us that God created humankind in God’s own image. When we want to know what God is like, we look at our fellow men.”
Artistic creation will be the subject of our program at quarterly meeting on Sunday, 3/9. Friends long had an uneasy relationship with artistic endeavors. In the first few generations, art was seen as a kind of lie, a “type and shadow” of reality. It was frivolous, turning attention away from the Truth of God and humankind.
Even in the 19th century, despite the example of Edward Hicks’ many renditions of the Peaceable Kingdom, art was looked at askance. Even owning a piano was enough to warrant a visit from the meeting’s elders. I don’t know of evidence that anyone was actually read out of meeting for such an offense, but certainly such notables as Elizabeth Gurney wrote in their later years of their shame at having wasted their God-given time on popular novels.
At quarterly meeting, we will hear from Esther Greenleaf Mürer on the changing Quaker attitudes toward art. Esther is a member of Central Philadelphia MM, a founding member of the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts, and the first editor of its publication—tellingly entitled Types & Shadows. She is herself an accomplished writer, translator, and composer.
Esther is also intimately familiar with earlier Quaker writings. One of her labors of love is a Bible concordance to the works of Fox and other early Friends, now on line at Earlham School of Religion at http://esr.earlham.edu/qbi/
And with an artistic theme, we will also look forward to a performance by the Friends School Fine and Performing Arts program. Please come join us at Woodstown MM for our quarterly meeting.
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