SUMMER 2009Phil Anthony
(856) 769-0066 (voice)
(856) 769-1416 (fax)
salemqtr@verizon.netIt’s a Seaville issue of the newsletter this time. Our cover photo shows one side of the banner that Seaville MM’s children and parents created for PYM March sessions. The other side represents the produce that will be grown in the meeting’s Peace Garden. You’ll have to wait until quarterly meeting on Sunday, 6/14, at Mullica Hill MM, where we hope to have the banner hanging, to see that.
JUNE QUARTERLY MEETING
Mullica Hill Monthly Meeting
Sunday, 14 June 20099:30-3:00 Seed, Cutting, Plant Swap 9:30 am Gather 10:00 am Worship 11:00 am Program: Community Gardens 12 m Lunch 1:00 pm Business meeting Child care, beverages and dessert provided The second side is most appropriate for our quarterly meeting program. Two Seaville members, Karen Barlow and Lizabeth Shay, will be telling us about how the meeting’s focus on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has excited and energized the membership. The Peace Garden, dedicated to the memory of faithful environmentalist Jean Fuschillo, is an intergenerational effort at CSA. See Liz’s article about the garden, with Karen’s photos.
But that’s not all the Seaville in this issue. You’ll find a poem the meeting’s co-clerk, Ken Thompson, discovered while surfing the ’Net this winter. He shared it as part of his weekly clerk’s newsletter a while back; and happily, your coordinator was on his distribution list. Thanks, Ken, for everything you do.
Not covered this time is yet another initiative Seaville is undertaking. Along with several other congregations in Cape May County, they’re working to found a local chapter of Family Promise. The nationwide interfaith effort provides emergency housing, job training, help with money management, and other assistance for families in host churches. The affiliated churches have already hired a director and located a day care center, and hope to be up and running before this issue is mailed.
Put it all together, and Seaville is a vibrant meeting, buzzing with activity and energy.
DIRECTIONS
to Mullica Hill MeetingTake Route 45 south from Woodbury or north from Woodstown, Salem area to where it joins with Route 77 in Mullica Hill. The driveway is just at the corner of those two roads. The meeting house is up on a hill, so look around.
If you’re coming on Route 322 from Glassboro, make a left onto Main St. (Route 45) at The Mill. Go a short distance till Route 45 bears right at the intersection with Route 77. The driveway is at the intersection.Coordinates: 39º 43.902N 75º 13.471W Lost? Call 609-206-5329 or 215-820-6653 Community Supported Agriculture is important, of course. It speaks to the Quaker stewardship testimony, and it supports the local community. As a children's First-day School project, a garden teaches appreciation of our earth in a way that couldn't be more hands-on. I'm also entirely in favor of anything that brings children and adults together, working side by side on something that involves both. The lessons all of them learn, including the understandings that each of us has his or her gifts and that all our gifts are necessary, will serve for the rest of our lives.
There’s more to it, though. I was fortunate enough to be at the February potluck luncheon where the project was announced, the Peace Garden was named, and the work was dedicated to Jean Fuschillo. I felt an underlying level of excitement bubbling up in the meeting. There was an overwhelming sense of joy—not only for the food (which was excellent), and the companionship (which was warm and loving) but also for work that the meeting was ready to do together.
One of the signs of a true leading is joy in the work. It’s something a clearness committee looks for when it tests whether a person has genuinely been called. But meetings have leadings too. It occurs to me that what I witnessed at Seaville was the meeting reaching out to embrace a leading. I’ll be listening and watching closely to learn how this develops as time goes on.
Not long ago a Friend spoke with the quarter’s Worship & Ministry Committee about leadings at his own monthly meeting. It seemed to him that the meeting was ready to support individuals who felt a leading. The support, however, was for the individual rather than for the leading itself. Several other Friends who were present reported that the same was true in their meetings as well. What would it take, I wonder, for other meetings to experience a calling that would grip and energize the whole membership? What might help the process begin and unfold?
By the way—I lied. If you can’t stand to wait, you don’t have to. You can see a preview of the B side of the Seaville banner at the meeting’s Website. But please don’t let that stop you from coming to quarterly meeting to view it in person, and to hear Karen and Liz speak of how CSA has brought old and young members together for a common purpose in the presence of God. I hope to see you there.
RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
Last modified:
Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 08:34 PM
