FALL 2009Phil Anthony
(856) 769-0066 (voice)
(856) 769-1416 (fax)
salemqtr@verizon.netThe butterfly whose flowing curves adorn our cover this month serves as a kind of logo for the Millville Worship Group. It’s also something of an icon for me. During worship at Millville last February, a haiku was given to Judy Ballinger of Seaville MM, a regular attender at the group’s gatherings:
The rivers of Spring
have all potential: flowing
freely as ways open.And a message in worship that morning spoke of the butterfly emerging from its cocoon to realize a new and surprising potential—not only in our personal lives, but when the life of the meeting becomes transformed as well.
Message and haiku were both quite appropriate. That was the day when the Millville group held its first meeting for business. It was the first worship held in a new venue, the annex of a synagogue in Carmel. It was the day of the Salem MM Oversight Committee’s first meeting. New beginnings are always troublous. The new venue, as it happened, didn’t work out because of scheduling conflicts. There hasn’t been an official business meeting at Millville since—although business concerns, including finding a new site to meet, have been worked out by email among the attenders. The Oversight Committee is still finding how it can best encourage and support the worship group.
Nevertheless, the group had turned a corner and had in fact become something new. If it wasn’t entirely a surprise to those of us who had watched closely, it was still a new self-understanding and a new relationship to Salem MM and the entire quarter.
Within a couple of weeks of that eventful day, Millville member Cindy Commander had produced not one but three renderings of the butterfly for us to look at. As her work progressed, the butterfly became more and more simplified (a very Quakerly change!) until it metamorphed into the graceful creature on our cover. The Millville folks decided that it was the appropriate emblem to symbolize the group in business cards and a poster to use in outreach, spreading the word of the group and its activities to potential Friends in the area.
With the help of Seaville’s Blair Seitz, a Millville resident and another regular, both poster and business card are now realities. Copies of the poster, which bear the quotation from Revelation 22 that also appears on our cover, were displayed at June’s quarterly meeting—where almost as many members were in attendance from the tiny worship group as from our larger, well established meetings.
Now another change is in the offing. After meeting monthly for a year and a half, the group is seriously considering a move to a twice-amonth schedule. Details still need to be worked out, but Salem Quarter’s butterfly is spreading its supple wings in the sun.
SEPTEMBER QUARTERLY MEETING
Lower Greate St Monthly Meeting, Greenwich
Sunday, 13 September 20092:30 pm Gather 3:00 pm Business Meeting 5:00 pm Brown-bag Supper 6:00 pm Program: Martin Kelley (read more) 7:00 pm Worship Child care, beverages and dessert provided. To my surprise and delight, one of the worshippers at the group’s July meeting at its new home in the center of Millville was my old friend Martin Kelley. Formerly employed at FGC, Martin has been active among Friends from all branches of Quakerism. His Pendle Hill workshop in collaboration with C. Wess Daniels, “New Monastics and Convergent Friends,” has been rescheduled for 14-16 May 2010. Martin will be joining us for September’s quarterly meeting at Greenwich MM (schedule at right).
His topic? For many years Martin has been concerned for the future of Quakerism, and for experiencing God’s power in our worship. He promises another look at his concerns, perhaps through the lens of the Convergent movement that seeks cross-fertilization with other strains of Friends’ belief. You can find a preview of his thinking on his blog, http://www.quakerranter.org, if you’re curious. Please gather with us at Greenwich on Sunday, 13 September, to welcome him.
And before then Salem Quarter will gather at the Cape May Zoo for our potluck picnic on Sunday, 30 August. Come worship with Seaville MM at the meetinghouse or one of the two beach meetings (details on the inside back cover), and then down to the shelter at the zoo which we’ve rented for our gathering. Good food, good times, and good fellowship are in store for the entire family. Join us there!
Directions to Greenwich Meeting
- Take Rt. 77 or 40 to Pole Tavern Circle (where 77 & 40 Cross) OR Take Rt. 49 to Shiloh and turn onto 620, then follow the directions from #4. below.
- From Pole Tavern Circle take Rt. 635 to Rt. 49. (Route 49 joins from the right and you continue straight ahead.) [If you run into a detour on Rt. 620 around a car show, don’t worry. The detour should put you right onto Rt. 49.]
- Continue on 49 East for about a mile to the small town of Shiloh. The road is suddenly surrounded by trees.
- From Shiloh take 620 to where it dead-ends at Rt. 703. There’s a BIG sycamore tree at the dead end.
- Go left. Follow that road through Greenwich. The meetinghouse is on the left.
Lost? Call 609-206-5329
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Saturday, August 29, 2009 at 03:42 PM
