Calendar Notes
On-Line Calendar
See our On-Line Calendar for the latest details.
This Month at Chestnut Hill Meeting….
New Building Plan Presentation (6th) We will gather at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, May 6 in the meetingroom to receive the revised meetinghouse plan from architect Jim Bradberry. After Jim's presentation we will discuss our reactions to the plan and learn what steps come next for moving toward building the new meetinghouse. If you have any questions about the presentation, please contact Storm Evans, clerk of the Client Committee. storm@evanslegal.com
Mindfulness Workshops: Cultivating Inner Peace (5th, 12th, 19th) 7:00 8:30 pm. Three workshops led by Irene McHenry, Executive Director, Friends Council on Education. These workshops are experiential with no previous experience in mindfulness techniques required. Contact Irene if you have questions about the workshops.
Parent & Children Pizza Night (9th)
6:30 pm Please join the children's religious education
committee for pizza at the meetinghouse. We would
like to get to know more parents. Additionally, we
would like your feedback about the firstday program
and school program plans for next year. Please RSVP
to let us know how much pizza to get.
recomm@chestnuthillquakers.org
On Tuesday night, May 13, 6:00
pm, a week after the
meeting to see the new building plans, we will have
a meeting dinner party to discuss how the new building
will affect and enhance our program. As we embark
on this major building project, we want to be joined
in a shared vision of the future.
Dinner will be provided by the committee. Friends
should come ready to enjoy community and dinner,
and to discuss CHFMM program. Facilitators will be
at each table to see that everyone is heard and that
areas are covered. Childcare will be provided. Please
sign up on the sheet on the bulletin board, or leave
a message on 215-247-3553.
Representatives from "program" committees
will make brief presentations: Worship and Ministry,
Care and Counsel, Outreach, Religious Education,
and Peace and Concerns. These are the areas in which
we will discuss our vision for the future.
Some may wish to prepare by reviewing notes from
a visioning process from 200? led by John Gallery.
If you have not yet completed the orange survey form
from the April newsletter, you may still do that
and leave it in the meeting office.
Questions: Shirley Philips, Jean Warrington, Carolyn
Schodt, Nell Kahil.
Bonfire, BBQ, & Campout (16th) 6:30
pm Bonfire, BBQ, & Campout on the lower lot. Bring
food to share and join us in storytelling, music
and tours of work done and yet to do. Play flashlight
tag, roast a marshmallow and have some fun. See the
sign up sheet for the pot luck in the gathering room.
Contact Christine Oliger for more info
christineoliger@earthlink.net
After the embers die down, the fun and community doesn't end. Plan to stay for an overnight campout! Spread out your sleeping bag or tent on the lower lot or inside the meetinghouse. Worshipsharing and breakfast Saturday morning before heading home. See Carolyn Schodt or Sarah Whitman for details.
Forum (11th) The topic is "Friends and Universalism". The presenter is Chel Avery, director of the Quaker Information Center and a member of Goshen Monthly Meeting. She also is a Quakerism 101/201 teacher for PYM.
Universalism can mean a variety of things to different people, but in one way or another the principle of "universal salvation" has always been present in the Religious Society of Friends. We will explore the Christian universalism of early Friends, the variety of multifaith universalism that exist today, and what universalism means to us personally and as members of a Quaker community. Light lunch, child care.
Work Party (17th) Help cut brush in lower lot. Please bring materials to continue pruning: pruners, loppers, saws, long pants, garden gloves, and also water and a snack if you would like. Call Sue Betts (2157408061) for more information.
Meeting for Business (18th) Agenda forthcoming; remember donations of food for Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry.
N.P.I.H.N. Hosting (April 27th – May 3rd) at St. Paul’s; please contact Mickey Abraham with your offer to help with cooking, serving, and/or hosting.
Middle School Activities: Friday, 5/16: Middle schoolers are invited to the allmeeting BBQ, including a campout overnight. We will be leading flashlight tag. Friday, 5/30: Dinner and an evening of cartooning with Signe Wilkinson. More details to come by email. Be sure you get all the news see Sarah Whitman for more details.
Speaking of Funds….. Look for a complete budget report and spring request for financial support coming soon to your mailbox!
“Will Call” Space in Office: To leave something for an officer or committee clerk, put it in the officer's or committee file folder in the first file cabinet drawer of the file cabinet closest to the door of the office. The clerks and officers check those folders often. For other members or attenders: put it in the "Will Call" cubbie in the book case in the office, just beyond the copy machine. Please clearly write the name of the person it is for and a date, and tell the person you are leaving it for where to find it. We are working hard to keep all flat surfaces of the office clear, so if you leave something on the desk, file cabinets or table, it will be moved to the "will call." All incoming mail addressed to people who are not clerks of committees goes to the "will call."
Quaker & Community Opportunities
Helping Iraqi Refugee Families: Lutheran Children and Family Services is one of a few organizations given a permit by the federal government to resettle Iraqi families in the US.
Meetings and/or congregations are joining together to form support teams to help find housing, and money to pay for housing, utilities, and food for the family for four months, as well as help the family get oriented to social, health, and job counseling services, register children for school, find language classes, and in general help orient them to the city and community in which they live.
We are talking to other Meetings about what they are doing and where it makes sense to join together to support a family. If you are interested in helping to create a team, contact Kathy Miller at peace@chestnuthillquakers.org.
Pendle Hill Gospel Singing Sundays from 46 beginning 4/6; final concert is 6/4. In the Barn at Pendle Hill; Niyonu Spann, directing.
Housing Available: Cati Coe, who will be in Ghana for six months beginning in July, hopes to rent out her house: 3 bedrooms, sun porch, vegetable garden, backyard with trees on quiet block in Germantown near Fernhill Park; $1000/month with utilities. (215) 9914736
Friends Counseling Service: Are you considering counseling? Friends Counseling Service is a network of Quaker mental health professionals for Quaker members and attenders affiliated with PYM. Counselors are available with a variety of expertise and include psychologists, social workers, therapists, family therapists, and a psychiatrist. The mental health professionals in the Friends Counseling Service have been chosen for this service because of both their counseling experience and a commitment to Quakerism. Some financial support is available if needed. Both Betty Hartzell (therapist) and Sarah Whitman (psychiatrist) participate in the Friends Counseling Service. Although they don't provide services to those in our Meeting, either would be happy to share more information about this service. Information can also be obtained from the PYM website.
Philadelphia Quarterly Happenings
Quarterly Meeting: June 1 at CHMM. Friends from other meetings in the Quarter join our worship at 10:30am, have lunch and then conduct the business of the Quarter. The host meeting makes a presentation about something of importance to it; Quarter members have expressed interest in hearing about our building plans.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Happenings
Quaker Quest: Haverford Meeting. A series of standalone information and discussion meetings on specific Quaker topics, such as “Quakers and Peace”, “Quakers and the Experience of God”, “Quakers and Raising Children”. 3:00 pm, Sundays thru May 11. For more info, Benjamin Lloyd at blloyd1@mac.com
Then and Now Tour with Friends Historical Association: May 34. An overnight bus tour to visit Friends meetinghouses around Columbia County in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley. For info contact Francis Brown at francisgbrown@hotmail.com
Friends General Conference Gathering of Friends:
June 28-July 5. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown,
Pennsylvania "Courageously Faithful".
http://www.fgcquaker.org/gathering
Some Quaker Blogs of Interest
http://imperfectserenity.blogspot.com/
http://quakerreflections.blogspot.com/
http://www.quakerquaker.org/
http://quakeragitator.wordpress.com/
http://friendinneed.blogspot.com/
Save the Date: Interfaith Peace Walk on Sunday, May 18th
Queries: Care in the Home
Is my home a place where all members of the family receive affection and understanding, and where visitors are welcome? Do I choose recreation and a manner of living that enriches the body, mind, and spirit; and shows a high regard for family, community, and creation? Is our family prepared to discuss such sensitive topics as death, faith, money, even sex and drugs, in a manner that allows openness and honesty, and also direction? How do I help to arrange life at home so that there is an opportunity for all to learn and absorb by example what it means to live a life of Spiritled commitment? PYM Faith & Practice, 1997
Those Whom We Hold in the Light include Jorge Arauz, Ruth Pauly, & Renata ArauzDeStefano after the death of Jorge’s mother.
Planning for Our Future: Building Update
Building activities continue on several levels. In early April, the Client Committee facilitated a meeting in Philadelphia between light artist James Turrell and architect Jim Bradbury. They now have a meeting schedule for further collaboration to continue their work on our behalf. The committee is preparing a presentation to the Meeting regarding the current state of the proposed design which is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6 at 7:00 p.m. at the meetinghouse.
The Campaign Committee has hired Diane Dunning as the campaign coordinator. She will begin her formal duties on May1, though many Friends know that Diane has already been very active in her support of this project. The committee is planning the fundraising campaign for the new meetinghouse. On Tuesday, May 13, the Coordinating Committee will conduct a followup to the design presentation session for Friends to hear about th results of the recent visioning survey, and Christine Oliger for more info enhance their understanding of the decisions and challenges yet to come. (Observant Friends will note that this committee was previously called the Building Oversight Committee. Some Friends pointed out that the terms “oversight” and “overseer” carry an emotional charge from the era of slavery that adds nothing to our understanding of the committee’s work. Just as our Meeting changed its Committee of Overseers to Committee on Care & Counsel, the Coordinating Committee has changed its name.) Phil Jones, clerk
Newsletter Content Editor: Abbe Forman
Newsletter Layout: Anne Bayless
Newsletter
advisory committee: Sarah Whitman, Karen Cromley,
Philip Jones