ELECTRONIC BULLETIN

CHESTNUT HILL FRIENDS MEETING
ELECTRONIC BULLETIN January 25, 2010
The bulletin informs the Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting community of news and events as a supplement to the monthly newsletter. This interim communication focuses on time-sensitive information and is distributed as needed to provide timely information.

CHESTNUT HILL FRIENDS COMMUNITY
Meeting for Grief and Loss
Next Meeting for Grief and Loss will be Friday, February 19, from 7:30 to 8:30pm at the meetinghouse. Jude Brandt and Sue Betts are coordinating. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.

Quaker Quest Postponed to March 6
Because of the memorial service of George Willoughby on February 6, the Quaker Quest workshop has been postponed. It is expected to be held Saturday March 6, 9am to 3pm at the meetinghouse.

Adult RE hopes that all CH Friends will come. The excellent exercises developed by Britain Yearly Meeting will be expertly led by PYM coordinators, Lois and Harry Forrest who will guide us to speak with each other openly and safely about our faith and practice.

To learn more about Quaker Quest, click here

Slippery Snow and Insidious Ice are on the way.
Please consider signing up for a week or two of snow shoveling standby coverage for the meeting sidewalks and steps. Sign up sheet on the bulletin board, shovel and salt on the back porch.

Priority is front and rear entrance within 24 hours.

Fire makers.
Anyone interested in taking turns making and tending fires for the 10:30 AM meeting for worship, please contact Irene McHenry, pyrology coordinator.

Art Show
The Chestnut Hill Meeting Art Show will open on Sunday February 14. We will be accepting your items from 6:00 to 7:30 on Friday evening, February 12 and from 9:30 till noon on Saturday February 13. We encourage those who have or work with children in the First Day School to solicit their contributions. Also, if you have a spouse, parent or other relative who creates art, please bring in one of their pieces so our show can represent the wider Chestnut Hill Meeting community.

For questions, please contact Roberta Foss, John Bieniek and Carolyn Schodt are assisting in making this happen and Storm Evans has offered to help set it up. Any other help will be greatly appreciated!

OUR MEMBERS
Christine Oliger Appreciation Day
You are invited to Christine Oliger Appreciation Day. This year it will be on Saturday January 30 at 6 pm at Mi Puebla (7157 Germantown Avenue, 19119, 215-247-1779, between Mt. Airy and Mt. Pleasant). Chocolate cake and bonfire will follow at our house (127 E. Mermaid Lane). Dinner is $25 a person and BYOB. Please RSVP if you are able to attend, to Christine by Jan 27. Hope you can join us.

Brazilian Dance Party Fundraiser
Please save the evening of March 6 for a Brazilian dance party fundraiser put on by the Friends of Christine. They will have details soon). The twenty person live band will make you shake your bootie and the winter blahs. Great opportunity to show off your Brazilian wax (or not).

Fabulous fun, rum punch, snacks and dance lessons. Don't miss this party - it will be a night to remember. Want to help make it memorable? - contact Dion.

Jim Cox
Thanks to Betsy Wallace for a year of coordinating Jim Cox's meals! We are looking for a new coordinator for the next few months. Weekends only, as Meals on Wheels is covering the weekdays.
Contact Meg

On Jan 22, Jim Cox wrote to let us know that he is at Pennsylvania Hosp until next week, Room 685. He welcomes visitors. Contact Meg for more details.

Abbe Forman was in the news.
For more, click here.

Sarah Whitman Speaks at Pendle Hill
Sarah Whitman will be speaking at Pendle Hill's Tuesday night lecture series on Tuesday, February 9 at 7:30 pm. *OUCH! How 3 Religions View Pain and Suffering *will look at how Hinduism, Judaism and Quakerism think about pain and suffering, and what the 3 religions can teach us about handling adversity.

For more information click here.

This lecture is part of a series on spirituality and mental health. The other 3 lectures are about mindfulness, Quaker parenting, and spirituality and psychotherapy.

WIDER QUAKER COMMUNITY
Called Meeting of Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
When: 31 January 2009 at 1:00 p.m.
Where: Green Street MM

At the regularly scheduled meeting of Philadelphia Quarter in October we heard of a pending change in the management/ownership of Stapeley in Germantown. After expressions of concern and many questions, that meeting requested a committee be formed to explore the situation, take any appropriate action and report back to the Quarter. Several Monthly Meetings made recommendations of persons for such a committee. A committee of six was formed, met, and requested documents concerning the bequests that established the retirement home, the articles of incorporation and By-laws, and the proposed changes. We met again to review the documents and requested a meeting with the Executive director and clerk of the Board of Managers. After that meeting we wrote a letter suggesting possible changes and another face-to-face meeting. That follow-up meeting is pending as this is being written.

Our committee came to understand that Stapeley’s bylaws require Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting approval of major changes to its bylaws. This provision has provided the context for our work and will frame the work of the called meeting of the Quarter.

When we first contacted the management of Stapeley we asked that they not move forward with the affiliation until we had a chance to discuss the situation with them. They responded that their bond interest rate was to be reset at the end of October and that without at least starting the affiliation process the rate would be significantly higher if a re-finance was possible. They proceeded to initiate the affiliation with Wesley Enhanced Living with a 90-day due-process understanding in the agreement. That ninety-day period expires before our next regularly scheduled Quarterly Meeting at the end of February, which is the reason for our having a Called Meeting at the end of this month.

The committee has become convinced that Stapeley in Germantown is no longer financially viable as a stand-alone operation and that with the proposed affiliation the mission of providing an urban retirement home and continuing medical care at modest cost can be maintained without interruption. The Stapeley Board has requested timely Quarterly Meeting approval of the necessary bylaw changes to allow the new affiliation/sale to proceed.

The agenda for the meeting will be brief: Opening worship; Introduction of the committee; Explanation of the proposed affiliation; Introduction of the changes required in the Articles of Incorporation and By-laws; Recommendations from the committee; Action on these recommendations; Closing worship.

George Garrettson
Acting Clerk, PQM

For the committee: Andrew Anderson, Thomas Hardy, Sam Rhoads, Craig Smith, Warren Witte

OUR WIDER COMMUNITY
There is good news out of Afghanistan.
Lynn Mather writes,

This is particularly aimed at those who attended the January 10 Forum when Peter Lems of AFSC presented on Afghanistan.

The following article describes the remarkable work of Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and director of the Central Asia Institute (CAI), in building relationships (slowly and patiently, "literally over cups of tea") with rural communities that has resulted in the construction of 80 schools, mostly for girls. These schools were built with the labor of the local people, while funded by the CAI. Because the local leaders and their people are the ones creating and maintaining them, only one has been attacked by the Taliban. This instance ended with apprehension and punishment of the offenders and increased support for the school.

Key to Afghan crisis: tea and education / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com -

12/04/09 To see the article click here.

Does Theology Have a Role In Shaping a New Economy?
At Trinity Institute’s 2010 Conference you’ll have an opportunity to help provide an answer.

Whatever happens in the world economy in the coming months, one thing is certain: advocating for an ethical economy – one that works toward the biblical ideal of sufficiency for all and is resistant to exploitation – will be a priority.

Building an Ethical Economy will bring together leading theologians and economists to talk about the relationship between economics and Christian belief and action.

Where:
Friends Center,
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA
When:
January 28 & 29, 2010
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

For more information, click here.

Friendly Links
Our web clerk, Terry Foss, has compiled a list of links to various Quaker web sites that have information about Quaker programs and other organizations with similar interests. Checking those sites regularly can help you understand what is going on in our wider community. Click here to see the links.

STANDARD REMINDERS
Please help center Meeting for Worship:
Friends are invited to arrive early for meeting for worship to help the meeting settle and provide a more meaningful worship experience for children and adults alike.

Assistive Listening Devices
A "hearing helper" system amplifies spoken messages in meeting. These devices can also be used for people in the gathering room who wish to hear spoken messages in the worship room. Contact a member of Worship and Ministry if you want to learn more.

On-line calendar for Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting
The on-line calendar can be viewed by clicking the blue link or going to the meeting web page.

If you would like to have your event put on the calendar, please send an email message to

calendar@chestnuthillquakers.org.

Newsletter Submissions
Please submit articles for the newsletter to newsletter@chestnuthillquakers.org by the end of the day on Thursday before the first Sunday of the month. Phil Jones is our newsletter editor.

Bulletin announcements
Please submit copy-ready announcements to secretary@chestnuthillquakers.org or 215-247-3553 by Noon on Thursdays. Bulletins are produced only when sufficient time-sensitive news is received.

Viv Hawkins, meeting secretary prepares the bulletin. The ad hoc communications committee determines whether it is sent.

Use of Meeting House
The property committee reminds us that all meetings or other gatherings at the Chestnut Hill meetinghouse must be reserved and confirmed through the meeting secretary before the events are publicly announced.

Review the on-line calendar as you plan your event.
Go to the meeting webpage and download a meetinghouse use request form.
Complete the form and deliver it to the meeting office (either in paper form or through a scanned image sent via email). The meeting secretary or someone from the property committee will confirm the time and date of your event and put it on the on-line calendar.
To see how to leave the meetinghouse without a key and other information about the meetinghouse, please click here.

Standard Office Hours
Viv Hawkins, meeting secretary, is in the meetinghouse on Mondays and Thursdays from 10:30 to 4:30.

Phil Jones is in the meetinghouse on Tuesday mornings doing work for the campaign committee.

Please call the meetinghouse during those times if you need to speak to a real person, otherwise, please leave a message on the meeting’s voice mail.

Blue Links
Words in this bulletin that are blue are links to email addresses or web pages with more information. Click on the blue wording to open the link or send an email to the meeting secretary.

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Viv Hawkins
Secretary, Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting
100 E. Mermaid Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118
215-247-3553