Bucks Quarterly Peace and Social Concerns Committee
Celebrate the New Year at Pendle Hill
44th Annual Nazareth to Bethlehem
Annual Gathering of Quaker Public Educators
Meetinghouse Needs Volunteers to Welcome Tourists
American Friends Service Committee Donations
Snippets of News from the Quarter and Other Places
Newtown Meeting Expansion Project
Bucks Quarterly Meeting Worship & Ministry
Friends Transition Support Services
Meeting for Worship at Pennswood Village
Middletown Friends Meeting at Langhorne Midweek Worship
Doylestown Meeting Friends Silent Vigil for Peace
Chandler Hall Worship Services Organizers
DECEMBER 2003 |
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1 |
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1:30 pm. |
Annual Auxiliary and Staff Holiday Party for residents at Chandler Hall |
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5 |
Sun |
7pm |
Candlelight Worship at Buckingham Meeting. |
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11 |
Thurs |
7pm |
If War is Not the Answer, What is ?. Peaceful Prevention of Deadly Conflict. |
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14. |
Sun |
11:30am |
There will be a Children’s program at Buckingham Mtg, which is after worship |
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14 |
Sun |
11:00am |
Middletown Meeting with harpist Joanna Mell during Meeting for Worship. |
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21 |
Sun |
8-9am |
Christmas breakfast at Buckingham, followed by singing, Worship, and Children’s program. |
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21 |
Sun |
10am |
Christmas progam at Solebury will have singing, and Children’s program. |
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21 . |
Sun |
9am |
Falls Meeting covered dish breakfast, Christmas play and carol-singing |
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21 |
Sun |
7pm |
Yardley Friends meeting will have a Christmas Pageant Candlelight Meeting. |
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21 |
Sun |
11am |
Newtown Mtg for Worship with Children’s Program, followed by lunch. |
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21 |
Sun |
7:15 |
Candlelight service at Southampton Meeting with Carols and refreshments. |
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24 |
Wed |
7pm |
Candlelight Worship for Christmas Eve at Plumstead and Middletown. |
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25 |
Thurs |
7pm |
New Year’s Candlelight Worship. |
Looking Ahead |
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Dec 27, 2003 Jan 1, 2004 |
Young Friends (14-20) YouthQuake Estes Park, Colorado. Info: 215-241-7222. |
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Dec 28, 2003 thru Thursday, January 1, 2004 |
Yoga as Body Prayer for Heart and Soul. |
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Jan 10, 2004 . |
Annual Gathering of Quaker Public Educators |
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June 21-July 5, 2004 ” |
Pilgrimage to England’s “Quaker Country. |
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Newtown Friends School will have a Christmas Tree sale to be held on the George School campus, from December 6-7 and December 13-14. Trees will be 4-11 ft. Cost is $20-$80. Wreaths will also be available. Proceeds will benefit the school.
Christmas Holiday Party for Residents
The program will be at Hunterdon High School, in Flemington, New Jersey. Featured Speaker is Chris Hedges on December 5, 2003. Chris Hedges, a foreign correspondent for fifteen years and a member of the New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. Chris has seen war up close - in the Balkans, in the Middle East, in Central America, and has been troubled by what he has seen: friends, enemies, colleagues, strangers intoxicated and even addicted to war’s heady brew. His book, “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning,” tackles the ugly truths about humanity’s love affair with war. Program begins at 7 pm. You will need $3.00 at the door. Info: 1-908-303-8602. Directions - www.hcrhs.k12.nj.us
Yoga as Body Prayer for Heart and Soul
a Retreat for the New Year
Date is December 28, 2003 to January 2004. Yoga has been a form of body prayer for over 5000 years. In this spacious retreat of gentle Kundalini yand mindfulness meditation we will engage the whole body in prayer, connecting to the presence of the Divine Spirit within us. Yoga will halp us make friends with our bodies, harness the energy of our minds and emotions, and connect with our true selves. Mindfulness meditation will open our hearts and senses through breath, restoring deep awareness. In connecting to our deeper selves, our soul, we connect to God.
We will invite in the New Year with chanting, positive affirmations, prayer, song, yoga, deep relaxation by the fireside, journaling, extended opportunity for reflection, and laughter. By New Year’s Day, we will have the skills to take home our unity of body and mind.
Valerie Brown is a certified teacher of Kundalini yoga meditation, trained in holistic spirituality, and a founding member of Old Path Sangha, a Buddhist meditation community in New Hope, PA. She attends Solebury Friends Meeting and is writing a book on spirituality and travel.
Workshop fee, including meals. Options are $480/double room or $530/single room or $340 as commuter. Matching scholarships are available. Please contact early to make arrangements.
For registration and lodging, contact Steve Jackson, ext. 142. Info: 1-610-566-4507 or 1-800-742-3150
Christmas Peace Pilgrimage will be on Saturday, December 13, 2003 at Lehigh Valley. Bring family and friends. There is time to get a rest stop at various Churches. Call Fran Driesbach 1-610-658-7313.
The Peace Vigil at the Liberty Bell that began in 1999 continues each First Day afternoon between 4-5 pm. This is a meeting for worship in the manner of Friends that lasts for an hour. Usually, it’s a handful of people. Last week, with a concerted effort, Friends from three states swelled the ranks to 60. John Andres Gallery, of Chestnut Hill Meeting articulates that this vigil is “for prayer, and for peace.” His reflections appear in Pendle Hill Pamphlet #358: Reflections from a Prayer Vigil for Peace.
Program is from 9am to 3pm on Saturday, January 10, 2004, at Friends Center in Philadelphia. The keynote speaker will be Loren Thomas, Superintendent of Schools in Pittsgrove Township, Salem County, New Jersey, and a member of of Atlantic City Area Meeting. Contact Elke Muller at 215-241-7223 or elkem@pym.org
Philadelphia’s new Constitution Center will open July 4, 2003. We can only guess the impact it will have on the number of visitors to the Fourth and Arch Street Meetinghouse. We need you to help as volunteer guides.
Our Quaker heritage is a gift from the past that the tourists want to experience and explore. They treasure what it stands for: A way of life based on religious freedom, the founding of a nation, etc.
Tour guides and school groups are finding the Arch Street Meeting House a significant addition to their tour of Philadelphia. They don’t have to wait in long lines or go through metal detectors. They get to sit down and share in the dialogue. Last spring over 25,000 visitors came to the meetinghouse (over 1,000 on one day!).
The Quaker message needs to be told and Arch Street Visitors Program needs your help to do it. Call Sandy Sudofsky at 215-627-2667.
We will have another meeting of our Peaceful Hands group tonight. Please join us if you can. A group of us with similar concerns are welcoming others to join us for an evening of peace related conversation. All are welcome to bring your hand crafts, your bills to pay - anything you would normally do with your hands on a Tuesday evening - or just spend the time with us, dialoguing about ways to direct our common energies toward our community, and the world at 7pm. Childcare is available. Friends will meet on the second Tuesday of each month at Quakertown Friends Meeting, Rt 579 & White Bridge Road, Quakertown, NJ 08868. Call for directions: 1-908-537-2719
Needed: 4 bars of soap, 1 plastic bottle of shampoo (in plastic bag), 1 tube of toothpaste, 4 adult-size toothbrushes (in packaging), 1 hairbrush, 1 wide-tooth comb, 1 finger nail clipper, 1 box of adhesive bandages (minimum 40, assorted preferred). Donors are encouraged to include $5 for each kit to help pay shipping costs. Send to AFSC, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479.
Peaceful Hands (Quakertown Friends Meeting) is being laid down for the time being, but the women’s group will continue meeting on the last Tuesday of the month. Info: 1-908-537-2719.
Thanks go to Yardley Meeting for all their work. Friends from all Meetings, except Bristol, gave there reports which were were well done.
Newtown Meeting started the expansion project in April, and was finished this month.
Bucks Quarterly Meeting Worship & Ministry Committee met at Lehigh Valley on November 2003. Annette Benert and members of the Lehigh Valley Worship and Ministry Committee led Friends to explore how we discerned God’s will in our personal lives. The worship-sharing format led us to reveal some moving and insightful personal stories that were very powerful.
Plumstead Meeting is moving right along. They have new rugs and the meetinghouse is freshly painted inside. First Day School attenders include up to to eight children. They focused on peace making.
The Quaker School at Horsham continues it’s mission to provide services to up to 70 children with learning differences.
BQM Singing Group will meet at Friends Village on December 17 at 7:30 pm.
Recycling & Funding.
Friends Transition Support Services is collecting inkjet and toner cartridges to recycle. The project raises funds for FTSS work and benefits the environment by recycling the cartridges rather than adding them to landfills. For more information, call Priscilla Adams. Phone number is 1-609-835-4285.
Meeting for Worship is at Pennswood Village every first day morning at 10:30 am at Barclay Lounge. We would like other Friends in Bucks Quarter to join with us in Worship.
Middletown Friends Meeting at Langhorne now has midweek Worship from 7-8 pm every Wednesday. The third Wednesday is Worship Sharing at 7pm.
Doylestown Meeting Friends continue their Silent Vigil for Peace at the corner of State & Main Streets, and invite members from other Meetings to participate as well. The Meeting has added the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons to the Peace Vigil Message. The Vigil is from 6pm-7pm every Tuesday.