Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting
February 2010 Newsletter
Note 1: Children are welcome in meeting for worship from 10:30 to 10:45, when they leave to attend First Day School.
Note 2: Community Lunches occur on the first First Day of the month from 12:00 - 1:00pm and are provided by the Hospitality Committee.
Note 3: In the gathering room, there is a book where you may write your joys and concerns to hold in the Light. On the second Wednesday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, there will be a special meeting for worship to focus on what was written.
This week my mom and I watched the State of the Union speech together, and we were heartened by the president’s “grand vision and the simple truth frankly spoken.” (NYTimes) As I talked to strangers who didn’t watch it and heard media pundits tearing it down, I am grateful for our Society of Friends where we have a grand vision and speak the simple truth.
How do we share our faith and practice with each other and with the wider world? One powerful way is Quaker Quest. I took a QQ workshop at Friends General Conference last summer and thought how much Chestnut Hill Friends would value this. On Saturday, March 6, the PYM coordinators will offer a workshop for us.
This month at business meeting, we will continue to discuss the budget for the new meetinghouse project. This is a big project and our planning committees are mostly volunteers, so let us patient with each other. Quaker process requires open discussion until everyone is heard and the meeting feels ready to make a decision. This can take longer than voting, but decisions are usually better. By speaking frankly to each other the simple truth, we deepen our connections to each another and our understanding of our grand vision.
Jean Warrington
As of Friday, January 29, Jim has moved to Vitas Hospice at Nazareth Hospital. He's in the Holy Family Building, which is at 2601 Holme Avenue (19152). The main hospital number is (215) 335-6000; the number in Jim's room is (215) 335-6633.
This move to hospice comes as his doctors say the tumor is spreading beyond their power to slow or stop it. He will be able to do less and less as the disease progresses; his mother suggests that Friends might want to visit sooner rather than later, while he can still respond and appreciate their presence.
Visiting hours? No restrictions at all. After 8pm, check in with the Security Officer at the Emergency Department Entrance. Click to see parking information.
Thanks to Betsy Wallace for a year of coordinating Jim Cox's meals, and to all those who helped by cooking!
The Forum presentation on February 14th will feature Tony Heriza of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and will include a short video of the organization’s history, discussion and conclude with questions and answers. A light snack and child care are provided for those staying for Forum.
As meeting for worship closes, we hear joys and concerns, then introductions, and finally announcements for coming events. When a meal or program follows meeting, we ask Friends to make their announcements brief so we can move on to the next activity.
Lately, meal or not, the announcements have become very long, and have often drifted away from meeting-related topics, so that the after-meeting ritual is suddenly 20 (or more!) minutes long. Some waggish Friends have suggested that announcements henceforth be limited to the length of a Twitter message (a “tweet”, which can't exceed 140 characters). Less ruthless Friends thought a 25-word limit might help. You may need to exceed that, but if your announcement takes more than 60 seconds to make, you should consider having a flyer that you can post or hand out. And don't forget this newsletter and the bulletin as vehicles for getting the word out, especially about personal things.
Phil Jones
Our CHFM capital campaign is moving along steadily. Please look at our new (and still-in-progress) campaign website.
Our 15 volunteer solicitors have been in contact with 82 of 135 active Meeting families, and 96% of those have made a pledge. Some families we visited were initially not so aware of the new building project until our volunteer team spoke about what the new meetinghouse could do for Quakerism and our neighborhood.
Note: If you have been visited and have not returned your Letter of Intent to the office, please do so before February 15. If you have lost it, please call the office and we will send another. If you have not been visited, please call to set up an appointment!
Our external campaign has begun in 2010. We are reaching out to non-Quakers, many of whom are excited about having a James Turrell Skyspace in Philadelphia, and pleased to be supporting a project involving the community. James Turrell, a Quaker and member of Third Haven meeting in Maryland, is helping greatly by donating his fee for our project and also offering to donate his fee on other projects. If anyone in our extended community has suggestions for Quakers or non-Quakers to whom we could be speaking about supporting the project, please let me know. Our campaign committee meets at the meetinghouse on the fourth Thursday of every month, and all are welcome.
I am in the meeting office on Tuesday afternoon and working from my home office in Ambler all day Monday and Thursday afternoons, and would welcome your questions and comments. Campaign committee members and I meet with our consultants Tuesday morning at 10:30 at Top of the Hill Cafe. Fortunately my husband Peter is a patient man and a good cook.
Diane Dunning, Campaign Manager
Our Campaign Committee is applying for grants for the new meetinghouse and we'd love your help. The Quaker foundations are most interested in supporting the growth and vitality of our meeting. The PYM Legacy Fund has led the way with their recent award of $25,0000. Some foundations interested in the environment might help us reclaim an old quarry, contribute to improvements in the watershed, make a LEED building and beautiful landscape to share with the community. Some are interested in accessible community space in Northwest Philadelphia for education on eco-justice and right relationships with all creation. We talk to them about how many more groups could meet in a larger building. Some foundations are interested in contemporary art, and would support the James Turrell Skyspace. Some are interested in ecumenical spirituality and we describe to them how our Meeting will be open to the public for quiet reflection and prayer.
We are looking for more people who want to be part of fundraising and can help get out these applications. Much of the content is already written. Join Amy Gendall, Michelle Hitz, Nancy Kassam-Adams, Carolyn Schodt and Jean Warrington, with support from the Campaign Committee and staff on one of four teams: Quaker, Spirituality, Arts and Environment. We also need Friends who know board members of the granting foundations. Many foundations accept applications by invitation only. If you would like to help, please call Carolyn Schodt, convener, at 215-842-2844.
As the meeting faces a decision on whether to use the balance of the Yarnall Fund to help pay for the construction of a new meetinghouse, it might be helpful to summarize the origin and history of the fund. This is not a history of the investments or administration of the fund, but of the purposes of the fund as expressed in the documents of the fund and the decisions of the Meeting in applying the fund. The following is a chronology derived from Meeting documents:
D. Robert Yarnall was one of the original members of the Meeting, and after his death on September 11, 1967, his will directed that his estate be added to a trust he had created dated July 25, 1960, with amendments dated March 26, 1964, and November 7, 1966. The Yarnall trust document directed that 40% of the residue of his estate be held in a trust for the benefit of the University of Pennsylvania, Westtown School, Pendle Hill, Haverford College, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting, American Friends Service Committee, and Bryn Mawr College. Each of those organizations was to receive a share of the income of the trust and the trust was to continue “as long as it holds any common stock of the Yarnall-Waring Company.” The 1966 amendment notes that the corporation had changed its name to Yarway Corporation.
Item Eighth of the trust directed the trustees to vote the stock of the company as directed by one of Mr. Yarnall's sons, D. Robert Yarnall Jr., and I believe that the purpose of the charitable trust (as opposed to distributing 40% of the estate to charity immediately after Mr. Yarnall's death) was to allow D. Robert Yarnall Jr., to continue to vote the Yarway stock held in the trust.
The Yarnall trust terminated in 1986, following the sale of the last of its stock of Yarway Corporation. The Meeting then received its one eighth share of the trust “free and clear of all trusts.” There is no other purpose or intent for the gift described in the trust document.
Download a lengthier document that includes this and other information.
Dan Evans
Editor's note: Since 1988, the Meeting has used the interest from the Yarnall Fund for charitable donations and for tuition assistance for the Meeting's children at Quaker schools. If the Meeting decides to use the balance of the fund for the new building, it will also consider whether (and how) to address the concerns over continued funding for charitable donations and tuition assistance.
At an art opening at the Institute for Contemporary Art recently, Signe Wilkinson happened to meet and have a chance to talk to one of the artist's friends from New York City. In the course of it, she naturally bent his ear about our project. He wrote Signe a short note later:
“It was fun to meet you and Diane the other evening. Your project sounds bold, inspired and ethereal.”
Signe adds, “Bold, inspired and ethereal sound like words we should remember, savor and share with others. I met another woman who loves Turrell's work, can't quite afford one herself, but went on about how she thought the meetinghouse will be a wonderful place of meditation and contemplation.”
The January 25 issue of The New Yorker Magazine carries an article by art critic Peter Schjeldahl about a gallery exhibit in New York City that includes a Turrell work; the accompanying photo shows a very different type of work from Skyspaces we have seen. Check out this slideshow; the two Turrell pieces come at around 3:33 in the soundtrack/slideshow.
Our treasurer, Dan Evans, reports that receipts for contributions received in 2009 have been sent out, and have gone out by e-mail to those for whom we have e-mail addresses and who have expressed a willingness to receive Meeting notices by e-mail. If by the time you read this you have not received a printed receipt by mail or an electronic receipt by e-mail (or if you have received an electronic receipt but want a printed receipt), get in touch with Dan Evans or Viv Hawkins and they'll mail you another receipt. (Receipts are needed for contributions of more than $250 for those who want to claim a charitable income tax deduction, but the receipt can be paper or electronic.)
Chestnut Hill Meeting's annual art show will be up on Sunday, February 14. We are accepting your creative endeavors on Friday, February 12, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm, and again on Saturday, February 13, from 9:30 till noon. We encourage people in the meeting who have children or work with them in First Day School to solicit contributions from the children in our meeting. Also, we hope that members of the meeting community will contribute works by family members. Refer your questions to Roberta Foss.
(The painting shown here is an original Roberta Foss, now in the collection of Ann and Philip Jones of Abington, PA. It may have appeared in a CHFM art show in years past, or maybe not.)
On Saturday, March 6, from 9am to 3pm, Harry and Lois Forrest will return to CHFM to lead this “Inreach” workshop for the meeting. Exercises will involve speaking and listening to each other about our experience with Quaker faith and practice. “Quaker Quest is a new approach to outreach and inreach. It affirms the Quaker way as a spiritual path for today – simple, vibrant and contemporary. By offering outreach sessions about Quaker worship and witness to those unfamiliar with Quakerism, it deepens the faith and understanding of those Friends involved.
Come experience this unique program that has deepened understanding and connection in meetings and that has attracted seekers from outside who did not know about Quakerism. To make your reservation, call the meeting office at 215-247-3553 and indicate if you will need childcare. Lunch will be provided by the Adult RE Committee.
At the end of 2009, Chestnut Hill Meeting had 208 members. There were seven new adult members and four new associate members. The adults are Edward Sargent, Wilson Felter, David Watt, Robert Fudge, Steven (Stevik) Kretzmann, Sarah Sharp and Irene McHenry. The four associate members (children) were Maceo Kietzman, and Joshua, Darcy and Casey Felter. Welcome to you all!
There were two deaths: Richard Stine and John Yarnall. Melissa Elliott transferred her membership to Germantown Monthly Meeting.
Roberta Foss, recorder
A rug that once belonged to Trude Fuchs has become a long term resident of the left closet in the Gathering Room. It was in the tag sale last spring; if purchased, it was forgotten. It is about 5' x 8', wool, has a Pottery Barn label, is clean and wrapped in brown paper. I would suggest $25 or more payable to the Peace and Social Concerns Committee.
Sue Betts
Chestnut Hill Friends participated in the annual MLK Day of Service at the Quaker site in North Philadelphia. Christine Oliger, Sam Davis and mom Lisa Griffin, Lily Basgall and mom, Betsy Robertson joined other volunteers sent by Greater Philly Cares to clean up the five-acre historic site as well as the street and adjacent lots. After the clean up, the crew roasted marshmallows over the fire and drank hot chocolate. Volunteers are always needed for school tours, children’s gardening, and summer program. To learn how to get involved, contact Fair Hill.
Click the picture to see a full-size version in a new window.
On January 23, about 35 Friends watched the film Traces of the Trade at an event sponsored jointly by Chestnut Hill and Central Philadelphia Monthly Meetings. In the discussion that followed, it was clear that many people were moved by the film, which follows descendants of the largest slave-trading family in the United States as they grapple with the history of slavery. For those who missed it, the film will be shown again at Greene Street Meeting on Saturday, February 13 at 7pm.
We raised a total of $4,639 for our 2009 Heifer fundraising effort. Many, many thanks to all who contributed and participated!
Sarah Whitman
Our own Sarah Whitman will be giving a lecture at Pendle Hillon Tuesday, February 9 at 7:30 pm. The title is: OUCH! How 3 Religions View Pain and Suffering. She'll be looking at Hinduism, Judaism and Quakerism. Click to see more information. This is part of a series on spirituality and mental health. The other three lectures are about mindfulness, Quaker parenting, and spirituality and psychotherapy.
NIM is co-spo
nsoring The Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream symposium, a multimedia, interactive tool that reveals to people what is happening environmentally on the earth today and how their personal passion can play a significant role or contribution to making a difference. We explore 4 questions: Where are we? How did we get here? What’s possible? (and, what is already happening around the world) and Where do we go from here?
What’s different about this workshop is that we dig down to the real, interconnected roots of the environmental, social justice and spiritual challenges, both on a personal and cultural basis. Then, we encourage everyone to shift to a whole new frame of reference – to see new solutions, from clean tech and eco-arts to local food and green collar jobs. Many people have said that the symposium was a life changing experience.
Accompany us as we foster the development of the larger beloved community seeking to create a world that is socially just, environmentally sustainable and spiritually fulfilling. You can learn more by going to this website
The symposium will take place at First United Methodist Church of Germantown, 6001 Germantown Avenue, on February 28, 2010. Registration opens at 1:15pm; the program runs from 1:30pm to 5:30pm. There is no fee; a $10 voluntary contribution to cover expenses is welcome but not necessary. Refreshments will be served.
On Thursday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m., CARE will bring the best-selling book Half the Sky to life on screen for a special one-night-only event in movie theaters nationwide. Visit the HalfTheSky web site for more information and to purchase tickets starting February 5.
Inspired by moving stories from the critically-acclaimed book Half the Sky by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky LIVE will feature an uplifting night of music, celebrity discussion and the world premiere of Woineshet, a powerful short film directed by Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei and Lisa Leone that chronicles the struggles of an Ethiopian woman who triumphs over violence and discrimination.
Half the Sky LIVE will feature appearances by Marisa Tomei, Michael Franti, Angelique Kidjo, Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Dr. Helene Gayle, and other celebrities and political figures. Approximately 30 percent of ticket sales will support CARE’s work in more than 70 countries. Half the Sky LIVE will be featured in more than 190 theatres in the U.S. and Canada on Thursday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. in all time zones, with ticket prices ranging from $10-$12. Click for details, theatre listings, and to purchase tickets today.
Please save the evening of March 6 for a Brazilian Dance Party fundraiser for Christine Oliger at 7165 Germantown Avenue (formerly North-by-Northwest) in Mount Airy. This event will be produced by Friends of Christine.
Project Brasil Dance Band, featuring Anne Simoni, will make you want to dançar samba and shake the winter blahs. Fabulous fun, rum punch, snacks and dance lessons. You may reserve your space at the Brazilian Dance Party for Christine by making a donation of at least $20/person to “Christine Oliger Trust,” c/o Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, 100 East Mermaid Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118.
Christine Oliger is looking for another aide or two. “My main aide extraordinaire Amanda Hoffman was found through Friends, so I am hoping you can do it again. I have followed up on everyone mentioned to me in September, but hope that you might know someone new now.
“In general the position will work from 3:30 pm to 6 pm on M-Th and from 7:30 am to 5 pm on Fridays. As things change with me, the time will increase. Most of the work is housekeeping (vacuuming, cleaning, and running laundry); I need help bathing and dressing. No medical care is required and no special skills are involved. We can train people in what to do.
“If you are not allergic to cats, are reliable and are able to call if you are running late we would love to hear from you. Please contact me at 215-247-3527. If you would like to talk with Amanda you can contact her at quiltyoga@gmail.com.”
Can you help new member Sarah Sharp by providing lodging for guests at her daughter's wedding in August? Jesse's fiancé is from London, and Sarah expects from five to seven people (males and females, in their early to mid-30s) to be here for perhaps 7 to 10 days around the actual wedding date of Saturday, August 14. Sarah thinks they might be able to pay something, though preferably not hotel rates. Hosts would not be expected to provide transportation; proximity to public transportation would be a great help. If hosts could provide simple breakfasts, that too would be helpful. Let Sarah know if you can help.
Are you un- or under-employed and feeling the pinch? You’re not alone! Join us for a day-long conference on Saturday, March 6, for unemployed Friends and attenders and members of meeting committees, such as Care & Counsel, who are concerned with unemployment among Friends. Burlington (NJ) Conference Center is the site.
Click for the registration form and more info on the PYM website. There is a small charge. Chestnut Hill members and attenders, contact mitchellmar@rcn.com 215 884-9128 or anyone on Care and Counsel by February 25 if you would like a scholarship. We also have a few seats if you need a ride. (Yes, we know: it's the same day as Quaker Quest at CHFM.)
In the last year or so, members of the Chestnut Hill Meeting community have had articles in Friends Journal. Most recent was last month's piece by John Gallery, “At the Movies: Reflections on the Testimony of Honesty/Integrity”, but in November, 2009, Hollister Knowlton's article “Living in Right Relationship: How Does Spirit Call Us?” appeared. She had another in October 2008. A few articles are available online (on a very nicely designed web site), and you can find out more about subscribing, to either the online or the paper version, by going to this web site.
Pete Borowiec cited this passage in a recent message in meeting for worship:
“Perhaps I converted to the Greek Orthodox Church (rather than simply abandoning religious faith) because spirituality is a way to connect with people and might even be a part of a journey toward God. (If there is a God.) According to Jesus, community is spirituality: 'Love one another.' ”
Crazy For God by Frank Schaeffer
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