All posts by Ken Stockbridge

Advancement & Outreach, News

Quaker Quest Full-Day Workshop at Patapsco on 4/9

For our Meeting’s annual retreat, this year we will be doing the full day Quaker Quest workshop at Hebron House on Saturday, April 9, from 9am – 5pm (breakfast at 8am).  Trainers from Friends General Conference (FGC) will facilitate. In accordance with Quaker Quest guidelines, we’d be happy to welcome up to two participants each from other Meetings who may want to learn more about Quaker Quest.

Quaker Quest is a dynamic and transformative inreach and outreach process based on the experience that the Quaker way is a spiritual path for our time that is simple, radical, and contemporary. That process often leads to holding a series of public sessions to share the Quaker way with the broader community.  Still, Quaker Quest is much more than the public sessions: it is an experience that the whole meeting shares over many months.

While the workshop focuses on Quaker Quest, it explores outreach more broadly and  deepens the community in the process.  The workshop is intended to:

  • Build community.
  • Have folks get to know each other more deeply.
  • Consider what it is like to be a newcomer and how to include newcomers into the fabric of the community.
  • Share what Quaker Quest is all about.
  • Share what is involved in holding public sessions.
  • Everyone from the meeting is invited to, and hopefully will, attend.
  • Invite active older high school students or college students.
  • The workshop is valuable whether or not the meeting later discerns to do the public sessions.

For more information about Quaker Quest and the workshop, see FGC’s Quaker Quest website (from which this information is drawn).  If you’d like to join us for this workshop, please let us know using use our contact form.

South Mountain

Spiritual State of the Meeting – South Mountain 2010

The first Meeting for Quaker Worship and Fellowship at what is now known as South Mountain Friends Fellowship was on New Years Day, 2005. (January 1, 2005). The year 2009 through 2010 marks the 5th consecutive year that a Meeting for Quaker Worship has been made possible with the commitment and spiritual guidance of Patapsco Friends Meeting (Care and Ministry Committee). On February 19, 2011, our 6th annual celebration was held at the prison. Sustaining what has become an annual event, Friends from Patapsco Meeting, and Deer Creek Meeting traveled to Hagerstown to meet with those Friends and attenders of SMFF who are incarcerated at the prison. With an opening round of welcoming remarks and introductions a period of silent worship followed. A group discussion on Quaker beliefs and practice gave way to individual reflections. Light refreshments were available prior to a chorus of singing and rejoicing until the alloted time set by the prison officials brought the celebration to a close.

During this past year (2009 – 2010), a number of Quaker traditions, activities and interests are noteworthy. A revised Draft of the Faith and Practice manual was published and South Mountain Friends Fellowship engaged in the review of the 2010 Draft edition. As with the previous draft, SMFF gave particular attention to the Quaker Testimonies and Advises, generating additional reviews in the subsequent weekly meetings.

Midway through the preceding year a number of Friends and Attenders from South Mountain Friends Fellowship submitted personal essays of their spiritual journeys to Patapsco Friends Meeting for publication in the Quaker Heron (July 2010).

Friends and Attenders imprisoned at the Maryland Correctional Institution of Hagerstown discussed among themselves the possibility of forming an official Meeting at MCIH. After additional discussion in Quaker fashion it was agreed upon that it was not advisable to proceed with that particular leading. Correspondence was written and delivered to Patapsco Meeting informing the Care & Ministry Committee that South Mountain Friends Fellowship would rather stay under the spiritual guidance of Patapsco Friends Meeting. Soon afterward the 2010 Draft of the Faith and Practice was available to the group. The proposed Draft of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends now contains relevant information pertaining to a much more logical transition from a Friends Worship group, to a Preparative group, and then on to a New Monthly Meeting. These newly included Advises, as clarified, have certainly proven to be both informative and beneficial to those Friends and Attenders at South Mountain Friends Fellowship as we continue to learn more about Quaker traditions.

During this past year Patapsco Friends and those at South Mountain Friends Fellowship have also developed a Pen-Pal writing program that has enabled a number of participants to correspond in a manner that might not have been available otherwise.

And so with the conclusion of another year and as South Mountain Friends Fellowship enters into our sixth year of existence, we find ourselves being very appreciative of the support given by the gracious Friends from the Patapsco Meeting in Ellicott City, MD. South Mountain Friends Fellowship continues as a spirit filled atmosphere of peace and tranquility, even in this Maryland State Prison environment where few expected to experience the Inner Light and Spirit as Quakers do. The following excerpt can easily identify the spiritual journey and learning process that this past year has given to many of us:

The belief that there is “that of God in each person” is the foundation of the Quaker approach to education. Education cultivates the fullness of the human spirit through both openness and discipline. We are open to knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that comes from history, from our own life experience of God, and from the works and lives of others. We recognize all of life as an educational enterprise, that we are all teachers, as well as learners.

Northern Yearly Meeting (date unknown)
2010 Draft copy Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. P.42.

On Behalf of South Mountain Friends Fellowship,

Peace.
Clerk, Pro tempore

Interchange, News

Interchange – Winter 2011

For our Meeting’s annual retreat, this year we will be doing the full day Quaker Quest workshop at Hebron House on Saturday, April 9, from 9am – 5pm. Trainers from Friends General Conference (FGC) will facilitate. In accordance with Quaker Quest guidelines, we’d be happy to welcome up to two participants each from other Meetings who may want to learn more about Quaker Quest.

Quaker Quest is a dynamic and transformative inreach and outreach process based on the experience that the Quaker way is a spiritual path for our time that is simple, radical, and contemporary. That process often leads to holding a series of public sessions to share the Quaker way with the broader community. Still, Quaker Quest is much more than the public sessions: it is an experience that the whole meeting shares over many months. While the workshop focuses on Quaker Quest, it explores outreach more broadly and deepens the community in the process. For more information, see https://patapscofriends.com///?p=226.

This past fall, we undertook two activities for the benefit of the Elkridge Food Pantry. On October 31, we had another “Cooking- for-Peace” workshop, which was publicized in the community and included a presentation about the Food Pantry and a class on how to prepare raw vegan foods. Donations collected were given to the pantry. Then, in December, we prepared a home-cooked vegetar- ian meal for 50 that was served by the pantry. The various dishes were prepared in various Friends’ homes and then delivered to the pantry to be served. It was a joint effort that provided a warm sense of unity, purpose and Friendship.

Finances, Process and Policies

Guidelines for Scholarships (2/2011)

From the minutes of the meeting for worship with a concern for business, 2/6/2011, the revision below to the guidelines for scholarships was approved.  The guidelines were originally approved on 7/3/2005 as part of the Policy on Expenditures.  Additional discussion on these guidelines for scholarships appears in the minutes from 1/2006, 3/2006, 7/2006, 9/2006, and 1/2007.  On 9/3/2006, the business meeting approved a budget process for the developing the scholarship budget.

Guidelines for Scholarships

While scholarships/grants may be given for a variety of events, not all of which may by known or anticipated, specific guidelines are given for those which occur most often.

Those members or committed attenders who plan to attend BYM events (examples: annual session, the Women’s Retreat or one of the summer camps); or broader Quaker events such as FGC or Pendle Hill would qualify for a grant, as follows:

  • The cost of one week of camp per child
  • The cost for two nights at the annual session
  • 25% of a BYM sponsored event (other than camp, covered above)
  • 25% of FGC Annual Gathering (at the lower end of living arrangements, such as camping or cooperative dining)
  • 25% of the Pendle Hill cost

People needing more than the above amounts should not hesitate to request more for consideration. People are also encouraged to ask for scholarships from the sponsoring organizations of the various events.

Approved, 7/3/2005
Revised, 2/6/2011