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

Interchange, News

Interchange – Fall 2010

These last months have been busy! Hosting Interim Meeting in March tested our stamina and organizational skills. Under the expert guidance of our “detail-oriented” event coordinator, Douglas Perkins, rooms for committees were arranged, Business Meeting went off without a hitch, and we served lunch to 100 Friends! A baked potato bar, chili and apples were the main event for our healthy lunch, and abundant cakes and brownies made for decadent desserts.

We hosted Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting on September 12, again putting our organizational skills to the test. Our events planner Doug Perkins again came in handy. The afternoon interest session, designed by our Mental Health Ministry, focused on Quakerism and mental health. Historically, Friends have been in the forefront of reforming prisons and mental health hospitals. The need is still great. Where do we stand now?

Continue reading Interchange – Fall 2010 →

South Mountain

Spiritual State of the Meeting – South Mountain 2009

On February 1, 2009, South Mountain Friends Fellowship, in Maryland Correctional Institution, Hagerstown, celebrated its fifth year of meeting as a worship group. South Mountain Friends Fellowship began as a conversation between two inmates, Richard and Joe, about their experiences with Quakers at Patuxent Institution. In the spring of 2003, Richard contacted Patapsco Friends to request that a meeting be started at MCI-H. Susan Rose, member of Ministry and Oversight, took the request to her heart and it became her leading to bring Friends together at MCI-H each week in silent worship. Silent worship began in the prison in 2005, with two Patapsco Friends traveling to Hagerstown each Saturday morning. Susan Rose was often one of the two.

Susan Rose’s passing on April 1, 2009, led to a heartfelt sadness in our Fellowship. She will be missed for her constant support and love, wisdom of her years and depth of spirit. Our grief led us to write remembrances of her which became a summer 2009 issue of Patapsco Meeting’s journal, “Quaker Heron.”

A lengthy lock-down in July canceled several weeks of meetings. Lock-downs and other prison events continue to occasionally prevent our Saturday morning meetings. We continue to meet each Saturday morning at 9:30, meeting with one Patapsco Friend each week. One member of Herndon Meeting has also attended South Mountain Friends on occasion. Our Meetings begin with silent worship, then “rounds,” when each attender gives a short report on personal and prison events in the past week. A discussion of a topic of interest follows. In the fall, we began to read the 1988 Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice as our curriculum.

South Mountain Friends Fellowship looks to a future of weekly meetings, and welcomes others in Baltimore Yearly Meeting to join us.