October 21, 2007, 8:30 AM
Westtown Meeting House

Friends to hold in the Light.

Announcements:

• Check the black notebook and the website for ongoing updates and announcements of events.
• November 10, 2007 Friends Historical Society will hold its annual meeting at Arch Street Meeting House. The lecture topic will be “Quaker Origins of Anti-Slavery.”
• The Hickman is requesting help with its clean-up on November 17, 2007.
• Pendle Hill has recently published Margery Larabee’s latest pamphlet “Spirit Led Eldering.” Margery will lead a workshop there on the topic March 7-9, 2007.

Correspondence:

• The Clerk has received letters from Cheryl and Elson Oshman-Blunt requesting membership at Westtown Monthly Meeting. (They are not at this time requesting membership for their daughter, Karah). Marc or Marion Dear, Rebecca Mays, and Mitch Beaver will serve as a membership clearness committee
• The Clerk has received a letter from Sarah Jane, Michael, and James Duffy requesting membership at Westtown Monthly Meeting. Peter Lane, Tom and Margaret Haviland and Kevin Gallagher will serve as a membership clearness committee.
• The Clerk has received a letter from Deb Wood requesting a clearness committee work with her on her desire to attend a Friends Work Camp in central Africa. (The African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams). A clearness committee is a part of the application and discernment process. Marc or Marion Dear, Laurie Worth, and Kevin Gallagher will serve as a clearness committee.

Old Business:

Report of Worship and Ministry:

• The committee has spent two months discussing adult spiritual formation and education. Various ideas have come forward.
  • One that seems to be receiving the most traction is to use the gifts of our own membership. One such opportunity would be a session or series led by Anne Wood on the Gospel of John. Another opportunity would be a session or series led by Aminda Baird on nutritional counseling work in conjunction with environmental issues.
  • Another idea would be to foster opportunities for us to get to know each other better through small group discussions in which to share our spiritual journeys
  • Another idea is for regular seasonal events with a few members sharing on a topic followed by a regular meal.
• Marsha Praeger will come to share with us on the topic of “Prayer from a Jewish Perspective.”
• The Committee is very sensitive to time concerns and responsibilities in and out of the Meeting. Idea would possible be to extend program beyond “work” day with a meal and time to connect with people’s lives. Maybe plan out a whole day then people choose all or part of the planned day to allow those to pick a part or all. Conversation followed those ideas. The committee will take these thoughts back to the committee for further discussion.

Peace and Social Justice Committee Report:

• The first gathering, to discuss Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle at the Huberty’s home, had about 11 people. The committee may look at another book for discussion.
• The “Eyes Wide Open Project” is a responsibility of the school! And will be available for members to view from November 5-November 9.
• On October 25th at 7PM the committee will show HBO’s film “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib” in the Science lecture Hall. Ask those for a report from those who attend at the November Business Meeting. This will help inform our discussion about a possible minute concerning torture. FCNL is requesting Quakers to send letters to our Senators opposing the use of “torture.”
  

Treasurer’s Report:

• Appeal letters will go out tomorrow by mail or handed out in person at the rise of Meeting today.

Other:

• The visit of Second Presbyterian Church on September 23rd provided us with wonderful music and the discussion with our guests at the rise of Meeting was very interesting. Topics included racism and involvement and non-involvement. Lunch was provided by our children.

New Business:

• Evaluation of the Advent Garden:
  • December 2006 was the third year of this and we need to evaluate. Many have expressed interest in continuing. The date for this year is December 9 from 4-6 PM for children 12 and under. 12 and over can come from 6:30-8PM including students from the school. Clean up will be Monday December 10 at 7AM!
• Lights out in the Meeting House:
  • the School’s student run, Earth Service Committee had requested that the lights remain off during Meeting for Worship on Sunday and Thursday. This is now happening. Maybe this should be weather dependent. On Cloudy days, the Meeting room is just gloomy even murky! Kevin with talk about this with John Baird.
• Spiritual Effects of our restructuring:
  • So far we have looked at First Day School and there is great excitement about this. We will take a more in depth discussion on what was our purpose in restructuring, where are we on and off target. Discussion to begin in November.
• Cleaning of bookshelves in the social room:
  • The day care is asking for help with the cleaning of the bookshelves. Lucille K. will look into this. A few members have volunteered to help.
• Peace Vigils at Courthouse:
  • 150 attended this past Saturday. This is becoming a strong visible presence of peace groups in Chester County. A counter demonstration is now present. We are asked to support the efforts of this group.
• Mitch Beaver:
• In needing to make more space there is a request to either move the orange molded chairs to the back dug out space or get rid of them. We will keep 6 and recycle the rest.

After a period of Worship we adjourned until our next meeting on the third Sunday of November, 2007.

Respectfully,

Laurie Worth for Margaret Haviland
Recording Clerk