On Sunday December 7th, Friends gathered at Pendle Hill, a Quaker conference center in nearby Wallingford, in order to focus on Mindfulness. Our retreat was attended by 41 Friends, approximately a dozen of whom were children. The retreat was facilitated by Gloria Shepard, for the adults, and by Madeline Schaeffer and Marissa Donohue, for the children. We learned techniques for quieting the mind, and for meditation, both sitting and walking. We approached the subject with a “beginner’s mind.” We enjoyed fellowship and lunch served by the wonderfully accommodating Pendle Hill staff. All in all, the day was a valuable experience for all who attended. Late breaking news is that Overseers and Worship & Ministry are planning to have a refresher session probably in April — we’ll keep you posted!
Sept 21: Fall Harvest: Social and Forum
On September 21, please join us at 10:00 for a Fall Forum discussion led by Bruce Livingston, and Ken Snyder, both long time members of the meeting and avid gardeners. Gardening will be the general topic, but the details will be a surprise to us, and possibly to them as well.
After Meeting for Worship, celebrate the end of the summer, the beginning of fall, and the rich bounty from the garden by joining us for our annual harvest luncheon, hosted by Old Haverford Community Gardeners. Share in the delicious feast, catch up with friends, and admire our freshly painted middle room.
Forum is at 10:00, Meeting for Worship is at 11:00, and our harvest feast is at noon. Don’t miss it.
Lyn Back
Lynback58@yahoo.com
June 29th, Don Davis, Archivist from AFSC
On Sunday, June 29th, Don Davis, the archivist at the American Friends Service Committee will lead our discussion. Don has been at AFSC since 2006, and had over twenty experience working in various archives. He says his love of history, especially the lesser known facts behind big events and movements keeps him interested. Don will be telling and and showing some of those lesser known (but no less important) stories from AFSC’s closet, after almost 100 years of history.
See you on Sunday.
June 22: FCNL, Friends’ Faithful Lobby
Joan Broadfield will be facilitating discussion at Old Haverford Forum this Sunday, June 22rd, at 10:00. The second speaker in our June forum series, Joan who is the PYM representative to Friends Council on National Legislation (FCNL) will talk about the organization that brings Friends’ concerns to Capitol Hill.
Please join us for an update on the important work that Friends are doing in Washington DC and how we can get involved.
June 15 Forum: “Sharing Our Spiritual Journey”
Barry Crosmo, General Secretary of Friends General Conference, will be our guest speaker. Barry is a member of Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia. Join us for an interesting and lively discussion.
OHFM at Haverford Heritage Festival
Old Haverford Friends gathered for outreach at our tent along Karakung Drive for the Haverford Township Heritage Festival on June 1st.
Since the Meeting was founded in 1683, and the Meetinghouse dates back to about 1700, the festival featured an image of the meetinghouse on one of the glasses they were using to serve craft beer.
Photo credit: Matt Carlson (Thanks Matt!)
March 30th, Mike Brenner: A New Look at the Human Tragedy
On Sunday, March 30th, at 10:00, Mike Brenner will lead a discussion that focuses on tales from ancient Mesopotamia as ways to understand the sources of self destruction in our human condition.
Mike has been attending Old Haverford Meeting for several months. He has no prior Quaker affiliation. Trained and fully credentialed in Architecture, Medicine and Psychiatry, Mike works privately with people in an educational model, with a spiritual orientation.
Mike is writing a book, “Once Upon a Time. . .Using Our Oldest Tales to Free Ourselves” which re-tells ancient stories from Mesopotamia, not as pure myth, but as essentially factual accounts in poetic language. The stories, according to Mike, illuminate the source of all the means of self-destruction we engage in …and a possible way out of the tragic human condition.
Come and learn more about Mike’s explorations and discoveries in this fascinating forum.
“The Last Runaway,” Book Club Forum April 6th
On Sunday, April 6th at 10:00, members of Old Haverford Meeting’s Worship and Ministry Committee will lead a discussion of Trace Chevalier’s “The Last Runaway.”
Honor Bright, the main character, is a Quaker who leaves England for America. She lands in Ohio in 1850 and inadvertently gets involved with the Underground Railroad. It is a story about faith, love, family, friendship, conviction, and forging one’s individual path, often independently from family and community.
Please read the book so you can join the discussion. If you don’t want to buy it you may be able to get it from the library, or there will be a few copies available in the Meetinghouse to sign out. Ask Jana Llewellyn at
- janallewellyn [at] yahoo.com
for more details.
See you on April 6th at 10:00 at Old Haverford Friend Meeting. Forum will be followed by Meeting for Worship at 11:00.
Sunday Forum: “Spices Matrix” March 2, 2014
Book Club & Discussion
On behalf of Worship and Ministry, this is just a quick announcement to let you know that we’ll be reconvening our book club discussion in late March or early April during forum. (The specific date to be announced soon.)
Last summer, we read Mark Sundeen’s nonfiction book, The Man Who Quit Money.
This time around, we’ll be reading a novel, Trace Chevalier’s The Last Runaway. Honor Bright, the main character, is a Quaker who gets involved with the Underground Railroad.
Here’s a description from Goodreads:
In New York Times bestselling author Tracy Chevalier’s newest historical saga, she introduces Honor Bright, a modest English Quaker who moves to Ohio in 1850, only to find herself alienated and alone in a strange land. Sick from the moment she leaves England, and fleeing personal disappointment, she is forced by family tragedy to rely on strangers in a harsh, unfamiliar landscape.Nineteenth-century America is practical, precarious, and unsentimental, and scarred by the continuing injustice of slavery. In her new home Honor discovers that principles count for little, even within a religious community meant to be committed to human equality.
However, drawn into the clandestine activities of the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves escape to freedom, Honor befriends two surprising women who embody the remarkable power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too can act on what she believes in, whatever the personal costs.A powerful journey brimming with color and drama, The Last Runaway is Tracy Chevalier’s vivid engagement with an iconic part of American history.
You may purchase the book from a bookstore or online retailer, get it from the library, or we will have a few copies available in the meetinghouse to sign out. A few of us also have copies we can loan.