From Worship and Ministry

The Resurrection

Matthew 28 1:10

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Commentary:

The Risen Christ

The Gospel concludes with the resurrection and the commissioning of the disciples. The gospel is good news because it doesn't end with the cross; following Jesus demands from us all that we are and have, but it gives us a new and eternal life in return.

The Report of the Women

God Often Sends His Message through the Least (28:1) Jesus' Jewish contemporaries held little esteem for the testimony of women. This reflects the broader Mediterranean culture's limited trust of women's testimony, a mistrust enshrined in Roman law. By contrast, the guards' report that the disciples had stolen the body (Mt 28:11-15) would command much greater respect then, as well as in an anti-supernaturalistic culture like much of modern academia.

Matthew lays these two reports, the true and the false, side by side, forcing his audience to declare their choice. The testimony of the women thus becomes a model for the disciples who will follow them (28:16-20).

Source: Bible Gateway.com

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Upcoming Events

March 14 – Healing in Kenya, will be the topic of a discussion by David Zarembka, coordinator of the African Great Lakes Initiative of Friends Peace Teams. The talk will be held at 7 p.m. at Haddonfield Monthly Meeting. Please come hear him speak about the peace and healing tools we have, and how he and others are striving to find what we need for reconciliation and rebuilding. Light refreshments will be served. Sponsored by Friends Peace Teams, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and the Peace and Social Concerns Committee at Haddonfield Monthly Meeting. For more information call Kitty Mizuno: (856)786-0809.

March 19 – Quakerism 101 Course begins. Connie and Bob Brookes will teach the five-week course that provides an overview of the beliefs and history of the Religious Society of Friends. Attenders and Members who have taken the course have enjoyed and benefited from it. The class will meet for five consecutive Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Haddonfield Monthly Meeting house. A make-up class will be held, if necessary, on April 23. Please register with Connie and Bob as soon as possible.  They will purchase your materials and you will reimburse them. Materials will cost about $12. Registration forms will be at the Meeting House.

March 20 – Peace Prayers’ Gathering at Haddonfield Monthly Meetinghouse. Friends are invited to join in a meditation for world peace.  A few minutes at the beginning of the session will be devoted to discovering a mental image that is meaningful to all participants.  There will be a forty-minute meditation on this image, a time for sharing and a closing meditation. The event, sponsored by Faith and Ministry, runs from 7 to 8:30 pm.  For more information e-mail PeacePartners@verizon.net or call Judy Barnes at (856) 287-9472.

April 25-26 – In Search of a Homeland, an ecumenical conference about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will feature presentations on the history and root causes of the situation as well as the current realities and hopes for peace. The two-day event, to be held at Villanova University in Philadelphia, will include discussions, workshops, a film screening and an art exhibit. Speakers will include Rev. Naim Ateek, director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, Jeff Halper, Coordinator of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and John Hubers, Former Middle East Director, Reformed Church of America, as well as HMM Member Leila Barclay. Registration is $65 for one day or $95 for the entire conference. Students pay $35. Register online at www.FOSNA.org or contact David Yeaworth at (610) 526-2776

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Haddonfield Monthly Meeting

Meeting for Worship for Business

Feb. 9

29 Friends were in attendance.

The meeting began with a period of worship. The Clerk read Query #6: Equality from Faith & Practice p. 210.

The Clerk reported for Care Committee that the request for membership from Patience Dodgeson will be held until a visiting committee can be selected at the next Committee meeting on Feb. 11.

The Clerk reported that Bob Brookes has placed in the office five binders of Meeting for Business Minutes and most of the attachments spanning his tenure as Monthly Meeting Clerk from 2002 through 2006. Bob will retain in his possession electronic copies only. Archived Monthly Meeting Newsletters containing minutes going back to Third Month 2000 are archived at the Haddonfield Monthly Meeting page on www.pym.org.

Jayne Stokes presented the Library Committee annual report.

Highlights of the year were a book sale during the March covered dish lunch and a two-session book discussion for First Day School. The book sale raised $82.00 which will be used to buy new books for the Library. The Meeting accepted the report with thanks and expressed its gratitude to the Committee for the work it’s done over the last year.

Deb Whiting presented the annual report for the Children’s Inclusion Committee. The “Simple Gifts” Christmas event, organized by the committee and assisted by several other members of Meeting, was extremely well-received by children and adults alike. The Committee hopes to retain the first Sunday in December for Simple Gifts in the future.

We are blessed with a large number of children attending on Sundays, However, the wide range in ages - from 1 to 8 years old – of children in childcare during Meeting for Worship, has presented the sitters with some problems. The one-year-old and the older children routinely require individual, focused attention. The two high school student sitters, while dependable and resourceful, need some assistance. Several possble solutions were discussed. We were not able to come to a resolution.

The Meeting accepted the report with thanks and expressed thanks for the work the committee has accomplished over the past year.

Connie Brookes presented a report on the Meeting’s accounts with Friends Fiduciary Consolidated Fund, including an explanation of each of the Funds and a complete financial report.

The Clerk received a request from Finance Committee, as follows: “The Finance Committee proposes that the Meeting select an ad hoc committee to review our tuition policy. Any changes would not be effective until academic year 2009-2010. Our concern is that the Meeting not undertake an open-ended obligation which depends on the number of children attending HFS. We also need to ensure that there are adequate standards to ensure that tuition aid only goes to members who actively participate in our community. One member of the ad hoc committee should be from Finance Committee, but others might come from Care Committee and School Committee.”

The Meeting approved this proposal, directing the Clerk of Finance Committee to convene the ad hoc committee. Finance, School and Care Committees are each to select one or two representatives to serve on the ad hoc committee for a maximum of six. The ad hoc committee is to accept volunteers from the Meeting at Large.

Presentation of the Friends School budget for school year 2008-2009 is postponed until March Meeting for Business.

At the January Meeting for Business, Lou Tomasetti, Clerk of Property Committee, distributed to those Friends present, a report on multiple problems with the Meeting’s heating system, with a badly cluttered garage and with the water delivery system from the street to the Meeting House. In February, Lou brought us up to date on recent developments. The Meeting approved repairs to the heating system; Lou has begun to clean out the garage, himself; Bob Brookes and Hiltrude Dodge volunteered to clean the office; the water delivery system is currently under control. In response to two new issues, Property Committee will plan out the parking lot and bring a plan to Meeting; Lou was advised to consult the Haddonfield police as to what to do about non-authorized parking in our parking lot. Friends accepted the Property Committee report with thanks to Lou and deep appreciation for his dedication to detecting and fixing the many problems of our Meeting House and grounds.

The meeting concluded with a period of silent worship.

Respectfully submitted,

Joanne R. Heizer, Recording Clerk

Friends and regular attenders may request copies of the complete minutes from the Recording Clerk at Joanne@synchcorp.com or (856) 429-9186.

Religious Education

The Religious Education Committee has announced the following upcoming classes:

March 2: Learn about “Strengthening Our Meeting Community,” a two-year project that HMM will complete with PYM. The project follows a self-assessment HMM members and attenders conducted last year of the ways in which we want to support and transform our meeting. Meet our PYM facilitator, and our “delegates” to the four weekend retreats.  Be part of our transformation!

March 9:  Meeting for Worship for Business

March 16:  Haddonfield Monthly Meeting's  response to issues of racial justice and equality through its history. Part III: Focus on what we are doing today. .

March 23:  Program planned by Worship and Ministry

March 28-29:  Annual Sessions of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting at the meeting house at 4th and Arch Streets, Philadelphia.

April 6:  A program on Catholicism and Quakerism, led by some of our members who were raised in the Catholic Church, to consider what our community gains from this influence.
April   13:  Meeting for Worship for Business
April 20:  TBA by Worship and Ministry
April 27:  Program on internalized oppression to be presented by Inspira Williams.

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College Loans for Quaker Students

Zero percent interest college loans are available for Quaker students who are members of children of members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The Mary Jeanes Loan Fund and Anne Townsend Grant Fund are now taking applications from members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for post-secondary financial aid for the 2008-09 school year. Loans average about $1,000 per academic year.

May 1 is the deadline for applications. For more information, or to request an application, please contact the Education Programs Office at PYM: (800)220-0796 Ext. 7223 or elkem@pym.org. Please visit: http://www.pym.org/education, and click on “Financial Aid.”

Newsletter Reminder

Friends, if you received this newsletter by "snail-mail," and thought you had asked Deedy Roberts to send it to you on-line: apologies.  Some people were forgotten, but it is still easy to request an e-letter. Just write deedyroberts@yahoo.com and request your next issue on-line.  We are already saving our Friends Meeting a pretty penny by this decision.

China Summer Work Camp

Applications are being accepted for this year's Work Camp, to be held in China from July 27 to Aug. 21. The program begins in Shanghai, one of the most developed cities in the world, for a few days of sightseeing. Participants will then travel to Hunan province in rural central China, a beautiful and remote area. For three weeks, participants will join Chinese, Korean and Japanese volunteers in teaching English and environmental studies to local children. There will be regular days off for participants to explore a nearby city, visit the families of students, go on hikes, and shop at a local market. For more information or to download an application, due by March 15, visit http://www.pym.org/workcamp/China/china.htm   Contact Anne Triest, Program Coordinator, at chinaworkcamp@gmail.com or (617) 504-3103.The program is co-sponsored by American Friends Service Committee, PYM, and Westfield Monthly Meeting.

Donations Aid Needy Students

Teach for America (www.teachforamerica.org) is a non-profit organization that aids education of the poor. It chooses talented college graduates to teach in urban and rural schools, after a period of rigorous training. The schools to which these people go are woefully short of supplies, which the teachers combat by asking friends for help. They also get aid from Donorschoose (www.donorschoose.org), a charity set up by alumni of the program. Teachers seek support for activities they want to initiate, which appear on the web site. Any donor can choose any proposal to support, in full or in part. Friends may wish to support this educational effort.

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A Ray of Light by David Austin

(Witnessed one morning at an average suburban middle school):

B” stands at her locker just before lunch.  After four consecutive academic periods, the adolescents have been released to go to recess.  It is a beautiful, warm, spring-like September day outside.  The hallways are now flooded with teenagers, along their noise and their pheromones.  The lovely chaos that is ”middle school.”

B, however, is unhappy.

B is mildly autistic.  She has what’s called Asperger’s Syndrome.  She is “fine” most of the time, looking and acting for the most part like a normal teenager, whatever that means.  She comes off to the other kids as being a bit shy, a bit “un-(not anti-)social,” what we used to call “bookish.”  Into her own world.  She does smile, does laugh at a (certain) teacher’s jokes, and sometimes even raises her hand in class.  She works very hard.  She loves to write. Sometimes, however, she’s just there.  And sometimes - rarely, but it happens -  she totally stresses out.  A shake-up in the normal routine, too much aural or visual stimulation, a too-loud disciplinary tone taken by the teacher with the class, all can throw B off-kilter.  When that happens, her face and hands tense up, her legs lock, she stares at the floor, she makes little noises (”uh... uh... uh”) under her breath, she might cry. And whatever you do, we’ve been told, when she gets “like that,” don’t touch her.  She simply cannot stand to be touched.

So, of course, that means that in middle school, she’s “weird.”  And we know what happens to weird kids. Especially in middle school.

Today, B has opened her locker to get her jacket so that she can go to Walking Club.  Walking Club is for kids (and staff) who don’t want to just stand around at recess.  The Walkers walk laps around the perimeter of the big field behind the school.  Some talk while they walk, and some just walk.  It’s a good way to get exercise, to relieve stress, to socialize.  And for some kids, it’s a good place to be safe, away from the pack on the blacktop.

But B is not feeling safe.  At all.  Because B cannot find her jacket. B’s fists are clenched.  Her face is mashed up into an angry glare.  She stares daggers into the void of her locker.  No jacket appears.  She starts to make that noise again as she grinds her teeth.  Tears well at the corners of her eyes as her face turns redder by the second.  All around her, the chaos continues.

“H” has her locker next to B.  H is the “anti-B.”  H always gets very good grades, almost without trying (at least that’s how it looks to the other kids), and is smart and perky and well-liked by all.  She comes from good stock: her sister, also popular, smart, and talented, came through this same part of the building three years ago.  H glides through life with the grace of the blessed adolescent: slim, athletic, smart, fashionable, popular, and pimple-free.

H is also a Walker.  She shuts her locker and finally notices B.  And B’s distress.  She stands and waits silently for B to notice she’s there.  Then she says, “B?  What’s wrong?”  Like she really means it.

B spits out, “My jacket! They stole my jacket!  My jacket!  My jacket is gone!”

H lets her go on a bit, and then says, “B, when did you have the jacket last? [Yes, those exact words.]  Did you wear it this morning?”  A series of calm, quiet, firm questions follows, and B answers each one, and with each answer, the bright scarlet glow diminishes from her face, the fists uncurl a little, the face returns a bit more to looking like its normal self.  Finally, as the last of the crowd heads off to recess, B looks something close to relaxed again.

H smiles and says, “Let’s go walk.  Maybe it’s in the Lost and Found.  Let’s go look.  You and me.”  And H takes her friend’s hand and together they walk away down the hall, then turn the corner, moving out of my view, into the brilliant fall morning.