Tuesday Updates*

No Children's Meeting or First Day School for Now

The Children's Religious Education Committee announces:

"Due to challenges of construction on the Meeting grounds, weather and shortage of personnel, the Children's Religious Education Committee is suspending First Day School until the Committee develops a proposal that addresses the need for the children's spiritual development and the need for safety of all ages. We plan to present a proposal to the Meeting for Business in second month [February]. With acceptance of the proposal and support from adults at Adelphi, we will resume First Day School." 

A New Weekly Evening Meeting for Worship

Beginning Sunday, January 16, 2022, Adelphi Friends Meeting will experiment with an additional Meeting for Worship at 7:00 pm (Eastern Time).  The Zoom connection for this meeting is here.  The Meeting ID is 823 9626 3173 and the passcode is 734636.  For additional information, please contact either Mackenzie Morgan or Carole Hoage through Breeze.

Supporting Virtual Access to Courts

At our meeting for worship for the conduct of business, we approved supporting Maryland state legislation that would require courts to offer virtual access to court hearings.  Friends suggested a few alterations to a proposed letter of support, and asked the Peace and Social Concerns committee to consider them before sending the letter.  Here is the final version of the letter as revised by the committee.

Helping a Neighbor

Dave Roberts writes that his neighbor is in a nursing home in New York and the neighbor's family wants to sell his house.  Dave agreed to find them a realtor. Can anyone recommend a reputable realtor to sell a house in Adelphi?   Please contact Dave through his information in Breeze.

Where Do We Go?

Paul Jolly, one of our former clerks, occasionally sends us a poem from his collections.  Here is "Hobo's Lullaby" inspired by a folk song of the same name in the 60s and dedicated to an encampment of un-housed people in Berkeley, CA, whose "tent village" was summarily eradicated. 

Finding Help

Help goes both ways.  Friends have been helping each other through this pandemic and its aftermath.  Friends are prepared to offer spiritual, practical, and financial support.  Learn more here.  

Reel and Meal at the New Deal Café

Monday, January 17 at 7 pm

The next film offered by Reel and Meal will be "The Purple Thanaka of the Angels" by French filmmaker Borit Yannick. The film depicts the military coup in Myanmar in early 2021, the imprisonment of the elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the brutal repression by the military rulers and the ongoing resistance of the population, especially of the so-called “Z” generation.

The screening and discussion afterward will be held via Zoom, and hopefully also in-person at the Café (please check the Cafe's Facebook page for updates). Zoom registration is required of virtual participants at  https://tinyurl.com/ReelnMealJan17. 

Quaker History through a Lens Burnished by Honesty

Here are two important articles from Friends Journal to consider and learn from:

• Excerpt from "Flawed Quaker Heroes" 
  "But the sympathy we might feel for him [William Penn] should not be allowed to outweigh the sympathy we might feel for Yaffe, Sam, Sue, Jack, Chevalier, and Peter or any of the other enslaved people who lived at and were sometimes sold from Penn’s estate in Pennsylvania." 

• Excerpts from "Significant Silence:"
  (1) Quoted from writings of Stephen Grillet, a French Quaker who toured parts of the U.S. around 1825, noting the participation of Quakers in slave-holding:  
  "Near another forsaken meeting house (there are several thus left by the removal of Friends), resides an aged black woman, who used to attend meetings there with the family. She continues to come to the house twice a week, regularly, on First and Fourth-days, and sits alone in silence to wait upon and worship that God and Saviour whom she has been instructed to know and to love. I felt great interest and satisfaction in my visit there."
  
  (2) Commentary by author Ian High: 
  "Dwelling in stillness, her Quakerness exists outside of White Quaker authority, placing fellowship above membership. “Fellowship,” as I mean it, reaches toward the complex religious intimacy—the accretive and unifying impulses of spirited stillness that ensures Quaker silence is not Quaker solitude, in which Quakers join themselves to one another and the Divine in worship. While no Friends join her in body, Quaker worship takes up silence as an invocation to the Divine; her stillness is embodied, yet transcended: a quiet waiting upon the presence of awe, of the sublime, of God."

• Get involved in meeting activities and outreach? Check out this updated list of committees and opportunities, and get in touch with a member of the Nominating Committee about your interests.
   
• Donate on line or at a distance?  Mail to Adelphi Meeting Treasurer, 2303 Metzerott Rd., Adelphi, MD 20783. Or donate securely on our website. To make or change a pledge to support renovations of the meetinghouse, click here.
   
• Get a log-in to access Breeze?   If you need help with Breeze, contact Mackenzie or Reuben at webservent@adelphifriends.org (webservent, with an “e,” is correct.)
   
• Silent Announcements:
  • Submit an item for the bi-weekly Silent Announcements? For now, please respond to this email or send a message directly to the editor, Ruth Flower, via her contact information in Breeze.  Put "Silent Announcement" in the subject line.  For events, please include date, time, place (if in person), and how to register (if on Zoom). Silent Announcements are prepared each Friday morning, with brief updates on Tuesdays.
     
  • Find a recent issue of Silent Announcements?  Check the Adelphi Meeting webpage.  There's a short list there of the last few issues and the last two months' editions are here.
     
  • Sign up to receive Silent Announcements or to change the email address where you receive them? On our webpage, bottom left corner of the "splash" (main) page, there's a small form to indicate your interest or your change. If your email has changed for all purposes, please enter the change on your page in Breeze.  
     
• "Zoom-ing with Adelphi"
  • Schedule a Zoom meeting, send an email  to zoom@adelphifriends.org.  Here are some details that you'll need to provide in order to reserve a Zoom "line" through the meeting.  
     
  • Find the Zoom link for your committee meeting? Go to Breeze at this link, and click on “Events.”  The Zoom info should be there. 
     
  • Schedule a Zoom meeting, send an email  to zoom@adelphifriends.org.  Here are some details that you'll need to provide in order to reserve a Zoom "line" through the meeting.  
     
• Schedule an in-person meeting at Adelphi (whether indoors or outdoors, recurrent or one-time) send an email to our resident Joseph Ndayisenga (resident@adelphifriends.org) requesting the use of that space.  Review these guidelines prepared by the Clerk when we started opening the meetinghouse grounds to outdoor use.  Keep in mind that the meetinghouse is now under re-construction, and much of the space in the White House is taken up with storage for items that were in the meetinghouse.
   
• Offer financial support through the meeting to Friends who need assistance?   Please donate to the General Fund through the website, and send an email to the treasurer at  afmtreas@adelphifriends.org stating that your gift is for the Aid Fund.  Please note that earmarking your donation for a specific person might violate tax laws.
   
• Advocate with others about an issue you are concerned about? Sign up here for the Couch Potato Activists list serve and report your activities here.

Business meeting: noon, second Sunday of the month
Additional Meetings for Worship:  Wednesdays at noon, Sundays at 7 pm

Bible study: Wednesdays, 7:30pm