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Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting
December 2020 Newsletter
Photo credit: Cyane Gresham

Queries for Twelfth Month:  Witness and Civic Responsibility

Every month we link to one of the twelve groups of queries in PYM's Faith and Practice. These queries are taken from the new edition.  The query title link leads to a page on our own website where we can share our reflections on the queries. What rises in you in response to one of this month's queries: What is our meeting doing to become aware of systemic legal, economic and political injustices in our local community?  Follow the link in the section heading to share your thoughts on this query or others from this month.
Calendar (see below for more information on items marked with an asterisk; click here for the full Meeting calendar)
All events will take place online, except for Outdoor Meeting for Worship.  For committee meetings, contact the committee clerk for more information.
12/1/209:00 AM*Midweek Meeting for Worship
12/1/207:00 PMWorship & Ministry Committee
12/6/209:00 AM*Outdoor Meeting for Worship
12/6/209:00 AM*Adult Class (Effective Altruism)
12/6/2010:30 AMZoom Meeting for Worship
12/6/2011:00 AMFirst Day School
12/8/209:00 AM*Midweek Meeting for Worship
12/8/206:30 PM*PYM Meeting for Business
12/13/209:00 AM*Outdoor Meeting for Worship
12/13/209:00 AM*Adult Class (Scott Ordway)
12/13/2010:30 AMZoom Meeting for Worship
12/13/2011:00 AM*First Day School
12/13/207:00 PM*Friendly Bible Study
12/15/209:00 AM*Midweek Meeting for Worship
12/20/209:00 AM*Outdoor Meeting for Worship
12/20/2010:30 AMZoom Meeting for Worship
12/20/2011:00 AM*First Day School
12/20/2012:15 PMMeeting for Business
12/22/209:00 AM*Midweek Meeting for Worship
12/27/209:00 AM*Outdoor Meeting for Worship
12/27/2010:30 AMZoom Meeting for Worship
12/27/2011:00 AM*First Day School
12/27/2012:00 PM*Refugee Support Working Group
12/27/207:00 PM*Friendly Bible Study
12/29/209:00 AM*Midweek Meeting for Worship
Sundays at CHFM

Link to Meeting for Worship, Sundays, 10:30 AM

Meeting for Worship continues to be held via Zoom.  This link will also continue to appear in weekly bulletins.

https://zoom.us/j/97901320780?pwd=eTdyVFpMTWcwZFpsZDNRYlVhc0RnQT09
Meeting ID: 979 0132 0780
Password: CHFM2020

To call in by phone:
(646) 558-8656
Meeting ID: 979 0132 0780
Password: 49622852

After-Meeting Announcements

To get an item included in the announcements after Meeting for Worship, please e-mail Worship & Ministry Committee with the details by Friday night. Be sure to include all relevant dates, times, and locations as well as the name of a contact person for more information.

From the Adult Religious Education Committee

The Adult RE Committee is meeting in early December to determine classes for the spring and early summer, 2021.   Please send your proposals and suggestions to any committee member including Anne Hawkins (anne.h.hawkins100@gmail.com).  The Adult RE Committee has put together another wonderful set of classes for our Meeting this month and urges you to set aside 9:00 AM on the first and second Sunday of the month for Adult RE via Zoom.   Descriptions of the December sessions are below.  The full list of classes for the Fall is on the Adult Class page, and an illustrated flier for inviting others is also available there for downloading.

The Zoom link will be sent out in the Thursday Bulletin shortly before each class. 
  • December 6:  Effective Altruism:  The Most Effective Ways to Benefit Others.  Effective altruism is a philosophy and social movement that advocates using evidence and reasoning to determine the most effective ways to benefit others.  Its goal is to do the most good with whatever resources are available, as opposed to only doing what feels good or appears intuitively appealing.  We will explore how this approach can partner with Quaker values, and what actions we may be led to take in response to Effective Altruism. Katherine Mecrow-Flynn is a philanthropy educator and the Founding Director and Chief Executive Officer of WANBAM, a mentorship program for women, trans people of any gender, and non-binary people wishing to pursue careers as leaders in Effective Altruism.  Selected reading before the class;
  • December 13:  The Clearing and the Forest: Spiritual Themes in my Recent Works,  Scott Ordway, presenter.  Using audio and visual samples, Scott will discuss how themes of spirituality and the divine inform his recent choral and instrumental works, as well as how they relate to the broader field of contemporary classical music.  Music by composer Scott Ordway has been described as “exquisite” by The New York Times, “a marvel” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, and “an American response to Sibelius” by The Boston Globe. He is Assistant Professor of Composition at Rutgers University, a 2017–19 Fellow at American Opera Projects in New York City, and was previously a member of the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music.  Ordway’s work is passionately multidisciplinary, often fusing music with original text, video, digital soundscape, and experimental theater. His projects explore a diverse array of contemporary themes with a primary focus on the relationships between religion, philosophy, literature, and the natural world.
  • Save the Date, January 3:  "It's time for Friends to talk about class," led by Quaker activist-sociologist George Lakey.  

Outdoor Meeting for Worship

Outdoor Meeting for Worship will be held each Sunday in December on the back lawn of the meetinghouse at 9 AM, in addition to our usual 10:30 am Zoom worship. This is limited to 15 people, and advance sign-up is required online.  In case of a likely rain forecast, we will cancel and notify those who sign up by email. Please contact tech@chestnuthillquakers.org if you encounter problems with the sign-up.  Please note these additional parameters:
  • No chairs from the meetinghouse will be available. Seating is bring-your-own chair (or blanket) and will be socially distanced. Household groups can sit together.  Friends will be able to use the bathrooms in the meetinghouse.
  • All attendees must wear a mask while on meeting property.
  • To ensure social distancing, attendees should plan to be seated at their place for the full hour. 
  • Please do not sign up or attend if you:
    • have recently had any symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, shortness of breath, or loss of taste;
    • have recently been in close contact with anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19; or
    • have traveled, in the past two weeks, to any of the states indicated in red on the City of Philadelphia's travel guidance map.

Friendly Bible Study on Second and Fourth Sunday Evenings

Friendly Bible Study will meet on December 13 and December 27 at 7 PM via Zoom.  Have a journal and your favorite Bible translation ready.  We are reading 1st Corinthians.  More information on the Friendly Bible study method here.  The Zoom meeting is:

https://zoom.us/j/92846278726?pwd=Qzh1T2xuZ0FNaUdNTGFsZWtacmErQT09
Meeting ID: 928 4627 8726
Passcode: 490621

To dial in:  (301) 715-8592
Meeting ID: 928 4627 8726
Passcode: 490621

Midweek Worship Opportunities

The move by most communities to online worship means there are many more opportunities for worship during the week. 
  • CHFM offers midweek worship on Tuesday mornings from 9 to 10 via Zoom. The stable link for the Zoom sessions is https://zoom.us/j/95949514802?pwd=KzBRWHZWL0QyS3JOYWlVbnlyU2p4dz09,  We will have waiting worship for the first 30 minutes and then we plan to read excerpts from the new edition of Faith and Practice, followed by worship sharing.  All are welcome.
  • Germantown Meeting is holding a weekly evening worship on Wednesdays at 7 PM.  We hope you’ll join us in corporate worship and hold our City and Country in the Light. Zoom link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/907689510?pwd=Q2RjbU4waU1UVms2NkdraDVEcEJ5UT09
  • All are invited to daily meeting for worship online from Pendle Hill, 8:30-9:10 am.  The Zoom information is available on Pendle Hill's website.
  • Friends World Committee for Consultation maintains a list of links to online meetings for worship being held around the world at a variety of times throughout the week.  More information can be found here.
News and Events

Seeking Chestnut Hill Host for Online PYM Thread Gathering

The Thread Gathering on Addressing Anti-Blackness In and Beyond  Monthly Meetings was to have been held in our meetinghouse from 9 am to 4 pm on January 23.  Now it will be held for the same hours online (with many breaks).  PYM is still eager to partner with Chestnut Hill Meeting, which primarily means that a CHFM Friend would give a welcome at the beginning of the day and lead the gathering into virtual worship.  The facilitators will be Oskar Pierre Castro, Tenaja Henderson, and Sarah Willie-LeBreton, and more information is available on the PYM website.  If a Chestnut Hill Friend is planning to attend the Thread Gathering and would like to support it in this way, please let Amey Hutchins (a.hutchins@mailfence.com) know by December 11.

From the Refugee Support Working Group

  • The Refugee Support Working Group  invites you to join us for our monthly planning meetings on 4th Sundays at 12:15 PM, this month on December 27, to raise funds and awareness to support refugees. 
  • Holiday Gifts.  Having trouble thinking of that perfect holiday gift for that special someone who seems to have everything???  The Refuge Support Working Group is here to help!  We suggest making a donation to assist Syrian refugees living in Jordan via our online link, in the honor of that special someone. Then contact Beth Zelasky (ezelasky@hotmail.com)  to pick out a beautiful handmade card by our own Sarah Whitman to notify the receiver of his/her “gift”. Make someone’s holiday extra special by helping those in need.
  • The CHFM Refugee Support Working Group extends special thanks to all those who ordered - and, we hope, enjoyed - pies through our Thanksgiving Desserts fundraiser. It has proved to be a great success, both in raising funds for LIFELINE, the UNHCR program that provides direct cash assistance to Syrian refugee families in Jordan, and also in infusing some joy into our own community in these less than cheery times. Nine Friends and one wonderful young woman, Olivia Consol, a pastry chef by training, volunteered their time and energy and also their own ingredients, to create delicious works of art such as the amazing pecan pie pictured here that Pauline Doyle made for Sarah Whitman. In Sarah’s words: “Thanks so much for the creativity of the idea, and the love and care in the baking."

From the Religious Education Committee

The Children's Program runs from 11 to 11:30 and is intended for children from 6 to 12, but younger children may benefit as well.  We would also encourage you to invite children from other meetings, as well as your grandchildren and other relatives no matter where they may be living.  If you have questions contact Donna Pucci at fdscoord@chestnuthillquakers.org

The Zoom information for December is:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86941099397?pwd=RHRDZ0RUbUJOVjVPdno3Q1NaMTlWUT09
Meeting ID: 869 410 99397
Passcode: FDS2020

From the Peace & Social Concerns Committee

  • Peace & Social Concerns Committee sponsored an Adult Education class on November 29.  Liz Robinson, member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Solar Energy Association, spoke about RGGI (the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative), a program the state is thinking of joining which would substantially lower the state's greenhouse gases.  A video of Liz's presentation is available here.  The PYM Eco-Justice Collaborative invites Friends to sign a letter to the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board in support of RGGI here.  Peace & Social Concerns plans to bring a proposal to Meeting for Business that CHFM sign this letter as well.
  • POWER Online Training:  Soul Force:  Preparing for Nonviolent Direct Action, December 3, 7 PM:  If you missed this training before the election, here's another opportunity.  Soul Force is is a spiritual discipline that allows us to meet white supremacy, violence, and injustice with a powerful contrary force. In this training, we will prepare to form Democracy Pods (affinity groups)--small, non-hierarchical teams who prepare for and take direct action together; discuss the history, principles, and tactics of NVDA looking at the Southern Freedom Movement's use of this tactic against white supremacist terror; and practice skills of NVDA.  Register here.

From the PIHN Committee

  • Are you interested in adopting Christmas for a struggling family? Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network (PIHN) is again supporting families in their network with Christmas gifts. If you are interested, please contact Chestnut Hill Meeting's PIHN committee (pihncom@chestnuthillquakers.org). Let us know if your family would like to adopt an entire family (how big?), if you would like to adopt one child (usually one practical gift and one luxury gift/toy, recommended cost for each is $20), or if you would like to contribute one gift  or even a gift card for mom or dad.  The PIHN Committee will coordinate with the PIHN organization to match up our interests with their needs.
  • The 2020 Annual Empty Bowl Dinner Cookbook is being printed at this time and will be available both digitally and in print before December 25th. Thanks to all who contributed favorite soup, bread and dessert recipes and memories from our community about past Empty Bowl experiences. The e-book will be available online for $3, or a print version for $15, just in time for the holidays!
  • Thanks to all who continue to donate items for our PIHN food drive!  How about you? Can your family help out the PIHN families?  Non-perishable items can be dropped off at 114 Erdenheim Road, Glenside, PA 19038, between 5pm-7pm Tuesday and Thursday. Look for the pink sign in the window! The front porch will be unlocked and you can leave your items there for a contact-less donation. If these times aren't convenient, please call 215-233-4317 or send an email to bbuonoc@comcast.net to make other arrangements.

From the Ad Hoc Committee on Financial Discernment

Please plan to join us as we discern how our meeting is called to use its resources to financially support groups outside the meeting.  In preparation for the 21/22 budgeting process, the ad hoc Committee on Financial Discernment (formerly the ad hoc Committee on Grants & Covenants) will be conducting a series of Zoom sessions with the goal of learning about stewardship of our resources and discerning our spiritual relationship with money. One goal of these sessions is to establish a process to spiritually ground our financial decisions in group discernment.
  • Raising Awareness: Sunday, January 10 at 12 pm and Thursday, January 14 at 7 pm.  How does the Meeting financially support outside organizations, including Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the Philadelphia Quarter, civic groups (Peace and Social Concerns Grants), Quaker institutions, and tuition assistance for Quaker schools?
  • Listening to Concerns: Sunday, January 24 at 12 pm and Thursday, January 28 at 7 pm.  What concerns and insights do we have into our current financial processes and spending?
  • Reflecting Back Our Understanding: Sunday, February 14 at 12 pm and Thursday, February 17 at 7 pm.  Based on what we learned from the first two sessions, what process can we propose for financial discernment for 21/22 spending and beyond?
Each session is being held twice so that more people can attend. You are welcome to attend all sessions, but one meeting per session may be sufficient for you. The sessions will including information sharing as well as worship sharing, in which we worship around what the committee brings forth and speak out of silence. More information and Zoom links to come. Please contact Storm Evans (storm@evans-legal.com) with any questions or concerns.

From the Stewardship Committee

Who are these masked people? It’s part of your Stewardship Committee, working on the fund appeal letter now in the mail, hoping for support to keep our Meeting going in this strangest of years.  Watch for the letter in your mail.  More information about ways to give to CHFM can be found on the meeting website.  

From the Worship & Ministry Committee

While the meetinghouse is closed, some may wish to gather in small groups to worship together in a Friend's home or garden. These groups might join our online worship on Zoom or worship independently. If you need support in organizing small-group worship, please contact worship@chestnuthillquakers.org.

From the Care & Counsel Committee

Do you have patience to “Wait for the mud to settle and the water to clear? (Tao Te Ching)

Dear Friends, we are each so acutely aware of “the mud” of these hard times. Feelings and realities of loneliness, anxiety, struggle, loss, grieving, and exhaustion, to name a few, are in our daily lives. How to accept the now? Do you pray, read, write, walk in nature, be good to yourself with healthy food, exercise, music, art, reach out to others, learn something new, and appreciate what you have? We are being assured, change is coming. Hold on.

We know there are very real “angels” among us who have faithfully given rides, made meals, called to touch base, offered a walk, counseled, and more. A deep thank you for your kindness. You bring the smiles and a lift to our hearts.

But if one is too deep in the “mud” of emotions, reach out for help. You are in this community of Chestnut Hill Friends and together we can buoy one another in many ways to the time we can be physically present. Care and Counsel Committee is here to assist with rides, meals, a regular note or phone call, financial assistance, or a referral to Friends Counseling Service. Please ask for yourself or another. Contact your Care Circle person or email: careandcounselcom@ChestnutHillQuakers.org or call/text: Miyo Moriuchi (717-634-0612)

“In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.”  (Howard Thurman)

Bedtime Xmas Story Hour

SAVE THAT DATE!  A few of us silver-haired types are organizing a simple Christmas Story Bedtime Hour for the real kids in our community and for the kid in all of us right before xmas, either December 23 or 24, in the early evening.  We’ll have 3-4 storyteller volunteers read some favorite xmas stories (maybe some you’ve not heard before!) with some Christmas carols in between each reading (if we can figure out how to do that live on Zoom!).  More details to follow!  Keep a look out in the Bulletins!.

From Chestnut Hill Friends

  • Janaki Spickard Keeler and Andrew Chiarello are looking for a nanny to come to their home several days a week to care for Benjamin, age 9 months.  They live in Lansdale in Montgomery County.  Please send any leads their way at janakiandandrew@gmail.com.
  • From Ellen Deacon and Miyo Moriuchi:  The poem "The Work of Christmas," and "I Will Light Candles," from "The Mood of Christmas ...," both by Howard Thurman, author, theologian, philosopher, mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., and friend of Friends.  He will be featured in The BlackQuaker Lives Matter Film Festival coming in February 2021 from The BlackQuaker Project.
  • Kay Wood sends information about the next Planet Philadelphia show, December 4 at 4:00.  We will be talking with Ben Kalina, an award-winning producer and director, whose work explores the colliding forces of human nature and environmental change, and Jen Schneider, writer-director and award-winning cinematographer about their PBS Nova documentary "Can We Cool The Planet?" exploring some of the extreme options that may be required to deal with climate change. Also on this show we hear from Liz Robinson on the state of energy politics in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania is the third largest emitter of green house gases in the US and one of the largest regional sources of electric power. What we do here matters far beyond our borders. And Liz has extensive knowledge about all this. She fills us in on what’s happening right now and what might be coming our way.  Listen on 92.9 FM WGGT-LP in Philadelphia and/or live stream at gtownradio.com.
  • Debbie Carr sends information about Jhoselyn, who comes from Ecuador and has been living in Philadelphia with her mother for the past year-and-a-half while she undergoes orthopedic surgeries at Shriner's Hospital.  A GoFundMe site has been set up to cover the expenses of a specialized surgery in Washington D.C. that would correct a birth defect with her digestive system (this is why we purchase the pull-up diapers for her).  A team of world-renowned surgeons in colorectal, urology, and gynecology repairs have agreed to take on her complex case and cover 50% of the cost.  This would be a life-changer for Jhoselyn.  Many members and attenders at Friends Meeting have already been incredibly generous.  The GoFundMe site and more information are here.
  • From Sunil Acharya:  "One of the discussions during the Social Hour after a recent service highlighted a need for sharing information among CHFM members on a variety of topics.  As a result, we are now rolling out an electronic bulletin board called "CHFM- Tips and Tricks."  The bulletin board is hosted as a Google Group. If you want to be added to this group; please email Sunil (sun.acharya@gmail.com). Some of the example topics include recipes and tips on covid-friendly things to do."
Opportunities Beyond CHFM

From Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

  • Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, December 8, 6:30 - 8:30 PM.  Please join us!  More information and registration (to receive Zoom link) here.
  • Community Playdate for Children and Families, December 12, 10 - 11 AM:  Welcoming Winter.  We hope you are able to join us for a story, making a craft, and having fun together!  For information about supplies for the craft and registration to receive the Zoom link, see the PYM website.
  • Young Friends Online Christmas Gathering, December 26 - 28, various times.  We will have Meeting for Worship with attention to business, committee time, worship sharing, and plenty of affinity time. We’ll also have two late nights! Workshops will focus on creativity and care.  Register on the PYM website.
  • Giant Children's Meeting, Sunday, December 27, 9 AM.  Join Friends and Families from across the Yearly Meeting for a monthly religious education program on fourth Sundays. It’s “giant” because everyone is invited! It’s “children’s meeting” because we’re making a space to nurture the spiritual lives and Quaker identity of young people. We hope this online community will support families and the Friends offering children’s programs in their meeting; the 9:00 start is intended to allow folks to attend worship in their own meeting later that morning.  The December meeting is on the theme of The Light in Winter. More information and registration on the PYM website

From Pendle Hill

  • Online Weekend Workshop:  Opening to the Heart of Worship, December 4-6.  This online workshop, led by Christopher Sammond, former secretary general of New York Yearly Meeting, will focus on practical skills that will enhance our ability to enter into deep, transformative worship. We will explore how we prepare for worship, how we center down, how to listen to each other with our whole being – body, mind, and spirit, and how to better open to each other and the Divine during worship. We will create a deep sense of community from which to access our individual and collective wellsprings of the Source. Our work together will be experiential and immediate and draw us into a deeper experience of our rich practice as Friends.  Information and registration on the Pendle Hill website.
  • First Monday Lecture, Healing Ancestral Trauma;  What Is Epigenetics and Why Does It Matter?, December 7, 7:30 PM.  Join contemporary shaman Erva Baden in exploring epigenetics, or how the effects of trauma get passed down through the generations. More information and registration on the Pendle Hill website.
  • Pendle Hill Reading Group, December 9, 6:30 PM.  Pendle Hill's online reading group continues, hosted by our own Janaki Spickard Keeler!  We are reading a mix of Pendle Hill pamphlets and other Quaker materials, gathering monthly to consider queries about the reading in a spirit of worship sharing. December’s reading group will consider Richard Taylor’s 2013 pamphlet, Nonviolent Direct Action as a Spiritual Path.  Registration and information about purchasing the pamphlet are on the Pendle Hill website.

From the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

  • Just Transition Webinar:  Lifting Up Worker and Community Voices To Make ESG Commitments Real, December 9, 2 - 3 PM.  Join us to hear how investor advocates can work with labor and communities to bring about needed change in companies involved in the new energy economy and to explore how we can move together to a clean, just economy that works for everyone!  Register here.
End Matter

Want a website account?  We reserve publication of a few things (e.g., the meeting directory, business meeting minutes) to a restricted area of our website. You must have a website account to see those pages. If you don’t yet have one and want one, follow the directions in this article to request one.

Looking for business meeting minutes?  If you have a website account, you can see 2020 minutes and minutes from previous years on the Meeting website.

Membership
A general description of the differences between attenders and members, and a review of the membership process, is available on our website.

Newsletters vs. bulletins
The monthly newsletter goes out by email, usually very close to the first of the month. The deadline for submissions is the 23rd of the previous month. Bulletins are shorter, though they too contain information most of which merits the attention of our whole community, and we send them to the same mailing list. Here are some guidelines for news that could qualify for a bulletin:
  • items that didn’t make the newsletter’s deadline, especially those announcing an event of interest
  • something important that arises between newsletters (e.g., a timely speaker or action; the death of a community member; a request for help)
  • a correction (if important) to an error in a newsletter or previous bulletin
  • a link to an article published elsewhere that describes an important event or action

Typically, a bulletin goes out every Thursday with information about the activities for the following Sunday.  A longer bulletin will generally go out mid-month with new information that has arrived since the newsletter came out.  

Our mailing address is:
Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting
20 E Mermaid Ln
Philadelphia, PA 19118-3505

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