Draft Report
On the Spiritual State of Our Meeting in 2022

This document shares our reflections on the previous year. We learn what is on Friends’ minds and hearts. We celebrate things working well, and imagine a future more in alignment with our values. We discern how we might grow ever closer to Spirit, individually and as a community. Please read and consider this document privately, as it will not be read aloud during its "first reading" scheduled during Meeting for Business on Sunday, March 12th.  Any comments you have on any part of the document are most welcome at that time, or you can offer them to Judith Goedeke (by email, please). Judith's email address is in Breeze. 

Helping Hands for Hospitality 

Are you able to help Hospitality Committee sometimes? If you are willing to help the committee occasionally and/or to be "on call" to help with the setup before Meeting or cleanup after Potluck, then please sign up on our "Friends of Hospitality" sheet in the foyer. If needed, please contact Will Kastens via his contact information in Breeze. 

Second Friday Film Discussions Presents:
     MISS REPRESENTATION

Join us Friday March 9, 2023 at 7:00pm, for a discussion of the film MISS REPRESENTATION. Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Miss Representation exposes how mainstream media and culture contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America.

The film is available on KANOPY for free viewing, or on VUDU for $2.00.  Here is a link to additional information about the film.  

To join the discussion at 7 pm Friday, click on this recurring link. (Hint to Friday night movie discussion fans:  You can put this link in your calendar each month on the second Friday.)

Friend Community School Annual Meeting 

On March 19, the FCS annual meeting will be held during 2nd hour. The annual meeting is a chance for members of Adelphi to get an update on the school. According to the FCS bylaws, the annual meeting agenda and any action items must be posted at Adelphi two weeks in advance. 

Agenda (this agenda includes no action items)

• Opening silence
• Welcome and Introductions (Margaret Vitullo, clerk of the FCS Board)
• State of the School Report Including Activities that Support the Quaker Nature of the School (Angela Garcia, head of school)
• Report on Finances (Virginia Bainbridge, clerk of Finance Committee and Carmen Johnson, FCS chief financial officer)
• Interim Head of School Search and Selection (Brooke Carroll, clerk of Search Committee)
• Closing silence

Searching for Housing  

Grant Schmick will need to move to new housing in late May.  He's looking for an apartment or a shared house.  He will need a fair amount of storage space, but could find that separately. If you have any leads for Grant, please contact him via the Breeze directory. 

Parents, Caregivers, F/friends
of Young Adult Friends ages 18 to 25  

Outreach and Fellowship Committee is preparing care packages of snacks and surprises for Young Friends to ease the stress of mid-semester papers and exams. Of course, not all Young Friends are current students, so please send us information for any Friends between the ages of 18 and 25 who could use care, encouragement, and friendship this Spring!  Send name, mailing address and any food allergies/sensitivities or preferences (vegetarian/vegan) to Mari Schimmer, whose email is in Breeze.

We would appreciate responses by March 10.  

Friends Journal - March Issue  

Did you know that you can read Friends Journal online each month for free?  The March issue - headlined Isolated Friends and Meetings -- is just out. It includes an article on the "mixed blessings" of Friends' experiments with blended meetings. Other articles explore the nature of isolation within and among the Religious Society of Friends, which is changing rapidly.  You can read the full issue online here, or download a PDF version here. 

Baltimore Yearly Meeting Announcements  

Here's the big one:  The BYM Yearbook is finished and available for you download online!  You can just feel the work that went into this compendium.  The Yearbook collects the historical records of our business sessions and shares key resources. In addition, the Yearbook reminds us of the vitality of the Spirit alive among us. From reports on our thriving youth ministries and spiritual epistles from Friends young and old to minutes recording powerful vocal ministry on anti-racism and the names of more than 250 Friends serving as volunteers, the Yearbook captures who BYM Friends are in the world today. You can open and download your copy here.

Among the announcements are a few gems:  

• Parfaite Ntahuba (Pastor Parfaite), Director of the Friends Women's Association Clinic in Burundi, is returning to BYM in advance of Friends Peace Teams annual global conference in PA. She is available to visit with Meetings from April 18-April 29. On April 30, she will be available world wide via a virtual presentation from Stony Run Meeting.  Details in the BYM Announcements. 
   
• Join Friends next weekend for an experiential, embodied and arts-based online retreat with Ujima Friends member, Lynette Davis. We will be talking about how lament is experienced in our bodies and in our communities and why it is so important to the tasks of justice that we welcome this experience. Registration details available in the Announcements.
   
• We know more now about arrangements for Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions - including the theme, "Building Our Community with Love and Tenderness."  And there's a call for volunteer help with Audio Visual support, and Junior YM.
   
• Annual Sessions will be held from July 30 to August 6 on the campus of Hood College in Frederick.

TOMORROW
Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival and Forum

Saturday, 4 March, 1:00 PM

Featuring: Sarah Mapps Douglass

Register here for the upcoming film in the Black Quaker Lives Matter film festival and forum. The film, Sisters in Freedom, will feature Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882), an abolitionist, educator, artist, and author. Sarah was part of an illustrious family of Black Americans in Philadelphia - the Bustills and Morreys - who influenced their community for a hundred years. Learn more about the film festival and register here.

Here is an introduction to the two honored guests --eminent historian Dr. Emma Lapsansky-Werner and experienced genealogist Joyce Mosley -- who will join in a post-screening dialogue about the radical women who helped shape Sara Mapps Douglass's Philadelphia.

If you would like to read more about the Bustills, check these resources that were gathered by June Confer and Jade Eaton.

Couch Potato Activists' Alert  

... Reminding us all that there is advocacy to be done and things to be learned while we are yet inside waiting for the warmth of the sun.  Anna Rains writes with several ideas, which she emphasizes are suggestions, for action and advocacy.  Pick the one that speaks to you... or pick something not on the list, but close to your heart.. and write your letter, make your call, use your voice. And, as always, please do record your action so we can see how our little actions accumulate into a strong voice.  

For the Next Generations... 

For the younger children, ages 0 through kindergarten, the Nursery opens from 10 a.m. to 11:30 each Sunday in the white house. Zarmina Khan is our new caregiver in the Nursery.

Children in 1st through 5th grades and Young Friends worship with their families (and all of us) for the first 20 minutes of meeting. Children and youth and their teachers then move to classrooms in the white house.

• To get a log-in to access Breeze (our online meeting directory), contact either Mackenzie Morgan or Reuben Snipper at webservent@adelphifriends.org (“webservent,” with an “e,” is correct.)
   
• To sign up to receive Silent Announcements or to change the email address where you receive them: There's a small form on our webpage (www.AdelphiFriends.org), at the bottom left corner.  You can use that form to subscribe to Silent Announcements or change the address where the announcements go.
   
• To edit your own entry in the Breeze directory, just look up your own name and click on the little pencil icon next to each section of information (e-mail, home address, etc.)
   
• To find out who serves on various committees: In Breeze, click on tags and then choose "committees." You should find up-to-date lists there.
   

• To schedule something at Adelphi (for example, committee meeting on Zoom, 2nd hour, a room for an in-person meeting, space outside on the campus, etc.) send an email to schedule@adelphifriends.org.

• Title for event, such as 2nd Hour topic, name of committee, etc.
• Purpose of event, if not clear from the title
• Name of requester and contact information
• “Location,” i.e., Zoom, in-person, or both. If in-person, what space you want to meet in (Library, Meeting Room, Memorial Garden, Social Hall, etc.)
• Date and time when it starts and ends. If recurring, what dates or pattern, e.g. 2^nd Thursday of the month
• If Zoom meeting, will it be open to the public? If so, you may need a technical person to manage the waiting room, etc. Please let us know by mentioning this on your request.
• Other information that would be helpful for us to help you with this

• To find the Zoom link for a scheduled meeting:  Go to Breeze at this link, and click on “Events.”  The Zoom info should be there. 
   
• For events at Adelphi, schedule the event first (see “How to Schedule Something at Adelphi" --  above).”  Once you have done that, your event will be on the calendar with date, time and place.  
   
• To announce your event in Silent Announcements:  Schedule it first (see steps above), then send an email to the Silent Announcements editor (a.k.a. Ruth Flower) at her address in Breeze -- about your event or a non-event.  Silent Announcements are prepared on Friday and Tuesday mornings. To ensure that your announcement gets published (not lost), please put [SA] or just SA at the beginning of your subject line.

• Keep an eye on opportunities to meet with others in the community as we learn more together – about Quakerism, about our community and the world around us. These will usually be described in Silent Announcements, our bi-weekly news. 
   
• To join in the work of a committee – a great way to get to know people - contact the Nominating Committee, through one of the committee’s members listed on the “committees” tag in Breeze
   
• Provide financial support for Adelphi’s work and worship together.  If you are able, donate to support the Meeting’s budget, which includes everything from building upkeep to support for members and families and families in our broader community, to “mini-reparations” as we begin to acknowledge how the development of Quakerism on this continent are tied to the development and continuation of racism. 
  
  You can donate by sending a check to the Adelphi Meeting Treasurer, 2303 Metzerott Rd., Adelphi, MD 20783. Or donate securely on our website – either a one-time donation or a monthly/ quarterly pledge. To make or change a pledge to support renovations of the meetinghouse, click here.
   
• Advocate with others on an issue you are concerned about. Sign up here for the “Couch Potato Activists’” list serve and report your activities here.
   

• You can find approved minutes of past meetings: look here for 2022 minutes, and here for earlier years.
   
• You can also find recent issues of Silent Announcements:  The last two months' editions are listed at this link. 

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

Bible study: Wednesdays, 7:30pm