SCHEDULE FOR SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9 | |||||
9:00am | Meeting for Business | Hybrid – In Committee Room, and use same Zoom link as for worship. | |||
10:20am | Greeter | Sandy Lentz | |||
10:30am | Child Care | Starts in kindergarten building across the driveway from Meetinghouse | |||
10:30am | Meeting for Worship | (Hybrid: In-person & on Zoom) | |||
10:50am | First Day School | Older children attend Meeting for Worship with their families until 10:50 am, when their teachers will lead them to the Committee Room. Questions? Please contact Carla Childs. Note: Children of any age are always welcome to join their families in Meeting for Worship. | |||
11:30am | Introductions & Announcements | Sam Thacker | |||
11:40am | Refreshments | Lauren Wright & family | |||
PROTOCOL FOR MEETING FOR WORSHIP (Zoom, hybrid, in-person) Please maintain silence as you enter the Zoom meeting or the meetinghouse so Friends can center and settle into worship. Our current COVID-19 safety measures for the meetinghouse are as follows:
| |||||
MEETING FOR WORSHIP WITH A CONCERN FOR BUSINESS |
Germantown Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
February 9, 9:00 - 10:15am
Hybrid: On Zoom & in-person. Please use the Meeting for Worship Zoom link.
DRAFT AGENDA
(Attenders are welcome to attend business meeting. Please notify the clerk in advance if you wish to attend.)
MEETING NEWS |
GMM Members received an email this past week with draft versions of the Property Committee’s revised Use of Facilities policies, procedures & fees (5 documents). The committee welcomes feedback, which can be sent to Tom Sharpless (tksharpless@gmail.com) before this Sunday’s GMM Business Meeting (2/9/25) when it will be on the agenda.
A recent article in the Chestnut Hill Local shines a light on the important work that Barbar Wybar is doing at Bududa, as she heads off on her current trek back to Uganda. Read about it here
If you know of any responsible, caring person(s) who are available to join our Child Care team to care for our members’ and attenders’ children during weekly Meeting for Worship and monthly Meeting for Business, please contact our member Lois Volta: loisvolta@gmail.com for details. Coverage required weekly for Meeting for Worship. Periodic coverage required for Meeting for Business. Child care clearances required.
Choose a story with meaning to you and read it to a GFS lower school class on a Thursday morning (8:30-9:30) when they have "informal" Meeting for worship. It is a meaningful and fun way to interact with lower schoolers. (The great library staff at Friends Free Library can help you pick out a book!)
For the month of February, we will be collecting a range of critical supplies to support the important community work of Germantown Avenue Crisis Ministry. Let’s show some Germantown Meeting generosity!
Items most needed:
Where to bring items? Marked boxes in the Meeting Social/Committee Rooms
When? Throughout February… bring something to share whenever you come to Meeting!
Thank you to those who have been providing refreshments in recent months. You provide the fuel for social hour! We need others to sign up for this rewarding job.
Please consider these available dates:
To sign up, please contact Becky Johnson. THANK YOU!!
Note: Refreshment expenses are reimbursable or can be credited as in-kind donations to GMM.
QUAKER NEWS & EVENTS |
“As we work to end …the threat of -ism’s … and bring about a just and fair society, we remain grounded in Margaret Fell’s call to tackle these challenges nonviolently and with love, keeping in mind that Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. However, this is not a passive love, rather it is the fierce love that calls us to speak truth to power."
— Diane Randall, 2021, Former General Secretary of FCNL
* [from The Daily Quaker Message - thanks to Ruth Seeley]
9.5-month Fellowship program for young adults (21-30 yrs) in Boston, Philadelphia, Twin Cities (MN), & Portland, OR
This well-established program guides Fellows through an experiment at the intersection of transformational spirituality and activism. Fellows live in intentional community, work for social justice nonprofits, and engage in Quaker spiritual practices. After doing our program, we find that Fellows have created relational networks that support their personal and professional development for many years.
Quaker Voluntary Service is launching a 5-week summer program in Philadelphia for young adults aged 18-20 years old.
Summer Fellows will be on site July 7 - August 10, to do service projects together, live in intentional community, and participate in workshops and spiritual deepening activities. Fellows will also be involved in shaping the program through a process of group discernment conducted in the spring through five virtual pre-sessions. In this way, our program will be by young adults as well as for young adults.
PHILADELPHIA YEARLY MEETING (PYM)
GERMANTOWN FRIENDS SCHOOL (GFS) NEWS & EVENTS |
A recent article in the Chestnut Hill Local celebrates Breakthrough Philadelphia, which has been partnering with Germantown Friends School for nearly 30 years – to nurture and challenge nearly 200 traditionally underserved Philadelphia middle school students, and build a training pipeline of future teachers. The program takes place on the GFS campus, weekly during the school year, and throughout the summer months, sharing administrative and teaching resources as well as enjoying academic and extracurricular facilities. Read more about Breakthrough in the Chestnut Hill Local here!
GFS welcomes GMM to attend Meeting for Worship during the school year. Schedule for upcoming week:
Wonder how Quakerism is taught in GFS? In a school where only a small minority of children come from already-Quaker families, how do they learn about Quaker principles and practices? Obviously, all students attend weekly Meeting for Worship (to which GMM is warmly invited to attend). But that is more.
An article, “Continuing Revelation,” in the current issue of The GFS Bulletin, tells the story of how the faculty embeds Quakerism into learning, taught through instruction and practice, across all divisions, in age-appropriate ways - from the youngest learners to graduating seniors.
Prefer to read it in hard copy? There will be some copies available in the Office and on the counter in the Committee Room.
TAKE ACTION! |
When? Monthly – next meeting is Saturday, February 15 at 2 pm
Where? Seth Dunoff’s apartment on Greene St in Germantown.
What? GMM attender Seth Dunoff will host the second meeting of a new monthly reading / discussion group on the subject of technology.
The reading for this meeting is chapter 1 of science journalist Moises Velasquez-Manoff’s 2012 book An Epidemic of Absence, about the sudden emergence of autoimmune diseases, which seem to follow closely behind industrialization, urbanization, and modernization no matter where on the planet they occur.
This book is included on the Global Autoimmune Institute’s list of “Books We Love” in the About Autoimmune Disease section, and those of you who know Seth may be able to guess some of the ways he has drawn inspiration from it.
The purpose of the project is to begin to formalize an anti-technology political movement.
If you are interested in attending the meeting, have any questions, or would like a PDF copy of the reading, please email Seth at seth.dunoff@gmail.com.
Join one of the ACLU's Know Your Rights Trainings to learn about your rights and understand how you can protect immigrant communities facing these escalating threats.
During the training you will learn how to:
When? Feb 10, 4:00pm ET; Feb 20, 8:00pm ET; March 2, 4:00pm ET; March 20, 8:00pm ET - Pick date that works for you
Advocating for the rights and needs of Philly public school kids--especially immigrant, LGBTQIA+, and Black & Brown children--is more important now than ever. FREE EVENT!
When? Wednesday, February 19, 7:00 - 9:00pm
Where? First United Methodist Church of Germantown (6001 Germantown Avenue) & livestreamed
POWER Interfaith is inviting us to share your story about how housing affordability has impacted you or your community at City Council Hearings. Remember that our testimonies will be as powerful as the number of people you talk to.
The testimony training dates are below. You only need to attend one. Please register ahead of time:
Monday, February 24th, 6-8 PM on zoom – Click here to register
OR
Thursday, February 27th, 6-8 PM on zoom – Click here to register
GMM Member Bruce Bekker shares with us two resources to consider –
– Click here for newsletter with free & pay options.
Per Bruce – More than enough to keep us busy!
This week school districts across the country have been sharing information about how to deal with ICE interrogations.
Here in Philadelphia an email went out; in Denver, students were sent home with red cards and resource packets. A red card is a pocket-sized slip of paper explaining what to do (available in various languages) on one side, and the other side (you can show to police or an immigration officer) citing the 4th and 5th amendment rights.
Red card, Side 1:
1) Do not open the door for immigration agents
2) Do not answer any questions
3) Do not sign anything
4) Give this card to the agent
The other side cites (in English) our 4th & 5th amendment rights to the immigration officer (the right to deny entry to the home and the right to remain silent).
Here is the link to the website - for free printable PDFs of the Red Card in many languages, and you can also order cards in bulk.
Some other important information to share is that an “immigration warrant” signed by an “immigration judge” is NOT a warrant that allows them to enter the house, you do NOT have to let them in.
More resources from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC):
JOIN THE VIGIL with FRIDAYS AT FETTERMAN’S
When? Every Friday from 11:15 – 12:15pm **
** Note new time; an hour earlier in 2025 to make it possible for Muslim allies to attend and still be able to attend Friday
worship and prayer services in the early afternoon
Where? In front of Senator Fetterman’s office (230 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia)
What? Join together with people committed to a Middle East peace solution to urge Senator Fetterman to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Fridays @ Fetterman’s is supported by the AFSC, Brandywine Peace Community, Granny Peace Brigade, IfNotNowPhilly, Prayers for Peace Alliance, the Simple Way and The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Phila. Branch.
GERMANTOWN & PHILADELPHIA |
Following the tradition of our beloved Penny Colgan-Davis, Library volunteers and reading buddies are needed for our John B. Kelly Elementary School in Germantown.
ROAD CLOSURES & SEPTA ALERTS ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY 🏈
In anticipation of celebrations & crowds following Sunday’s Super Bowl game between the Philadelphia Eagles & Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia has announced some road closures & SEPTA transit alerts. FLY EAGLES FLY!!
QUAKER RESOURCES |
Stay connected with news, work and resources of various Friends groups. Bookmark them for easy reference
Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting (PQM)
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM)
Friends General Conference (FGC)
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)