Families and children

We welcome families with children! Visit our Families & Children page and our page on Religious Education for Children.

Social hour

Every Sunday after meeting for worship, the community gathers across the hall from the meeting room in what's called the Cherry Street Room for refreshments and a time of socializing. Announcement are also made at this time.

Special topic gatherings. Sometimes, one of our committees will host a gathering on a particular topic in one of the side rooms off the Cherry Street Room during this time.

Chat and Chew. Membership Care Committee occasionally hosts a Chat and Chew, in which cards with topics for discussion are scattered on tables in the Cherry Street Room, and folks are invited to discuss the topic as they eat their refreshments.

Fellowship events

Membership Care Committee also organizes other gatherings throughout the year designed to nurture the meeting’s fellowship. Historically, this has included

• Twelfth Month Dinner, a holiday potluck in December.
• Meeting Weekend, a family-oriented weekend meeting retreat.
• Spring Picnic held annualy at the meeting’s burial ground.

Quaker 8s, informal gatherings of eight people at members’ homes for some refreshment and socializing.

Committees

Membership Care Committee provides pastoral care to our members and attenders and seeks to nurture community life in other ways.

Conflict in the meeting

In any community, conflict will sometimes arise between members and/or between members and the meeting. Notwithstanding these occasional difficulties, we are usually a loving and caring community, and we want to use that love and care to heal any differences that may come up.

Therefore, we hope that, if you have a difficulty with some other member of the meeting or with the meeting itself, you will come to Membership Care Committee with your concern and work with us to heal the rift. This commitment to stay engaged with tenderness and integrity when conflict arises is an important part of our covenant with each other as members one of another. It is our faith that, when we meet each other in the spirit of love, we can heal our hurts. We Friends have some tools that we find work pretty well toward this end, at least some of the time.

But none of us are perfect, and neither is the meeting. As with some marriages, sometimes the best thing is to separate. With sadness, we release those who wish to find a new spiritual home. And with tenderness, we may require that someone leave, if they threaten other members or the safety and well-being of the community. This has not happened in recent memory, but Membership Care Committee does carry with appropriate seriousness the charge to protect the fellowship of the community.