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After this Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate; and when any man had a suit to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him, and say, "From what city are you?" And when he said, "Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel," Absalom would say to him, "See, your claims are good and right; but there is no man deputed by the king to hear you." Absalom said moreover, "Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a suit or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice." And whenever a man came near to do obeisance to him, he would put out his hand, and take hold of him, and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment; so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. II Samuel 15:1-6.

from Faith and Practice

from Query 1, Part 2, p. 206

Do I faithfully attend meeting with heart and mind prepared for worship, clear of any predetermination to speak or not to speak, and expecting that worship will be a source of strength and guidance? Does worship deepen my relationship with God, increase my faithfulness, and refresh and renew my daily life, both inwardly and in my relationship with others? Have I experienced in worship that direct leading to listen or to speak, and have I been faithful to my own experience?

The primary doctrine of the Society of Friends declares that the Presence of God is felt at the apex of the human soul and that man can therefore know and heed God directly, without any intermediary in the form of church, priest, sacrament, or sacred book. As present in man, God is both immanent and transcendent: immanent because He is not mechanically operating on man from without but sharing in his life; transcendent, for the Divine Life extends infinitely out beyond and above all human life. Many figures of speech are used to designate this Divine Presence which as immanent in man is personal, and as transcendent, is superpersonal. It is a "Light," a "Power," a "Word," a "Seed of the Kingdom." God dwells in man to guide him and transform him into the likeness of His Son. Manís endeavor should be to merge his will with the Divine Will, as far as he is able to comprehend it, and by obedience to become an instrument through which Godís power works upon the world. To seek such a goal is to seek to be an embodiment of the Divine Life through unity with it. In this search manís life acquires unity and purpose. Howard Brinton, 1948

Monthly Meeting for Business, at the Meetinghouse.

Jayne Stokes

This is a special year for First Day School in our Meeting. We have 101 children connected with our Meeting, whether members or attenders, and we want to reach out to as many as we can. To this end, the Religious Education Committee applied for and received a grant from PYM to hire a coordinator for First Day School. Susan Tucker has accepted this challenge. She is, with PYMís religious education committee, to develop a curriculum and coordinate with teachers, and will be making sure classes run smoothly each week.

Classes will be organized into three sessions, with the first session starting September 24th and running through December 3rd. The children will be learning about the Bible during this session. No FDS classes will be held for children on the third Sunday of each month, but they will have supervised activities on those days. Each class will begin at 11:15 with a childrenís singalong in the auditorium, then they will proceed to their classes at 11:30. The children will learn a new song or hymn each month, which they will share with us on Family Sundays. Classes will end at 12:30.

The adult offerings will have some changes as well. Faith & Practice, a reading/discussion group that uses PYMís Faith & Practice as a text, will meet the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month in the library. Once every three months, there will be an Inquirersí class for newcomers that will answer some basic questions about Quakerism. The first of these classes will be held on October 29th.

For the rest of the adult classes this year, we need to hear from you. Enclosed with this newsletter is a questionnaire about preferences in adult programming. Please take a few minutes to fill it out and return it by mail or place it in the religious ed. mail bin in the foyer. Adult FDS will begin on September 24th with a panel discussion of Spiritual Paths and Journeys.

September 10: Pizza Party kick-off for high school-aged Friends. Auditorium, 7:30 pm.

September 17: First Day School kick-off. Come make a joyful noise unto the Lord! Many cultures around the world use drums as part of their spiritual life. Join Rose Ketterer as she leads us in a celebration of the spirit. Families are encouraged to bring or make their own drums. (Some suggestions: old pots or pans, coffee cans, plastic milk jugs with rice or dried beans inside. Be creative!). An intergenerational activity designed to get our First Day School year off to a bang.

September 24: Classes begin.

What is the Quaker faith? It is not a tidy package of words which you can capture at any given time and then repeat weekly at a worship service. It is an experience of discovery which starts the discoverer on a journey which is life-long. Elise Boulding

What has been your experience or journey of faith? Join us in a discussion of spiritual journeys.

Faith & Practice will meet in the library.

Finally, for children who are unable to attend First Day School, home study plans can be provided. Contact Flora McKinney.

Harriet Hitch

Thomas H. Jeavons, General Secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, will speak at the Princeton Meetinghouse, 470 Quaker Rd., Princeton, N.J. on Sunday, September 17, at 7 P.M. on the topic "The Spiritual Meaning of Money." Thom is the author of the

recent book Growing Giver's Hearts: Treating Fundraising as Ministry (Jossey-Bass, 2000), a study of how fundraising practices can be spiritually nurturing for donors to religious institutions. He is a well-known authority on religious nonprofit organizations and is currently a visiting fellow at the Yale University Program on Nonprofit Organizations. Thom is also the General Secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Dessert will be served after Thom's talk, while Janet Palumbo plays on the harpsichord. All are welcome.

Please join us on Saturday, September 23 from 4:00-7:00 pm at the Mount Holly Friends Meetinghouse (High & Garden Sts., Mt. Holly) for our Second Apple Festival. Featured will be Coles Roberts' homemade ice-cream and baked goods, music, childrens' games and entertainment, an apple pie contest, antiques appraisals, tours of the historic Meetinghouse, and crafts. Also, there will be featured speakers on gardening topics: " Landscaping with Perennials"(4:30); " Roses" (5:30) and " Community Gardens"(6: 15). The Plant Doctor will also be on hand at 5:00 to offer advice on your ailing plants. Tickets include all activities and are $4 for adults and $2 for children 16 and under. Please call (609)267 -8996 for ticket reservations, to register for the apple pie contest or for information on the Festival in general.

Samaritan Hospice urgently needs volunteers to visit terminally ill patients in their homes. We provide comfort and care to local residents and are holding a free volunteer training course. The training course will be held at St. Andrews Methodist Church, Route 70, Cherry Hill. These sessions will be held Mondays starting September 18 and ending November 13 from 10 AM to Noon, but skipping October 9. To register or for information, please call Ann King in the Volunteer Department at (800)229-8183.

For Your Information:

In the event of a death, please call someone on the Memorial/Cemetery Committee. They will ask you the date for the funeral. Other things discussed may include the name of an undertaker (although you may use anyone you wish), gravestones (where to purchase and what type of stone), reception (usually held after the memorial service in the auditorium) and who you would like to sit on the facing benches (especially who would you want to open and close the meeting.) The committee has several procedures, so please contact one of them BEFORE you make definite plans.

The Memorial/Cemetery Committee members are: Janet Pilvalis-clerk, Mable Hinds, Mary Pharo, Merritt Pharo, Deedy Roberts, Karin Sannwald, Ceil McFadden and Lyle Tatum.

We have beautiful weather now, if you would like to reserve a grave, please call Janet Pilvalis. Often we can meet directly after meeting to walk the graveyard and make choices.

Several months ago, a new telephone was installed in the office. It is a telephone/answering machine unit. Designated members check the answering machine and respond to messages as needed. You are certainly welcome to make a local phone call; however, we kindly request you DO NOT record a greeting, listen to, and/or erase messages. Please discuss this concern with all members of your family, little ones included. If you have questions please call Janet Pilvalis or Cheryl Sarlo - Overseers.

Please check for accuracy and make corrections on the Newsletter mailing list and our Member/Attender lists. Both are in the foyer and will remain available there for the next few weeks. Please initial any accurate entries so we know you are satisfied.

1. Remove film from box and load camera.

2. Remove film box from puppy's mouth and throw in trash.

3. Remove puppy from trash and brush coffee grounds from muzzle.

4. Choose a suitable background for photo.

5. Mount camera on tripod and focus.

6. Find puppy and take dirty sock from mouth.

7. Place puppy in pre-focused spot and return to camera.

8. Forget about spot and crawl after puppy on knees.

9. Focus with one hand and fend off puppy with other hand.

10. Get tissue and clean nose print from lens.

11. Put cat outside and put peroxide on the scratch on puppy's nose.

13. Put magazines back on coffee table.

14. Try to get puppy's attention by squeaking toy over your head.

15. Replace your glasses and check camera for damage.

16. Jump up in time to grab puppy and say, "No, outside! No, outside!"

17. Clean up mess.

18. Sit back in chair with lemonade and resolve to teach puppy "sit" and "stay" the first thing in the morning.

Janara Naurizbaeva (Janara is from Taraz, Kazakhstan, and is the exchange daughter of Pat and Harley Williams. She is currently attending Bryn Mawr College as a junior.)

This past summer I attended the year 2000 International Student Symposium on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Brussels, Belgium and the Hague, the Netherlands. The Symposium was organized by the Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution (IIMCR) in cooperation with Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and attempted to provide a group of over hundred students with the tools that would enable them to resolve conflict and secure peace, democracy and economic growth in the future. Having convened for the fifth year, the symposium hosted graduate and undergraduate students from over 30 countries. Everyday interaction with students from Rwanda scarred by the 1994 genocide, the former Yugoslavia, the totalitarian leader of which still fosters ethnic hatred, Georgia, a country with a history of ethnic squabbles with Armenia over Abkhazia, as well as students who lived and worked in Kashmir, Burundi and Bosnia taught us the major premises of peaceful co-existence, open-mindedness and tolerance.

Conflict can be positive and promote development through posing challenges, overcoming which leads to growth. Conflict turns negative when it involves violence. Major efforts should, therefore, be taken to promote an attitude of non-violence. This approach proposes incorporating elements of non-violence into educational systems, thus taking action long before conflicts start at all. Many communities in todayís world have already developed effective mechanisms for resolving conflicts that arise in our everyday lives. Yet there are still many places in the world where hundreds of human lives are lost to violence, and immediate action should be taken to contain and subdue those conflicts.

During the last couple of decades, the world has witnessed more conflicts than any other time in the 20th century. The ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, the long-protracted conflict in Kashmir, the on-going conflict in Burundi, the re-emergent fight for independence in Chechnya are only a few on the list of current conflicts. Conflicts arise easily but are very difficult to settle. It takes a long time to resolve them: months, often years pass before communities that have been torn by mutual hatred can live in peace again. Sometimes it is crucial that a third party steps in order to encourage and enable disputing sides to resolve their differences. Often the outcome of peace negotiations depends on how skillful mediators are. Mediation skills along with negotiation techniques were taught by various speakers of the Symposium.

The program included lectures and simulations of negotiations and mediations by journalists, current and former diplomats, and conflict resolution specialists. Symposium speakers represented a wide range of institutions from international organizations such as the UN, NATO, the European Union (EU), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the World Bank, and non-governmental organizations (NGOís) such as the International Crisis Group and the Carter Center, which have participated in resolving some of the worldís most intransigent conflicts. They discussed the difficulties of working in the field of conflict resolution yet acknowledged their rewarding and fulfilling experiences. According to many of them, violent conflict is not inevitable, and can be avoided through constructive dialogue and preventive diplomacy.

The Symposium was primarily intended to teach students mediation and negotiation skills necessary to address the on-going and looming conflicts requiring immediate action. Yet there is still a greater need for developing a comprehensive educational program that would teach non-violence throughout the world, and thus prevent conflicts from escalating into violence at all.

Some American colleges are promoting such studies now. My major in Bryn Mawr is peace and Conflict Studies, and at the Symposium I found several other students attending American colleges taking similar courses.

I am glad that at last educational institutions are teaching courses that reflect and try to implement the fundamental teaching of Christianity (peace be with you), Judaism (shalom aleichem), and Islam (my own faith) (salaam aleykem).

Ceil McFadden

Many in Meeting may not have known Helena, a long-time member who died recently. Helena participated in an earlier incarnation of our Writers Group, where she shared some fine, witty essays. What impressed me most was her quiet writing out of spoken messages at meeting for Worship for the hearing-impaired F/friend she sat next to. Truly a writing exercise to remember and treasure!!

Essays by Judy Kruger and Ceil McFadden were included in those published in the Sunday Review/Community Voices section of the August 13, 2000 Philadelphia Inquirer, on the topic, "How Does Your Garden Make You Grow?" Copies are posted on the bulletin board.

Monthly Meeting for business was held August 13, 2000.

Barry DeSaw has received a grant from PYM to assist in the campaign for Sister Helen Prejeauneís nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Anyone able to contribute some time in helping Barry is encouraged to call him.

John Morad reported on his trip to Mexico. Sponsored by PYM, John traveled to Mexico City, then to an energy conservation camp. At the camp he met and interacted with kids his own age. They then traveled to another town where they met more locals and helped to plant trees.

Pat Williams presented a very thorough report for the school expansion ad hoc committee on school policies. (See the article by her elsewhere in this newsletter.)

Frankford Meeting has sent a letter of transfer for John & Kathleen Donch to Haddonfield Meeting. We approved their transfer; David Marshall and Flora McKinney will visit them.

Janet Pilvalis reported for Overseers. Over this year theyíve managed to contact members whoíve not contributed to the Meeting either financially or by their participation for the past two years or more. Of all contacted, 18 members did not respond to several communications by Overseers. Following the guidelines set forth in Faith and Practice, Overseers recommends these members for release. We decided to hold final decision for release until next month.

The membership list and Newsletter mailing list should be corrected. (See "LIST" above).

Jean Landis & Steve Berryhill gave the annual Treasurerís report which was approved with much appreciation for their hard work.

Harold Heritage

Beyond our physical experience, mind and thought, there is a higher energy circulating through our body.

Our life's goal is to expand this energy within, so that we can perceive beyond what we are now, but we have to recognize this energy within us. We have to acknowledge ourselves as a part of the living spirit. No matter what we are physically, what imbalances we may suffer, what situations we have created, we are still part of the energy. If we recognize this and accept our intrinsic goodness and holiness, then the energy within us expands. -Wilde

The energy magnifies working through a group as a whole. Insight of the individual is checked and tested in the light. This energy is a source of unity within the group, and everyone everywhere.

This is the challenge.

The Christ is a symbol of the higher, finer energy circulating through our body , when we allow it. It is beyond our physical experience; beyond the mind and thought, called the "Christ Within" or the "Light Within" by the early Quakers.

By way of introduction-

The settlement of Newton and its state,

As then it was, and now, I do relate,

Because my knowledge thereof was most true;

As by what follows here doth plainly shew.

An introduction doth this work begin

Like silken clew for guide of strangers in,

That in time to come it may plainly be,

And they that know not, may be made to see.

The matters here contained, as thou may find,

Have been with pressure some year on my mind;

But now, at last, I have thought it well,

And to Posterity, itís good to tell.

Thomas Sharp

The 14th of ye 12th month, 1718

1681

In eighty-one, in Salem we did arrive,

At which time then the People began to thrive,

And had in store for to supply our want,

Which, otherwise, would have been rather scant.

If to Burlington had gone, as we were bound,

We should be lost and disadvantage found.

It would have been most surely unto us,

And must have pinched and punished ye purse,

Now being settled on this wise, I say,

The winter mild and nothing in the way,

We had ye advantage for to try and find,

A place that was agreeing to our mind.

After some time and labor spent, we agreed on

The Creek, ye seat and place now called Newton.

The persons yt thus had ye care to fix,

Did, in ye whole, amount to number six.

So in ye Spring we made our settlement,

And lived so as that we were content;

Although sometimes we were hard bestead,

Yet the Lord in kindness did afford us bread.

In Newton then there did shine

Some yt were zealous and divine;

They largely did with care provide

For those yt come from ye true guide,

To direct their minds to stand in truth,

They had received in they er youth;

Yet in a while some youth did show

That they in goodness did not grow.

But now poor Newton is decayed;

The youth not zealous, I am afraid,

Nor donít endeavor with ye care

Their forefathers took a larger share.

I shall be glad I live to see

Their zeal increased and better be,

And they endeavor to remove

By real action in true love;

Then I am in hopes ye case will mend,

And be better in ye end;

But, if they careless do remain,

Then will ensue both loss and pain.

The love I have yt they may come,

And with true drawings really won

And settle in ye lasting truth

Their forefathers set in their youth,

That in ye end they may obtain

That which will be their lasting gain,

And leave yt ardor unto theirs,

As did their fathers who are in their.