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And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. Luke 2:1-20.

How can we make our meetings a sturdy, central pillar around which we can build a unique and healing experience week after week? We must take individual responsibility for the success of our corporate worship. We all share in this responsibility, through silence or through the spoken word.

Be diligent in attendance at meetings and in inward preparation for them. Prepare for meeting by calming the mind as soon as one wakes up.

Newspapers and T.V. are the antithesis of what usually calms the mind and spirit in preparation for meeting. Unnecessary leaving and returning during Meeting for Worship often disturbs the worship of others. Be open to the transformation of the group into a clear channel for the Spirit to become

the living center of our worship. The Dynamics of an Unprogrammed Meeting for Worship, by Mary R. Hopkins.

Queries, from Faith and Practice: Am I ready to offer assistance as part of my religious community serving its members? Am I equally willing to accept graciously the help of others? Do I recognize and face disagreements and other situations that put me in conflict with others? Do I manifest a spirit ready to give or receive forgiveness? Do I treat adults and children alike with respect and without condescension? Is my manner with visitors and attenders to my Meeting one of welcome?

Christmas breakfast.

Meeting for Worship and carol sing.

Jayne Stokes

Childrenís First Day School classes will meet only on the first Sunday (December 3) this month. Our next session of classes will start on January 7.

Adult FDS is open to high school students as well as adults.

December 3: The Historic Jesus. Part two of a two-part talk by Kenneth Blackwell of Yardley Meeting.

December 10: Simple Gifts. Our annual celebration of the season. Create gifts and decorations, sing along to Christmas carols and listen to a story.

December 17: Family Sunday. Please join us for carol singing at the rise of Meeting.

December 24 and 31: Extended coffee hour. Child care will be available.

The Meeting says a huge gigantic thank you to Kimberly Drago, Erin Riddle, and John Sheffield, for their contribution to the appearance foyer, with its beautiful new bulletin board covers!

A thank you also to Property Committee for cleaning out the basement of many years of discarded broken" treasures."

Therese Barringer

The Service Committee of HFS is always looking for projects that both Meeting and School can work on together. Aside from the on-going food collection, and the popular Mitten & Glove tree, we came up last year with the idea of a "Giving Tree." It was a great success so we will be doing it again this year.

This Thanksgiving week, a tree will be placed in the Meeting House Foyer. Hanging from this tree will be approximately 100 cards. Each card will have the name, age and size of a deserving child and the description of something this child would really like to receive from Santa Claus.

Responding to comments from HFS parents and Meeting members, some wish lists are very specific, on other cards there is a choice, so look at several cards before deciding which childís wishes you would like to fulfill. If there are several items on a card you are free to purchase one or more of them. Items on the wish list will vary in price. If the item on the wish list is clothing, the size will be clearly marked.

School and Meeting members who would like to make a difference in a childís Christmas should:

1 pick a card from the tree,

2 buy the gift and wrap it,

3 stick the note card back on the box (firmly attached so there is no confusion) and

4 place the wrapped, labeled gift under the tree.

For safety reasons, and to avoid any temptations to take a package home, the gifts will be collected every day and put in a safe place until delivery. Hopefully all the cards will be picked up and the gifts delivered the week school gets out for Christmas vacation.

I hope this project is as much of a success as it was last year. If you had seen the many happy little faces at the Christmas party at New Visions in Camden (one of our sources for names) you would understand how important your generosity is. Many of these families are in a difficult financial situation because the main wage earner is out of work due to serious illness or downsizing of companies. Sometimes the main wage earner has abandoned the family. Poverty is almost never a chosen lifestyle. But the children still need a little comfort and joy in their lives.

The same tree will also be used to collect mittens, gloves and scarves. These items must be new. School and Meeting families can place their gifts on the tree, making sure the gift cards donít get lost or hidden. These gifts will be delivered just before Christmas to the Sacred Heart Church in Camden.

Another wonderful opportunity to share your generosity! Sorry these demands on your purse are all coming at the same time. We'll give you a break soon!

Bonnie Smith

The Second Graders at Haddonfield Friends School are excited about many different kinds of activities! Their daily Writing and Reading Workshops are filled with poetry, the works of great authors and illustrators, writerís notebook entries, personal stories and memoirs. They collect rocks, observe schoolyard birds and wildlife and find wonder in all treasures from nature. They follow the weather and the news. They try to solve their conflicts peacefully. Second Graders are also people who are concerned about people, especially people who need help and prayers.

For several years the Second Graders at HFS have participated in a service project that benefits families with a member suffering from aids. The children do jobs at home to earn a few dollars during

the first few weeks of November. Then they walk to the Haddonfield Acme with parent volunteers to shop for groceries which get packaged into boxes for the family they are sponsoring through the Aids Coalition of Southern New Jersey. The Second Graders decided not to have a special holiday feast at school, but to help someone experiencing difficult times instead.

This year, for the first time, the entire school community participated in this worthy project! Many children in classes throughout the school did jobs at home such as washing dishes, setting the table,

taking out trash, raking leaves etc. The money collected was used to buy food.

Older HFS students partner with younger students for various activities. Together the partnering classes sponsored one family. They made decisions about grocery shopping, making cards and decorations, and packing the food boxes. With extra donations of food and money, and the generous help of many parent and staff volunteers with shopping, packing and delivering food boxes, we made

Thanksgiving a little more special for seven families this year. At the same time, we were reminded how rewarding it is to work together with our older and younger student partners throughout the year.

The Aids Coalition of Southern New Jersey provides Thanksgiving food baskets for about 250 families with the help of various individuals and groups like HFS. If you would like more information please contact the school (856 429-6786), or ACSNJ (856 933-9500) directly.

If you would like more information about HFS Second Graders please call the school to set up a time to come visit us! You are always welcome.

By Nancy L. Bieber

submitted by Flora McKinney

A Quaker meeting at worship is more than a collection of individuals sitting in expectant openness to the presence. It is an ongoing community, a unique entity whose character affects the persons who are there. How close and supportive this community is deeply influences the worship as well as the spiritual growth of both individuals and the Meeting as a whole.

Many years ago Quaker monthly meetings easily grew into close-knit communities. Quakers of the same Meeting lived fairly close together, did business with each other, visited and socialized together. Their many contacts with each other outside meeting for worship brought them into companionship, a real Friend-ship. They knew each other in ways both difficult and blessed, and far more deeply than those of us can who only see each other at meeting for worship.

Today many of us find that our Quaker contacts take place primarily at Meeting events. We have good friends who are not Quaker. When we shop, do business, or go to our jobs, we are probably not surrounded by the persons we worship with.

Perhaps we need to examine how well we really know the persons we worship with. Is their opportunity to share the struggles and joys of our spiritual journeys with each other? Do we feel comfortable enough with each other to do so? Are we truly formed into a close, mutually supportive community? For a Meeting to be a true spiritual home, a spiritual belonging place I believe one needs to belong to at least one small group within the larger community. We need to belong to a group where we will be missed when we are absent and where we feel truly needed.

Flora McKinney

The Irish Quakers used a verb in their letter of greeting to a Conference: "May your Meetings be ëpresencedí by the Spirit of the Lord." May we each one continue to hold the Meeting, committees and families in the "light", and at high noon each day may we be "presenced" by the Spirit.

Connie Brookes

Pendle Hill is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Steve Baumgartner, Pendle Hillís new Executive Director, has sent us a letter asking that all Friends consider a special contribution to Pendle Hill this year.

These are highlights from Steveís letter: "Pendle Hill offers a place for contemplation, intellectual inquiry, physical labor and community through its many lectures, weekend conferences and weeklong courses. We are now trying to expand opportunities for young adult Friends leadership development through summer internships, community service opportunities and social justice witness. All this, of course, is in addition to the many pamphlets and books published and used by dozens of Friends Meetings and read by thousands.

Steve Baumgartnerís complete letter is posted on the bulletin board.

Harley Williams

This summer I read a wonderful book by Walter Wink called Engaging the Powers. In his book Wink tries to make sense of the language in the New Testament about powers and principalities and elemental spirits of the universe. While admitting that they were then thought of as astral deities, whose influence ranged from malign to incompetently beneficent, he noted that in the New Testament they were to some extent identified with existing human institutions, such as nations, or the Roman empire. They were thought of as having independent spiritual reality. Wink argues for such a reality, perhaps not with the same literalness as Paul and other New Testament authors, but insisting that institutions do take on, or have, a kind of spiritual reality beyond mere metaphor. He also notes that such powers are, at the same time, though in varying proportions, good (as part of Godís creation), fallen (also as part of Godís creation), and in the process of redemption.

In addition to writing about the powers, Winkís view of Jesus, which was summarized in Borg, is particularly interesting from a Quaker perspective. He insists that Jesus utilized and taught creative non-violence. He locates him in the impoverished world of Galilean peasantry losing a fight to Romans and Romanized Jews, slowly being reduced from freeholders to landless peasants and serfs. He interprets several of Jesusí parables and sayings as encouraging an insouciant non-violent defiance of such powers, which could not, and should not, be fought with violence. Thus, Wink suggests that Jesusí saying, "and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well" (Matt. 5:40) reflects the reality of a peasant who has had to borrow against his coat. After the debtor canít repay the debt, the creditor causes the coat to be forfeited to himself in some sort of court proceeding. Jesus suggests one response to this injustice and cruelty be that the debtor strip himself naked, handing over his only other garment, to the presumed embarrassment of the creditor and the court! Again, Wink interprets Jesusí directive to "turn the other cheek", as a kind of silent defiance ("silent insolence" in the military). Focusing on the exact words, "if anyone strike you on the right cheek, turn the other also" as necessarily involving a back-handed slap, the kind a superior would give to a servant or inferior, rather than a straightforward punch from an equal. Hence, turning the other cheek was a kind of defiance, rendering the intended humiliation of no effect. Winkís discussion is far more extensive than the above two examples, and is well worth examining.

In the last part of his book, Wink combines his analysis of good, fallen, and redeemable powers with Jesusí encouragement of creative non-violence as a way to overcome institutionalized evil in the world. He discusses the use of creative non-violence in India by Gandhi, by Martin Luther King in the South, by opponents of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and by black South Africans against the apartheid regime, and contrasts the success rate of such methods (he admits they are not uniformly successful) with the success rate of violent opposition to oppression and injustice. I highly recommend the book.

Jean Landis presented the quarterly financial report as attached. The Meeting expressed appreciation for Jeanís work on this report.

Pat Williams reported for the Ad Hoc Committee for School Policy, Operation and Commitment. The Ad Hoc Committee discussed the role of School Committee. School Committee handles policy issues such as sick day policy, tuition remission and the revised discipline policy. They recommended School Committee work with Paul Shallers on a job description for the Headmaster.

Also discussed was whether or not Meeting families are treated differently in the school than non-Meeting families. This moved to a discussion on the limits of the School Committeeís authority. The Ad Hoc committee agreed that it would be helpful for School Committee to develop comprehensive guidelines. The Ad Hoc Committee also concluded that it was appropriate for Overseers to be involved with issues that affect the life of the Meeting including issues that arise between Meeting members and the school or School Committee. The Ad Hoc Committee also talked about some minor small claims lawsuits. These lawsuits were settled before any court action was taken. We agreed that School Committee, if they remain within their budget, be responsible for these actions. Other potential suits involving greater liability will be directed to Business Meeting.

Harold Heritage reported on the ongoing effort for assisted listening in the Meeting. A quote has been received and will be investigated.

We approved releasing $1478.00 from the Fund for Conscience to Priscilla Adamsí attorneys.

We received a letter from Julianne Baird and Edward Mauger requesting marriage under the care of the Meeting. Overseers will contact the couple to confirm their request and report back in December.

(by Harley Williams, for Raneen Banerji, for Steve Berryhill - itís a long story)

The Committee met November 12, 2000. We again discussed adding a four room extension on top of the existing pre-K wing in the lower building, noting that such an extension would constitute the bare minimum needed for the 7th and 8th grade expansion to go forward. We noted that a slight expansion of the existing footprint, to accommodate a required elevator and stairwell, would be necessary, but did not think that would be a problem.

We also noted that even with the addition of these 4 rooms, the school would still need more room, and decided at our next meeting to look at additional alternatives for expansion on Meeting property. We plan to invite the clerk of the Structure Committee's Facilities Subcommittee to come talk to us about the options considered by that subcommittee. We also decided that each of us would keep an eye out for suitable property on sale near the Meeting grounds, while recognizing that the likelihood of such property materializing was low.

We did discuss costs. We noted that the original Phase I of the Structure Committee report, which would have also resulted in 4 new rooms, would have cost about $750,000, while building 4 new rooms above the existing pre-k wing will cost about $1,050,000, with additional monies needed for the elevator and stairwell.

We hope to have the Structure Committee plans available at our next meeting.

As in our first meeting, this meeting was not well-attended. We again raise this as a concern, and urge anyone with an interest to attend.

Next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, December 3, at 11:15 AM, at the Meeting house.

Anna Kamienska

trans. David Curzon and Grazyna Drabik

He stood wrapped in air

he said like an angel do not be afraid

then he announced something in a language

which I didnít comprehend

Lord how much we donít understand of the most

important things

then I remained alone.

No one can know

how lonely it is

when an angel departs

the world is then immense open and empty

and the voice cannot describe it

and no hand is friendly enough

words are all mute tied

From now on even an eternity

would be too short for expectation

From Table Prayer, by Keith Ratzlaff. Submitted by Judy Kruger.

Give us

your grace, which is like

these pickles, which are like

last yearís,

God-awful and abundant

world without end. Amen.