Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Ps. 104: 1-5

Walking Gently on the Earth (from Faith and Practice, p. 81)

We recognize that the well-being of the earth is a fundamental spiritual concern. From the beginning, it was through the wonders of nature that people saw God. Our planet as a whole, not just the small parts of it in our immediate custody, requires our responsible attention.

As Friend's become aware of interconnectedness of all life on this planet and the devastation caused by neglect on any part of it, we have become more willing to extend our sense of community to encompass all living things. We must now consider we should lay aside the belief that we humans are acting as stewards of the natural world, and instead view human action as the major threat to the ecosystem.

Friends are indeed called to walk gently on the earth. Wasteful and extravagant consumption is a major cause of the destruction of the environment The right sharing of the world's remaining resources requires that developed nations reduce their present level so that people in underdeveloped nations can have more, and the earth's life- sustaining systems can be restored. The world cannot tolerate indefinitely the present rate of consumption by technologically developed nations.

Friends are called to become models and patterns of simple living and concern for the earth.

Query 10, from Faith and Practice:

1 0. Stewardship of the Environment

Is the Meeting concerned that human interaction with nature be responsible, guided by a reverence for life and a sense of the splendor of Godís continuing creation?

Are the decisions of the Meeting and its committees relating to the uses of property, goods, services, and energy made with sensitivity toward the environmental impact of those choices?

How does our Meeting learn about environmental concerns and then act in the community on its concerns?

How am I helping to develop a social, economic, and political system which will nurture an environment which sustains and enriches life for all?

Am I aware of the place of water, air, and soil in my life? Do I consider with care the necessity of purchasing substances hazardous to the environment? Do I act as a faithful steward of the environment in the use and disposal of such hazardous substances?

Do I choose with care the use of technology and devices that truly simplify and add quality to my life without adding an undue burden to essential resources?

Saturday, May 5, at the School:

HFS Play Day

Jayne Stokes

We are coming to the end of another year of First Day School. The children will continue to meet at 10:20 on May 6th and 13th for their classes. Closing exercises are the 20th. We will have spiritual drumming, led by Rose Ketterer and then a short ceremony to honor the children and teachers.

May 6: A representative of Partners for Environmental Quality will speak to us. PEQ is a faith-based environmental coalition that is working to promote cleaner energy production, energy conservation and stewardship of the environment.

May 13: Theresa Fitzgibbons of PYM will talk about the Ballistic Missile Defense System (Star Wars). Faith & Practice meets in the library.

May 20: Closing exercises for First Day School. At rise of meeting, Rose Ketterer will lead us in drumming (bring something shake or beat), then we will have closing exercises with presentations of Bibles and Faith & Practice. Please join us to honor our children and First Day School teachers.

The quality of our business decisions depend on the trust and respect we have for one another within our community. Just as we have chosen to worship together by waiting for and listening to each other's light, our business decisions depend on that same openness to one another's light. It is our shared experience of the spirit, both in meetings for worship and for business, that will pave the way in our search for Truth. Let us recognize that each of our contributions may contain something of the light that will help the Group find unity.

Aimee Mizuno

I am a student at Wellesley and am interested in doing some tutoring starting in mid-May. My strongest subjects are English, social studies, and Japanese language. E-mail me at amizuno@wellesley.edu and/or call my parents, Kitty and Takashi Mizuno.

Harold Heritage

When you come to the place where the branch in the road is quite apparent, you cannot go ahead. You must go either one way or the other. For now if you go straight ahead, the way you went before

you reached the branch, you will go nowhere. The whole purpose in coming this far was to decide which branch you will take now. The way no longer matters. It can no longer serve. No one who reaches this far can make the wrong decision, although he/she can delay. And there is no part of the journey that seems more hopeless and futile than standing where the road branches, and not deciding on which way to go. It is but the first few steps along the right way that seem hard, for you have chosen, although you may still think that you can go back and make the other choice. This is not so.

A Course in Miracles/477

This is the sight of my last dance. Won't you travel with me on "the Path with Heart" Don't walk in front of me, I might not follow; Don't walk behind me, I might not lead; Walk beside me and be

my friend. (Camus) We have much to do together. Let us do it in wisdom and love and joy. Let us make this the human experience. (Zukav) FAREWELL

Lost Haddonfield by Douglas Rauschenberger

This history of Haddonfield, rich in pictures, contains considerable information on Friends Meeting houses, school and cemetery.

1999-2000 Yearbook

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's annual reports, financial statements, membership statistics, and minutes of 1999 annual sessions

Comprehensive listing of yearly meeting staff, committees and programs, Meetings and Meetinghouses, Friends Counseling Service, Friends schools and colleges, retirement facilities, Friends organizations, minutes of March 2000 sessions, and addresses of those holding office in Monthly and Quarterly Meetings.

by Eknath Easwaran

This biography of the Muslim holy man known as the 'Frontier Gandhi' is the portrait of a charismatic pacifist Muslim who led the Pathans of India and Pakistan in a nonviolent resistance to British rule.

This 12 minute video tape produced by the AFSC is the story of two sisters who were deeply concerned about the suffering in Iraq and decided to so something about it. Using art as their medium, their campaign asks people around the world to design a message to the President about their concern. Inspires and teaches young people that they can make a difference.

Something for Peace, by Thomas Waring

The true, vivid, and inspiring story of a Quaker conscientious objector during World War II

Spiritual Passages: Embracing Life's Sacred Journey, Drew Leder

Opportunities for personal growth and a deeper understanding of self and spirit increase as we experience each stage of life. By using illustrative stories from history, mythology, and literature, philosopher/scholar Drew Leder guides us through the crossroads of our journey. Following each narrative are thought-provoking techniques for integrating the lessons into daily life.

Why Christianity Must Change or Die, John S. Spong

This respected voice for liberal American Christianity sounds a rousing call for a Christianity based on critical thought rather than blind faith, on love rather than judgment, and that focuses on life more than religion.

Dan Tompkins

What does it mean for a school to be "under the care of the meeting"? What is "separate incorporation"? In an effort to get a clearer sense of what these terms mean, I have sought the counsel of Quaker educators. I received a number of interesting responses, and was particularly interested in what Tom Hoopes and Tom Farquhar had to say.

Tom Hoopes is known to many of us as the Coordinator of Education Programs at Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; Tom Farquhar is Head of Westtown Friends School. Both have had to wrestle with these topics for some time, and both can talk knowledgeably about what separate incorporation means in practice. Clearly, one justification for separate incorporation is to protect a meeting. Equally clearly, a school can be separately incorporated and remain under the care of a meeting.

With their permission, we are reprinting both of their contributions here. I think their comments will help Meeting members focus on the best choices for us to make.

Tom Farquhar, Head

Westtown School

A response to an inquiry from Dan Tompkins:

For several years in the 1990s, I served as Clerk of the Membership Committee of the Friends Council on Education. We surveyed about 78 American Friends schools about their governance structure. We expected the boards of these schools to be majority Quaker, although there is a special membership criterion for Friends-Council-member schools where Quakers are in a minority on the board. For this last group of schools to remain members in good standing, they must periodically host a visitation from the Friends Council Membership Committee which will examine the Quaker dimension of the school (Only one school is in this category at this time, I believe).

About half of all Friends Council schools, as I recall, would call themselves "under the care of" meetings-monthly, quarterly, or yearly. There were several definitions of "under the care of" at work in various schools. In some school communities, separate legal incorporation was believed to be the defining threshold a school crossed when it became no longer "under the care of" its meeting. Baltimore Friends School crossed this threshold in the 1980s, after a good deal of discussion.

Of course there are Friends schools that have been "independent" of meetings throughout their history, or at least their history in modern times: Friends Central, Penn Charter, and Sidwell Friends are examples, and all maintain Quaker majorities on their boards.

At other schools, separate incorporation has been in place since the school's founding, and yet they believe they are under the care of one or more meetings. For example, Sandy Spring Friends School is jointly under the care of Sandy Spring Meeting and Baltimore Yearly Meeting. And it is separately incorporated.

In cases like this, "under the care of the meeting" has a precise, formal meaning: it means that the meeting nominating committee(s) approves the Quaker members of the board majority, usually selecting names that are submitted by the school board nominating committee. Normally the school will make an annual report to the meeting(s).

Although the issue of independent incorporation has been a hot topic in Friends education in recent years, most new Friends schools are independently incorporated (about one per year).

What is being discussed in many school/meeting communities are the advantages of separate incorporation, often with the preservation of an "under the care of" relationship like that sketched out above between Sandy Spring Friends School and its monthly and yearly meetings. What are those advantages?

1. Separate legal incorporation permits the financial resources of the school to be "owned" by the board, not by the meeting. This may offer a greater level of protection from eminent-domain seizure of the property, and permits the board to take responsibility for complex property management decisions, like open-space covenants, etc.

2. Separate legal incorporation clarifies the financial statements of the school and the meeting. Some accounting firms strongly suggest that the meeting include the school's financial affairs in its audited financial statements. This is a nightmare for the meeting and for the school.

3. Separate legal incorporation can protect both the meeting and the school from liability exposure.

What lies in the future for a Friends school? I believe that the schools cannot thrive indefinitely, as Friends schools, without the creativity, inspiration, and support of some practicing Quakers among their students, teachers, administrators, parents, board members, and alumni. The central questions are how or whether the Society of Friends will support the schools that have been established in its name, and how or whether these schools will embrace a mission that carries out into the world the good news of unprogrammed meeting for worship, that of God in every person, and the values that flow from these discoveries: equality, community, simplicity, environmental sensitivity, rigorous self-discipline, and peace (or non-violent responses to conflict).

Tom Hoopes

Coordinator of Education Programs

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Dear Friends:

1) There is appropriate reason for confusion on this topic. The phrase "under the care of" is handed down to us from centuries of Quaker tradition, before a distinction was made between spiritual nurture/oversight on the one hand and fiduciary responsibility/authority on the other. We have come to a place where we, as Quakers, need to clarify what we mean by these words, because -- as you all know quite well -- these 2 dimensions have very different scopes of consequence. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting plans to thresh this topic at its annual gathering in July, 2001. Hopefully they (we) will shed some light on it, and perhaps even make a decision that will be helpful for the world of Friends education in general. (It would be nice, wouldn't it, if we all agreed what we meant with this terminology?)

2) As several people have pointed out in this discussion, there are a variety of configurations of relationships between Friends schools and the Quakers who sponsor/support them. Each school is unique in this regard. Here in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, we have the following relationships of schools to Meetings:

a) Under the Spiritual and Fiduciary Care of a Monthly Meeting -- In this arrangement, the Meeting owns the school, and therefore oversees the School Committee and ministers to the spiritual life of the school community. (e.g., Goshen Friends School, Haddonfield Friends School, Friends School Haverford)

b) Under the Spiritual and Fiduciary Care of the Yearly Meeting -- In this arrangement, the Yearly Meeting owns the school, and it names the majority of the School Committee members. The School Committee, in turn, has oversight for the fiduciary and spiritual life of the school. (e.g., Westtown and George School)

c) Under the Spiritual Care of a Monthly Meeting, but Separately Incorporated -- In this arrangement, the school is its own entity (usually a 501(c)(3) corporation), but its By-laws explicitly stipulate a governance role for a particular Meeting community. The By-laws may allow the school to invite other Quakers than those who belong to the local Meeting to participate on the Board. Indeed, this is usually the case in this configuration. (e.g., Plymouth Meeting Friends School, Newtown Friends School, Moorestown Friends School)

d) Under the Spiritual Care of a Quarterly Meeting, or multiple Monthly Meetings, and Separately Incorporated -- In this arrangement, the school is a separate entity, and its By-Laws stipulate a certain number of Board appointments for members of certain Meetings in the same geographic region. The Board reports to its constituent Meetings, who in turn provide spiritual oversight and support to the school. (e.g., Orchard Friends School, Delaware Valley Friends School, United Friends School)

e) Independent -- This configuration features a Quaker-majority Board of Trustees, but no formal relationship to a specific Quaker Meeting community. (e.g., William Penn Charter School, Friends Central, Friends School Mullica Hill)

3) Historically there are two formal groups that have overseen the concern of what constitutes a Friends school: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) and Friends Council on Education (FCE). Our two organizations are committed to working collaboratively, so that we can maximize the impact of our work and minimize confusion. Nonetheless, the confusion surrounding the issue of 50% versus 51% Quaker Board membership stems from the membership criteria of the two organizations. That is, PYM has maintained a stipulation of 51%, whereas FCE requires 50%. (Note: I am not speaking for FCE here. FCE has its own membership committee and criteria, which may provide an "alternate route" for membership that does not require 50% Quaker Board membership.) Since John Woolman School is not in PYM, our criteria don't apply there - John Woolman's identity as a Friends school is a function of its membership in FCE. But since more than half of the Quaker schools in the country are in the PYM area, PYM's criteria do come into play in those cases.

4) PYM is in the process of working with FCE to convene a Task Group to revise the 1986 PYM publication, "Handbook for School Committee Members." We look forward to developing and producing the new "Governance Handbook for Friends Schools" during the coming year. Indeed, we have developed a draft Table of Contents for this publication, which is being circulated to PYM Heads and School Committee Clerks at this time. We hope that we make a useful contribution to Friends education with this publication. I expect to communicate with E-Quakes on this topic again soon, to solicit your collective wisdom on this project. Input is welcome.

Yours in Faith and in Practice,

Tom

Monthly Meeting was held April 20. Nominating Committeeís annual report was presented. Several corrections were made before it was approved. New members on committees will begin in May.

Overseers reported on membership.

Shayna Riddleís membership was given final approval. She will be welcomed in the usual manner.

Thomas Henskenís transfer of membership to Moorestown meeting was approved.

Two memberships were approved and will be held over a month. They are Allister Dodgson Blossfeld and John (Jake) McGloughlin.

Memberships for Benjamin Smith Niyibizi and Beatrice Smith Niyibizi were requested by their mother, Ann Smith. These were approved.

Property Committee reported that Haddonfield Historical Society asked it to display the Elizabeth Haddon chairs. There are ten of them, four sit on the facing bench level. Much needs to be known. Property Committee will continue to study the question.

The School reported that by 2002-3 they will be out of classroom space. After much discussion and making a list of all suggestions, it was decided to ask the Ad Hoc Property Committee to reconvene and evaluate the list. The discussion, with the list, as reported in the minutes, follows.

David Marshall looked into the conflict between religious and sporting activities on Sunday morning. He was encouraged to proceed with the suggestions he had received.

Tony Scilipoti

A few jays stay,

Prepared to out-steel

The closing scrim of sky.

Otherwise, all the blue,

Yellow, red primary

Birds are away with friends.

Defensive, puffed like a huge

Sparrow, a brown hawk

Allows snow to collect.

Soon, an inescapable

Breath will swell and loft

It south, too.

It's a shaded, schematic beauty:

Only the plainest-dressed

- Woodpecker, nuthatch, crow -

Could fail to tilt the landscape.

Still, the woodpecker hides

That brilliant red cockade.

Rupert Brooke

In the grey tumult of these after years

Oft silence falls; the incessant wranglers part;

And less-than-echoes of remembered tears

Hush all the loud confusion of the heart;

And a shade, through the toss'd ranks of mirth and crying

Hungers, and pains, and each dull passionate mood, --

Quite lost, and all but all forgot, undying,

Comes back the ecstasy of your quietude.

So a poor ghost, beside his misty streams,

Is haunted by strange doubts, evasive dreams,

Hints of a pre- Lethean life, of men,

Stars, rocks, and flesh, things unintelligible,

And light on waving grass, he knows not when,

And feet that ran, but where, he cannot tell.