Pennsdale Meeting

Location: 443 Village Road, Pennsdale, PA 17756

Time of Worship: 11:00 AM Sundays; 7:00 PM Wednesdays

Adult discussion: phone for schedule

Phone: Mary Engel—570-322-4283

Email: keller@lycoming.edu

Map to Meeting

To reach Pennsdale from Williamsport or from I-80 on the east bank of the Susquehanna take I-180 to the Halls-Pennsdale exit. Turn east on US 220 and within a mile, look for a Y as you approach Pennsdale Village; bear left to the main street of Pennsdale. The meetinghouse is on a hill on your left. Meeting for worship starts at 11.

Penndale is one of the loveliest of the ancient meeting houses in Pennsylvania, lying well displayed along the hillside with the burial ground beyond. This meeting was, since early settlement just before 1800, a "Preparative Meeting" with a few other meetings who helped each other and collectively called themselves Muncy Meeting (but not in the boro of Muncy). In 1988 Pennsdale established itself as an independent, Monthly Meeting and has enjoyed growth since.

Penndale is perhaps more oriented toward the mystical tradition than are some meetings. There is usually midweek meeting at 7 on Wednesdays. (Please call Jane Keller at 321-9429 to make sure that worship is being held). Pennsdale members are also regular participants in a Friends worship group at the state prison for women at Muncy. A special event is the Christmas candle-lit carol singing held each year with Pennsdale village neighbors.

Clemency Project Notes

The Clemency Project

Initiated by Arthur Clark, who is a trustee of Pennsdale Meeting, the goal of the Clemency Project is to bring a worthy case before the Pardons Board. Our stated mission is “to enhance the administration of Executive clemency in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania through a system of Restorative Justice that promotes the healing of the victim, the offender and the community.”

The project is being developed to answer these three questions:

1. How can the trauma experienced by the victim, the offender and the community best be addressed?

2. How can public safety best be assured?

3. How can the Commonwealth and the community best be served?

Under the Ridge Administration and through a statewide referendum, the composition of the Pardons Board was changed several years ago to make clemency more difficult to obtain. The lawyer was replaced by a victim’s advocate, and the majority vote required for granting a pardon was changed to a unanimous vote for murder cases. It is necessary to note that one member of the Board is the lieutenant governor, effectively giving him veto power over any decision.

In the last five years, not a single person has been granted clemency. Since taking office in January of 1995, Governor Ridge had not granted either a pardon or a sentence commutation to any inmate in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The Pardons Board has been effectively shut down. Since a life sentence in Pennsylvania literally means a life spent in prison, the work of the Pardons Board is essential in overturning the miscarriages of justice that do occur. In this state, both first and second degree murder carry a life sentence. Many persons who were only peripherally involved with a murder are therefore serving life in prison.

The Clemency Project is working to find an inmate and a victim who are willing to work together to take the inmate’s case before the Pardons Board. Being committed to Restorative Justice, a Model Committee has been established to develop ways for the victim and the offender to work together to heal the trauma of the episode. If this healing sufficiently occurs, they will then jointly apply to the Board of Pardons. The Model Committee also plans to establish a Support Group who can help the inmate and victim through this often arduous and stress-filled process.

We are working with the Department of Corrections with this endeavor. The inmates’ liaison to the Pardons Board is a member of the Model Committee. Members of the Clemency Project Committee have met with prison officials and the Superintendent of the State Department of Corrections to keep them informed and gain their cooperation.

The Model Committee continues to address the issues of dealing appropriately with both the inmate and the victim in order to ensure healing for all. It is necessary not to raise false hope for the inmate or to cause additional trauma for the victim. For that reason, the process must be a slow and careful one. The Model Committee meets monthly and is planning a day-long session on the 23rd of October. The Working Group is an oversight committee and now includes Friends from North Branch, Millville, State College, Wellsboro and Pennsdale Meetings, specifically Herb Quick, Wally Williams, Garry Wamser, Olivia Ott, Greg Smith, Karen Frock, Pat Martin and Jane Keller. This group meets every few months as need arises.

Jane C. Keller

Academic Resource Center

Box 167 Lycoming College

Williamsport, PA 17701

570-321-4392

keller@lycoming.edu