Spiritual State of the Meeting Report 2024 Downingtown Friends Meeting
Third Month Meeting for Business 3/30/2025
The deepening of spirituality at Downingtown Friends has been noticeable. This has been due in part to the lessening of pandemic fears, but it is also due to the leadership of the Pastoral Care and Worship & Ministry Committees as well as this periodic re-examination of our spiritual life. We have begun having our various committees occupy our facing benches on a monthly basis. This reminds us all of the work that is being done and the importance of individual participation.
Participation in meeting for worship has returned to pre-pandemic levels. While many people stopped attending meeting for worship during the pandemic we are now welcoming old and new members and attenders. We have recognized the importance of having someone greet people as they arrive for meeting for worship. This assignment is shared by members of the Pastoral Care and Worship & Ministry Committees.
One of the most heartening developments of 2024 has been the presence of young families and the number of children in our Firstday School classes. Many of these families helped with the installation of our new playground equipment. Having involvement from all age groups is important for Meeting as an organization but it is essential for our spiritual balance and clarity.
During the school year our Firstday worship begins with a half-hour program. Once per month the program has been devoted to someone sharing their spiritual journey and what brought them to Quakerism. These presentations have been well attended and bring us closer together.
We have also invited George Schaefer to present his Quakerism 101 classes after meeting for worship. He gave his first three classes in the fall of 2024. These were all well attended and formed the foundation of a proposed day-long retreat to be held early in 2025. George has agreed to give his remaining three classes in the fall of 2025.
Meeting members and attenders continue to participate in four small group activities: Friendly Bible Study, Power of Eight, the Sewing Group, and the Book Group. The Sewing Group has been meeting in person weekly. The others have continued to meet virtually since the start of the pandemic with the exception of the Book Group’s session for poetry reading in December. Friendly Bible Study and Power of Eight have a few participants from other meetings.
Our meeting frequently holds activities after meeting for worship. During the school year we gather monthly for cooperative luncheons we lovingly call Eating Meeting. We also gather for extended coffee hours and occasional Brown Bag (ie, bring your own lunch) discussion groups.
We mark the end of the school year and we honor our graduating students at our Eating Meeting in June. This is our annual Ice Cream Social and it continues to be a yearly highlight. It is a time for all generations to gather and mingle outdoors while enjoying tasty homemade frozen treats.
We continued with our cooperative dinners once a month during the first three months of the year. We gathered in small groups for food and fellowship, getting to know one another better. Several of our new attenders participated.
Our Friends Fall Festival raises money for local charities and other charities with which Meeting members are involved. It brings all ages together and also serves as a community outreach.
At the end of the year, for the first time since the pandemic, we gathered in the Meetinghouse for our traditional Candlelight Christmas Program. Music, song, and readings were provided by members of all ages and were followed by short time of quiet reflection on the meaning of the season. Afterwards, we shared goodies and fellowship in the schoolhouse.
Our Caln Quarter and PYM representatives keep us informed of opportunities to join with our wider Quaker community. Participating in Caln Quarterly Meeting’s
gathering at Camp Swatara each year provides opportunities for all age groups to meet new people in the Quarter and to strengthen bonds with current friends.
Several of our members are actively involved with PYM.
Our meeting came together to write its own land acknowledgement, stating that Downingtown Meeting stands on the land of the Lenni Lenape. In order to turn our words into actions and continue our commitment to the environment, members performed a spring cleanup of the stream that borders our graveyard.
The Young Friends group has always been an important part of our meeting. When the Yearly Meeting called for teen representatives to come together, one young member joined the process.
Our meeting participates with several groups in Downingtown and the wider community. We are part of the Downingtown Ministerium, a group of local churches. We participated in their activities but did not host any during the year. We are part of the Interfaith Action Community which includes many faith practices within Chester County. This group regularly comes together with the goal of broadening knowledge and understanding of each other. We are also a member of POWER Interfaith, a grassroots organization that unites individuals and organizations in Pennsylvania to advocate racial and economic justice.
Our meeting values putting our testimonies into action. We routinely hold vigils in front of our meeting house to promote Black Lives Matter and our testimony on peace. On a monthly basis we prepare and serve a Sunday dinner at a local church partnering with the
Salvation Army. We also made a financial contribution to Right Sharing of World Resources with donations made during our annual Stone Soup Meal.
Members volunteer at Good Works, a local program which helps repair and restore homes for people in need. We regularly donate gift cards to Good Samaritan Services, a local agency that aids single mothers and their children who had experienced homelessness. This year our meeting joined with Yearly Meeting’s Friends Ending Gun Violence initiative. This led to the creation of a Memorial to the Lost, a display of tee-shirts each representing a Chester County resident whose life was ended by gun violence.
Respectfully submitted by,
The Ad Hoc Committee for the Spiritual State of the Meeting Report
Alison Frysinger
Susan Kelley
John Macaulay
