Volunteers, Non-Profits, Crafts Vendors Needed! The 21st Annual Peace Fair of Bucks Quarterly Meeting will take place on Saturday, September 18, 2021, at Buckingham Friends Meetinghouse in Lahaska, just south of Peddlers Village. Up to 100 booths of local crafts, artwork, food, games, animals and Bucks area non-profits whose focus is peace, community service, healthy living and the environment. Browse the book sale and listen to entertainers like the Tookany Creek bluegrass band, River Drivers and kids’ songster Ecoman. Hear Bucks and Montgomery County poet laureates at the Poetry Reading or tour the Buckingham Quaker Meetinghouse, a National Landmark. The fair runs from 10:30am until 4:00pm and is handicap accessible. The suggested donation is $2 and parking is free. Local residents from toddlers to seniors will enjoy a delightful, engaging and uplifting day among the giant oaks and maples at the Peace Fair.
Peace and Social Action
Let’s Talk with Matthew van Meter
Following on our April 22 ‘Let’s Talk About Deep Delta Justice’ session, Moorestown Friends Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee welcomes our member Matthew van Meter to continue the conversation of his compelling book, the historic Supreme Court case Duncan v. Louisiana, and its implications for anti-racism efforts today. The book is available through Pendle Hill and numerous other outlets. Click here to join the discussion, or phone 646-558-8656 and use meeting ID 815 8781 6369.
Alternatives to Violence Project Basic Workshop
Have you curiosity about increasing your skills in peaceful living and practicing effective transformation of conflict for yourself and others? I invite you to check the Alternatives to Violence Project website www.avpusa.org and to sign up for a series of sessions composing the basic level of the Alternatives to Violence Project. Since South Central Penn AVP facilitators are holding our first virtual workshop, we want to break up our usual two consecutive days-long workshop into six 3-hour sessions. We will hold the sessions on Friday evening and Saturday morning (to accommodate work schedules) over 3 consecutive weeks.
The attached invitation lists the dates beginning Fri. May 7 and ending Sat. May 22. We plan to have a generous sprinkling of breaks and what we call Light and Livelies to recharge energy and relieve sitting. We will begin with some basic tips for using tools on the zoom platform such as “chat,” name change, mute/unmute functions, so that you are comfortable participating. Our IT guy will be ever present and happy to assist.
Since it is our fledgling virtual meeting, we are scheduling the first 20 participants who express interest in signing up. Those others who respond after the first 20 will be on the waitlist. If the workshop is full, those on the waitlist will be notified of a subsequent Basic Workshop. We will send a link to the May workshop at the end of April.
We are suggesting a donation of $50 for the 6 sessions (or we invite you to pay what works for you).
A Brief Introduction to Black History
Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting will include a presentation on Black History, featuring Dr. Teresa Nance. Friends are invited to participate, with worship starting at 10 AM, followed by the program at 11 AM.
Nance is currently serving as the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Chief Diversity Officer at Villanova University. Her office has launched a new campaign called Living Race—Transforming Community that focuses on organizational systemic change and high-impact community engagement to facilitate opportunities for Black and minoritized students, staff and faculty to succeed and thrive within the University. She has ties with both Swarthmore and Central Philadelphia Monthly Meetings. Please see the PYM Stories about Dr. Nance for additional information.
Pre-registration is required; zoom information will be sent on Saturday, 4/24 to those who have pre-registered. Link: https://www.southjerseyquakers.org/quarterly-mtg-4-25/
Let’s Talk About Deep Delta Justice
Join Moorestown Friends Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee as we read and discuss our member Matthew van Meter’s book about life, politics and civil rights in the 1960s – and the landmark civil rights decision of Duncan v. Louisiana. Matthew, a journalist and activist (Shakespeare in Prison), did extensive research to create an account of “how grassroots heroism can topple even one of segregation’s most fearsome tyrants.” The book is available through Pendle Hill and numerous other outlets. Click here to join the discussion, or phone 646-558-8656 and use meeting ID 873 3565 8140. And save the date: Matthew joins us Thursday, May 13, at 7:30pm, to discuss his work.
Pathways to Ending Gun Violence: Legislative Solutions
The annual workshop of the Legislative Policy Collaborative of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting will be a virtual event, featuring a keynote address by Peter Murchison, a member of Wilton Friends Meeting (CT) whose nephew was one of the first graders killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School eight years ago. There will also be a panel discussion of local activists on gun control, breakout rooms to share ideas and lobby training by a staff member of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). Join us for this exciting and timely event!
Find Your Representative | house.gov
Register
Let’s Talk About Equity in Education
Join Moorestown Friends Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee for a conversation with Quinton Law and Harry Lewis, leaders of Moorestown Alumni for Racial Equity & Inclusion (MAREI). MAREI formed in the aftermath of a teach-in on racism in Moorestown schools held last spring. (That teach-in was organized by a group that included two young Quakers.) MAREI developed a detailed Call to Action recommending specific steps schools can take to promote equity and inclusion, and are working with the board of education, New Jersey Legislature and others to implement meaningful action. Click here to join the discussion, or phone 646-558-8656 and use meeting ID 815 8781 6369.
Let’s Talk About Incarceration, Justice and Crime
Moorestown Friends Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee invites you to read and discuss this essay by Reginald Dwayne Betts, a poet, lawyer and ex-convict whose mother survived a violent crime, and worked to put her attacker in prison. Betts brings an important, multi-layered and eloquent perspective to questions of crime, punishment and race in America today. Click here to join the conversation on Thursday, March 25 at 7:30 pm, or phone 646-558-8656 and use meeting #873 3565 8140.
If the link above doesn’t work, copy this URL and paste into your internet browser to read the essay: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/magazine/kamala-harris-crime-prison.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article.
If the link for the meeting doesn’t work, copy and paste this URL to join the conversation: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87335658140.
Let’s Talk About Incarceration, Justice and Crime
Moorestown Friends Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee welcomes you to read and discuss this essay by Reginald Dwayne Betts, a poet, lawyer and ex-convict whose mother survived a violent crime, and worked to put her attacker in prison. Betts brings an important, multi-layered and eloquent perspective to questions of crime, punishment and race in America today. Click here to join the conversation, or phone 646-558-8656 and use meeting #873 3565 8140.
Let’s Talk with a Local Quaker Activist
Boaz Matlack, a criminal justice activist and former Camp Dark Waters counselor, joins Moorestown Friends Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee for a conversation about working with law enforcement, school districts, F/friends and neighbors to address racial justice issues in our communities. Click here to join the conversation on Thursday, March 11 at 7:30 pm, or phone 646-558-8656 and use meeting #815 8781 6369.