Reading Monthly Mee�ng, 108 North Sixth Street, Reading, PA - www.readingfriendsmee�ng.org

Prayer for Our Community:

O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us. May all that we do flow from

our deep connection with you and all beings. Help us become a community that vulnerably shares each

other’s burdens and the weight of glory. Listen to our hearts’ longings for the healing of our world.

[Please add your own intentions.] . . . Knowing you are hearing us better than we are speaking, we offer

these prayers in all the holy names of God, amen.

RMM Member a!ends FCNL Lobby Day and

Pendle Hill Retreat

Blair Seitz, clerk of Peace and Social Concerns Com-

mi�ee a�ended two PSC Concerns related 4-day ses-

sions in November and December 2019. Here are his

thoughts.

FCNL Lobby Day At FCNL's confab held at a church and

hotel close to the Capitol, two experiences were out-

standing for me. First, on lobby day, about 30 of us from

PA met with Senators Toomey and Casey. A prior

mee0ng of FCNL delegates had designated persons to

tell stories about "endless war" and another to do the

"ask," which was to support the bills (SJ Res.13) to repeal

the 2001-02 AUMF war authoriza0on bill which gave the

White House a blank check to ini0ate war. Presidents

have used AUMF to be at war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Soma-

lia, Libya, Syria and Yemen, for example.

The second highlight for me was ge<ng to know the

eight newly appointed FCNL young adult staffers who

noted their backgrounds and passion for jus0ce in

speeches given on Friday and Saturday evenings. From

across the country the mixed ethnic group showed

remarkable enthusiasm and clarity sharing prior work

with other social change groups.

Over 400 a�ended the Washington DC annual FCNL

mee0ng, November 14-17, 2019.

Pendle Hill's Quaker Ins�tute, "Prac�cing our Quaker

Heritage of Mys�cism and Resistance." The Pendle Hill

weekend brought together ten experienced peace ac0v-

ists/mys0cism workers including Amanda Kemp, Ingrid

Lakey and Dan Snyder. Each had a keynote lecture or

were on panel discussions and all of us par0cipated in

discussions in smaller groups. . One speech that stood

(con�nued on page 3)

RMM Calendar

We meet each Sunday for worship, beginning with

Opening Exercises at 10am and worship at 10:15.

Children leave for First Day School at 10:30am.

Tuesday, 1/21 Peace and Social Concerns Commi�ee

meets in the Penn Room at 7pm. Blair Seitz, contact

Thursday, 1/23 Worship and Ministry commi�ee meets at

6:30pm in the Penn Room. Chris Field, contact

Sunday, 1/26 PYM Threshing Session on membership at

Haddonfield Mee0ng, NJ RSVP

Monday, 1/27 Friendly Readers, 6:30pm-8:30pm meet in

the Penn Room to discuss The King Years: Historic Mo-

ments in the Civil Rights Movement by Taylor Branch

Wednesday, 1/29 Friendly CraIers meet at the home of

Judy Bohne, 1-4pm.

Sunday, 2/2 Potluck lunch follows Mee0ng for Worship

Monday, 2/3 Berks Peace Community, 7pm

Wednesday, 2/5 6:30-8:30pm A program on black history

month, hosted by Jennifer Hanf at the mee0nghouse

Sunday, 2/9 Mee0ng for Business follows Mee0ng for

Worship

Sunday, 2/16 Caln Quarterly Mee0ng at Harrisburg

Mee0ng, 9:30 - 3pm

Looking Ahead:

Spring Con0nuing Sessions, 3/28 Wes�own School

FGC Gathering, 6/28-7/4 Radford U., Radford, VA

Annual Sessions, 7/29-8/2 The College of NJ, Ewing, NJ

2

Notes of the Reading Monthly Mee�ng for Worship

with A!en�on to Business—Sunday, January 12, 2020

Janet Lamborn, clerk

Jim Lamborn, recording clerk

16 Friends present

Agenda approved. December minutes approved as

corrected. Treasurer, Ann Bodnyk, presented a pre-

liminary report for 2019 which was accepted. She said

she received many nice holiday gree0ngs along with

giIs from friends including the Birdsalls, Judy Geiser,

David Leonard in memory of his parents and Jim Hall.

Jim said he is a�ending a worship group in his com-

munity, under the care of the Orlando Monthly

Mee0ng.

Looking ahead, Ann noted that two major expenses

for us will be resealing the back parking lot and

pain0ng the outside of the 6th Street Mee0nghouse.

Worship Sharing

Janet Lamborn, clerk, led us in considering the que-

ry: What opportuni0es are provided to address topics

important to deepening both personal spiritual jour-

neys of members and the spiritual life of the mee0ng?

On a personal level, a Friend spoke of her prac0ce of

keep a gratefulness journal and making daily entries.

On the spiritual life of the mee0ng, a Friend urged us

to be aware and appreciate the many avenues for

spiritual growth that are available to us within the

mee0ng, i.e. forums, the Potluck, Friendly Reading

Group, Swatara, Opening Exercises.

What next for Adult Study?

The 9am Sunday Adult Study Group has completed

its study of the Gospel of John and is searching for a

new topic. One friend suggested it could be a 0me for

singing and music. Whatever topic is chosen, Friends

would like this group to con0nue. Worship & Ministry

agreed it would consider the ma�er. This ques0on

brought up other concerns. Should we return to an

11am service as it was many years ago? Should there

be forums in the aIernoon as there used to be?

Should we con0nue Opening Exercises? Again, Wor-

ship and Ministry agreed to explore these ques0ons.

Shall we Do Dinner?

Jeanne Elberfeld and Charlie Gilbert of Care and

Concern Commi�ee suggested that we once again

schedule a Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Night. The

last one was 5 or 6 years ago and only about half of

the mee0ng par0cipated.

Events like this are wonderful ways to build the

health of our community by giving us opportuni0es to

know each other be�er. People agree to be a host

who provides the entrée or a guest who brings a side

dish. No one knows un0l that evening who is coming

to dinner. This used to be a Spring event.

Friends said this could be a dinner or a lunch.

Groups could be formed but let the members of the

group decide when and where they will meet. A group

could meet more than once a year, perhaps orga-

nized around an ac0vity or topic of interest.

A Kind Offer

Pa�y Jackson offered to prepare a memorial minute

for Elizabeth Lamborn who died in May 2019. Her

offer was gratefully accepted by the Mee0ng

Air Quality

Jim Lamborn, clerk of the House Commi�ee, report-

ed that our new HEPA air filters will not run on 0mers

as we had hoped. To run them full 0me would cost

the Mee0ng $105 a year. Friends agreed to this ex-

pense with the understanding that we evaluate the

filters’ effec0veness at a later date.

Commi!ee Reports

Blair Seitz of Peace and Social Concerns Commi�ee

thanked the Mee0ng for the use of the Mee0nghouse

for the program on public banking held January 6. 30

people a�ended, of which 10 were Friends.

Jeanne Elberfeld gave an update on planning for

Swatara weekend 2020. The theme will center on

Outreach. Barry Crossno of Friends General Confer-

ence will be the plenary speaker. The new “Pay As

You Are Led” program worked well in 2019 and will be

repeated in 2020. The weekend may be opened to

PYM Friends. - Bonnie Knutsen

Exeter is planning to have their Christmas program on Saturday, Dec 21, beginning

All

The adult discussion con0nues to take place at 9:45 am prior to worship. The topic is

Exeter Mee�ng welcomes a new treasurer, Nick

Bentley. The Mee0ng thanks Gerald Smith for his

many years of service in this posi0on.

* * * * *

Rebecca Ross, ar�st, has a solo exhibi0on at Clayton

on Main, an ar0sts’ coopera0ve, in Oley, PA. It runs

through February 16. The show focuses on a group

of figura0ve, religious oil pastels as well as a series of

yantras, Pennsylvania German hex symbols and crop

circle geometry.

Becky holds a B.F.A. in art from the U of Nebraska

and a M.F.A. in pain0ng and drawing from James

Madison University in VA. She has an art studio in

the GoggleWorks.

* * * * *

Happy Birthday to Jean Pedersen (2/6), Heather Ehr-

lich (2/7), Phil Bohne (2/8), Bonnie Knutsen (2/9) and

Taylor Lamborn (2/11).

RMM Member A!ends Pendle Hill Retreat

(con�nued from page 1)

out to me was Dan Snyder's, "Inward Ac0vism and

Outward Prayer." Snyder used quotes from many non-

violent pillars like Rumi, "This being human is a guest

house, Every morning a new arrival..., and Gandi,

"Prayer is my greatest weapon." and Walter Wink,

"What is at stake is a ver0ble revolu0on in our God-

images. Nothing could be more crucial, because our

images of God Create us."

The climax of the program with stories and laughter

on Saturday evening when Ingrid Lakey (and others)

told about the more than 200 ac0ons which finally

persuaded PNC bank to stop financing mountaintop

mining in West Virginia.

The best part of the 4-day experience was learning to

know deeply many other Quakers involved in social

change with a spiritual grounding. --Blair Seitz

The Cookie-Making Extravaganza

held December 17 filled our mee0ng

house with folks busy baking, deco-

ra0ng, talking, ea0ng and just plain

having fun.

It came about as an inspira0on to

combine Outreach commi�ee's desire

for a community holiday party, our

Family Promise commitment for U-

Turn in December, and the exper0se

of our tradi0onal Quaker cookie-

bakers in need of decorators and eat-

ers.

Thanks to cookie experts Jean,

Sarah, and Cys; to meal providers:

Pa�y, Chris, Beth,, Jinchun, Gilberts,

and to Youyi, Charlie, Blair, Janet, Judy

B. and former Friends who showed up

to help. Judy coordinated with Family

Promise to successfully invite U-Turn

teens and some “graduates".

Altogether there were about 20

Quakers and 20 folks from U-Turn, all

talking and working together.

In a public thank you aIerwards,

Elise Chesson, execu0ve director of

Family Promise, wrote:

" Teens were able to have fun, deco-

rate cookies, have hot chocolate, a

meal and even a gi.. ...Some�mes our

teens just need some �me to be a kid!"

The giIs we gave, $25 giI cards to a

variety of local venues and many bus

passes, will be much appreciated in

the coming months. A big thanks to all

of you for these giI dona0ons!

- Judy Ballinger

Making Cookies, Making Friends

4

Please join us for worship at 10am at 6th Street Mee0nghouse. We are an unprogrammed mee0ng and a member of

Caln Quarter and Philadelphia Yearly Mee0ng. Contact the mee0ng at 610-372-5345. Learn about us at our web site,

www.readingfriendsmee�ng.org.

The Reading Monthly Mee0ng Newsle�er is published at our website and in print 10 0mes a year by the Communica-

0ons Commi�ee. Send news for the newsle�er to Bonnie Knutsen at bknutsen@ptd.net. Submit address, telephone or

Email changes to Carl Knutsen at webagent@readingfriendsmee�ng.org.

Clerk of Mee0ng: Janet Lamborn Mailing Address: PO Box 148

Treasurer: Ann Bodnyk Kutztown, PA 19530-0148

Clerk of Trustees: Pat Jackson

Christmas Tea …. Good Music, Good Food, Good Fellowship