News

By Elizabeth Baltaro My grandfather pulled the car up in front of huge stone building. The front steps of the building were covered with teenagers about my age. I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. It was the end of June in 1997, and I had come all the way from Oklahoma City to…

by David M. Butler, Friends Historical Society, 1999, 2 volumes, paperbound, $85. Reviewed by Barbara Rosen, Storrs Monthly Meeting Is it a reference duo? A coffee-table extravaganza? A work of scholarship that tells us more about meeting houses than we want to know? None of the above. The Quaker Meeting Houses of Britain is a…

Amesbury Monthly Meeting is the northernmost meeting in Massachusetts, active since the 17th century for all but a short period in the late 1970s. It helped other meetings get started and was the location for the Salem Quarterly meeting from 1851-1962. It is best known as the meeting of the famous poet and social activist,…

Nestled in a grove of trees in the town of Easton is one of the most important historic structures in Maryland’s history, the Third Haven Meeting House. This large frame building-the oldest structure known to survive in the state- was constructed in 1682 near the headwaters of Tred Avon Creek to serve the Third Haven…

By Deborah Fisch Most people driving on Highway 59 in the northwest corner of Iowa never notice the white, wooden building sitting by the road south of Primghar. And unless they are from the area, those that do notice it would never guess that the unassuming building is a place of worship. For nearly 20…

By Mary Kay Glazer, Rochester Monthly Meeting It has been about six months since Rochester Friends moved into their new meeting house, and in that time the look of the faces worshipping has changed almost as dramatically as the building itself. Each week brings new people, and now the sunlit meeting room that once seemed…

By Marsha Holliday As a home-away-from home, a meetinghouse can be a tremendous asset in working with Quaker youth. Your child’s first best move away from the family, however defined, is to your meetinghouse. In the safety and comfort of their own meetinghouse, even young children can cook dinner with their First Day School class,…

by David Morse Storrs Friends Meeting had been wishing for larger quarters- for the same reasons that prompt many meetings to expand. Our building was too small to accommodate large gatherings such as weddings and memorial services; it was unfriendly to children, and inaccessible to the handicapped. After years of mostly vague talk, we began…

Friends General Conference Young Quakes Conference at Catoctin Quaker Camp from October 9-11, 1999 was an overwhelming success. Comments on our evaluation forms concerning “What didn’t you like?” Had primarily to do with too much rain and mud. Comments about “What could have been improved?” reported “it could have been longer.” Out of 88 Friends…

Walking Gently Over the Earth at Penn Center by Penny Wright Walking Gently Over the Earth at Penn CenterPowder fine dun sandAlabaster chunks of shellsSlippery russet melange of pine needles and live oak leavesPrickly pitchy pine cones, semi gnawed by squirrelsScattered whisps of pretend-green Spanish mossHop scotch splotches of warm sunBaby breath breezes stirring the…

Reviewed by Peg and Nils Pearson A well researched and fascinating history of Quakers from the founding up to 1914, James Walvin looks primarily at the financial and business successes of Quakers, how they achieved it and what it brought with it. The book examines the role and influence that groups of Quakers came to…

by Deborah Fisch My mom has a habit of collecting little things for my sister and me and storing them in cardboard boxes until we come for a visit and can take them home. A typical box might include: old towels for cutting into rags, extra cans of food, treasures we or she saved when…