Meeting Schedule

Meetings for Worship:
Sunday at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. (September through June); 8:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. (July and August).

Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business: September through June - First Sunday of the month at 1 p.m.  The July/August meeting for 2013 was held on July 21st.

See bottom of page for address and directions.

DECEMBER 1 at Stony Run:

9:00 am    Financial Soundness Working Group, in the Double Classroom
9:15 am    Child care, until 12:15 pm, in the Roberts Room
9:30 am    Meeting for Worship, in the Meeting Room
10:30 am  Juice and time to visit, in the Library
10:35 am  Hymn singing, in the Meeting Room
11:00 am  Meeting for Worship, in the Meeting Room
11:20 am  First Day School Classes
12:00 pm  Simple Lunch, and BQP&J petition signing, in the Dining Room

Using Our Website

Please look over our website. We've added a login feature which will allow us to post information available only to authorized users. We invite Stony Run members and attenders to register on the site. Here's how:

  1. Fill out and submit the username / password request form.
  2. Within a few days the (volunteer) website administrator will create an account for you. You will receive an email with your username and password.

You'll then be able to log into the site and view, among other things, the online directory of names, addresses, and phone numbers! If you have any troubles with the registration process, please email webmaster@stonyrunfriends.org.

The Ministry and Counsel Committee wants to determine what new workshops and other activities our worship community thinks would be helpful. From the information we gather, we plan to work with members and attenders and with committees to design a two-year cycle of programs and activities that will focus on the spiritual growth of individuals and deepening the spiritual life and sense of community of the Meeting.

To help us determine what workshops and activities would be helpful, we are requesting that you complete a survey that we have developed. Please take the Ministry & Counsel Survey!

The library committee has given us a catalog of all their books so we can search for things! Take a look at the library page for more details. This was updated Sept. 2013.

Proposal from BYM Fundraising Working Group of Baltimore Monthly Meeting of Friends, Stony Run February 11, 2013:

Creation of a “BYM fundraising Working Group” (FWG) was approved at the September 9, 2012 Monthly Meeting “to examine the issue of cost of BYM’s fundraising as compared to the contributions income and to bring a report with recommended Stony Run Meeting’s response to this issue.” The FWG reviewed published material from Baltimore Year Meeting and drew from personal knowledge of BYM of FWG members. Click here to review the FWG's conclusions, completed in February 2013, accompanied by a proposed letter to be sent to BYM (you need to log in to the site for the link to work). An independent report of BYM's fundraising, called "The Colson Report", is also provided. Friends are invited to review these documents, which will be considered at Meeting for Worship With A Concern for Business on Sunday, March 3 at 1pm.

 

                        Food for Thought

"Each must determine in the light that is given what promotes and what hinders our compelling search for the Commonwealth of God.  The call to each is to abandon those things that clutter life and to press toward the goal unhampered.  This is true simplicity."

Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting, 1977 – from A Quaker Path to Simplicity, by Catherine Whitmire
 

Although Quaker homes of two or three hundred years ago had no paintings on the walls and although tunes were rarely sung and there was no dancing, life was not dull…When people seek simplicity for its own sake, it becomes severity and leads to dull, ugly lives.  But simplicity, beauty, and happiness go together if they are a by-product of a concern for something more important than ourselves.
Elise Boulding, in My Part in the Quaker Adventure

What's New at Stony Run

DETAILS OF EVENTS TODAY

Your signature will help us reach the goal of 500!  The Baltimore Quaker Peace & Justice Committee will have a petition at Simple Lunch today and on December 8, urging an end to prolonged solitary confinement in Maryland prisons.  We have 300 signatures already; when we have 500, we will take the list to the Governor's office to urge him to address this issue.  See the flyer (blue paper) in the hall for more information about why prolonged solitary confinement is such a destructive practice.

The Fells Point store of 10,000 Villages is holding a benefit today for Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma (ASTT) and will donate 10 percent of all sales to ASTT.  The Baltimore Quaker Peace & Justice Committee asks that you consider visiting the store today.  Located at 1621 Thames Street, it is open from 10 am to 6 pm.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Fridays, through December 13, 5-6 pm:  Vigils to press for an end to prolonged solitary confinement, in observance of Human Rights Day 2013 (December 10).  Join with the Baltimore Quaker Peace & Justice Committee to urge an end to this torturous practice, in vigils held in front of the Episcopal Cathedral, 4 E. University Parkway.  See the NRCAT flyer (blue paper) in the hall for more information.

Sunday, December 8, 9:15 am:  First Day Forum – Rachael Neill, Program Director of GEDCO CARES, will update us on CARES, Stadium Place and other GEDCO programs.  Friends are especially encouraged to bring donations for the CARES food bank on this day.  [Coffee/tea and bagels at 9:00]

Sunday, December 8, 1 pm:  Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business.  Attenders who are considering membership are encouraged to come and learn about Friends’ decision-making process.  Childcare will be provided.
 
Sunday, December 8, 15 & 22, 7 pm:  Carol Sing Evenings.  Join in for an hour of fun and music for all ages.  On the final evening, December 22, there will be fresh-baked cookies (made by Stony Run’s Young Friends) and other refreshments after the singing.

Tuesday, December 24, 7 pm:  All-ages Christmas Eve worship sharing.  We will gather for worship sharing in front of a fire in the Library.  Worship sharing often includes singing carols together, stories read or told, and special personal Christmas memories.  Afterwards, we will share cookies and juice and much Friendly fellowship, with all going home by 9 pm.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

You made a difference!  The Senate passed the improved Guantanamo detainee transfer and prosecution provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2014.  This happened only because so many constituents around the country demanded it.

Women’s Housing Coalition – 100 Holiday Gift Bags:  Please donate sets of new, warm hats & gloves for women, or a monetary contribution toward their purchase (with cash, or checks made payable to Stony Run Friends and with WHC on the memo line).  Boxes are in the Library to collect your donations.  Details are on the hall table (bright pink paper).  TODAY is the last day to donate.

Ministry & Counsel survey is now online:  For members and attenders who have not yet completed the Ministry & Counsel Committee’s brief survey, it is now available via a link on our website, at www.stonyrunfriends.org.  M&C thanks everyone who has already completed the questionnaire and encourages the rest of us to please respond.

McKim Center – Holiday Gifts for Kids:  We are collecting new, unwrapped gifts for kids ages 5 through 14, or a monetary donation to provide for gift purchases (make checks payable to the McKim Community Center).  A big, red-wrapped box is ready to collect donated toys, games/books, etc., with an attached envelope for checks.  Details are on the hall table (bright pink paper).  December 15 is the last day to donate.

Online registration is open for BYM’s January 2014 Women’s Retreat.  See the flyer (turquoise paper) on the hall table for details.  Stony Run members and regular attenders can request partial financial support from Nurture Funds to help them participate in programs like the Women’s Retreat.  The "Request for Nurture Funds" form is available at www.stonyrunfriends.org (under Meeting Documents); paper forms (yellow) are in the double-wide Office mailbox.  Submit the completed form to any of the committees named on the form.

Musicians for our 2014 concert:  The Event Planning Committee is in search of a musical group for next year's fundraising concert.  We want local folks of great talent, in any musical tradition, and with a personal following.  We are happy to pay them.  Give your ideas to Marcie Jones Brennan.  

The Nursery (Roberts Room) needs books and toys appropriate for young children (up to age 5), in good condition.  If you can donate something, please contact Melissa Kitner-Triolo.

November and December donations to the Social Order box support Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières), which provides emergency medical care to millions of people caught in crises in more than 60 countries.  The Social Order box stands in the hallway, to the left of the Library entrance; make checks payable to Stony Run Friends Meeting, with ‘S.O. Box’ on the memo line.  Please consider making a monthly contribution to the Social Order Box.