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 will be held on July 21st.

See bottom of page for address and directions.

JUNE 16 at Stony Run (Committee Day):

9:00 am    Ministry and Counsel (M&C), in Room 214
9:00 am    Funds Review and Use Committee (FRAUC), in Room 103
9:15 am    Child care until 12:15, in the Roberts Room
9:15 am    Library Committee, in the Library
9:15 am    Spiritual and Intellectual Nurture Committee (SINC), on the Sunporch
9:15 am    Finance Committee, in the Double Classroom
9:30 am    Meeting for Worship, in the Meeting Room
9:30 am    Religious Education (RE) Committee, in Room 202
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 Assembly, in the Double Classroom
12:15 pm  Child Safety Committee, in the Double Classroom

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 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. 2012.

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.

Stony Run Friends Meeting is again sponsoring Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC). This year we are very, very fortunate to have Florence Ntakarutimana from Burundi joining us to lead the training. She is a dynamic and inspirational person and trainer.  The attached flyers provide information and I encourage you to check out the website. 

We are hoping that a diverse group of participants will join the training. Although HROC has been used primarily in Africa, we hope that we will be able to use it to work with refugees, survivors of trauma and those who endure conflict daily in their own neighborhoods. 

HROC grew out of the Alternatives to Violence program used for many years in prisons and communities. It was discovered that when working with communities that are divided by violence a more trauma-informed approach was required and the HROC model was developed. It is focused on rebuilding trust while also healing the grief, fear and pain that result from loss of one's sense of self, family and community through violence.

ELIAS HICKS - PHEBE WILLIS 1818 LETTER: For all Friends who attended the SINC First Day Forum on Jan. 26 about the life, times, letters & journals of Elias Hicks (or who are interested in Hicks, and/or who plan to attend Part 2 on Sunday, Feb. 3 and/or Part 3 on Sunday, Feb. 10. (All three forums are presented by Don Gann.)

Here is the letter Elias Hicks wrote in 1818 to his friend (& Friend) Phebe Willis, in which he described his views, and which she subsequently shared and was widely circulated. A fragment of another letter related to the 1818 letter is also included here. The 1818 letter is important in Quaker history because it set the stage for the split a couple of decades later between the "Hicksites" and Orthodox Quakers.  Paper copies of the 1818 letter and the letter fragment will also be available at the First Day forums.

 

                        Food for Thought

"Our way of worship is not just an historical accident; it is a corollary from our conviction concerning the universal Light of Christ.  Believing that in every worshipper, regardless of age, learning, sex, or any other human label, the promptings of God’s spirit are at work, Friends meet together in entirely unprogrammed silent prayer…It is our experience that in such corporate worship…we are led into a depth of communion with God and with one another that is deeply meaningful and spiritually refreshing."

L. Hugh Doncaster

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

First Day School summer assemblies begin today in lieu of age-specific classes.  The summer-long theme is peace, including peace with nature and stewardship of the environment.  The children will paint images on small panels, to be mounted as a single large display; they will also draw or write messages on small shapes (circles, stars) which will be collected over the summer to make a peace chain.  Adults young and old who would like to lead or assist at one or more assemblies can sign up on a sheet outside of the Meeting office.  Contact Bob Breyer with any questions or comments.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday, June 20, noon:  Quaker Lunch at Broadmead.  We gather on the third Thursday of the month for lunch with Friends living at Broadmead.  Call Bob & Susie Fetter (443-578-8228) or Donna Smith (443-578-8206) by the preceding Tuesday to make your reservation.  The cost is $7 per person.

Sunday, June 23, noon:  Photography for our gallery walls.  Michael Boardman will be available to take first-time or updated photographs of members and attenders.  If the weather allows, photos will be taken outside the sunporch.

Sunday, June 30, 12:30 pm:  “Do The Math” a 45-minute film from 350.org, followed by discussion; sponsored by the Unity with Nature Committee.  (Bring your lunch, to eat together at the rise of Meeting for Worship.)  350 is the threshold of parts per million of carbon in the earth’s atmosphere above which irreversible changes occur in the environment.  This film, produced by 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, is a message about how powerful we are when we act together.  Come and see what others are doing and discern what is yours to do.  Child care in the Roberts Room will be arranged if requested no later than today; contact Karie Firoozmand.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Our support of the CARES food pantry generally falls off during the summer, when many of us are away or not following our usual routines – but this is the very time when our help is most needed, because children are not being fed at school.  Especially useful are peanut butter & jelly, canned tuna, cold cereals, and powdered milk (though all food items are helpful).  Please bring your food donations to the meetinghouse, and volunteers will deliver them to CARES.

May and June donations to the Social Order box go to the National Alliance on Mental Illness – Baltimore.  Each year NAMI Baltimore’s educational programs, support services, and outreach programs serve more than 10,000 people living with the debilitating effects of their own or someone else’s mental illness.  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.

Books about Peace and Environmental Action, for all ages:  Current offerings on the downstairs book sales table are designed to help adults and younger Friends talk together about our work for peace and for our world’s environment.  These book offerings will be removed on June 24, so don’t wait to browse.
A Wealth of Books Available:
· Surplus books from Stony Run’s Library.  These books are available for the taking.  Check the boxes on the far window sill in the Library.  The books there will be available for the next few weeks, after which they’ll be sent to a new home (The Book Thing or BYM).

· Book Sale, with proceeds to Stony Run, on Saturday, July 6, 1-5 pm.  Books from Bob Clark's carefully chosen library will be for sale. Topics include holistic health, psychology, spirituality, meditation, religion, art and poetry, plus some fiction.  Quaker authors are well represented.  The sale will be at Marilyn Clark's home, which is near the meetinghouse.  For more information, contact Marilyn.

Meeting Directory and Appendix reissued:  A new edition of the Meeting’s Directory and Appendix were emailed this past week to Friends who receive the monthly Newsletter and the weekly Silent Announcements via email.  If you did not receive these files, please contact the office. If you need a paper copy but do not wish to print it yourself, a double-sided copy is available from the office for $5.