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. At the top of this page, click "Register Now" and create an account for yourself by entering a username and password.
2. Within a few minutes you'll receive a confirmation email with a web link to click which will activate your account. At this point you will have a restricted account which will let you do some things but not others.
3. Within a few days the (volunteer) website administrator will grant you additional rights and notify you via email.

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.

Food for Thought

"It has also been our experience that Quaker communities that fail to exert discipline in an open way through properly recognized channels, will slip into unofficial discipline through tale-bearing, back-biting, and shunning of offending individuals. When Meetings fail to openly discipline through approved channels, a passive-aggressive approach to discipline is all too common among us.”

What's New at Stony Run

BLUEBERRY FESTIVAL HELD ANNUALLY BY HARFORD FRIENDS SCHOOL will be on Saturday, July 18th from 10am to 2pm. The location is at the Deer Creek Friends Meetinghouse, 1212 Main St., Darlington, MD. There will be live music, refreshments, plenty of children’s activities, plant sale, live auction and homemade baked goods along with Blueberry Everything – pies, sundaes, etc. For additional information, go to their website at www.harfordfriends.org Flyers are on the hallway table. For best selection, get there early.

DO YOU SEEK A DEEPER SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE? YOU ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BYM SPIRITUAL FORMATION PROGRAM. The Baltimore Yearly Meeting Spiritual Formation Program invites its participants into a deeper spiritual experience through retreats, devotional readings, spiritual community and individual spiritual practices. Spiritual Formation provides a practical way for busy people to turn to God with their minds through spiritual reading, with their hearts through daily spiritual practices and with their human relationships through local friendship groups. Participants attend retreat weekends at the beginning, September 11-13, 2009 and end, May 14-16, 2010 of the Program year. During the year, participants attend two meetings per month:  (1) the monthly meeting of the local group to share reflections on a spiritual book that all have agreed to read; and (2) the monthly meeting of the friendship group, a subset of the local group who meet to share spiritual journeys and to support one another in spiritual practices.  Brochures and registration materials are available on the Meeting information table or you may also contact BYM www.BaltimoreYearlyMeeting.org

THE FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT (H.R. 2410) would expand the U.S. diplomatic corps, require the U.S. to fully meet its financial commitments to the UN and require the State Department to outline a government-wide strategy to prevent genocide and mass atrocities.  Please urge your Congressman (Ruppersberger, Cummings, Kratovil, Bartlett, or Sarbanes) to support this bill.  The easiest way to do this is to visit the FCNL web site, fcnl.org, and click on Urge your representative to support H.R. 2410 in the middle of the page. Peace and Social Order.

BIKES FOR BOYS IN BELIZE – Friends United Meeting has undertaken the Summer Mission Project for 40 boys and is trying to collect donations to purchase bikes to give a boy transportation for years to come. Last year, over $7,000 was donated for the “Pennies for Postage” project which allowed them to ship nearly 2,000 pounds of books to Kenya, Ramallah, Cuba, Belize and Jamaica. The goal this year is to raise $6,000 to purchase 40 bikes, helmets, chains, padlocks, pumps and spare parts for the young men at Friends Boys School in Belize. Please contact Terri John, terrij@fum.org or mail your donation to FUM, 101 Quaker Hill Dr., Richmond, VA 47374

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENRICH YOUR QUAKER EXPERIENCE? Please come to the Yearly Meeting Annual Session which is held in Frostburg from August 3-9. Friends gain insight into the Quaker business process, become a part of a broader family of Friends, and come home refreshed and rejuvenated. For first-time attenders, a discount is offered to three people from each Meeting. Stony Run has three coupons for our use, and if you wish to attend, please call the office and ask for one. The coupon certificates entitle the first-time attender to two free days (and nights) at the adult double occupancy rate. Please remember that, in order to be honored, the certificate must accompany a registration that is postmarked on or before June 29.  Of course, we encourage people using the certificates to stay more than two days, but to do so the costs for the additional days will have to be paid for. Annual Session Registration forms are in the Summer 2009 issue of our Interchange newsletter. They are also available at the BYM website at www.bym-rsf.org. If you have any questions about this opportunity, please contact Ann Whittaker at the Yearly Meeting office:  (301) 774-7663, (800) 962-4766, admin@bym-rsf.org