Weekly Announcements as of 10.29.2023

Weekly Announcements

Reminder:

If you know of an event or a joy that you would like to see in the Weekly Announcements, please send the information to communications@annapolisfriends.org.

Coming Up:

The list of events below can also be viewed on the AFM website’s homepage or on the AFM Calendar.

Note: Titles link to the information down below for  greater detail and the word “Zoom” in the Coming Up section contains the link to the online meeting. 

Additional Topics:

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What’s News, Joys and Life Happenings

Friends are invited to share their News, Joys and Life Happenings with each other during Meeting for Worship, through the Weekly Announcements email, and on the AFM-Discuss. If you have joys to share, please contact Ellen M. at communications@annapolisfriends.org and the sharings will be added to our news, joys and life happenings section. It should be noted that inaccuracies may exist in the information given that sound quality or receiving is not always precise. The recent joys and happenings we’ve learned of are:

  • Big thank you to Karen C. for a well clerked meeting last First day (10.22) during the Listening Session.
  • A joy-filled time was had at the Pumpkin Patch and the AFM team sold almost $500 worth of pumpkins! The money will go directly to The Light House, a homeless prevention center in Annapolis.
  • The beautiful sunrise on 10.29.2023 brought much joy.
  • Grateful for the Worship Sharing on Our Beloved Community
  • Joy to see Amy, Tom and the two kids.

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The Kunta Kinte Festival was a huge success!

If you had the pleasure of walking around and meeting plenty of interesting people, eating yummy food and purchasing a variety of wares, including bright clothing, you were among the multitude on Saturday, October 28 at City Dock, Annapolis. Bonnie P. from Annapolis Friends Meeting, organized a team of people to set up, staff the booth and clean it all up. It was said that the Kunta Kinte Festival was a huge success. The AFM team served about 700+ cups of water and 400+ snacks. Many, many people stopped to talk and they were so nice and receptive.

As it all happened, the organizers had a glitch in the assigned booth spaces and AFM ended up half under the “community” tent. That meant that there were a LOT of people who came to the AFM booth and it meant there was a lot of very loud music much of the day. To add to the good fortune, AFM was also set up next to Angela, a recent new attender to AFM, who had a booth for a different organization. She shared her story of her first exposure to Quakers when attending boarding school in VA. Angela’s organization was one that was started by her family and were descendants of Harriet Tubman’s first cousin. It was great for the AFM team to have time to spend with her.

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Holiday Sharing – getting organized

Each year, AFM has participated in the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services (DSS) Holiday Sharing program. This year, volunteer coordinators are needed and F/friends are being asked to step up because the Friends who have served as Holiday Sharing coordinators in the past will unfortunately be out of town this time and / or are otherwise unavailable. If you are interested in ensuring that the Holiday Sharing continues with AFM’s help, please speak up.

Contact Phil C. at social-concerns@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Clerk’s Support Committee

On October 31, 2023 (Tuesday) at 5:30 pm, the support committee for Clerk of Meeting, Karen C., will meet in the Library. 

Contact Karen C. at clerk@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Welcome Light Wednesday

Starting at 7 pm every Wednesday, the Welcome Light Wednesday group will meet on Zoom with 20 minutes of silence to start followed by spiritual readings and then listening to our spiritual journeys. Time will be given to hold friends in healing Light. In the past, this group was called the Wednesday Meditation Group.

Contact Patty R. at info@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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5th Night Light – Every Thursday evening

From 7:00 pm until 8:00 pm every Thursday, the AFM community engages in a spiritual practice that acknowledges the Light of God within each person and that to be in community is to actively care for one another. During that time, Friends hold people and situations who need additional spiritual support in the Light. Friends will pause wherever they may be, read the list of names, and hold each person or situation in our hearts and in the Light. On Wednesday, the list of names or situations are sent out to the AFM-Announce list.

Friends are invited to share their request for a person or situations to be held in the Light by contacting the Pastoral Care Committee.

Contact Pastoral Care at pastoral-care@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Daylight Savings Time Ends

Daylight Saving Time (“DST”) ends on November 5 and is the practice of moving the clocks back one hour to Standard Time. Daylight Saving Time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

Let’s all wake up early for Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business on November 5 and lean into Standard Time!

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Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Please participate in the November 5 (Sunday) Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business at 9:15 am Standard Time. This is an opportunity to practice several of our testimonies as we carry out the practical work of maintaining our faith community. We seek to be Spirit-led in our work, with as much efficiency as possible, achieving a sense of what Friends call “right order.” This will be a blended meeting where there will be participants in person at the meetinghouse and on Zoom.

For more information, contact Karen C. at clerk@annapolisfriends.org.

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Potluck – Social Time

Following the 11 am Meeting for Worship (MfW) on November 5 (Sunday) about 12:15 pm, there will be an occasion for everyone to have an opportunity to socialize. There will be both an in-person Potluck and a virtual potluck. Please get or bring some food (or not)! There will be plenty of food, so join us for one or the other.  The Zoom link for 11:00 am Worship will stay open for this informal gathering. 

For more information, contact info@annapolisfriends.org.

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Storage Pod – Quaker Market

Annapolis Friends Meeting holds two Quaker Markets each year, on the first Saturdays of May and December. Many shoppers are drawn to Quaker Markets for our flea market treasures, constituted by items in good condition that AFM community members, friends, neighbors and strangers have decided that they no longer need, or that no longer bring them joy. For the list of items that we accept, please refer to the Quaker Market Donation Guidelines provided on the AFM website. Click on the blue words above.

In order to maintain the meetinghouse in good order, we will hold off on collecting donations inside the meetinghouse (front porch, etc.) until setup day, November 26. If it would be helpful for you to bring donations sooner, a temporary storage pod will be available in our parking lot starting Tuesday, November 7. To ask questions regarding donations (especially furniture), to request help transporting your donations, or for any other questions, please reach out to the clerk of Quaker Market Committee at market@annapolisfriends.org.

Reminder: Quaker Holiday Market will be December 2, 2023.

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Worship in North County

On November 7 (Tuesday) at 7 pm and each First Tuesday of the month, an in-person worship opportunity is held on a Friend’s back porch in northern Anne Arundel County (Glen Burnie). Masks are required. All are welcome! Come sit with us!

For more information, contact Diane E. at info@annapolisfriends.org.

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Spiritual Friends Group

The Spiritual Friends Group will meet on November 9 (Thursday) at 4 pm. The Spiritual Friends Group is under the umbrella of the Pastoral Care Committee and meets via Zoom on the 2nd Thursday of each month to nurture our spiritual lives and, if requested, to ask the group to hold us accountable to our individual intentions. Current question: How is your spiritual journey going? Everyone is welcome. Quakers and non-Quakers!

Contact Barb T. at pastoral-care@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Ministry & Worship Committee Meeting

On October 10 (Friday) at 7:30 pm, the Ministry & Worship Committee will be meeting via Zoom.

Contact Ann R. at ministry@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Postage Stamp Collection

Postage stamps (e.g., new, used, old, foreign, domestic) are used to raise money for worthy Quaker organizations, such as Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR). Check out the RSWR website to learn more. AFM participates by collecting postage stamps in a bin at the Collection Bench down the hall at the meetinghouse where you can drop off your stamps. The stamps will be mailed to RSWR.

For more information, contact Nan E. info@annapolisfriends.org.

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Meeting for Learning: Kenya Triennial Update

On November 12 (Sunday) at 9:15 am, there will be a Meeting for Learning (MFL) where Friends Sheila M and Ann R will share their experiences and learning from their travels to the 2023 Triennial in Nakuru, Kenya this past July. Co-sponsored by Friends United Meeting (FUM); Quaker Men International; and United Society of Friends Women International, theTriennial gathered over 600 Quakers from several nations around the globe. This will be a blended session with participants gathered in person in the classroom and others via Zoom.

Contact Martha B. at info@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Baby Shower

On November 12 (Sunday) from 2 pm to 3:30 pm, the Annapolis Friends Meeting and their co-sponsors, the Annapolis Unitarian Universalist Church, will host a baby shower for the refugee family that the two churches have sponsored and supported for the past few years. This being their fourth child, the whole family will be excited to share their latest joy with us at the AFM meetinghouse.  They now have three boys and one girl.

The celebration will include light food and gifts. The family says the baby can use diapers (size 2 and 3) and new winter clothes. Books, educational toys, gift cards or other favorite gifts would be most welcome, too.

Please RSVP to Margaret H. at info@annapolisfriends.org if you plan to attend.

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Uphold Ukraine Daily Meeting for Worship

  • Daily Meeting for Worship: EVERY DAY, Friends House Moscow supporters in the U.S.A. host a daily international online Meeting for Worship while joining other Friends who are holding in the Light all the people affected by the current crisis in Ukraine. For Eastern Standard Time, the meeting starts at 12:00 pm. Click on this Zoom link, which is the Friends House Moscow Cloud Meeting. Or use Meeting ID: 416 500 5614; Passcode: 182805
  • Sunday MfW: The Quakers in Kyiv meet on Sundays at 1:00 pm EDT in silence. For Zoom information, go to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/QuakersKyivUkraine/.  On Zoom: Meeting ID: 852 8396 7313; Passcode: 2022.

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AFM Meetings for Worship

There are two options for Sunday worship with Annapolis Friends Meeting:

8:00 am weekly: This Meeting for Worship is in person (no technology) and, in good weather, is held outdoors, but will be indoors when the weather is not as kind. Masks and social distancing are optional inside the meetinghouse. Also at 8:00 am, Friends can worship in communion with the friends at the Meetinghouse from wherever they are and without technology. This option to gather in spirit only while being physically apart was created to link Friends in worship in the early days of the pandemic, and often Friends are at their own homes.

11:00 am weekly: This Meeting for Worship can be attended in person at the meetinghouse, or remotely on Zoom (Phone: 301-715-8592, Meeting ID: 650 269 455, Passcode: 241727). Nursery care is available; please email us at children@annapolisfriends.org if you would like to bring your child/children to our nursery. First Day School (a.k.a., Sunday School) is available for school age children in person during the school year (September through May). In the summer (June through August), AFM offers supervision and reading/drawing supplies for school age children.

There is an opportunity to worship on the First Tuesday each month at 7 pm in person that is held on a Friend’s porch in northern Anne Arundel County (Glen Burnie). Please see North County worship on the calendar. 

Contact info@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Care of Meeting 

The AFM meetinghouse is a precious place and the AFM Community cares for the building and property in many ways, including weekly care of the meeting that includes accomplishing certain tasks. There is a Committee Schedule for Care of Meeting indicating when the committee takes a turn to be responsible for cleaning up the meetinghouse and they may ask for help from others, as needed. The Care of Meeting Checklist helps to ensure that everyone knows what needs to be done. For the month of November, the Stewardship & Finance (S&F) Committee has responsibility for the care of the meetinghouse. All are welcome to help out at any time!

  • The Stewardship & Finance (S&F) Committee (P&SC) prepares AFM’s annual budget for consideration of the Business Meeting, reports the Meeting’s financial needs, and reminds members and attenders of their financial responsibility to support the Meeting. S&F reviews the Treasurer’s books and records, and those of any other group or individual having charge of expenditure of funds. S&F plans fund-raising programs and works closely with MHL in making decisions with financial implications. Because S&F has so few members, it is requested that Friends volunteer to assist S&F with the care of the meetinghouse.

For additional information about Annapolis Friends Meeting go to the homepage or for events click here for the calendar. 

Sunrise at AFM on 10.29.2023
Photo credit: Ellen M.