Weekly Announcements from 04.23.2023

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 AFM Calendar for greater detail and the word Zoom contains the link to the online meeting. 

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What’s “News” and Life Happenings

Friends are invited to share their Joys and Life’s Happenings with each other during Meeting for Worship, through the Weekly Announcements email, and on the AFM-Discuss. On April 23, we heard:

  • Gratitude:
    • For Joan M. and how well she planned, organized and displayed the AFM table at the Earth Day celebration held at Quiet Waters Park.
    • Beth C. for improved medical conditions for loved ones.
    • For Tim M and the boy scouts who helped all the tables at the Quiet Waters Park Earth Day celebration.
    • Pastor Parfaite and the information she shared about the Friends Women’s Association (FWA) clinic in Bujumbura, Burundi. 
    • For the Committee Clerks’ Meeting that was held at 9:30 am and brought Friends together who might not normally have an opportunity to share in conversation and discussion.
  • Joys:
    • Participating in the AFM Earth Day celebration at Quiet Waters Park.
    • Susan W. for all the animals and birds that are making a home in the backyard because it is a safe haven for them, especially the numerous bunnies!
    • Having Sam S. and his friend joining us at the 11 am worship, the presentation by Pastor Parfaite and the potluck.

If you have joys to share, please contact Ellen M. at communications@annapolisfriends.org and they will be added to our joys and life’s happenings section.

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Be a Good Neighbor! Drive slowly on Dubois Road

Give the kids in the neighborhood some love by driving at or under the 25 mph speed limit. Annapolis Friends Meeting is in a residential area where at least 11 children under the age of 8 live and play. Watch for pedestrians, including smaller ones.

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Concerned Friends – Antisemitism

The AFM-Discus email list has recently included discussions about antisemitism and reflections from the video conference with Cherie R. Brown (National Coalition Building Institute) on “Antisemitism is Everyone’s Concern” that was hosted by the Dock C. Bracy Center for Human Reconciliation. The “Let’s Talk Series” was presented on Zoom on April 19 and more than eight AFM community members participated in the presentation and discussion. Share your thoughts on AFM-Discuss. To join the AFM-Discuss list, send a request to listmaster@annapolisfriends.org.

Contact info@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Wednesday Meditation Group

Starting at 7 pm every Wednesday, the Meditation Group will meet on Zoom and we will sit silently for the first 40 minutes followed by a book discussion based on a selected book.

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

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The Ship called the “Golden Rule” 

The  ship called the “Golden Rule”, which was restored by a group of Quakers to fulfill its original mission to promote a message of  “peace” to all ports of call, will be arriving in Annapolis. 

  • April 24 (Monday), late in the evening the Golden Rule will arrive into Annapolis harbor
  • April 25 (Tuesday) at 11 am, an official welcome by Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley, County Exec. Steuart Pittman and State Sen. Sarah Elfreth at its slip in the Yacht Basin, 2 Compromise Street.
  • April 26 (Wednesday) at 7 pm, there will be a public education program that will include a 25-minute film on the history and salvage presented at the First Presbyterian Church (171 Duke of Gloucester St., Annap.). Speakers and a discussion calling attention to the ongoing dangers of nuclear war and the need for more U.S. effort to protect against unintended wars and to restore our disarmament treaties will be included. 

Contact Phil C. at pcaroom@gmail.com. 

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Living our Truth Worship Sharing 

On April 30 (Sunday) at 9:15 am, Fran Palmieri will be presenting a Worship Sharing Program entitled “Living Our Truth”, an Outreach Committee event, from 9:15 to 10:45. All are invited. 

This will be Part One of a three-part series focusing on “Who am I?”, “What am I called to do?”, ” How do I accomplish my mission in life?” 

Hopefully these worship sharings will help us answer these questions. Part One on April 30 helps us discern “ Who am I?  Am I different people?  What qualities do other people see in me?  Part Two on July 30 we will focus on what we are called to do that best expresses who we are,” Do I picture myself as an activist who never answered “the call”; or a creative person aching to sing, paint, write?” On December 31 Part Three will try to figure out how we can do what we are called to do.”How do I accomplish my mission? Who can help? What organizations might be a part of what I want to do.”

Contact Fran P. info@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Quaker Spring Market 

The Quaker Spring Market (QSM) will be May 6 from 9 am until 2 pm. 

  • Donations:
  • Until 30 April, please place donations in the POD in the AFM parking lot, preferably in boxes. Neatly stack the boxes from the deepest end from the door. Please do not leave any donations on the front porch or inside the meetinghouse until 30 April. Please note that the POD is filling up quickly, so if you have a large amount of donations, it is recommended to wait until April 30.
  • Starting April 30, please place donations in the foyer, if the building is open, otherwise on the front porch.
    • Tax donation receipts are available upon request.
  • Set-up:
    • After the rise of 11 am meeting for worship on April 30, we will work together to transform every room in the meetinghouse into Quaker Market mode. 
    • Some tasks will require strength (e.g., moving bookcases and supplies down from the attic), others not so much (e.g., putting out the tablecloths, boxing up AFM’s coat hangers, so that they don’t get sold). Other tasks include transporting donations from Marcia’s house to the meetinghouse and moving the contents of the storage pod over to the meetinghouse to facilitate sorting during the week. 
    • QMC will provide a pot of soup or stew for lunch following the 11 am meeting for worship, and Friends are welcome to bring other items to share. 
    • We anticipate shifting into work mode by 1 pm!
    • Hope to see you there!
  • Sorting: During the week leading up to Quaker Markets (in this case 1 – 5 May) we work on “Sorting.” That means moving donations from the foyer to where they will be displayed. QMC will have a presence for sorting during the following times (will let Friends know through AFM-Announce email if the schedule needs to change. In the meantime, see the Sorting Schedule online):
    • May 1 (Monday) from 2 pm to 6 pm
    • May 2 (Tuesday) from 10 am to 4 pm
    • May 3 (Wednesday) from 10 am to 6 pm
    • May 4 (Thursday) from 10 am to 6 pm
    • May 5 (Friday) from 10 am to 4 pm
  • Food donation sign-up: If it would bring you joy to make food for Quaker Spring Market, signing up ahead of time will help with planning.  The Food donation sign-up is available at the AFM sign-up section of our internal website QSM Food Sign-up.
  • Plants: Please let Cairn know if you will have plants to donate. We will be advertising lists soon. 
  • Quaker Market Day
    • Please join us on May 6 from 9 am until 2 pm, to eat, shop, build community, and help raise funds for our embraced causes!
    • Please welcome back the Eleftheriou family, who homeschooled with us and participated in First Day School. Eleni will bring her two sons. Antonios will be playing the trumpet, and his brother, Alexios, will be taking photographs 🙂
    • Main clean-up and kitchen cleanup will begin at 2 pm. All help is welcomed, so that we can finish before the usual 6:30 pm.

Contact Cairn K at market@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Please participate in the May 7 (Sunday) Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business at 9:00 am. 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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Spiritual Friends Group

On May 11 (Thursday) at 4 pm, the Spiritual Friends Group will meet on Zoom. The group meets online on the 2nd Thurs. of each month to nurture our spiritual lives and, if requested, to ask the group to hold us accountable to our individual intentions. Everyone is welcome. Quakers and non-Quakers!

Contact Barb T. at info@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Tech Support Person

Meet Ben Kilgore! The applicant who came to AFM on April 16th and returned on April 23 to operate the Owl. He did a beautiful job and helped with technical problem-solving! Please welcome Ben and include him in our activities, if he has any interest. He will be operating the Owl from 10:30 am until 12:30 pm each Sunday.

Ben applied through the Express Pro employment agency and AFM also reached out to two Annapolis synagogues, Unity by the Bay Church, Asbury Broadneck United Methodist Church, The Annapolis Unitarian Universalist Church and to The Light House center. We are grateful to have Ben joining us and taking care of the Owl.

Contact Ellen M. at info@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Meetinghouse & Land Workday & News

  • Monthly Workdays: Each month on the 2nd Saturday, Friends are invited to work around the meetinghouse to get chores done, including washing windows, gardening, mulching, and more. The next sprucing-up will take place on May 13 starting at 9 am. All are invited and snacks will be provided. 

Contact Kim F. at meetinghouse@annapolisfriends.org for more information.

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Committees are the lifeblood of the meeting

There are twelve committees that help to get all the various tasks done each month and each year. We are grateful for all of the friends who are involved with committees. Know that you do not need to be an AFM “member” to be on a committee and all of our committees could use more folks to help out. Our community needs many hands and fellowship to be vital. With no expertise, you too can join a committee because mentoring, teaching and nurturing happens in committees where friends join together to help out. New ideas are welcome.

To learn more, click here for information about the committees and check out the descriptions on the AFM website.  Click on the name of the committee to get more details. All are welcome!

Contact 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.

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

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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
  • Presentation: Friends Peace Teams (FPT) will host a presentation titled “Trauma Resiliency in Ukraine” by Ukrainian speaker, trainer and psychologist,  Olha Lychko-Pauboka, on Saturday (04.29) from 6 pm to 8 pm EST and Sunday (04.30) 12 pm to 2 pm EST. To receive a link to the meeting, send an email to Julie at mtg4worship@gmail.com.

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AFM Meetings for Worship

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

  1.     Weekly at 8:00 am. This Meeting for Worship is in person (no technology) and held outdoors in good weather. Masks and social distancing are optional inside the meetinghouse.
  2.     Weekly at 11:00 am. 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.

Other options that you can attend for Meetings for Worship include: 1) a gathering in spirit only, physically apart and without technology, in communion with friends at the Meeting House at 8:00 a.m. This option was created to link Friends in worship in the early days of the pandemic, and often Friends are at their own homes.  2) In North County, on the First Tuesday of each month, at 7 pm (please see North County Meeting for 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. Each committee takes a turn to be responsible and will ask for help from others, as needed. The Care of Meeting Checklist helps to ensure that everyone knows what needs to be done. The Committee Schedule for Care of Meeting provides the annual committee assignments. For the Month of April, the Peace & Social Concerns Committee has responsibility for the care of the meeting. In May, the Stewardship & Finance Committee will have responsibility for care of the meeting. All are welcome to help out at any time!

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

Photo credit, Ellen M.