Deer Creek

• Interchange, Fall 2008
• Interchange, Summer 2008
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2007
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2006
• Interchange, Spring 2007
• Interchange, Fall 2006
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2005
• Interchange, Spring 2006
   
• Interchange, Fall 2005
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2004
• Interchange, Summer 2005
• Interchange, Spring 2005
   
• FUM Policy Concern
• Interchange, May 2004
• Interchange, March 2004
• Spiritual State of Our Meeting - 2003

The big event of the summer for Deer Creek Meeting was the traditional and always highly successful Blueberry Festival on July 19. It is likewise a summer highlight for the village of Darlington where the historic Meeting House is located. The event is now hosted by the Meeting for the benefit of the recently established and growing Harford Friends School in partnership with parents and supporters of the school. Scores of homemade pies and muffins along with still more scores of boxes of fresh picked blueberries, drew waves of visitors to the festival grounds. Together with an auction of antiques, collectibles, and certificates for gifts and services, and a booth of native plants, the event yielded a total of $10,000 for the school. Besides all the pickers and bakers, thanks as always go to Dan and Elizabeth Derr of Spring Valley Farm, the source of the blueberries, for their generosity.

Two of the brightest lights of the spring and summer First Day meetings were the Mother’s Day luncheon on May 11, prepared and served by the Young Friends age 6 into the teens and the fathers; and on Father’s Day, June 15, a similar event, prepared and served by the young people and mothers for the fathers.

Throughout the season the meeting has displayed a banner on its grounds reading “Seek Peace and Pursue It,” Psalm 34, verse 14, obtained through the Yearly Meeting Peace Committee.

Our adult first day school gatherings were enriched this winter and early spring by a variety of visitors and discussions. In January Sam Trueblood came from his home in Pennsylvania to give his annual and always anticipated series of Bible studies for four Sundays, this time centering on the parables. In February participants in the Walk for a New Spring, a 40-day peace walk from Massachusetts to Washington, spent the night at the Deer Creek Meeting and one of the participants, Buddhist Sister Clare, stayed over on Sunday speak at our first day school. On intermittent Sundays we had a study series by way of DVDs from The Teaching Company on "Jesus and the Gospels" taught by Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson of Emory University. On Easter Sunday an lntergenerational program led by Sarah Buchanan-Wollaston was especially effective.

In connection with the recent fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, the Peace Committee led a discussion on March 30 based on the message that continues to be distributed by Quakers, "War is Not the Answer," using some of the excellent and informative material researched and prepared by the Friends Committee on National Legislation. The Deer Creek Peace Committee has been especially active this year, meeting monthly for pot luck suppers in members' homes, participating in local peace vigils and communicating with their district congressman.

Through the initiative of one of the committee's members, Jill Sostrin, a group of Friends and friends of Friends joined together on Thursday evenings from January through March for eight sessions of a discussion course on Voluntary Simplicity with material from the Northwest Earth Institute. The group plans to continue meeting this spring and early summer, beginning in April with a discussion of the book, Animal, Vegetable and Miracle, in which Barbara Kingsolver and her husband, environmental scientist Steven Hopp describe their year of eating only home grown or locally grown food and promoting diversified farming.

Ladies Luncheons once a month are an occasion to explore local restaurants, get to know each other better, and especially to enjoy being with Margaret Pickard, a much loved member who is now in a nearby nursing home and is always included. A revival of 3 Friendly $'s, was begun on March 29 and was another highly successful opportunity for old and new members to know each other.

The children's Sunday school collected 71 food items in February for the Mason-Dixon Food Pantry. Teenagers selected a rug and bean bag chairs for their "special place" for Sunday School and hosted the annual Easter Egg hunt for the younger children.

The Meeting gave a special social hour and send off in January for Betsy Wollaston, a long-time and active member also well known as a regular participant in Yearly Meetings. Betsy is now living in Sandy Spring. She will be missed for her dedication and vocal ministry over many years.

Deer Creek Meeting has seen its membership grow over the past year. New members and attendees have enhanced our worship. We feel the loss of Betsy Wollaston's guidance, wisdom, and spiritual leadership since her move to Friends House in Sandy Spring.

Many of our activities are driven by our committee work. The Deer Creek Peace Committee has been very active. Much time and thought were spent writing a Minute on the Iraq War which expressed the sense of the Meeting. The Peace Committee has attended county wide and regional peace rallies, participated in the Eyes Wide Open display, and worked hard to increase our attendance at Yearly Meeting.

Maintaining an active Advancement and Outreach Committee has always provided a challenge for Deer Creek. This year, thanks to the leadership of Mary Dirlam, we made ourselves better known in the community by creating an active website and improving our e-mail communications. We worked with other Harford County churches to provide meals and transportation for the homeless. Two of our newest members initiated a cookie swap which provided a wonderful time of fellowship for the Meeting and the community. The proceeds from this occasion were donated to local charities.

Deer Creek has been the home of the Harford Friends school for the past two years. HFS has outgrown our facility and has secured a larger school site. We continue to support the efforts of the school and host the annual Blueberry Festival to help raise funds for the school. We miss the activities and the students of Harford Friends school and look forward to working with them at their new residence.

The Religious Education Committee has organized a meaningful curriculum for children and adults. In addition to Godly Play, the study of Quaker Testimonies, and the use of a curriculum centered on the Old Testament, various projects and activities were included. The Meeting sold coffee from Costa Rica, Palestinian olive oil, and necklaces made by Kenyan women. A strong sense of community was built as we enjoyed social hours after Meeting for Worship, worked together during clean-up days, and joined for monthly "Ladies Luncheons". During the year the children's classes painted peace tiles as part of a fund-raiser, prepared a "dinner stew" for Sylvia Graves when she visited from FUM, planted flower baskets for Easter gifts, and are currently involved in a food drive for a local food cupboard. During the early fall, an intergenerational canoe trip to the islands of Conowingo Lake was well attended. The teenagers planned, decorated, and furnished a "special space" for their Sunday class in the Meeting House. In spite of the efforts of the Religious Education Committee, the attendance of our youth is sporadic and we continue to search for a way to attract their families on a regular basis. A suggestion has been made to provide more recreational and fellowship activities.

The adult education programs have been successful. We continue to gain spiritual nourishment and insights from members and attenders as well as from lessons presented by visiting guests including Sam Trueblood, Lynmar Brock, Sister Clare Carter, and David Zaremka. A highlight of the year included the Quakerism 101 discussion group led by Dan Derr.

Deer Creek Meeting strives to be a source for spiritual growth and for encouraging us to put our faith into practice. We look forward to the joys and challenges of the upcoming year knowing that through prayer and expectant waiting, God will guide us.

Deer Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends maintains a healthy spiritual state. We saw an overall increase in activity in 2006 and welcomed several new members and attenders. This is due in part to the activities of the Peace Committee, as well as to some organizational changes we made during the past year.

In 2006, we changed our annual committee assignments to correspond with the school year, bringing our activity in closer harmony with most of our members’ schedules. Our “Quakerism 101” class was also a success and an event we added to our 2007 schedule. In addition, we reconceptualized our newsletter, transforming it from a recap of news from other sources to a spiritual companion containing quotes from “Faith and Practice”, photos of Meeting events and articles of relevance to the Meeting written by Meeting members.

2006 also saw the revival of the Peace Committee. This committee has maintained a high level of visibility at a variety of anti-war and pro-peace functions, including marches in Washington, the monthly peace vigils outside the Harford County courthouse and participation in a non-violence training workshop. In addition to serving as an active manifestation of the Quaker Peace Testimony, it has also brought new faces into our midst. The Peace Committee has become a close-knit, highly effective team as a result.

Members were provided with more social opportunities as well. The Ministry and Oversight Committee organized a trip to Philadelphia, and the Peace Committee took two trips to Washington. We added monthly coffee hours to our schedule. Several members, both adults and children, participated in two work Weekends at Camp Catoctin. In addition, we had increased participation at Interim Meeting and had record attendance at Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Our monthly Ladies Luncheon is an ongoing success The Meeting maintains ties to our Friends who have left the area or are homebound. We especially remember and communicate with one of our young adult members who is currently in Cameroon, Africa, working as a teacher with the Peace Corps.

We continue to maintain a presence in the community. We called a meeting of local ministers to discuss the future of an area community breakfast program and have been meeting regularly ever since. We also increased our presence in cyberspace by redesigning our website and are seeing increased traffic to the new site in recent months. We continued our involvement with local homeless as a new shelter opened in the county. We also maintained our support of Harford Friends School and successfully handed off our annual Blueberry Festival to them. Initially started to raise money for our Sunday school addition, this annual event now helps fund Harford Friends School. Our children initiated the collection of toys, clothes and household implements for the Kennedy Krieger Center in Baltimore City at the end of 2006. Our first delivery occurred in 2007, and we plan to continue the program. Our charitable contributions extended beyond our own borders with two fundraisers of note: Palestinian olive oil and Costa Rican coffee. Members purchased these items to help raise money for distressed peoples in these areas.

The children's Sunday school is made up of a core group of children aged 6-10. We are still incorporating Godly Play lessons in to our plans along with other various methods of supporting the children's spiritual development. To celebrate 350 years of Quakerism in America, they presented a play titled "The Cheerful Giver”. In addition, the children planned their own Christmas program using the Quaker model of consensus in their decision-making process. Engaging our adolescent Friends continues to prove challenging. When in attendance, they provide additional support to the children’s Sunday school program. However, we continue to develop programs to meet their needs. In 2005, we tried to involve them in a spiritual journey curriculum. That concluded in 2006 with sporadic attendance. Our Religious Education Committee launched a mentoring program for the 2006-07 year. It has been slow to start to date. While this committee is generating good ideas, additional support from the Meeting as a whole may be required. Ministry and Oversight will seek to help Religious Education in their endeavors in 2007.

In 2006, we strived to understand and find spiritual directions concerning world issues through Adult Sunday school and silent worship. As Quakers, we feel we are called to examine the heavy issues of the world and participate in their resolution. Sometimes there is a sense of weightiness, a lack of spiritual uplift, at the Rise of Meeting. We continue to provide lessons that are both socially conscious and spiritually aware, and inspire our Members to ask, “God, what would you have me do?” We added structure to our summer schedule by encouraging members to prepare lessons on various social issues. Our first attempt at this was a little random, but overall feedback was favorable, and we hope to improve upon this plan for 2007. Members felt they benefited both from preparing lessons and participating in lesson discussions. In addition, our Religious Education Committee was led to create a nine-month Adult curriculum planned in advance, including a series on the personality traits of Jesus and a series examining Jesus’s parables with lessons on social issues intertwined. This has allowed greater opportunity for members to lead adult Sunday school and has helped cultivate a more meaningful worship experience throughout the year.

Participation at Meeting for Business continues to be low with few beyond the committee clerks in attendance. Conversely, committee activity has increased, and we are seeing more members volunteer and participate in more activities. However, among our goals for 2007 is to address the low turnout at Meeting for Business and attempt to engage the larger Meeting more effectively as a true sense of the Meeting cannot be gauged when attendance is low.

A group of new and longtime Deer Creek Friends has become an active Peace Committee, combining its monthly meetings with potluck suppers in each other’s homes. Members have joined other local peace groups at monthly candlelight vigils in front of the Harford County Court House in Bel Air and have had positive response from passersby. Four members joined the thousands of others at the March for Peace and Justice in Washington on January 27. They have also started monthly movie nights and potluck suppers at the Meeting House starting on January 12 with the film “Gandhi,” and continuing on February 9 with “An Inconvenient Truth.”

For their Christmas project the children of First Day school collected toys, games, warm clothing, art supplies and other items suggested by PACT, Helping Children with Special Needs, an affiliate of Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. The Deer Creek connection to PACT will be a continuing one.

Following the success of last winter’s Quakerism Study and Discussion Group (jokingly dubbed Quakerism 101) a second eight-session series began on January 18. Its leader is Dan Derr, whose father-in-law, Dr. Elton Trueblood, is the author of the study book, The People Called Quakers, first published by Harper and Row in 1966. In another connection, Dr. Trueblood’s son, Sam Trueblood of Norristown, Pa., led a special series on the Sermon on the Mount for the Deer Creek Adult Sunday School on the four Sundays in January. The Meeting’s Sunday School curriculum is planned ahead from September to mid-June with topics related to New Testament parables and teachings.

Women of the Meeting , who can get away for lunch, have been meeting monthly at various restaurants.

The Harford Friends School began last year with 10 sixth grade students. The school is meeting at Deer Creek until deciding on a permanent facility. Ten students moved up to seventh grade this fall and four new students entered sixth grade when classes began on September 7. The annual Blueberry Festival at Deer Creek on July 15, a widely popular event in the county, was for the benefit of the school this year with the joint participation of Little Falls Meeting. As always, this event leans on the generosity of Dan and Elizabeth Derr, whose farm supplies the blueberries, and on the industry of the Friends who pick them and bake them into pies, muffins, cakes and scones.

Deer Creek brought applause at the Baltimore Yearly Meeting at Madison College in August when, at the roll call of meetings, nine adult and two young friends rose together, an uncommonly big delegation, especially for a small rural Meeting. The vitality of the Meeting is further reflected in a newly designed web site: www.deercreekfriends.org.

Deer Creek is proud of one of its young Friends, Parker Bennett, who, on getting her degree last spring, joined the Peace Corps and is now serving in Cameroon, Africa. At age 22, this is the fourth journey to Africa for this young woman. With groups sponsored by St. Mary’s College in Maryland and by Quakers, she has previously been to the Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Rwanda, Burundi, and Ethiopia. She will be in Cameroon for 2 ½ years teaching English at a school of 700 mostly Moslem students

A member of our Meeting, Becky Gardner, visited Pat Kutzner this summer to see first hand her work for the Navajo of the Torreon/Star Lake Chapter in New Mexico and on return has helped out by searching the Internet for possible funding sources for some of Pat’s projects. Another member, Mary Corddry, after meeting Pat and two of the Navajo from the Chapter at the Yearly Meeting, left on September 6 to join Pat and offer what help she can to promote some of her efforts.

Deer Creek Friends Meeting derives spiritual strength from the strong bonds between our members and attendees. The friendships that have developed over the years inspire trust and love to be shared by all. Membership is encouraged to share spiritual insights during meeting for worship, which is often inspired by our adult first day school. Ministry and Oversight has expressed that our outreach as related to newcomers and those with special needs requires focus. In order to become better acquainted with new attendees, we are having a coffee hour immediately after the rise of Meeting on the third Sunday of every month. In addition we will strive to bring our elderly friends that have difficulty-attending Meeting to this gathering.

Our meetings for business are organized and effective. While not well attended, we manage to get things done. Committee participation has been less than ideal. However, due to friendly persuasion, more folks are getting involved. It seems that the same individuals are always accepting more responsibility than the majority.

Deer Creek Meeting has been host to the first class of students in the newly formed Harford Friends School. The first year has been highly successful and we are proud to have been able to provide a home for the school in its beginning year. Harford Friends School has given Deer Creek a challenge to meet and focus on as a group. Harford Friends School is welcome at Deer Creek for as long as we can provide adequate facilities to meet their needs.

Our meeting has had many discussions in regard to the war in Iraq and our country’s participation in armed conflict worldwide. While some members have criticized our lack of participation in anti-war marches and protests, others support our government’s stand on such political issues. Even though there is division among our membership, we accept the views of one another and pray to God for guidance.

Our religious education committee has provided our meeting with a wonderful children’s first day school program. The children have worked with our local elementary school to provide supplies for the needy. In addition, the children participated in the Heifer Project program. Our younger children’s group is participating in a program called Godly Play. The early teen group is studying “The Journey”, a creative approach to the necessary crises of adolescence”.

For a number of years Deer Creek has sponsored a fundraiser on the third Saturday in July called the Blueberry Festival. The Blueberry Festival began as a means to help fund our Sunday school building addition. Now the fundraiser is used to help finance the Harford Friends School. Not only has the Blueberry Festival been a highly successful fund raising event, it has also been a means to reach out to the local community and let our residents know more about Quakers. Our Advancement and Outreach committee published two flyers to help with our outreach efforts. One is a history of the Deer Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends written by Jim Pickard. The second brochure describes our practices, beliefs, and structure.

Deer Creek Friends Meeting continues to provide a means to our spiritual growth and witness.

New and prospective members of Deer Creek meeting are learning more about both Quakerism and each other at a weekly study group on Thursday evenings. Dan Derr, one of our elders, teaches the course using “The People Called Quakers,” by the late D. Elton Trueblood, well-known professor of philosophy, author of Quaker-related books, and Mr. Derr’s father-in-law. Some of the same newcomers have also become active members of a newly organized Peace committee. They have joined periodic Peace Vigils at the courthouse in Bel Air, county seat of Harford County, to remember both the American and Iraqi dead in a war they oppose. They have also started a three-part series of First Day School discussions on the Biblical basis for the Quaker Peace Testimony from the personal to the international. The Peace Committee plans future get-togethers with their counterparts at the Little Falls Meeting in Fallston.

As part of our outreach to newcomers, Ministry and Oversight has initiated a coffee hour immediately after the rise of Meeting on the third Sunday of every month. The Advancement and Outreach committee published two flyers, one a history of the Deer Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends and the other describing our practices, beliefs and structure.

The newly formed Harford Friends School, which began this fall with a sixth grade class and will add a class each year, is meeting at Deer Creek until a permanent facility is built. This has been a welcome and exciting project. The Meeting’s annual Blueberry Festival, a widely known and highly successful event that helped finance the Sunday school building, will be a fundraiser this year for the Harford Friends School.

Our Meeting has a new clerk, Mara D. Walter, who has relieved Henry Smith Holloway after his long and valued tenure in that post.

We at Deer Creek show love for each other, our faith, our community and our world through our Meeting activities. Monthly restaurant luncheons have become increasingly popular as a way to deepen our friendships. Our Meeting Christmas dinner at the home of the Buchanan-Wollastons' was a "Norman Rockwell painting" with friends of all ages. We are grateful for the insights of Sam Trueblood, who led our First Day School discussions in January. A new study group on Quakerism has attracted both Friends and attenders. Deer Creek continues to participate in community holiday worship services and has helped reestablish quarterly "community breakfasts" with other Darlington churches. Our own Burundi Quaker workcamper, Parker Bennett, and Clinton Pettus of AFSC reopened our eyes and hearts to those in need around the world. Holiday projects Supported St. Elizabeth's School, the Heifer                Project and Pakistan earthquake relief. Harford Friends School thrives in our midst. We hold in the Light Friend Tom Fox, his fellow hostages and their families, and the endless other victims of tile War on Terrorism.

Harford County Friends, new students, teachers, families, board members and their friends will have gathered for Meeting for Worship at Harford Friends School at Deer Creek on September 8, the very first day of operation for the newly founded middle school. Members at Deer Creek are grateful for the leading of those who have made this day possible. Over the last year our committees have taken special interest in this precious endeavor by making building changes to accommodate a sixth grade class, beautification of our flower beds, the restoration of our historic carriage shed, and helping with the HFS Blueberry Festival, the most successful of our seven previous Festivals. As a Meeting, Friends continue to search for ways to let our Light shine through our study of the Testimonies and Queries, a dynamic First Day School curriculum for our children, our quarterly Road Clean-up, a Meeting newsletter, participation as a group in a 4th of July parade, and the hosting of our community barn dance.

Deer Creek Friends Meeting is filling the spiritual needs of our members and attendees. Our Meeting is a source of love, fellowship, and moral support. Many of our group have come from other Churches and find that Deer Creek offers a more spiritual religious experience. Our active adult First Day school discussions enhance our quality of silent worship and often lead to inspirational spoken messages. We have a very active First Day school for our children and will be focusing on their needs in the years to come. Again this past year, Deer Creek worked with a voluntary church based program that provides shelter and meals to the homeless.

One of our concerns has been sporadic attendance. Ministry and Oversight has approached our group with the question surrounding our less than desirable attendance. The answer usually revolves around our busy lives. Many of our members are appreciative of not being confronted with their lack of attendance as they would if they were attending another Church. However, Ministry and Oversight has reminded our group that when you are absent from Meeting, your absence can impact the quality of worship for the entire Meeting. As one of our members stated, "it is hard to build a fire with one log".

Meeting for business have been very active for the past year. Deer Creek is working hard in cooperation with the newly formed Harford Friends School to welcome its first class in September of 2005. Our meeting will be home for the school for several years or until a permanent location can be acquired. Several of our members need to be commended for the countless hours donated for the organization of the school.

We still struggle with less than adequate participation on our committees. Once again, our busy lives are the excuse. By remembering the testimony of simplicity, we all hope to slow down our lifestyles and make Meeting more of a priority in our lives. The annual discussion on the "Spiritual State of the Meeting" has already helped to improve our committee participation.

In order to deepen the spiritual life of the Meeting, we must make Deer Creek Friends Meeting central to our daily lives. By improving attendance on Sundays, increased committee participation, and involvement in several community work projects we hope to strengthen our Quaker witness.

Respectfully Submitted by
Henry Smith Holloway, Clerk
For Deer Creek Friends Meeting

Member Parker Bennett has “excited the meeting” with her plans to take part in an AFSC work camp in Burundi, West Africa in June. The meeting will help Parker meet her financial goal for her participation, building supplies for the project, and will collect medicine, clothing and books to send with her. The work camps plan to rebuild housing for displaced people and refurbish Quaker elementary schools. Deer Creek and Harford Friends School at Deer Creek Meeting worked together to accommodate Harford County’s Temporary Shelter for the Homeless for the last week in March. Providing a warm place to sleep and meals for seven days has given us an awareness of how people can lose a home and how to help – a meaningful experience for all who participate.

In Sunday school we studied the Light within living things, Jesus’ example of loving kindness, and the Heifer Project. Adults and children joined in mask making, song, and map games to learn the gifts animals give us in food, income, and help with crops for impoverished people. We have collected coins in colorful plastic eggs for the purchase of an animal for a family in need. Let our lives speak.

Nearly 100 attenders of BYM Summer Interim Meeting met in Deer Creek Friends' new Meetinghouse addition in June. Proceeds from July's 7^th Annual Blueberry Festival paid off our building construction loan. Please note July 16, 2005 as when Little Falls and Deer Creek Friends co-host this popular festival at Deer Creek. The Festival featuring fresh berries, baked goods and live auction will benefit Harford Friends School, due to open in its Deer Creek temporary quarters in September. More than 50 families attended the November and January Harford Friends School Open House. Interviews of prospective students and teachers have begun. In October, a Friendly attender completed the painting of the original Meetinghouse (inside and out) as a gift to Deer Creek.

This fall, adults and children studied aspects of Quakerism and devoted one lesson a month to the Queries. Both groups enjoyed periodic intergenerational activities such as depicting a personal view of the Testimonies in drawing or collage that was then compiled in book form and distributed to members. In September Deer Creek welcomed the community to its annual Barn Dance at Harriett and Richard Holloway's farm; proceeds went to Harford Habitat for Humanity. In October our children assembled "care kits" for the Sudan, and Deer Creek hosted a well-attended pre-election community breakfast featuring presentations by representatives of the two major political parties. Two talented Deer Creek Friends wrote or revised brochures for our visitors' literature rack: A Brief History of Deer Creek Friends Meeting by James E. Pickard, and An Introduction to Friends for Visitors and New Members compiled by our three-in-one committee, Peace, Advancement, and Unity with Nature.

Our monthly Friends' "come-if-you-can" luncheon at local restaurants meets our social needs. Deer Creek Friends also found fun in changing our traditional Sunday night "Friendly Eights" to a more spontaneous "Friendly Friday" Pot-Luck Dinner for all without reservation(s)! Join us!

Minute from Deer Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Ministry and Oversight/PAN Joint Meeting regarding FUM Anti-Gay Policies and Practices

In affirming our belief in the traditional Quaker testimony of that of God in everyone, we believe that all Friends should be allowed to participate in their religion to the extent of their interest and leading, and in keeping with their unique spiritual gifts.

We encourage continued conversation between Baltimore Yearly Meeting and Friends United Meeting on the issues related to active participation in FUM by gay men and lesbian women. While we recognize the good work done by FUM throughout the world, we will not provide support to FUM until its discriminatory policies and practices directed at homosexuals cease.

Marriages/Ceremonies of Commitment: Robert Gregory Gelder & Barbara E.W. McDonald, 9/6/2003

In early November, Deer Creek Friends and attenders joined 30 other Harford County churches by providing a week of overnight accommodations and meals in the Meeting House for Harford County men and women who were homeless. Along with other community volunteers, we brought in dinner and spent time with the guests, and found that this experience gave all of us a far greater compassion for those who are homeless and increased our awareness of homelessness. As a result, our Meeting will become a "temporary shelter" for a group again in April.

In December the children enacted the Christmas story for the parents and adults. We decorated our Christmas tree with mittens and gloves for children in need, and shared our annual Christmas dinner together. The Meeting is grateful to a regular attender, Larry Morgan, for his generous gift to the Meeting by repainting the Meeting House doors and trim.

Members of Ministry and Oversight completed a year of visitations to Friends and friends who do not attend regularly. The Committee has taken "Parenting in 2004" as its focus and will offer four special programs beginning with a session on March 21 on "bullying." The Committee continues to look for ways that make members and attenders with children feel part of the Meeting Family, and to encourage all of us to do the work of Friends and to remind us that the spirituality of the Meeting lies within us.

SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE MEETING REPORT - 2003

Members express a desire to attend meeting out of a sense of love for the group. There is a feeling of comfort and support that friends find within the Meeting at Deer Creek. However, this strength may contribute to what we feel is one of our greatest weaknesses. The satisfaction we find worshipping and working together as a meeting has allowed us to became somewhat isolationist outside of the Darlington Community. Members have expressed a desire to make more of a commitment to larger, more global issues. We look forward to meeting with the larger Quaker community by sponsoring the upcoming Interim Meeting.

The desire for companionship with others in the meeting has revived the Friendly eights program. Members regularly express a desire to do more together as a group, including events such as Young Adults activities and the picnic at Henry and Brenda Holloway's.

A variety of topics continue to be covered in adult Sunday school that include both prepared lessons and discussions. There is a sense that controversial topics are sometimes omitted and that for some, the lack of discussing strong issues diminishes the passion that might otherwise be felt.

Friends express a general satisfaction with silent meeting and value the short silent meeting held with the children prior to Sunday school. The quality of spoken ministry remains inspirational, although the quantity may be lacking. Individuals sometimes struggle with silent worship when they arrive with everyday life issues on their minds and fail to be inspired by the particular lesson that day.

Attendance in meetings for business, as well as meeting in general, suffers due to members' involvement with other activities. Evaluating priorities and making a commitment to attending is an issue everyone in meeting feels needs to be addressed.

Participation in the committees has diminished in the past year. In spite of this, the group continues to be able to gather around a cause and achieve significant accomplishments. In 2003, Deer Creek Friends joined the efforts of a Harford County coalition of churches and civic agencies to provide shelter for one week to homeless neighbors. The required commitment of time and effort from all our members challenged our prejudices and rekindled the joy that can be found in personal service to those that need help. We are planning to expand our efforts to support the needs of these neighbors by offering Friends conflict resolution to address community concerns, which have resulted in opposition to several proposed locations for a permanent shelter.

Our meeting has successfully organized joyful events for fundraising to pay for our recent building addition. Our annual Blueberry Festival and Barn Dance have become popular community events. Additional member efforts include road cleanup, support for a member's job related conflict with the peace testimony, and support for the Harford Friends School project. We feel that to improve interest in the committees, each committee will need to set definitive goals and strive to achieve them. The completion of a significant task will help to reinforce the importance of each committees work.

We have identified several items that we feel can deepen the spiritual life of the Meeting and strengthen our witness on behalf of Friend's testimonies to the world. We would like to develop a strategic plan to guide our committees through the year of 2004. We would like to sponsor an individual each year to participate in quarterly and yearly meetings in order to be a more viable part of the Quaker world outside of Deer Creek. We will strive to take on the difficult issues while not letting our individual differences interfere with the goal of being a part of the greater community.