Gettysburg

Gettysburg Monthly Meeting is one of the smallest in BYM. We meet at Gettysburg College and find our space to be a place of peace and centering. Friends come from near and far to worship together. We feel strongly connected one with another and this helps us to live our Quaker faith during the week.

We are a faithful Quaker community and the wonder of acting as a committee of the whole achieves a sense of common purpose without any preemptive voices overpowering worship with a concern for business. We listen and are heard, and speak together.

Individuals in our Meeting have been very active in the community. Two of our high school seniors belonged to the Amnesty International Club at the high school and participated in "Stop Genocide in Darfur" activities, including a demonstration at the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. One of our families volunteered at the Children's Advocacy Center and another Friend organized the Peace Camp that was sponsored by the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice. One of our college students was a counselor at Friends Music Camp and other students are active in social and peace related causes. Working for peace is foremost in our thoughts and we pray that our country will become a force for peace in the world.

We are thankful for one new member, our college students, and new attenders in our midst. They enrich our Meeting with their presence. Our pre-school children are a joy and they love to come to Quaker Meeting and already understand the quiet of our worship.

It has been a year of spiritual growth and enlightenment for many in our meeting. Each week the loving and supportive atmosphere encourages within us the spirit of a sharing, caring commitment and love. The Inner Light shines brightly during worship time together, and its warmth continues to nourish and sustain us while we are apart.

Two of our High School 12th graders are participating in the Amnesty International Club at Gettysburg High School. This school year the chapter decided to focus on the situation in Dafur. They are working on projects to raise awareness, including participated in the National Student Activism Week, March 26-30. This culminated in a rally in Washington DC to protest in front of the Chinese Embassy.

Our small meeting of dedicated Friends has felt a vibrancy about it this year. We have had many visitors and have been truly blessed by a constant attendance from Gettysburg College students.

It has been a year of reaching out to the community and trying to make ourselves more visible.

We have cooked and served a meal to 36 people at the Gettysburg soup kitchen.

One of our members volunteered at the Peace camp, sponsored each year by the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice.

In September the town of Gettysburg called for a "Gettysburg Community Day" in answer to a Ku Klux Klan rally which was permitted to meet at the Cyclorama Center. We enthusiastically embraced being a "friends in unity" sponsor to this non-confrontational event, and one of our members was responsible for organizing all the food .It brought together businesses and diverse church groups in addition to people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. About one thousand people attended on a very wet and cold day.

Our Meeting and the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice co-sponsored a talk given by Mike Boehm on the My Lai Peace park project. It was very well attended, including about twenty students from Gettysburg College.

Five members attended Yearly Meeting this year and felt renewed by being with the wider Quaker community.

We reached out at the holiday season to Family Service Partners, a local non-profit organization that helps needy families who are really on the edge of survival.

Our Monthly Meeting considered the FGC Central Committee minute which testified to the valued participation of "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Friends" within FGC. After much thought and prayer we approved the following minute.

"Gettysburg Monthly Meeting is totally opposed to discrimination against any person whatsoever. Friend's spiritual gifts lead to all Friend's spiritual needs. We support the FGC Central Committee minute".

Central to all our activities is our Meeting for Worship. Truth and love prosper among us and this is best spoken to in the words of individual Friends.

"Our Gettysburg Meeting's spiritual state was rejuvenated from its roots by Gettysburg College Students who have shared their Light worshipping with us. Our spiritual well-being has been greatly enlightened by the fellowship and loving ministry with our new attenders".

"The first thing that one might notice is that we are not a particularly large meeting because that is something you can measure. However, what you cannot quantify or often even put into words is the love and depth that I experience every week in meeting for worship. Our size does not define our actions, and just because we do not have many people in the meeting it does not mean that we cannot do great things. I really feel that our donation this past holiday season had an effect and impact on the community. We have a very close knit community and I feel that regardless of whether we have two people or two hundred people that we can experience and share in the same peace and love every Sunday."

Having grown up always attending churches that have been highly structured, it was quite a different experience for me when I began attending Gettysburg Meeting. However, I almost immediately developed a deep appreciation for the experience. I truly feel that worshipping in our meeting has allowed me to develop my faith and relationship with God that I thought might have been lost to me .Also I enjoy the sense of comfort and community that a small meeting such as ours fosters."

"Although we are not often in the area, we still find a sense of coming home when we return to Gettysburg Friends Meeting. It continues to be a warm and welcoming community. Even though vocal ministry is rare, we still find it a place where our spirits are nourished. It has been good to have so many students attending with us this year; it gives us hope for the future."

Gettysburg Monthly Meeting continues to reach out to our wider community.

In November Gettysburg M.M. and the Interfaith Peace and Justice Center co-sponsored a talk given by Mike Boehm on the My Lai Peace Park Project. It was well attended, including about 20 students from Gettysburg college. Mike Boehm is sponsored by Madison Quakers Inc.

In December we made a donation to Family Service Partners, a local non-profit organization that helps needy families who are really on the edge of survival.

Submitted by Margaret Stambaugh, clerk

Gettysburg Monthly Meeting was very active in the Gettysburg Community Unity Day on September 2. The Community Day was a celebration of unity and diversity as a non-confrontational answer to a KKK rally held at the Cyclorama Center. We were one of 14 official sponsors of the event, and one of our members was in charge of coordinating the food. We prepared for 1500 people and, although it was cold and raining, over 900 people gathered together in love and friendship to show rejection of all hatred. It was a true representation of the real town of Gettysburg, including businesses, diverse church groups and people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Another highlight for Gettysburg M.M. was having 5 members attend Yearly Meeting this year. We felt it to be a spirit-filled week where Friends were nourished and cared for. To all Friends, we recommend this wider Friends community.

Gettysburg Monthly Meeting is a very small meeting of dedicated Friends who have learnt that the better we come to know one another, the more effective is our care of each other and the more enhanced is our meeting for worship.

We have been blessed with visitors this year, including three students from Gettysburg College. Our members have traveled extensively both within BYM and in the wider world. Two of our members traveled to the island of Dominica, which was devastated by a hurricane in the Fall of 2004. They took medical supplies, school books, and helped with computer training as well as giving medical aid. They also traveled to Ireland and spent 2 weeks doing maintenance work at the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation. This center has a number of programs that reach out to teens in the Northern Ireland area that is still in turmoil.

Two of our members, Frank and Margaret Bailey, have moved to Des Moines, Iowa. They have left a big hole in our midst. Frank was a long time co-clerk of our meeting and we miss his ministry and humor.

We have two members serving on the board of the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice in Gettysburg. One of them has organized the week long Peace Camp for children that is held in June.

Our meeting has helped support local groups including the soup kitchen, Survivors Inc. and the Women’s shelter.

Nevertheless we are struggling, for we have riches to share and have not yet found a way to improve our outreach and communication. We meet on the campus of Gettysburg College and are not visible in the community. Yet members find our small meeting to be a spiritual place. The blessings of Friends worshipping together provides a nurturing and loving way for the Inner Light to keep shining brightly.

The seeds for growth are here and as we pray for way opening we remember the words of John Greenleaf Whittier…

And so I find it well to come
For deeper rest to this still room
For here the habit of the soul
Feels less the outer world’s control.
The strength of mutual purpose pleads
More earnestly our common needs;
And from the stillness multiplied
By these still forms on either side,
The world that time and sense have known
Falls off and leaves us God alone.

Gettysburg sends its warm greetings to the Meetings of Baltimore Yearly Meeting.

During our discussion of the past year, one person observed that "spiritually, members of the Meeting have offered quiet but sustained support for one another and for extended family members confronting medical difficulties and challenging economic circumstances."

Another added, "Being a member of Gettysburg Meeting has been spiritually rewarding in many ways, providing me with a sense of renewed commitment to our religious society and shared worship among Friends. Since I have been seeking this Spirit within the care of our Meeting, my life has been transformed, finding a union in marriage and parenthood: I have never been as happy and at peace in my daily life. I thank everyone for sharing these blessings of the light with us as we grow as a family."

Meeting for worship is the springboard for all we do and where we find our direction, sensitivity and commitment to one another in an overly busy world.

Some specifics about the most recent year include our uniting on a minute concerning our relationship with FUM. Another highlight was our sending two separate contributions to help rebuild the Meetinghouse in Ramallah and learning that substantial progress is being made through the assistance of many Friends everywhere. Hope is still alive. We also lent our efforts to trying to help with the humanitarian crisis in the Sudan.

In still another wonderful individual effort, the Woods from our Meeting requested that Gettysburg sponsor a fund to help purchase desperately needed medical supplies for Dominica, where the Woods recently visited and did volunteer work. Contributions have been coming in from outside the Meeting as a result of the Woods making the need known to organizations and individuals they have come in contact with.

Collectively, the Meeting has provided, what are-- for us-- substantial funds for tsunami relief sent to the AFSC for distribution. Looking to our own future, we have begun a fund to, someday, rent/renovate/acquire or possibly build a Meetinghouse.

Locally, we have continued our interest in an established, local church's Soup Kitchen by providing and serving a meal. We continue to contribute to Survivors, a local crisis-intervention group for abused women and children. Clearly, we are involved in worthwhile things and wish we had the resources and "peoplepower' to do more.

Our problem is our size. We are small and getting smaller, and that problem has our immediate attention since our annual gathering to review the spiritual condition of Gettysburg Meeting. Fortunately, even with fewer people actively involved, we have managed to do quite a bit this year.

Normal attrition is taking a meaningful toll on us, given our demographics. In the months ahead we will have to invest significant energy into "growing the Meeting," which, we now realize, is considerably overdue. We are confident that there are others who would want to be a part of our spiritual community if they were to know more about us and where we are. All we need to do is find them. We welcome suggestions and others' experience.

Gettysburg Monthly Meeting enthusiastically supports the position offered by Retha McCutchen, FUM General Secretary, at BYM 2004, that Yearly Meetings do not need a line item in their budget to belong to FUM. Individuals and/or Monthly Meetings can send voluntary contributions to FUM.

We also strongly support having representatives from Baltimore Yearly Meeting fully represent BYM at FUM events and a strong visitation Program between our Yearly Meeting and other Yearly Meetings.

Approved by Gettysburg Monthly Meeting at a called Meeting for Business on October 23rd. 2004

For the indefinite future Gettysburg Friends Meeting would like to withhold its portion of the assessment made to Baltimore Yearly Meeting for the purpose of supporting the programs and activities of Friends United Meeting. This Meeting has watched patiently for the response to the Lamar Matthew incident and other concerns that relate to the relationship between FUM and BYM, with growing disappointment and dismay. Like any large or small organization, we too, have to make hard decisions about how best to use our limited resources, time, and energy.

While we recognize that FUM has accomplished worthwhile achievements over the years, several of its policies, practices, and attitudes over a considerable span of time, have lead us to take a position of withdrawing our financial support, as small as it is, in the hope that a corrective course might be found and taken in the future.

Approved at Gettysburg Monthly Meeting for Business, February 8th. 2004.

SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE MEETING REPORT - 2003

The past year was not a statistically record-setting year. It was eventful, nevertheless, for us as a Meeting community.

Ironically, we at Gettysburg Meeting did more things together, as a like-minded group, than we have for a long, long time. "The spiritual growth of the Meeting is linked to its life as a community - and to its wider community reach, too," observed a longtime member at our evening meal and discussion to do our self-evaluation. She had personally taken three hours that day to reflect on how we were doing, and came well prepared.

We are not growing and we take that quite seriously. We did have several drop-in visitors, which was encouraging because we are difficult to find. Only the most determined find our door. The infant son of one of our most recent members began attending Meeting very early after being born. Even the parents are pleasantly pleased with his seeming enjoyment of the quiet. His presence is a spiritual vitamin pill for the Meeting.

What we have been able to do this year is worth noting. There are some things we feel are within our grasp to do. In the past it has been difficult to get agreement on collectively giving contributions, especially to "causes." We have very little to give, but when we need funds, everyone seems to rally to meet the need. At one of our business meetings we decided to open a restricted fund for a future Meetinghouse that would be built, or rented or whatever. Contributions were made that very day to start it. Believe me, we also like our present rent-free arrangement. We also decided to send a sizeable contribution, for us, to help rebuild the Ramallah Meetinghouse. When the request came for additional contributions for the same purpose, we made a second gift. That courageous effort from far away caught our imagination and sense of hope against great odds.

Still another long-felt need surfaced during the year. It was difficult for us, but we realized that we were very uncomfortable and needed to write a minute regarding the handling of an incident involving Lamar Matthew, clerk of the Yearly Meeting and representatives of Friends United Meeting. We have asked Yearly Meeting that the portion of Gettysburg's annual assessment that goes to support FUM be withheld. In reality, it is a token gesture, but, for us, an important one. We are doing as much as we can with what little we have. We regret that it was necessary for us to take this position, but it simply felt "right." Often, the spiritual road is not clear, especially when the desired result is unity, not fragmentation and discord. We would have preferred a positive outcome, and would still hope that one materializes.