We benefit from worship, which is often covered, and we feel sustained by our worship together. Some of our first-day worship has little vocal ministry but at other times we are blessed with rich, spirit-led, and inspired vocal ministry. We also benefit greatly from the sharing done around the circle after worship is ended.
Some of our members have been involved in men’s and women’s prisons, immigrant rights, working with NH Peace Action [2] on war resistance, and lobbying our US Senators and Congresspersons through an FCNL [3] group. Many participated in the successful campaign to repeal the death penalty in New Hampshire. Others vigil regularly with Voices of Faith [4] at the NH State House to show support for living wages, justice reform, responding to the climate crisis, and ending discrimination against transgender people. We’ve increased our support for a child at the Kakamega Care Centre in Kenya [5], raising money through a new “Abundance in Advent” [6] calendar which reminds us of our physical comforts here in the US as a stimulus to our members to give money for that cause.
We continue to be active in letting others know about our Meeting through a tent at the annual Canterbury Fair [7], a very thorough and accessible web site, open events for singing, dancing, and public talks at our Meeting House. We’ve held two Intergenerational Make & Take Craft Days and continue with our Christmas caroling at a local nursing home and our New Year’s Eve fun and games evening.
We are challenged by the increasing age of our most heavily involved members. Our Youth Religious Education Committee has had its leadership transferred to younger members, but other committees and detailed tasks are still heavily reliant on members who are over sixty-five and have done such tasks for a long time.
But we are blest by the younger adults who have found a home in our community even as we yearn for more. Two sisters keep our First Day School rich and thriving. Other children attend with their parents or grandparents when it fits into their lives. We hope to attract more children as well.
Some of our attenders, regardless of age, come sporadically, thus not becoming as solid a part of our activities and worship as others. Regardless of their frequency of attendance, they are an important part of our community.
Our faith is deepening through the workings of a strong Ministry and Counsel Committee, occasional “Quakerism 101 [8]” and other courses led by our members, singing before each First Day meetings for worship, and through our twice-monthly potluck meals after worship.
We act as if we are a larger meeting, with dedicated committees for Ministry and Counsel [9], Finance, Property [10] (for our Meeting House), PSECC [11] (Peace, Social and Earthcare Concerns Committee), Outreach, Youth Religious Education [12], and Nominating. We send representatives to the NH AFSC [13] Support Committee, Greater Concord Interfaith Council [14], and NEYM’s Ministry and Council Committee [15]. We yearn for more people to take on such work.
We were particularly moved by the death this year of one of our earliest members, Lois Booth [16], and we still feel encouraged by the lives that Lois and her previously deceased husband, Don Booth [17], led in our meeting, and by their effect on not only us, but our state capital and our region, as they witnessed for peace, love, and the environment, and spoke truth to power.
We accept that our tall ship is not as strong as it should be but we continue to maintain it, improve its structure, reassess its course, and fly its flags so that others will feel encouraged to board and share in its progress.
Word version: https://concordfriendsmeeting.org/sites/all/files/documents/CMM-2019StateOfSociety.docx [18]
Approved by Meeting for Worship with attention to Business on 8th of Third Month 2020 [19]
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Canterbury, New Hampshire 03224-2043 USA
Links:
[1] https://media.istockphoto.com/vectors/winddriven-ship-on-a-white-background-vector-id957654722
[2] https://nhpeaceaction.org/
[3] https://www.fcnl.org/updates/making-a-lasting-impression-with-creative-advocacy-2570
[4] https://www.facebook.com/groups/InterfaithVoices
[5] http://www.friendsofkakamega.org/
[6] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/sites/all/files/documents/December%202019%20Abundance%20Advent%20Calendar.docx
[7] http://www.canterburyfair.com/
[8] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/Library#QuakerBasics
[9] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/MinistryAndCounsel
[10] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/Property%20Committee
[11] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/PeaceSocial%2526EarthcareConcernsCommittee
[12] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/YouthPrograms
[13] https://www.afsc.org/office/concord-nh
[14] https://www.greaterconcordinterfaithcouncil.org/
[15] https://neym.org/committees/ministry-and-counsel
[16] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/LoisBoothMemorialMinute
[17] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/DonBoothMemorialMinute
[18] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/sites/all/files/documents/CMM-2019StateOfSociety.docx
[19] https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/2020-03-08_CMM_Minutes#03.4