Our Meeting
Events
Most events are on hold due to the pandemic.
We do hold monthly Business Meetings and will schedule a Clean-Up Day this autumn.
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2020 Faith & Practice
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On Speaking in Meeting for Worship
The following guidelines, “On Speaking in Meeting for Worship,” have been drafted by Ministry & Counsel with a view toward publishing them in a flyer which will be available in the meeting room. They were adapted from a pamphlet distributed by New York Yearly Meeting several years ago. [Chappaqua Friends Meeting, Ministry & Counsel Committee, 2011]
Quakers in our tradition gather in silence. We begin by trying to quiet the chatter in our minds, calming our hearts, and seeking the source of love and truth in our lives. Friends describe this source in various ways: God, the Spirit, the Inward Light, the Divine, the Christ Within, the still small voice.
Worship begins when the first person enters the room and sits down. As others gather, the meeting settles into a deep and seeking silence.
Out of the silence any worshiper may be led to speak, sharing what is called vocal ministry. Such ministry is grounded in the speaker’s spiritual experience. We rely on the Divine Presence to lead and inspire us.
When a message rises to consciousness, we patiently examine it, testing that it is from the spirit of God or the Inner Light, and not from our own will and ego. Sometimes a message is not yet ripe or, it comes clearly, but is meant only for the person receiving it and not for the community. The entire meeting for worship may pass in silence.
Friends traditionally do not bring prepared messages. No one should come to meeting for worship with an intention to speak or not to speak.
Vocal ministry should be delivered with as few words as possible, yet as many as necessary. It may be inspired by an earlier message, but it should not be in direct response, critical, or contentious.
A substantial period of silence follows each message so that listeners can absorb the ministry into their worship.
Friends are encouraged to stand to speak. Please remember that some do not hear well. It is the custom that a worshiper will offer only one message during meeting for worship.
Listening in meeting for worship is as important as vocal ministry. Try to receive all messages tenderly and with openness. The guidance of God may be received through anyone. A listening heart may find the truth within a message even when the speaker’s manner or vocabulary are challenging or unfamiliar.
Meeting for worship ends when a designated Friend shakes hands with a neighbor. Then everyone shakes hands.
Note: If you arrive after worship has begun and someone is speaking, please wait until they have finished before you sit down.
Quaker Quotes On Vocal Ministry (Speaking in Meeting for Worship)
The end of words is to bring us to the knowledge of things beyond what words can utter.
-- Isaac Pennington, 1670
Once meeting begins, take time to enter fully into the spirit of worship. Gently let go of distractions, as you center down and open yourself to the workings of the Spirit. Come to meeting with neither a resolve to speak, nor a determination not to speak, but rather with an attitude of expectant waiting and openness.
-- Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice (2011 draft revision), p.104
Some Friends are led to speak frequently, and others only rarely; yet the timid or brief message of one who seldom speaks may be as moving and helpful as that of a more practiced speaker.
-- Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice, p.15
Ministry is what is on one’s soul, and it can be in direct contradiction to what is on one’s mind. It’s what the Inner Light pushes you toward or suddenly dumps in your lap. It is rooted in the eternity, divinity, and selflessness of the Inner Light; not in the worldly, egotistic functions of the conscious mind.
-- Marianne Mullen, 1987, in New England Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice, 2.66
*****
Thoughts on Community from Hugh Barbour
Written for our Meeting retreat at Powell House Spring 2012
Friends in general, and Chappaqua Meeting (and family itself) particularly, embody the role in the mysterious, wonderful universe of an international community aware of its history and humanity's, but also of how little we know. Humans form the only group we know in which the universe in its billions of galaxies is conscious of itself. Yet at its smallest level, we can only point to how little we know about the particles, fields and forces which make it up.
Humans ask not only who we each and all are, but what our lives can mean, in relation to each other, and see our acts as well as feelings of love and caring. To us, god represents both the basic unity of the universe, over against polytheism or mere chance, and our personal and collective responsibility in this nuclear age to care for the earth and our fellow-humans. But from Jesus we learn to extend and deepen the intense love we feel withing our own families that take us beyond self-love, to all sorts and conditions of men and women, and to come personally to God, even amid galaxies and tsunamis, as a loving Father. Our worship and mutual service is thus personal.
Friends add to this an awareness found among some other Christians and Hebrews, that a person can absorb or copy in depth the personality of another, so that a Spirit that can dwell or work in us that we can call the Spirit of God or Spirit of Christ. Its contrast with our normal personality may humble as well as transform us.
The meaning of Community in this very broad setting varies both in time and in context. In many societies and eras, a whole people worships and thinks together, shares in one's art, music and kinds of transcendence. But this usually leads to seeing as divine each culture's heroes and rulers. Despite the efforts of roman Emperors and Stuart kings, this was just what did not happen in post-exilic Judaism, early Christianity and Quakerism. Communities or worship, though often also village assemblies, rejected and sometimes hoped to transform the lives of wider societies. Some class and racial patterns, and especially vocations based on violence, were seen as evil. Communities of monks and nuns or shared rural life (such as Amish and Bruderhofs) could detach themselves from a larger society. To a greater extent than many Americans realize, both early Quaker and the early puritan villages represented this idealism in different forms, often involving great sacrifices by those who took part. A historian notices that the "holy wars' of New England after 1685, the Vale of Tears for the Cherokees, and the Book of Mormons form their beginning were against the "native American Indians". It is clear that many people who joined Quaker communities in all eras came as an affirmation of the "Peace Testimony", and that this by no means freed us from conflicts over theology, education, dress or lifestyles, or personal power.
On the terms "Gathered" and "Holy"
Both these terms are common among non-Friends as well as Friends: Gathered is used, for example, by Church of the Brethren scholars like Don Durnbaugh in "The Gathered Church", referring to congregations whose members chose to come together of "come out" of established churches and rituals of their societies as a whole. They are adults, and include monastic communities, Buddhist Sanghas and Gandhi's Ashrams, as well as some self-isolated communities like the Amish and the Hutterite Bruderhofs. In the 2nd and 3rd generations, their children (if any) are schooled apart. Friends in this sense were separatists in Britain (as were early Baptisits), and like other Gathered communities thus made issues out of differences in speech and clothing. but in American, even the early Puritians were Gathered as villages out of manorial society. In the U.S. Methodists and Baptist churches were Gathered by traveling preachers until the "separation of church and state" became our catchword, and strict etthical standards were expected even from the Roman Catholic as well as "peace churches".
HOLY on the other hand (KaDOSH, SRI) meant set aside WITHIN Society, including priestly people, places and spring as well as buildings, art, music and (too often) rulers. It is at this point that American communities' inward experiences of shared exaltation led Friends and other faith communities to talk about Sanctification.
I would affirm Chappaqua Friends Meeting as a Gathered Community, but perhaps not a Holy one.
****
From our Nov. 2011 newsletter:
Social Hour
It may be the opportunity for silent worship or the chance to hear a wise message that draws you to attend Meeting on any given week. It may very likely also be the delicious treats provided during social hour. Especially when Business Meeting is happening, the soups, fruits, treats and recently a fantastic frittata have been topics of conversation and praise.
If you ever find yourself wondering what to bring when it's your turn to provide refreshments, B.L. has written down this recipe that is a popular tradition for good reason.
Coffee House Breakfast Cake
Batter:
1 large package of yellow cake mix
1 package of instant vanilla pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup Mazola oil
Mix & beat for 10 minutes
Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Mix together
*****
Guidelines for Participating in
Friends’ Meetings for Worship with Concern for Business at
Chappaqua Meeting
(approved by Meeting for Business on January 10, 2010)
In conducting business, Friends seek the sense of the meeting, a process of spiritual discernment and listening for Divine guidance. Friends have learned through experience that the following guidelines help this process and strengthen our community.
Most events are on hold due to the pandemic.
We do hold monthly Business Meetings and will schedule a Clean-Up Day this autumn.
****
2020 Faith & Practice
- Forms
Acceptance of Transfer
Certificate of Transfer
Information & Instructions on Final Affairs
Monthly Meeting Membership Record Form - Queries
****
On Speaking in Meeting for Worship
The following guidelines, “On Speaking in Meeting for Worship,” have been drafted by Ministry & Counsel with a view toward publishing them in a flyer which will be available in the meeting room. They were adapted from a pamphlet distributed by New York Yearly Meeting several years ago. [Chappaqua Friends Meeting, Ministry & Counsel Committee, 2011]
Quakers in our tradition gather in silence. We begin by trying to quiet the chatter in our minds, calming our hearts, and seeking the source of love and truth in our lives. Friends describe this source in various ways: God, the Spirit, the Inward Light, the Divine, the Christ Within, the still small voice.
Worship begins when the first person enters the room and sits down. As others gather, the meeting settles into a deep and seeking silence.
Out of the silence any worshiper may be led to speak, sharing what is called vocal ministry. Such ministry is grounded in the speaker’s spiritual experience. We rely on the Divine Presence to lead and inspire us.
When a message rises to consciousness, we patiently examine it, testing that it is from the spirit of God or the Inner Light, and not from our own will and ego. Sometimes a message is not yet ripe or, it comes clearly, but is meant only for the person receiving it and not for the community. The entire meeting for worship may pass in silence.
Friends traditionally do not bring prepared messages. No one should come to meeting for worship with an intention to speak or not to speak.
Vocal ministry should be delivered with as few words as possible, yet as many as necessary. It may be inspired by an earlier message, but it should not be in direct response, critical, or contentious.
A substantial period of silence follows each message so that listeners can absorb the ministry into their worship.
Friends are encouraged to stand to speak. Please remember that some do not hear well. It is the custom that a worshiper will offer only one message during meeting for worship.
Listening in meeting for worship is as important as vocal ministry. Try to receive all messages tenderly and with openness. The guidance of God may be received through anyone. A listening heart may find the truth within a message even when the speaker’s manner or vocabulary are challenging or unfamiliar.
Meeting for worship ends when a designated Friend shakes hands with a neighbor. Then everyone shakes hands.
Note: If you arrive after worship has begun and someone is speaking, please wait until they have finished before you sit down.
Quaker Quotes On Vocal Ministry (Speaking in Meeting for Worship)
The end of words is to bring us to the knowledge of things beyond what words can utter.
-- Isaac Pennington, 1670
Once meeting begins, take time to enter fully into the spirit of worship. Gently let go of distractions, as you center down and open yourself to the workings of the Spirit. Come to meeting with neither a resolve to speak, nor a determination not to speak, but rather with an attitude of expectant waiting and openness.
-- Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice (2011 draft revision), p.104
Some Friends are led to speak frequently, and others only rarely; yet the timid or brief message of one who seldom speaks may be as moving and helpful as that of a more practiced speaker.
-- Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice, p.15
Ministry is what is on one’s soul, and it can be in direct contradiction to what is on one’s mind. It’s what the Inner Light pushes you toward or suddenly dumps in your lap. It is rooted in the eternity, divinity, and selflessness of the Inner Light; not in the worldly, egotistic functions of the conscious mind.
-- Marianne Mullen, 1987, in New England Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice, 2.66
*****
Thoughts on Community from Hugh Barbour
Written for our Meeting retreat at Powell House Spring 2012
Friends in general, and Chappaqua Meeting (and family itself) particularly, embody the role in the mysterious, wonderful universe of an international community aware of its history and humanity's, but also of how little we know. Humans form the only group we know in which the universe in its billions of galaxies is conscious of itself. Yet at its smallest level, we can only point to how little we know about the particles, fields and forces which make it up.
Humans ask not only who we each and all are, but what our lives can mean, in relation to each other, and see our acts as well as feelings of love and caring. To us, god represents both the basic unity of the universe, over against polytheism or mere chance, and our personal and collective responsibility in this nuclear age to care for the earth and our fellow-humans. But from Jesus we learn to extend and deepen the intense love we feel withing our own families that take us beyond self-love, to all sorts and conditions of men and women, and to come personally to God, even amid galaxies and tsunamis, as a loving Father. Our worship and mutual service is thus personal.
Friends add to this an awareness found among some other Christians and Hebrews, that a person can absorb or copy in depth the personality of another, so that a Spirit that can dwell or work in us that we can call the Spirit of God or Spirit of Christ. Its contrast with our normal personality may humble as well as transform us.
The meaning of Community in this very broad setting varies both in time and in context. In many societies and eras, a whole people worships and thinks together, shares in one's art, music and kinds of transcendence. But this usually leads to seeing as divine each culture's heroes and rulers. Despite the efforts of roman Emperors and Stuart kings, this was just what did not happen in post-exilic Judaism, early Christianity and Quakerism. Communities or worship, though often also village assemblies, rejected and sometimes hoped to transform the lives of wider societies. Some class and racial patterns, and especially vocations based on violence, were seen as evil. Communities of monks and nuns or shared rural life (such as Amish and Bruderhofs) could detach themselves from a larger society. To a greater extent than many Americans realize, both early Quaker and the early puritan villages represented this idealism in different forms, often involving great sacrifices by those who took part. A historian notices that the "holy wars' of New England after 1685, the Vale of Tears for the Cherokees, and the Book of Mormons form their beginning were against the "native American Indians". It is clear that many people who joined Quaker communities in all eras came as an affirmation of the "Peace Testimony", and that this by no means freed us from conflicts over theology, education, dress or lifestyles, or personal power.
On the terms "Gathered" and "Holy"
Both these terms are common among non-Friends as well as Friends: Gathered is used, for example, by Church of the Brethren scholars like Don Durnbaugh in "The Gathered Church", referring to congregations whose members chose to come together of "come out" of established churches and rituals of their societies as a whole. They are adults, and include monastic communities, Buddhist Sanghas and Gandhi's Ashrams, as well as some self-isolated communities like the Amish and the Hutterite Bruderhofs. In the 2nd and 3rd generations, their children (if any) are schooled apart. Friends in this sense were separatists in Britain (as were early Baptisits), and like other Gathered communities thus made issues out of differences in speech and clothing. but in American, even the early Puritians were Gathered as villages out of manorial society. In the U.S. Methodists and Baptist churches were Gathered by traveling preachers until the "separation of church and state" became our catchword, and strict etthical standards were expected even from the Roman Catholic as well as "peace churches".
HOLY on the other hand (KaDOSH, SRI) meant set aside WITHIN Society, including priestly people, places and spring as well as buildings, art, music and (too often) rulers. It is at this point that American communities' inward experiences of shared exaltation led Friends and other faith communities to talk about Sanctification.
I would affirm Chappaqua Friends Meeting as a Gathered Community, but perhaps not a Holy one.
****
From our Nov. 2011 newsletter:
Social Hour
It may be the opportunity for silent worship or the chance to hear a wise message that draws you to attend Meeting on any given week. It may very likely also be the delicious treats provided during social hour. Especially when Business Meeting is happening, the soups, fruits, treats and recently a fantastic frittata have been topics of conversation and praise.
If you ever find yourself wondering what to bring when it's your turn to provide refreshments, B.L. has written down this recipe that is a popular tradition for good reason.
Coffee House Breakfast Cake
Batter:
1 large package of yellow cake mix
1 package of instant vanilla pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup Mazola oil
Mix & beat for 10 minutes
Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Mix together
- Pour half the batten in an ungreased angel food cake pan
- Sprinkle with half of the topping
- Pour remaining batter into pan and remaining crumbs on top layer
- Swirl or cut through with a knife a few times
- Place in 350 degree oven for 60 minutes
- Cool & place on serving plate
*****
Guidelines for Participating in
Friends’ Meetings for Worship with Concern for Business at
Chappaqua Meeting
(approved by Meeting for Business on January 10, 2010)
In conducting business, Friends seek the sense of the meeting, a process of spiritual discernment and listening for Divine guidance. Friends have learned through experience that the following guidelines help this process and strengthen our community.
- Begin with centering worship.
- Listen with openness.
- Consider the heart of the message, not the messenger.
- Be willing to be changed.
- If you wish to speak, raise your hand and wait for recognition from the clerk. Address your words to the clerk, not to individual Friends. Allow all present to speak before seeking to speak a second time.
- Speak the truth as you discern it, with kindness, respect, and love.
- Keep your remarks brief to allow time for others to contribute.
- Consider introducing potentially contentious ideas and expressing deep convictions by means of queries rather than statements.
- To help maintain the group’s center, avoid interrupting or engaging in asides or side conversations.
- Anyone may call for silence to re-center in a worshipful spirit.
- Keep in mind that for a difficult decision the sense of the meeting may not be reached within one or even several business meetings.