You are welcome here. We worship at 10 AM on Sundays (see notice below)
Quaker Meeting matters to me because…
There is genuine warmth in the fellowship of Fresh Pond Meeting — I feel that the other members really love me and love my daughter, and immediately included us in their community. To be a part of this Meeting has been a balm to my spirit and helped me to stay centered and loving amidst a global pandemic and other more personal life upheavals.
— Amanda
Hybrid Worship
Fresh Pond Monthly Meeting Hybrid Worship First Days (Sundays) at 10 AM. Friends are invited to gather in person at the Cambridge Friends School, 5 Cadbury Road, Cambridge and online via Zoom according to your preferences.
We wear a mask to worship. Masks will be available at the door for anyone who does not have one.
New to worship at Fresh Pond Monthly Meeting?
When you join in person worship you will discover that Fresh Pond Meeting is experimenting in hybrid worship with a new technology. We welcome your comments about your experiences as we seek to be an inclusive community.
To worship via Zoom, scroll to the bottom of the page. When you join our Zoom meeting you will be met by a greeter. You are welcome to arrive as early as 9:30 am for Friendly conversation. Meeting for Worship begins at 10 am in a breakout room. The greeter will facilitate your entry into that room.
What is Our Meeting for Worship Like?
Worship begins as soon as the first person is seated in our circle. We worship with no pastor or professional minister. Our experience is that the Holy Spirit is present among us and will guide us. This is called unprogrammed worship in the Quaker tradition.
After Meeting for worship each week, we join together for meeting business, potlucks, religious education, and social time. Our schedule in 2023 will reflect our on-going discernment of living into a Sabbath Year.
We welcome children of all ages to join parents in worship at Fresh Pond Meeting. At present, however, we are reconfiguring our youth programming as we adjust to hybrid worship, experiment with the technology, and live into our Sabbath Year. If you arrive with children, the greeter at the door will welcome you and your children to join us in worship in the meeting room. Children may sit quietly as they are able, possibly reading, drawing, or playing with soft toys we have available. We also have access to the gym where children can run around and one or more adults will accompany parents and children for play. Please contact the clerks at freshpond@neym.org to learn more about our intergenerational worship and current programming.
What Do We Believe?
The most fundamental belief of Quakers is that every person holds within them the essence of God, and can access that essence for guidance through worship and prayer. Our practices evolve from this essential belief. Our behavior with each other and in the world show common themes of peace, simplicity, equality, and integrity – often referred to as our testimonies. All are based on our experience of the divine acting in our lives and relationships.
It is traditional Quaker practice that we “minute” statements that reflect our understanding of the Spirit at work among us, and in the world.
CALENDAR
March 19 Hybrid Worship, Fresh Pond will be joined in worship by Friends from Salem Quarter’s meetings and worship groups. After worship, there will be a short time for socializing and snacking, indoors and outside if weather permits. Then we’ll gather at 11:45 for a program on Sabbath and a period of small group conversations. Both Salem Quarter and Fresh Pond Meeting have entered a period of Sabbath: a laying down of regular patterns of business. At this spring gathering of Salem Quarter Friends are invited to explore the radical invitation of Sabbath to reclaim time and redeem the powers and principalities. For more information, please contact the co-clerks.
March 26 Hybrid Worship, followed at 11:30 by the Sharing from the Gender Margins group
March 28 Committee of the Whole gathers mid-week via Zoom, 7:30 to 8:30 PM. Created for the purpose of worship and hearing/discerning concerns of the Meeting during the 2023 Sabbath Year. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
April 2 Hybrid Worship, followed at 11:30 by Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, all are welcome and encouraged to participate in our discernment and decision-making.
DIRECTIONS TO WORSHIP AT CAMBRIDGE FRIENDS SCHOOL
Driving:
Enter through the courtyard on the right side of the school, access from the parking lot. ** Cadbury Road is marked “Do Not Enter” but that is ONLY DURING WEEKDAY SCHOOL HOURS. ** You may drive up the road in front of the school to our parking lot, or park on the street!
Walking:
From Mass Ave, take Upland Rd. to Corcoran playground (6 blocks counting on the right). Cut diagonally across the park to Walden St. Turn left on Walden, go to Wood St., the first street on the right (purple house with large pine tree on corner), turn right and walk one block. Cross Cadbury Rd, go along the east (right) side of the school, go inside the courtyard. 3/4 mile, 15 minutes’ walk.
Directions for logging into our virtual meeting for worship on Zoom:
Fresh Pond Quakers is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Meeting for Worship
Time: 9:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/687886882?pwd=YWJyNXF5aG5NQ29QcE1UQ0hQTC9KQT09
Meeting ID: 687 886 882
Password: 648213
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