You are welcome here. We worship at 10 AM on Sundays. Notices, calendar, and directions are below.
Quaker Meeting matters to me because…
Knowing that Friends will show up every week to share an hour of expectant waiting is a touchstone for me. It is reassuring to see everyone’s faces and know that we are all in this together. It is the group where I feel most like myself. A place where I am listened to. A place of connection. A place to talk about fears and concerns in our larger world. As well as fears and problems in my inner world.
Susan
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.
Masks are optional for worship and other FPMM events. The door greeter will continue to have a supply on hand if you prefer to mask. If you do no feel well, however, please attend worship via Zoom. Link is below.
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
October 1 Hybrid Worship. We welcome visitors in worship from the 2023-24 class of Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS Fellows). At 11:30 we hold our monthly meeting for worship with attention to business. All are welcome and encouraged to join us in our Quaker practices of listening, discernment, and seeking unity as we consider monthly business matters that require spiritually grounded decision-making.
October 5 & 17 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. Each of these gatherings has a facilitator who chooses a topic or query. Use the same Zoom link for Sunday worship, scroll down to find it.
October 8 Hybrid Worship, followed by our Second Sunday monthly potluck. All are welcome to this hour of lunch and conversation. An opportunity to get to know each other as we break bread together. Please bring a dish or beverage to share, yet if not possible, be assured there will be plenty for all.
October 11 Daytime Committee of the Whole via Zoom, 11:30 to 12:30. 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. Each of these gatherings has a facilitator who chooses a topic or query. Use the same Zoom link for Sunday worship, scroll down to find it.
October 15 Hybrid Worship, followed by Third Sunday Program at 11:30. Program content TBA
October 17 Committee of the Whole gathers mid-week via Zoom, 7:30 to 8:30 PM. (see October 5)
October 22 Hybrid Worship, followed at 11:30 by Sharing from the Gender Margins group. The Sharing from the Gender Margins Group strives to create a safe space and empowering community for all Friends of marginalized genders. During our monthly meetings we wish to create a sacred space for the intimate sharing of our spiritual journeys. If you have questions, please write to freshpond@neym.org
October 29 Hybrid Worship, followed at 11:30 by a Fifth Sunday threshing session on discerning our meeting community’s way into 2024, a new year emerging from our Sabbath Year. More details TBA
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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