Westport Quakers

Westport Meeting News: 

Bread Day at Westport Meeting, Saturday, March 4. The second (annual?) NEYM sponsored “Bread-Day, that Gretchen Baker-Smith envisioned and made a reality last year, will be offered again at various meetinghouses around New England this Saturday, March 4th. Gretchen, with help from other Friends, will lead a bread making event in our Community House from 3pm-7-pm. All are welcome, but please be sure to let Gretchen know if you are coming! Details:

• Let Gretchen know you’re coming at 508-287-6441, or email her HERE.
• Setup for the event will be done by the Child Care Working Group
• Like last year, there’s talk of Friends bringing soup to compliment the bread for sharing near the end.
• Generous help will be needed for washing dishes, utensils, cleaning tables, sweeping, etc.
• Remember, make sure Gretchen knows that YOU are coming!
• Details about the NEYM Bread Day event last year are below in the NEYM section.

NEEDED: MEN’S HATS AND WOMEN’S/MEN’S GLOVES AND MITTENS: The Pilgrim Church Home urgently needs men’s hats and women’s/men’s gloves and mittens to make available to patrons at their morning breakfast program. Please bring these items to the Westport Friends meetinghouse and leave in the meetinghouse foyer. Barbara Sullivan will deliver them to the Pilgrim Church Home in downtown New Bedford. Questions? Contact Barbara at 774-454-1498.

Ministry and Counsel Committee: The committee will begin working on our Meeting’s State of Society for 2022 soon. The committee welcomes input, in writing, or in person, from Westport Meeting Friends and attenders, on how individuals feel our Meeting faired as we came out of the pandemic in the early spring of 2022 and throughout the remainder of the year. If you would like to email your thoughts, please send your comments to Randy Wirth, HERE.

Property Committee wishes to express its appreciation to carpenter Chet Baron, who agreed to repair our damaged meetinghouse handicap ramp on short notice. Chet made the repair within five days of being contacted! That must be a record!

Our Meeting has contracted with Cottrell Bros Construction Company, (who’s done several other projects for us) to replace the west and north sides roof of the Community House. Due to recent storm damage last month, the need for replacement is urgent, and the company will complete the project as soon as weather and temperatures permit. We will receive very short notice when they plan to do the work. A Meeting-wide email will be sent out as soon as we have a confirmed date for the project. 

Newsletter Editor: In 1994, Jean Kennison, due to advancing eye health challenges, asked me if I would consider taking over the Westport Meeting Newsletter. I said “yes,” figuring I would do it for a few years and then pass it on to another Meeting Friend. During that time, as the use of computers and digital formats increased exponentially, our Meeting Newsletter moved from printed monthly formats, painstakingly sent via US Mail, to monthly digital formats that arrived via email. Over time, we incorporated the Newsletter into our Meeting’s website, so that every issue was automatically archived and remained accessible by visiting westportfriendsmeeting.org. In recent years I have found it more efficient time-wise to update the Newsletter each week on a rolling basis, instead of monthly. Doing so has kept content fresher and gives us the ability to easily add content from committees and monthly meeting for business as requested.

After twenty nine years, I still enjoy putting the Newsletter together, but I know, too, that the time is nearing for me to pass this service to the Meeting on to another Westport Meeting Friend. If you, or if you know of another Westport Meeting Friend who might be interested, I am happy to answer questions and explain what’s involved. Choosing the next Meeting Newsletter editor is decided by monthly meeting for business.  Ideally, I would like to help the next Newsletter editor transition into the role as needed. That said, I plan to continue until business Meeting names the next editor to continue after me.  – Kevin Lee

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Approved previous minutes of Monthly Meeting for Business may be read HERE.