Newtown Quaker Meeting Opening Brunch Kicks Off Fall First Day Classes

Newtown Quaker Meeting Opening Brunch Kicks Off Fall First Day Classes

Historic Newtown Friends Meeting on Court Street (www.newtownfriendsmeeting.org) is beginning its fall season of First Day Classes (Sunday School) for children and adults with an opening brunch at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, September 13.

Finger food, juice, and coffee will be served on the Meeting House grounds after which 40-50 children will meet with their teachers to get to know them and discuss the year’s program schedule.

Also that morning, as the first in a series of monthly service and outreach opportunities organized by the children, they will bring to the Meetinghouse much needed school supplies for families served by Mercer Street Friends, a Trenton (NJ) area Quaker based social services organization.

Nikki Loscalzo, Newtown Friends Meeting’s Clerk of Children’s Religious Education and liaison for Mercer Street Friends, noted that “One of the most important lessons for our children to learn is that they are part of a larger world, and that many of the privileges that they take for granted are not shared by everyone around them. Our goal is to have our children in Quaker Meeting participate in regular hands-on opportunities to give to others, to encourage our children to grow into adults who not only appreciate what they have but also actively seek to help others.”

While discussing the children’s programs for the months ahead, Loscalzo said, “This year the children in both our kindergarten to 2nd grade and our 3rd to 6th grade classes will be studying Quaker spirituality and practice, as well as age appropriate lessons of how to put Quaker values into practice in their own lives. The teen class, composed of Young Friends in grades 7 through 10, will spend the first third of the year exploring world religions, the second third learning about Christianity, and the third focusing on Quakerism.”
The adult class this year will feature the highly popular Spiritual Journeys by Meeting members and other prominent Quakers, and special presentations on current issues in the news.

Veronica Wetherill, a member of Newton Quaker Meeting and native of El Salvador, will open the adult class series on September 20 at 9:45 a.m. by discussing her spiritual journey and her family’s roots in the coffee business in El Salvador. Veronica has lived in the US for the past nine years and has an A.B. from Princeton University where she concentrated in Economics and Latin American Studies and a JD and a Masters in International Affairs from Georgetown University. Veronica and her husband Dan live in Langhorne and have two children Lucia(12) and Andrew(9) who attend Newtown Friends School.

Newtown Friends Meeting co-founded by “Peaceable Kingdom” painter and Quaker minister, Edward Hicks, in 1815, is open to all who wish to attend. Regular First Day Education classes (Sunday School) for all ages begin at 9:45 a.m. and Meeting for Worship begins at 11 a.m. Childcare is provided.