Newtown Quakers To Hold Picnic for First Day (Sunday) School

Newtown Quakers line up for their annual inter-generational water balloon toss contest at First Day School picnic

Newtown Quakers To Hold Closing Picnic for First Day (Sunday) School Classes

Historic Newtown friends Meeting at 219 Court Street will have its closing picnic for its First Day Classes (Sunday School) for children and adults at noon immediately following Meeting for Worship on First Day, June 3. Meeting for worship will begin at 11:00 a.m. The public is invited to all events.

Just prior to the picnic, the students graduating from the eighth grade this year will be acknowledged with a presentation to each of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting “Faith and Practice” guide to Quaker beliefs and practices. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is the coordinating body of 11,000 Quakers in 103 local Quaker meetings in the Greater Philadelphia Tri-State Area.

Faith and Practice” is a “guide” since Quakers have no creed or rules which must be followed but rather depend on each individual to find the Divine and truth for herself or himself as “way opens” or as new truth is ascertained in one’s spiritual journey.

In 1656, on the occasion of a Meeting of Quaker Elders held at Balby, England, the following was published regarding an early form of “Faith and Practice:” Dearly beloved Friends, these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by, but that all with the measure of the light which is pure and holy may be guided, and so in the light walking and abiding, these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, —not from the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.”

Three graders receiving their copies of “Faith and Practice” this year are: Jack Kaehler of Holland, PA, Michael Mancuso of Princeton Junction, NJ and Zoe Somogyi of Yardley, PA.

Sarah Buxton, Clerk of the Children’s Religious Education Committee at Newtown Quaker Meeting said “There will be lots of good home cooking for picnicking on the Meeting House grounds, after which children will play games with their teachers and adults in the meeting. Many of the volunteer teachers are parents and/or from the teaching staff of Newtown Friends School, the elementary school governed by Newtown Friends Meeting, andGeorge School, the Quaker boarding school in Newtown.”

Newtown Friends Meeting (www.newtownfriendsmeeting.org) 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