Newtown Quakers to Hear Swiss-born Elizabeth Serkin PhD Speak about Her Spiritual Journey Sunday, December 13 at 9:45 a.m

Swiss-born Elizabeth Serkin PhD to Speak to Newtown Quakers about Her “Ongoing” Spiritual Journey

Elizabeth Serkin, member of Newtown Friends Meeting and educator, community activist, therapist, and administrator of non-profit social agencies,will speak about her Spiritual Journey at the historic Quaker Meetinghouse, 219 Court Street, Newtown, Sunday, December 13th at 9:45 AM. Meeting for Worship in the manner of Friends will follow at 11 a.m. The public is invited. www.newtownfriendsmeeting.org).

Liz Serkin was born in Switzerland, grew up in New York and Vermont in an “immigrant culture,” raised her children in Doylestown, then lived for eleven years in a fishing village on Long Island before returning to Bucks County. She married businessman and philanthropist Herman Silverman seven years ago, well known as the founder and former CEO of Sylvan Pools, founder of the Michener Museum, founder of the Heart Institute in Doylestown Hospital,and founder of The Silverman Gallery in Buckingham.

Liz Serkin said “I will speak of my spiritual journey as an ongoing journey, not as a pilgrimage, because I do not have a destination in mind; I just trust ‘Way will open.’ The structure I will offer is a combination of auto ethnography (my experiences and developing beliefs in a broader context of family, history, culture, etc.), and bricolage, (creating something from a variety of available resources).

Serkin said she will begin by discussing her early family years, growing up in an immigrant culture, and being exposed to excellence in music and the other arts, public service, literature, philosophy, political sciences, the environment, and competing spiritual traditions.

“I will talk about how I discovered I was a Quaker, about raising my son in Wrightstown Meeting, about my new membership in Newtown Meeting, and about the relationships I have been blessed to experience in and beyond Quakerdom. Without getting academically sidetracked, I intend to relate my spiritual journey to a parallel process in increasing commitment to deontological ethics, and some of the conflicts inherent in both processes. Then I would hope for a lively conversation!”

Elizabeth Serkin received her AB from Bryn Mawr (philosophy), an MA from The New School of Social Research (Philosophy and the Arts), an MA from the University of Pennsylvania (Sociology of Health and Welfare), and her PhD from Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio (Feminist Social Gerontology - at age 66!) She also says she was the first person ever expelled from Dalton School in New York City – at age 6.

Serkin has taught at Bucks County Community College, Penn State, and Widener in the fields of sociology, criminal justice, and philosophy. She directed three drug and alcohol outpatient clinics and spent 35 years in Doylestown and Greenport, NY as a clinical sociologist in general therapy practice and therapy for substance abuse and problem gambling.

Elizabeth Serkin and Herman Silverman live at Pennswood Village inNewtown, where she is active on several committees. She has four children and five grandchildren.

Newtown Friends Meeting, co-founded by the Quaker artist and minister, Edward Hicks, in 1815, holds services every First Day (Sunday). During the school year, First Day classes for children and adults are at 9:45 a.m. and Meeting for Worship at 11:00 a.m. Professional childcare is provided. All meetings are open to the public and visitors are warmly welcomed.