Almost 60 people came to Cropwell Meeting this past Sunday to welcome Christmas at our second annual sing. About a third of them were featured singers from the Greater Philadelphia Choral Society (GPCS).
The meeting was happy to be joined by a carload of visitors from Barnegat (N.J.) Meeting, another small South Jersey meeting with a passion for outreach. Cropwell was also .delighted to learn that some of the GPCS singers were residents of Medford Leas, the nearby Quaker retirement community where some of our members live.
Greenery and wreathes were hung around the meetinghouse:
The singers began with breathtaking solos:
Perhaps the most tender moment was the entire group singing “Silent Night” together. The sounds reverberated through the meetinghouse, as if the walls themselves were humming along:
After the concert, everyone enjoyed sampling from two large tablefuls of sweets, from mulled cider, to brownies, to an assortment of cookies. One Cropwell attender made beautiful pine cone Christmas ornaments to give away to visitors (they were all different too, some with bells, others with berries!).
It is important to have regular events advertised and open to the public. As usual, Cropwell Meeting publicized the concert on local Quaker calendars, Eventbrite, and Google listings. We also gave flyers to all of the households in the Marlton Village homeowners association adjacent to the meetinghouse.
Flyer for the event: