On Sunday, March 12, University of Pennsylvania associate professor Roberta Iversen presented a talk at Cropwell Meeting about the challenges of today’s labor market. She shared what working people in many different fields been saying about their work and what does their job means to them? She told us about major industry shifts in the 1980s?
Dr. Iversen brought 40 years of stories, research & analysis, as well as an innovative proposal for its future. She is author of the new book What Workers Say: Decades of Struggle and How to Make Real Opportunity Now.” Through these stories, Iversen put a human face to the labor market and tracked its evolution.
Cropwell’s infrastructure got a big upgrade this week. Thanks to a generous gift from the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Granting Group, the building’s electric was rewired, and fire safety upgrades and security lighting were installed. The work was done by Front Line Electric of Glendora, N.J., who were prompt, professional, and courteous.
The Cropwell Friends Meetinghouse, built in 1809, was very much in need of work. The last known update to the electrical wiring took place in the 1920s. The type of wiring used at that time was “knob-and-tube,” which does not have a ground system for safety. This doesn’t necessarily make the wiring unsafe to use, but it does rule out important safety features and leaves appliances and sensitive electronics vulnerable to damage from power surges.
Exterior lighting was also installed for safety and security purposes.
Electrical work inside the meetinghouse.Safety lighting installed outside meetinghouse.
Stewardship and Community
The work on the meetinghouse spoke to the stewardship and community testimonies of Friends.
The current Cropwell Meetinghouse structure was built in 1809. It is on the historic registry but like all old buildings, it has needs and those needs have price tags. It is our responsibility to be good stewards to maintain the structure for current and future members.
Cropwell has a small number who attend regularly, but there is cohesion and commitment which has increased in intensity over the past year, and there is an openness to increasing and strengthening that community. We have received letters requesting membership from four individuals within the last year and have received loving support from members within Haddonfield Quarter.
On Sunday Peggy Koenitzer came to Cropwell Meeting in Marlton, N.J., and gave about a dozen participants introductory lesson on chair yoga. Breath in, breath out, and stretch!
Practice yoga poses to strengthen and stretch your muscles while sitting in a chair
Learn to use a chair for support in standing or balancing poses
Discover the benefits of coordinating your breath and movement to calm your mind and let go of stress
Release tension and restore energy in a deep relaxation at the end of your Chair Yoga practice
Peggy teaches yoga as Release and Relax yoga at the Lake Pine Colony Clubhouse in Medford, New Jersey. Learn more at Releaseandrelaxyoga.com.
About three dozen people came out to a community carol singalong at Cropwell Friends Meeting in Marlton, N.J., this past Sunday. The meeting hired three members of the Parson Brown Singers to perform a dozen Christmas classics and lead the group in a singalong of another ten crowd favorites. A highlight was a highly interactive “Twelve Days of Christmas,” for which participants were divided into twelve sets and each given a day to sing and represent in mime. The event finished with cookies, sweets, mulled cider, and conversation as Friends old and new shared stories in the fellowship section of the meetinghouse.
Winter seasonal events are a natural opportunity for community outreach, especially for a Friends meeting with an historical building. The wooden benches, roaring wood stove and singers in Victorian garb instantly set a mood.
The organizers listed the event on Google Events and Eventbrite, as well as Instagram and Facebook (where the meeting bought some event advertising). At the November meeting for business, members had deliberated whether to charge an attendance fee to recoup some of the cost for the singing group, but after discussion and careful discernment the sense of the meeting was that this would be an important outreach event and that expenses should be paid out of meeting funds to allow the event to be free for participants.
A special program is a great event to invite extended networks to visit the meetinghouse: regular Cropwell attenders brought along parents, adult children, neighbors, and friends. The meeting also reached out to lapsed attenders with an invitation to the festivities. It is hoped that some of these new and irregular visitors might come back for worship in the near future.
The Parson Brown Singers.Singing along.Many extended family members and neighbors attended.The playlist.The interactive “Twelve Days of Christmas” got the audience on their feet.Promotional flyer for event.
Cropwell Friends Meeting in Marlton, N.J., held a free public craft-making workshop after worship today. Joan Morrison of Haddonfield Public Library led about a dozen members and visitors in folding paper Christmas wreaths.
Origami crafts are great opportunities for multigenerational fellowship and there was a wide age range of participants gathered in the fellowship section of the meetinghouse. Many laughs were had as papers were folded and refolded. Each section took 12 folds and it took 12 sections to make a full wreath. A full spread of potluck items including chicken, salads, pies, cornbread, and cookies made for a fun lunch afterwards.
Google Events listing
The publicity for the website went out over the standard channels—email, website, Facebook, and Instagram. In addition, members of the nearby homeowners association were invited and the meeting also posted it to Google Events. A listing was placed on the yearly meeting and South Jersey Quakers websites.
Cropwell Meeting held an introductory program on the Quaker peace testimony on Sunday afternoon. Geared toward newcomers, presenter Martin Kelley gave a 25 minute overview of the history of Quaker peacemaking, from the foundational 1660 Statement to more recent expressions of Quaker peacemaking, such as the climate-change advocacy of the Earth Quaker Action Team and the “Statement on the Peace Testimony and Ukraine” release in late October.
About a dozen participants stayed afterwards for a robust discussion, during which they shared concerns but also stories of inspirational peacemakers they have known. Informal discussions continued at the potluck meal that followed.
Cropwell Friends planned this program after identifying the peace testimony as a stumbling block for some of its new attenders. In particular, some have expressed personal doubts about the Quaker peace testimony in the face of the brutality of the war in Ukraine. The program was designed to give a clearer understanding of the theological and historical roots of Quaker peacemaking and to share how Friends have responded to difficult moral dilemmas in the past.
Cropwell Meeting held its first annual Trunk or Treat on Sunday, inviting neighborhood families over for games, treats, a pumpkin hunt, and tours of the meetinghouse.
The area around Cropwell has changed quite a bit since Friends first settled there in the 1780s. A patchwork of Quaker family farms has given way to twenty-first century suburbs, and today the meetinghouse property is an oasis of open space in a built-up area of housing developments. Few of the neighbors have ever visited the meetinghouse.
Cropwell contacted the homeowners association for the adjacent Marlton Village development, which agreed to distribute 210 Trunk or Treat flyers to its families. Cropwell also announced the event on its Facebook page and website.
About thirty neighbors showed up. The kids came with great costumes (princesses, dragons, tigers, at least one ninja), while parents came with lots of questions about Friends. “I didn’t know this building was still used for anything,” one told us, adding “I love history!” There were many tours of the 1809 meetinghouse, in which Cropwell clerk Earl Evens and others shared the meeting’s history and explained Quaker worship. One parent said “you guys did a fabulous job” as she left a tour.
The visitors were all invited to come back for worship some future Sunday morning.
Cropwell clerk Earl Evens shares the story of the meeting with neighborhood families.
