USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Extracts from the minutes of the yearly meeting of Friends held in Philadelphia, 1921 > Part 2
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This was united with by our Meeting, and the following Friends were appointed to join with a similar Committee of Women's Meeting, already appointed to nominate Friends to serve on a Committee to carry forward the concern as outlined in the Minute of Women's Meeting, David G. Yarnall and others.
There was introduced from Abington Quarterly Meeting a Minute recommending certain changes in our Book of Discipline under the heading "Marriages." This claimed our serious attention, but the Meeting felt unwilling to record a decision at this time.
In order to allow Friends to give it more careful thought
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the subject was referred to the Representative Meeting, with the expectation that that body would make a report next year.
Our attention was drawn to the fact that no provision is made in our Book of Discipline to meet a case which may easily arise under the present unusual condition of affairs abroad, when a Minister of the Gospel of our Yearly Meeting may feel called to service in foreign fields and may find himself seriously delayed by his inability to secure a full endorsement of his concern.
Expedients to meet the case were suggested and the Meeting finally referred the matter to Alfred C. Garrett and others, to submit to a future session of the Yearly. Meeting such a recommendation as they felt might meet the condition.
Then adjourned to ten o'clock to-morrow morning.
Fourth-day, Third Month 30th.
The Meeting assembled near the appointed hour.
The nine Queries were read. Answers to these from the Quarterly Meetings had been summarized by the Clerks and these only were read with the exception of Answers to the First and Fifth, when the Quarterly Meeting Answers were read also.
In the consideration of the state of Society as shown by this review, many Friends were exercised to caution their brethren on matters of serious import to our well- being and advancement in the Truth.
Loving counsel was extended as individuals felt a call to hand it forth.
In connection with the Fifth Query, the report of a Committee appointed last year to hold a conference on the subject of Amusements was now presented. Its sug-
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gestions were commended to the serious consideration of all of us, and the Committee was released. The report is as follows :-
TO THE YEARLY MEETING :-
The Committee appointed last year to hold a conference of parents on the subject of amusements as related to our young people, and to undertake other service as the way opened, held several meetings and arranged a conference, which was held at the Meeting House on Twelfth Street on Sixth-day, Fifth Month 23, 1920. This conference was particularly for parents, teachers, overseers, and others interested in the care and training of our young people.
Besides this general meeting, a local conference was held at Media by Concord Quarterly Meeting; various groups of parents, of younger Friends, and of others interested, have held numerous informal but often very serious discussions; editorial and other articles have been published in The Friend, and we believe that the concern of the Yearly Meeting has resulted in an increased realiza- tion of the importance of the whole subject.
This concern arose in the Yearly Meeting last year from a consideration particularly of the increase of dancing and theatre-going among our members. Many deeply spiritual persons, not only in the Society of Friends, but outside of it, have felt in the past and continue to feel, that dancing and theatre-going are incompatible with a progressive, deepening spiritual life. This is the position that our Society has taken in the past, and the Query in reference to harmful amusements was intended to keep alive this concern. And just now when dancing is almost a craze, when many religious leaders deplore its prevalence, and when even some of our daily papers are publishing disparaging editorials on the subject, should not the Society of Friends sound a very clear note?
The need of recreation-of opportunities for recreation -we all recognize. In our physical lives we need the refreshment of change and variety, as well as of rest. Our minds also need change. Sometimes they need rest, and sometimes entertainment, but more often they are
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most helped by a change of activity. The truest recreation, both of body and mind, is often a change of work.
In planning for our recreation and our social needs, therefore, we should endeavor to find means that are truly re-creating, and truly helpful both to ourselves and to others. Many unthoughtful people in the present time appear to be limited in this respect to the entertainments or amusements that are prevalent. Some of these may be in a sense harmless. Few of them are really valuable for refreshing and invigorating us in either body or mind; and still less do they help in maintaining or renewing the communion of our spirits with God. Should not we, who have the calling of Friends, reach beyond the limitations of the unthoughtful and make our recreations and social life positively strengthen and foster the whole purpose of our lives?
Likewise, on behalf of our children, our concern should be that both at our homes and in our schools we should provide recreations and social activities that will truly re-create and refresh them, and at the same time will train them for helpful recreation throughout their lives. Familiarity with the resources of out-door life is one point that we should emphasize. Social opportunities in which older and younger join heartily together in stimulating and refreshing play presents another important feature in the training. Those who at home and school have the responsibility of social occasions for young people are urged to spend the necessary time and thought to arrange for helpful and diversified social games and other activities. This will be one of our means for training our young people, as our recent Query directs, in the principles and practices of Friends.
Friends were called originally, and we believe are still called, to bear testimony in the world to the fundamental fact that religion is not a ritual, nor is it the maintenance of a set of practices, nor is it simply the adherence to certain beliefs, but that it is a way of life. Closely joined with this is our emphasis on the responsibility of each individual human soul to hold direct communion with our Heavenly Father. If these beliefs are to be anything
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more than a mere inheritance to us, it would seem essential that we endeavor to live our lives, and choose our recrea- tions, in ways that will actively foster the experience of the reality of spiritual religion.
The Answers to the Annual Queries were read except that to the first, which was deferred to a future session.
Information was received that Mark Bacon, Bristol, Pa., had been appointed Correspondent for Falls Month- ly Meeting in place of Wm. Balderston, deceased.
The following Minute from Haddonfield and Salem Quarterly Meeting was received :-
Haddonfield and Salem Quarterly Meeting has for several years had under appointment a Committee having the care and oversight of the meeting at Atlantic City, and cordially invites members of other Quarterly Meet- ings to bear the matter in mind and, as way may open, to attend the meeting.
The statistics concerning the School Education of our children show a total of 815 in attendance at school or college, a gratifying increase of sixteen over the number reported one year ago. Subordinate Meetings are directed to gather the statistics next year as usual and to forward them to the Yearly Meeting.
It was agreed, with the approval of Women Friends, that the session this afternoon should be a joint one.
Then adjourned to meet in joint session at two o'clock.
Fourth-day afternoon, the 30th.
Friends assembled in joint session at the appointed hour.
The Committee to nominate a Friend to succeed the late Wm. Balderston as a representative of this body to the Representative Meeting offered the name of Edward W. Evans. The nomination being considered was fully united with and he appointed to that station.
The following telegram to Governor Hugh Dorsey, of
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Georgia, was directed to be sent to him, recalling, as we do, his favorable reception of our message on lynching presented to him in person last year by our Friend, Esther Morton Smith, when she made a visit to the governors of several of the Southern States:
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends now in session, numbering 4461 members, desires to convey to Governor Hugh Dorsey encouragement and apprecia- tion of his strong stand in favor of law, justice and authori- ty.
The Committee appointed yesterday to devise a plan that will solve a certain problem as then minuted submitted the following, which, gaining the approval of this body, was now adopted by it, to wit :-
The Yearly Meeting agrees that the Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders be adjudged competent to hold ses- sions in the interval between Yearly Meetings at the request of twelve of its members.
We have listened with keen interest to the reading of a report from the Friends who represented us at the All Friends' Conference held in London last Eighth Month.
The Meeting feels under real obligation to these Friends who have during the past few months, by speaking in various centres, made this great Conference become quite real to those of us and to many of our friends, who could not have this unusual privilege of attending it.
The Annual report of the Peace Committee was read. This is full of facts that turn our thoughts back over the past year, of good showing of active work at present, and best of all of a definite outlook for the near future.
This Committee offers an open field for service in the Peace cause, as Friends feel a call to embrace it.
As we entered upon the discussion of the great subject, the suggestion was offered that the Minute adopted Second-
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day in reference to the memorial to President Harding and other Federal officers be given wide circulation.
After careful consideration it was directed that the new Peace Committee, through a selected number of their members, should prepare an essay of a message or mes- sages, bearing on the important matter, as in their judg- ment may seem wise, the same to be presented to a later session of this meeting. The Committee is further directed to propose such a plan of distribution as may commend itself to them.
The following Friends were appointed a new Peace Committee to continue for three years, liberty being granted the Committee to add to its numbers from time to time as may seem best.
(For Committee see page 144.)
The Social Order Committee submitted their Annual Report which is replete with information and suggestions. The recommendation they make that they be allowed to add to their number as may seem best to themselves was granted.
The Report closes thus :-
We recommend that the Yearly Meeting address the following Queries to the Subordinate Meetings with the request that Answers to them be sent up to the Yearly Meeting next year in the same manner as in the case of the regular Queries. These special Queries are suggested for the ensuing year only.
We suggest also that the first of these Queries be trans- mitted for consideration to the Yearly Meeting Commit- tees having charge of Schools or other institutions, and that they be asked to bear this concern in mind during the year.
Query I .- Where schools or other institutions are under our care, are we watchful to fulfil our whole responsibility to those whom we employ, from managers and teachers
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to manual workers? Do all such persons have enough compensation and leisure to enable them to develop them- selves for the fullest services of which they are capable? Would it be desirable to make provision for our teachers to have greater representation at meetings of our Com- mittees of Management?
Query 2 .- Are we, as employers and stockholders, mind- ful that (as the name of our Society suggests) we are called to be friends and brothers of all men, and are we vitally concerned that the conditions of work of those in our em- ploy should be such as we would desire for our own brothers and sisters? Are we earnestly endeavoring to secure for our employees the wages and the leisure that will be sufficient for the comfort, education and full development of themselves and their families, to free them from the distresses of unemployment, and to give them opportunity for self-development in their work? In order to provide these advantages, are we willing, if necessary, to simplify our own lives and accept smaller financial returns for our- selves?
The second Query was afterward amended by the ad- dition of the following :-
Having regard, on the other hand, to our obligation as employees, do we whole-heartedly give in full measure the service for which we are employed, remembering that consecrated daily effort to supply the needs of others is an essential part of Christian loyalty?
It was the decision of the Yearly Meeting that these Queries be left in the care of the Overseers of the Month- ly Meetings, with discretionary power as to their use, it being expected that each Quarterly Meeting will hand down a report to our next Yearly Meeting with such in- formation as may be obtained. It being understood that institutions alluded to in the report be furnished with the recommendations of the Committee and with copies of the First Query.
The following nominations for a new Social Order Com-
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mittee were acceptable to the Meeting, and the Friends named were appointed to the service for the next three years.
(For Committee see page 146.)
Then adjourned to two o'clock to-morrow afternoon.
Fifth-day, Third Month 31st.
The Meeting assembled near the hour agreed upon.
The wisdom of increasing the Meeting's representation in the Representative Meeting was submitted for our consideration. This proposition was made in order that that body may have the benefit of a wider range of interest and that it may call to its service a larger number of younger Friends than it can under present ruling. After giving it careful thought, it was decided, pending the judgment of Women Friends, that the number of Representatives accorded to the Yearly Meeting should be advanced from twenty to thirty.
To nominate Friends to fill the ten vacancies thus creat- ed the same Committee was appointed as the one that had proposed the name of Edward W. Evans yesterday as successor to Wm. Balderston, deceased.
Should the Committee offer fewer than ten names it is desired that they be continued under appointment for the year to present to our next Yearly Meeting the names of Friends to fill the remaining places created by this new ruling.
It is further directed that the same Committee have under consideration during the year, whether it would not be better to consider the personnel of this Committee at regular periods as is done with our other Committees, rather than continue the present plan of appointment for life.
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The suggestion was made that as the last addition to the Tunesassa Committee were made four years ago and as no general appointment had been made for a much longer period, it would be well to make a review of the member- ship of that Committee at this time. This resulted in the Meeting directing that the appointment of the Tunesassa Committee should be made every three years as is done with a large number of our Committees and the following · were now appointed to nominate a new Indian Committee to hold office for the period of three years :- Horace E. Moore and others.
The second annual report of the Committee on Chris- tian Labor in Foreign Lands was presented. This report developed in turn these three topics:
Ist. Their work during the year.
2nd. The missionary activity of our members.
3rd. The need of expansion.
The Meeting was impressed with the practical setting forth of the various interests that properly fall within the scope of the Committee's appointment.
As associated with the Friends' Foreign Missionary Association of Philadelphia, it is doing a very important work.
No appropriation is asked for nor is any expected from the Yearly Meeting, but the report makes very clear, what we already know, that if we are to share in the work as a part of a Christian duty, we must be willing to contribute generously to its advancement. The Yearly Meeting again records its satisfaction with the labors of the Committee.
The report of the Educational Committee was read and highly commended. It gave a comprehensive review of the work of the Committee; of what the year, soon to be : completed, has seen accomplished, which is a worth-while
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showing, and looking toward the new year, was suggestive of plans to be put into practice. The challenge to the young men and women of our Yearly Meeting to regard seriously the calling of the teacher, was forcefully set forth in the report.
The Westtown report was presented. There is very much in it to call for gratitude on our part; from the suc- cessful management of the farm and orchards, the labor expended to improve the living condition of those who . serve the institution, the additions to the material equip- ment of the plant, the intellectual stimulus that has come through a faculty of marked scholastic attainment and a devoted surrender to the best interests of the pupils, up to that highest of all attainments, the very purpose which the founders of the school had most at heart and which can be summarized in this extract from the report :-
Every Quaker School should be a Quaker experiment, recognizable as such by every passing stranger. Some of the great realities of the Quaker faith are-the belief that an attentive spirit can receive direct guidance from God in daily life; that in order to be Christ's disciples, we must live constantly in the spirit that taketh away the occasion of all wars-the spirit of brotherhood; that all places and all days are potentially holy; that in our meetings for wor- ship we engage in a great act of corporate worship, which should be more solemn than any outward sacrament, more beautiful than any ritual, a Divinely ordered, happy harmony which even music could not express; finally that the acceptance of Christ as Master and Leader is the chief thing and need not be expressed in any formal words or set creed, but rather in a loving and a lovely life.
It may be objected that it is hardly possible to set such a high standard for boys and girls, and it is true that these spiritual principles must be interpreted and adapted by the teacher in words and acts appropriate to the develop- ment of youth, ever remembering how different youth is
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from adult life. The vital thing is that the teacher should be deeply grounded in these principles, and always able to make this adaptation. If our principles are not too hard for men and women in the turmoil of the world, they are not too hard for boys and girls when rightly interpreted to them in the comparatively sheltered atmosphere of school life. If the adult is able to practice his Quakerism in business, social relations and politics, the youth can learn and practice this loving and lovely life-this life of kindly brotherhood, at school as well; and so we may all grow together until even the nations of the world shall practice it among each other."
The additions to the financial resources of the School, as noted in the report, are gratefully acknowledged.
The following Friends were appointed on the Educa- tional, and Westtown Committees, to serve for a period of three years.
(For lists, see pages 142 and 148.)
The first of the additional Queries was now read. In reviewing the list of beloved Ministers and Elders who have deceased during the past year, our hearts were tendered in the recollection of those lives that were so generously devoted to the service of our Heavenly Father.
There was introduced from the meeting of Ministers and Elders held on the 26th, certain letters and Minutes con- cerning our beloved Friend Joseph Elkinton, whose death while on a religious visit abroad occurred in London last Sixth Month 19th.
There was also read the following brief memorial con- cerning our beloved Friend Samuel Emlen, issued by the Germantown Preparative Meeting of Ministers andElders:
This Meeting would record its sense of loss in the death of our beloved Minister and friend, Samuel Emlen, who deceased on Twelfth Month 5, 1920, in the ninety-second year of his age.
He was recorded a Minister of the Gospel by Frankford
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Monthly Meeting in 1864, and was thus a member of the Meeting of Ministers and Elders for fifty-six years.
His gift continued pure and true through declining years to the end. Thus for perseverance in the faith, for length of service in the Master's vineyard, for his example of the beauty of a completed spiritual life, we believe there have been few his equal.
In a time of changing standards in our Religious Society, we shall ever remember him as a true standard-bearer of the older time; in simplicity, sincerity and spirituality, a Friend indeed.
These dear Friends, the one for a full generation and the other for two, have been familiar figures in our annual assemblies and with others whose names appear on the list just read, have been pillars in the church.
That their lives of devoted service to the most holy of all causes may be an incentive to us to press on toward the same goal, which, we reverently believe, they have through mercy attained, is our earnest prayer for one another.
Then adjourned until ten o'clock to-morrow morning.
Sixth-day, Fourth Month Ist.
The Meeting assembled near the appointed hour.
The Friends appointed to present nominations for the Committee to be associated with the Book Committee as fully set forth in our Minute of Third-day, submitted the following names.
The Meeting approved the nominations and the Friends were appointed.
(For list of Committee see page 147.)
As the Committee enters upon a field of service relative- ly new to most of them, the Yearly Meeting earnestly craves for them that they may be endued with a wisdom
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far purer and loftier than any they can command in their own strength.
To that Wisdom which is from above and which can and will sanctify the lowliest as well as the most extensive service, if sought for in the spirit of humility, we com- mend them.
The suggestions made in the report met with the ap- proval of the Meeting-namely, that the Representative Meeting is authorized to add to the number of the Com- mittee at any time and that the Committee itself may feel full authority to ask Quarterly Meetings to appoint committees to co-operate in spreading the fundamental message of the Society.
A report of their work will be expected by the Meeting next year.
The Committee appointed yesterday to nominate Friends to serve on the Representative Meeting to fill the vacancies created by the new ruling of Discipline then adopted, offered the names of Mary Ward, Stanley R. Yar- nall, Agnes L. Tierney and Harold Evans.
Possible additions to fill the other six vacancies and also the subject of a possible change in the term of service of all members will receive further consideration by the Committee during the year. The nominations were separately considered and united with.
The Committee appointed on Third-day to prepare · drafts of letters to Friends' meetings and to individual Friends in foreign lands now submitted (For the letters see pages 127-136) essays of such to London Yearly Meeting; to Dublin Yearly Meeting; to Mt. Lebanon Three Months' Meeting; to the General Meeting of Friends in South Africa; to the General Meeting of the Society of Friends in New Zealand and in Australia; to the General Meet-
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ing of the Society of Friends in West China; to Friends' Yearly Meeting in Japan; to our members sojourning in Europe and the Near East and to Friends in Germany and those in sympathy with them.
These were read and with a few slight changes approved. It was directed that the one addressed to our own members abroad be so modified that it can appropriately be sent to all who have gone out under the Friends' Service Com- mittee, who are now abroad. It was also directed that the letter addressed to Friends in Germany be sent to Alfred G. Scattergrod, with authority to circulate it as may seem best to him. It was directed that the letters be signed by our Clerks and Correspondent.
The Annual Report of the Indian Committee was read. It contained cheering features, one being the free expres- sion of many of the Indians of their desire that Friends dismiss all thought of giving up this mission.
These specific recommendations were approved :-
Ist. That no effort be made at this time to secure State financial aid.
2nd. That the Indian Committee endeavor to promote the advanced education of a few Indians, with the aim of helping them to become leaders of their people, and that the funds of the Committee be used, if necessary, for this purpose.
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