With the desire to seek after God’s will and to faithfully minister to one another, Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends continues to worship as a semi-programmed meeting. Through prepared messages, active ministry and service to each other, we also extend beyond our faith community. With a resilient and welcoming spirit, and Divine assistance, our spiritual state is strong.
Faithfulness and service are a strong part of our community. Both members and attenders give of their time to our meeting, from music ministry, to care of the meetinghouse, recording the sense of meeting decisions and discussions, and maintaining an attractive and informative website, durhamfriendsmeeting.org.
Members of our meeting give their support to our new immigrant neighbors and bear witness to the effects of war, gun violence, and climate change on our state and in our world. We continue to support the sovereignty of the Wabanaki people living in Maine, including through contact with our legislators and supporting the renaming of the 250th Anniversary Park in Brunswick to Pejepscot Park.
We joyfully welcomed a new member who has shared his gifts with us for some time.
We accepted the resignation of a member with sorrow but with a sense that we prayerfully considered all avenues for reconciliation and healing.
Our meeting continues to offer hybrid worship thanks to a small group of volunteers. Technology continues to offer us a way to include everyone in worship and to facilitate the work of the meeting. However, we are aware of the distractions that technology brings and that some among us long for the deeper silence present when technology is not used. During the latter part of the year we began a practice of technology-free fourth and fifth Sundays, encouraging in-person worship on these unprogrammed Sundays.
Overall our building, grounds and cemeteries are in good shape and continue to be loved and cared for by our whole meeting community.
Our trustees continue their care of our beloved meetinghouse as we approach 250 years as a meeting, having been founded in 1775. 2023 was the first full year that we relied on heat pumps for all of our heating needs. We found that they functioned very well for us, even during some very cold periods last winter. To help with this, we added window inserts in the vestry, classrooms and front hallway. All in all the heat pumps are less expensive than the oil furnace was and we are less reliant on fossil fuels.
The meetinghouse was used by a number of outside groups that we were pleased to support. A Native family group meets here once a month, the Maine Poets Society used it twice for an all-day gathering, and a teen advisory group affiliated with University of Southern Maine (USM) had several meetings here in the fall. Three memorial meetings were also held at the meetinghouse.
Two Friends from Durham represented us in the wider Quaker world. One traveled to Cuba with Puente de Amigos to visit our sister meeting, Velasco Friends, and to attend Cuba Yearly Meeting in February 2023. She was profoundly moved by the depth of faith in that community. Another Friend attended the United Society of Friends Woman’s International and FUM’s Triennial, which were held in Nakuru, Kenya. She was able to travel an older Friend who has traveled extensively in Africa and with the well wishes and support from many sources, and shared pictures and stories of this “trip of a lifetime” with us on her return.
Our Peace and Social Concerns committee continues its work on the Social Justice Enrichment Project, supported by the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund, bringing a set of books that teach the values of diversity, kindness, love, and affirmation to a group of area teachers. This ministry included outreach to the local community on Indigenous People’s Day when many community members enjoyed some of the literature from the project and learned more about us and our Meeting.
In June we held a celebration of the life of Margaret Wentworth, a life-long member of Durham, whose devotion, deep faith, and generosity of spirit continue to inspire us. We have renamed our library as the Margaret Wentworth Library in honor of this beloved Friend.
One of our members was raised up as a recorded minister by our Falmouth Quarter with the loving support of our community, and at the end of the year accepted a part-time position as the Meeting Care Coordinator.
In October we held a meeting for grieving to give our community an opportunity to express sorrow and loss for the members we lost and our own response to the cares of the world.
Durham Friends Meeting has emerged from the restrictions of the Covid pandemic and from the loss of some stalwart members with a deepened strength to nourish our beloved community and invite others into its love, challenges and care.
Approved by Monthly Meeting, March 17, 2024
