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Family Worship Online

Published: March 12, 2021

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"At" University Meeting we continue to hold family worship over Zoom each First Sunday. We have one committee meeting to plan, then a run-through meeting with our musical Friends and our tech support Friend who gets our books onto slides for screen sharing. We had our largest attendance in November, when we read about a family making a square for the AIDS quilt and talked about how Quakers celebrate our beloved dead. We had a grandparent join from California; that family, whose father also grew up in University Meeting, had recently lost the children's great-grandmother, and we had her memory among us, for 4 generations of Quakers.

Tomorrow we'll read "Miss Rumphius," by Barbara Cooney, and share about new beginnings and making the world more beautiful. Before we read, we'll consider the problem of the page which shows and mentions the "Indians" that the grandfather "carved out of wood to put in front of cigar stores." How might a Native child feel to come across this stereotypical image? 

Last month we shared the story of Barbara Johns, who lead her entire segregated high school out on strike in 1951 in Virginia. I will be sharing this story again later this month in family worship with West Hills Friends Church in Portland. I highly recommend the book "The Girl from the Tar Paper School," by Teri Kanefield. We will send a copy to each of our families who come to worship.

At University Meeting, family worship is a separate event; West Hills will, for the 2nd time, have family worship as its service for everyone.

Click here to add your own experiences with Family Worship.


from Katherine Spinner, University Friends Meeting, Seattle (3/6/2021)