Jasmine Spence an interior designer, recent graduate of the Earlham School of Religion and member of Newtown Quaker Meeting will speak via Zoom on Quaker Sacred Space that Honors Creation and Strengthens Community to Newtown Friends Meeting adult class at 9:45 a.m. on First Day (Sunday), October 11, 2020.
Quakers were among the earliest immigrants in the late 17th century to what is now the United States, fleeing religious persecution in England and searching for a place to worship freely. It is what inspired Quaker convert, William Penn, to accept land in the “New World” from the King of England in exchange for debts owed to his father, Sir William Penn, an admiral in the Royal Navy.
Many Quaker buildings are now historic and among the most storied in the country, including the large Meetinghouse at 4th and Arch Street in Philadelphia and many others dating back to the 1680s and ‘90s.
During her recent graduate studies at Earlham School of Religion, Jasmine Spence combined her two passions of design and environmental stewardship, when developing her thesis work on, “Sacred Quaker Spaces.”
Her research included visits and interviews with Quakers throughout the United States aimed at discovering how their values of community and environmental stewardship are reflected in how they use their property. She has put together an inspiring slide show of examples of how Quakers are demonstrating their values through their buildings and land. She invites us to reaffirm our Quaker values through the choices we make, both now and in the future, in how we use our sacred grounds.
Newtown Friends Meeting, co-founded by “Peaceable Kingdom” painter and Quaker minister, Edward Hicks, in 1815, is currently open only for virtual sessions. Regular First Day Education classes (Sunday School) for all ages begin at 9:45 a.m. and Meeting for Worship begins at 11 a.m. – all on Zoom