Woodbury Friends Meeting - Soup and Bread Day

Although most people call this day, the day after Thanksgiving 'Black Friday' to the Woodbury Friends Meeting in South Jersey, it is Soup and Bread Day. We celelbrate a tradition where the day after Thanksgiving we get together to eat soup and bread and we bring canned goods to donate to local charities. This year, we honor the Indigenous people of South Jersey, the Lenni Lenape, by using two American Native recipes: Three Sisters Soup, and Acorn Bread. I am making the soup and it is basic and easy and I learned about it from an Aetna Heart Healthy brochure I recieved in the mail. It is simply canned pmpkin (not pie filling) and beans and corn. Also, the recipe calls for diced onion and celery which I don't know for sure were ingredients available to Indigenous Americans before the colonialists arrived. You can find the recipe on-line.

We had our Thanksgiving feast last Sunday after meeting and it was vegan and vegetarian. One member brought a Gardein roast (delicious) and I brought green beans in mushroom sauce, another member brought acorn squash with maple syrup and another brought a spiced cranbury/apple punch. Some brought corn bread and a variety of other treats were contributed by other members, too many to list them all. Also at that time, many brought canned goods. This year we have chosen a Womens' Shelter to donate to as well as Senior Citizens United of Camden County whcih runs both a food pantry and home delivery of bags of groceries to income based elderly.

In case you haven't ever heard of or visited Woodbury Friends Meeting, it is more than 300 year old historic Meeting House on a small hill as you enter the business section of the main street of Woodbury, Broad Street. There is an old cemetery ground and many very old and beautiful trees on the site.

The Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers (think of Quaker Oats) is a religious sect that arose during the Reformation in England, in the mid 1600's. A prophet named George Fox had a revelation of a simpler, more basic and peaceful form of Christian worship. He believed in simplicity, peace, equality, community and a more Christ-like less political and corrupt church. His followers were persecuted by the King who tried to force his own religion upon the people, so many of them fled to the 'new world' and most of South Jersey was settled by early Friends who lived mostly in peace and harmony with the native Lenni Lenape. Most people are familiar with probably the most famous Friend, William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania as a Quaker settlement.

Most South Jersey towns, especially along the old Salem/Kings Highway from Burlington to Greenwich have old and still used Friends Meeting Houses somewhere on their main streets, as for example in Woodbury, Mickleton, Mullica Hill, Woodstown, Salem and so on, all the way to Greenwich where there are two historic Meeting houses on Ye Greate Street. Quaker Meetings are open to those who wish to join for Silent Worship on Sundays, generally around 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. Friends have no official pastors or ministers because we believe there is that of "God" what we call "The Light Within" in everyone and none of us need intercessors to speak directly to the divine. Most Friends view the Bible as a record of the religious experience of early Christians. Often people ask if Quakers are Christian and, yes, we are. You can find out more about Quakers by listening to our podcasts or on YouTube and by finding resources via google. Our book is called Faith and Practice and there are three Meetings in Philadelphia, the Yearly Meeting, the most active is just off Broad Street on Cherry Street. There are also Society of Friends Schools, in Philadelphia, and Moorestown, and Mullica Hill. Also there are Friends Meetings all over the United States, I was just focused on South Jersey.

I have been an attender at Philadelphia and am a member at Woodbury. Our building is very interesting and I believe you can access a video tour on-line.

Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com