HANOVER TWP., Pa. — While every local Quaker congregation is special, the Lehigh Valley Meeting “has a kind of vibrancy to it that just shines all the time," Christie Duncan-Tessmer told the congregation Sunday.
Duncan-Tessmer is general secretary for the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the regional body overseeing more than 100 local groups in eastern Pennsylvania and surrounding areas.
And the Lehigh Valley Meeting on Sunday celebrated its 75th anniversary with an open house at its house of worship off Bath Pike (Route 512) in Hanover Township, Northampton County.
"It draws people in. It radiates its energy out, it welcomes people.”Christie Duncan-Tessmer, general secretary for the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
"It draws people in," Duncan-Tessmer said. "It radiates its energy out, it welcomes people.”
For a religious movement that has been active in the region for more than three centuries, the Lehigh Valley’s Quaker congregation still is a “young meeting,” she said.
Its roots reach to the 1930s, when a few Quaker families in Bethlehem began meeting in each other's homes. The group eventually grew enough to pursue formal recognition from the Philadelphia Annual Meeting.
Because of its history, the meeting always has been particularly family- and child-friendly, which persists today, said Rick Dow, who has been a member of the congregation for more than 35 years.
The date of its founding had been more-or-less lost until this year, when the group’s archivist, John Marquete, found records of the first member to join the group on June 1, 1949.
'Powerful feeling of community'
In the Quaker style of worship the Lehigh Valley practices, unlike a typical church service, the congregation sits together quietly in “expectant waiting,” looking inward for a personal connection with the divine.
The closest thing the congregation has to a formal leader is its clerk, elected to guide it through monthly business meetings.
“That’s like a tiny microcosm of what it’s like being here with the extensive 300-plus-year history. When we stand for our beliefs, we’re standing there knowing that there are 300, 350 years of people behind us as well.”Christie Duncan-Tessmer, general secretary for the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
In place of a formal leader or spiritual hierarchy, the belief system emphasizes each individual person's connection with the divine. Instead of a creed, members follow a set of values that emphasize social justice, non-violence and equality.
Sometimes, during a Quaker worship service, someone feels moved to share a message with the whole assembled group.
During Sunday morning’s service, attendees said, one member spoke of how members of the meeting participated in a vigil supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Sometimes people would yell unkind things, and she said she always knew — as she was standing there with maybe one other person, maybe a couple other people — that this entire meeting was there for her,” Duncan-Tessmer said.
“That’s like a tiny microcosm of what it’s like being here with the extensive 300-plus-year history. When we stand for our beliefs, we’re standing there knowing that there are 300, 350 years of people behind us as well.”
Dow said he felt a "very, very powerful" sense of community kept "this place alive."
'People have been finding us'
Bethlehem resident Joyce Hinnefeld has attended the Lehigh Valley Meeting for 22 years.
“There’s a great sense of community here, and history and continuity are part of that," she said.
In an era where many of the Valley’s churches and other religious groups are facing declining membership and uncertain futures, members said, this will endure and keep it relevant for centuries to come.
“Like a lot of faith communities, our population is aging. But recently — really, I would say since COVID — people have been finding us, and we have families with young kids again."Bethlehem resident Joyce Hinnefeld
“If we continue to demonstrate these valuable life experiences, it will resound with the next generation,” Dow said.
“But it's a little scary to wonder, with all the distractions of everything from artificial intelligence to social media, is our witness and is our light going to resonate?”
Hinnefeld said, “Like a lot of faith communities, our population is aging. But recently — really, I would say since COVID — people have been finding us, and we have families with young kids again.
“We’re watching that happen again, and that restores our faith and our belief that it's going to go on.”
“So there's got to be some faith, but there's also some fear,” Dow said. “And now we do see that there are some folks bringing their kids here.”
