We're an active community where love is a verb.
Explore numerous opportunities to get involved in our Meeting.
Music
Music is an important part of our community. Our choir sings most Sundays (with rehearsals occurring during the 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. hour on Sunday) and welcomes anyone to join them that is interested in singing. The choir and others present a Christmas Vespers program each year that is inspiring and Spirit led. We have an active handbell choir that performs periodically throughout the year. Our members/ attenders have many talents and share them with us through song, instrument and drama. During the summer months, folks are encouraged to sign up to share their talents during Meeting for Worship.
Praying Friends
The Praying Friends group is a vital part of pastoral care at First Friends. When you have a spiritual need or prayer request for yourself, your family, or others, please call 317-255-2485 or click the link above to be added to the list to share with our prayer partners. All prayer requests are kept confidential. You can be sure your need will be lifted faithfully and forcefully by the many members of this dedicated group!
Circle of Care
The goal of the Circle of Care Ministry at First Friends is to provide practical, social, spiritual, and emotional support, and, as needed, advocacy and referral, to Friends and family members in response to caring and sensitive assessment at times of acute or chronic illness, disability, end-of-life preparation, and death. If you have a need please contact the office, our pastor or request assistance through a confidential note to be placed in a container in the front vestibule. The circle of care network has many individuals willing to offer a variety of support.
Meal Ministry
Volunteers will be able to deliver ready-made meals to individuals and families going through a loss or other life challenge. Please contact the office or the pastor if you have a need for this ministry.
Friendly visitors
Volunteers will stay connected to our Friends that are not able to attend Meeting for Worship. Please contact the office or the pastor if you would like to be included in this ministry.
Oak Leaf: Meeting for reading
Discussions on books are held in the Parlor each month at 7pm on the dates listed. Anyone is welcome to join.
The 2024 book list is as follows:
January 30 ~ Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
February 27 ~ The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
March 26 ~ Trust by Hernan Diaz
April 30 ~ Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
May 28 ~ The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
June 25 ~ The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
July 30 ~ The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
August 27 ~ Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
September 24 ~ Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
October 29 ~ Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
November 26 ~ The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
December 31 ~ The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende
Stamps for Right Sharing of World Resources
First Friends has a team of people who assist Right Sharing of World Resources, a nonprofit organization, by selling used stamps donated by people from around the world. To learn how you can help, click here.
Maple Seeds Pre-School Co-op
Beginning fall 2013, the Maple Seeds Pre-School Co-op (formerly Meridian Street Preschool Co-op) has been utilizing the education wing of our Meeting Monday through Friday. It is a joy to open our doors to the community in providing a home for this group of over 40 families that bring their children 2-5 years old into our classrooms. For more information please visit www.mspcindy.com.
Gardens
We are also active gardeners! We keep a community garden where different members, attenders and people of the community are welcome to maintain a plot. Also many thanks to Nancy S, who has gathered information on how to garden specifically in Marion County, Indiana. All are welcome to download the guide here.
Meditational Woods
Our Meeting built a meditational woods on the grassy lot to the east of the meeting house and recently received a donation of a beautiful peace pole. The site reflects the Quaker emphasis on solitude and silence in experiencing the presence of God.
“Be still and know that I am God.” –Psalm 46:10
The purpose of the project was to create:
A place where people can separate themselves from the distractions of daily life.
A place where silence is encouraged and self reflection is supported.
A living sanctuary to meet, worship and commune with the Creator in an outdoor setting.
A place where children and adults feel welcomed.
A place where all can develop a love of nature.
An expression of stewardship for the land.
Please feel free to gather in the woods for mediation.
Shalom Zone
We have partnered with five local churches to form an interfaith organization called Shalom Zone. Our group includes Allisonville Christian Church, Cross & Crown Lutheran Church, Epworth United Methodist Church, St. Pius X Catholic Church, and First Friends Quaker Church. Shalom Zone’s mission statement is “Led by God’s Light, Ecumenically Building the Kingdom of God, One Need at a Time.” Together these faith groups have been working over the last several years to make Shalom Zone an important addition to our community.
Shalom Zone orchestrates a number of important events every year, including but not limited to:
Eco-Films
The Shalom Zone churches take time the second Friday of each March, April, September, October and November to have a film showing on an ecological or environmental topic. Usually this showing will be accompanied by someone involved in the film or an expert in the field to come and speak to the group afterward and answer questions.
Recycle Force
The Shalom Zone sponsors a Recycle Force event annually to provide the local community with a convenient opportunity to recycle their electronics, such as TVs, VCRs, DVD players, radios… anything that runs with a cord or battery! As many broken or unused electronics are simply thrown away, this is an option for anyone to come and drop off their unused electronic items in an environmentally safe and friendly manner.
Garage Sale
Shalom Zone also holds a garage/trunk sale annually. For a small fee, we welcome anyone to come set up shop at our one-day flea market, using their tables, trunks, whatever! They get to keep all the sales they make. This is a great opportunity for our community to reuse items that are still good instead of throwing them away and buying new. The proceeds from the space fees are donated to School on Wheels, a voluntary program which tutors homeless children throughout Marion County.
Buddy Bags
The Shalom Zone churches provide free lunches for children of Allisonville Elementary School during school breaks each year. Even within our own neighborhood there are food security issues, and there are some families that can’t afford to feed their children when school is out of session. We fill paper bag lunches to help support these children during these times.
Ecumenical Service
Each year near Thanksgiving, for the last few years, our faith communities have joined together in worship, offering thanksgiving to God for all our blessings. It is a joy to gather together, to share our voices, prayers, hymns, and hearts in honor and praise of One who provides so lovingly for us.
SAWs
SAWs, or Servants At Work, is a nonprofit organization that builds wheelchair ramps to provide persons with disabilities and conditions of aging with the freedom to remain in their homes and reconnect with their communities. Overcoming their activity impediments allows people to "age in place" and remain in their homes. SAWs is a faith-based, ecumenical ministry that welcomes all who want to share in our mission. Shalom Zone organizes SAWs builds and encourages volunteers from all our congregations to band together to help a chosen build.
Monetary Donations
Each year, First Friends supports a number of organizations with monetary donations, either directly or through encouraging our members to support. These include but are not limited to:
Urgent Aid Fund
This is a special fund, managed by our Witness & Service Committee, that First Friends may use to support relief groups for disaster situations, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Howard Taylor Outreach Fund
Howard Taylor was a long-time and much beloved member of our Meeting. In his honor, we were left a continuing fund, used for social outreach programs of the Meeting. This fund has been used to support a number of pograms, including Reaching for Tomorrow, a boy scout project for disadvantaged youth in Indiana; Coburn Place, a transitional home for survivors of intimate partner violence; Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS), a year-long Fellowship for young Quakers; and others.
Western Yearly Meeting
Western Yearly Meeting (WYM) chooses a project every summer and asks local Monthly Meetings to support the project financially. The Witness & Service Committee of First Friends promotes fundraising for the yearly WYM project. In the past we’ve supported fundraising for Tanzania Yearly Meeting, health and education projects in East Africa, and much more.
Friends United Meeting
Friends United Meeting (FUM), an association of Quaker meetings across the globe, supports a number of fundraising projects. Through their Summer Mission Projects, First Friends has raised funds to support causes such as rebuilding Wilmington Yearly Meeting in Cuba, repairing the Belize Friends School in Belize, supporting the Amari Refugee Camp in Palestine, and more.
Donation Station
In our Fellowship Hall we have a dedicated space for collecting donations. This includes gently used shoes for Changing Footprints, food for Mid-North Food Pantry, Box Tops for Education, Soda Pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald house, new underwear for the John H. Boner center, and other needs as they arise.