The Lehigh Valley monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, is celebrating its 75th anniversary with an open house June 16, and everyone is invited to join them to mark this milestone.

“It’s a homecoming for Friends, and for people who don’t know much about Quakers to come and stand with us as we celebrate our 75th birthday,” Nancy Johnston said on a late May morning at the Meetinghouse, where members are known as Friends. Johnston is LVMM social media contact and a member of the Bucks Quarter Outreach Committee, which meets four times a year for regional meetings.

The open house will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Meetinghouse, located on Route 512, half a mile north of U.S. Route 22 at 4116 Bath Pike, Bethlehem.

Activities at the open house include an address by Christie Duncan Tessmer, General Secretary of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; signing of a commemorative photograph by guests; and a tour of the building and grounds with an attention to memorial trees honoring some of the founders.

“It’s a retrospective and looking forward,” John Marquette, LVMM archivist, said of the open house. “The work Quakers do in the Lehigh Valley continues with joy and love.

“We are a community of faith, a religious community, with foundations in early Christianity, yet open to letting people follow their conscience in seeing all people as equal,” Marquette, a member of the board of trustees of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, said.

“We see that of God in everyone - that’s a very significant phrase for us,” Marquette said.

Marquette said LVMM is nonpartisan, and doesn’t take political positions or lobby, “but we encourage Friends to follow their conscience in all ways.”

Martha Christine is clerk of the monthly meeting, the organizing person keeping all of the committees going, as there is no paid minister or any clergy or liturgy. LVMM meets each Sunday morning for worship and once a month for a business meeting.

“What’s unique about Quakers in the Lehigh Valley is our commitment to peace and social justice and the work we do in the community,” Christine said.

She noted LVMM installed a new HVAC system this spring as part of its commitment to environmental sustainability.

Christine said LVMM raises money for the PA Interfaith Food Bank by holding fundraisers four to five times a year. LVMM also prepares and serves a meal every month at Safe Harbor, Easton.

LVMM supports members doing individual work in the community, prison reform and bail bond issues.

Several LVMM members are also members of the Bethlehem-based LEPOCO (Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern), an active peace and justice community, and help and participate in their events, sometimes hosting LEPOCO’s events at LVMM.

The connection to LEPOCO stretches back decades, as the late Fran Dreisbach and Bryn Hammarstrom were founding members of both LVMM and LEPOCO. Dreisbach’s daughter is a member of LVMM.

LVMM and LEPOCO help organize the annual Christmas Peace Pilgrimage from Nazareth to Bethlehem, which began in 1960, each December.

Christine said LVMM sponsors girls in Kenya to go to school through the yearly fundraiser, a Harambee – a Swahili word meaning “to pull together”- luncheon featuring Kenyan food. Two LVMM members hail from Kenya.

Art from Friends living and deceased enhances The Meetinghouse.

The Gathering Room is home to several art pieces, including a Peace Mosaic made in 2018 and colorful “Garden” collage crafted in May 2024. Barbara Kozero, a Friend and retired Bethlehem Area School District art teacher and noted mosaicist and sculptor in Bethlehem, led both projects, which included participation of LVMM children as part of their weekly education.

The Peace Mosaic allowed the children to choose the design and colors of the tiles. The children created the collage as a garden of words and images that reflect how we should treat each other in community.

There is also a candelabra that is used once a year at Christmas, and was made in the early 1980s by the late Joe Cantieni, a Bethlehem Steel artist-in-residence, with Bethlehem Steel imagery representing stars and crosses. The base is an I-beam, which was Bethlehem Steel’s logo. The beeswax candles were made by Quakers living in Moore Township at Bear Honey Farms, which has moved to Vermont. Memorial trees in honor of Joe Cantieni and his wife Margaret, founding members of LVMM, are planted on the grounds of the Meetinghouse, and their children grew up at LVMM.

A Punched tin light fixture, made by the late Margaret Cantieni, illuminates the downstairs conference room. The design features scenes from nature and the Meetinghouse soon after its completion. Margaret Cantieni also made banners and posters that are displayed in the Meetinghouse.

The LVMM of the Religious Society of Friends was established in 1949 after gathering informally since 1923. It came into being against a backdrop of Quaker history, centered in Philadelphia – one of the most famous and influential Quakers was William Penn.

The LVMM met in people’s homes, the Swain School and other public places from the 1920s until 1949, when it became officially recognized as a monthly meeting by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. It continued rotating its meetings at places including the YWCA until purchasing the current land in 1961.

The early organizers were college professors, an engineer for the city of Bethlehem, writer for the Globe-Times, a clerk for Orr’s, artists, sculptors, a chemist who was also a conscientious objector who served in Montana as a smoke jumper, the director of admissions at Moravian Academy, a family physician, and an employee at Bethlehem Steel.

Prompted by a rapid increase in regular attendees, including many children, a major expansion and renovation of the Meetinghouse was completed in 1996. The larger Meetinghouse provides additional space for religious education, fellowship, committee work and child care.

The Meetinghouse was constructed on the present three-acre site in Hanover Township, chosen so as to be accessible to a widely-scattered membership today, ranging from Stroudsburg to Springtown and from New Jersey to Hamburg. ZOOM technology has allowed them to have weekly attendees from Ireland, Mexico ,and Bradford County, Pennsylvania.

The Meetinghouse sits within sacred land known as Lenapehoking, inhabited by the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Nation.

The Hugh Moore Jr.-designed building is modern and has a skylight. Worshippers sit on wooden benches once used in an 18-century Meetinghouse in Bucks County. Facing one another in expectant silence, Friends stand as they are moved to speak. The service lasts approximately one hour.

The Meetinghouse property was awarded a certificate from the National Wildlife Federation in 1991 as a “Backyard Habitat” and two summers ago a mother red fox established a den with three kits, honoring the spirit of George Fox, Quakerism’s founder in England in 1624.

The Friends at LVMM are eager for the public to join in their 75th anniversary celebration, which honors their past and looks forward to the future.

“We encourage people to come see our quiet space among the business world and busy highway on the edge of a commercial complex,” Rick Dow, a member of LVMM’s outreach and communications committee, said.

Parking is available at the Meetinghouse with overflow at 3897 Adler Place. Those unable to attend the open house are invited to the worship service any Sunday at 10 a.m. All are welcome. The building is fully accessible, including hearing assistance. Child care is provided and there is education for school age to high school aged children at 10:20 a.m.

To learn more about Quakers visitlehighvalleyquakers.org/.