by Diane Bowden | Sep 23, 2025 | Uncategorized
This November, Virginians will elect a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and all members of the House of Delegates. This election, as every election does, will shape the course of our Commonwealth for the next four years.
In our August business meeting, RFM agreed to become one of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy’s (VICPP’s) 100% Voting Congregations, which means we pledge to educate ourselves about the candidates, register to vote if we’re eligible, and exercise our right to vote come election day. To that end, the VICPP Working Group is working on a number of activities to educate our Meeting about the voting process in Virginia and about the candidates (we will not be endorsing a particular candidate).
In September, the Working Group posted and distributed a flier with information about Virginia’s voting process and where to get information about registering to vote, finding your polling place, early voting, etc. as well as set up two sessions after Meeting to help people register to vote, find information about candidates, etc.
More information about October events will be forthcoming. Check the RFM Newslist to learn more.
by Diane Bowden | Sep 23, 2025 | Uncategorized
The Adult Spiritual Education Committee will hold a one-hour Reading Between the Lines (formerly known as Bible Workbench) through Zoom on First Day, Sunday, October 5, from 9-10 a.m. We will discuss 2 Timothy 1: 1-14: what it can mean to “worship with a clear conscience,” to help “rekindle” spirit within each other, to “guard the good treasure given you” (“with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us”) —which is not a “spirit of cowardice” but “a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” The facilitator will send the Zoom link through the Newslist a few days before our meeting.
by Diane Bowden | Aug 20, 2025 | Uncategorized
Are you looking for a way to give back to our community, while working towards a more racially just society? Do you have one or two hours a week to share with a student? We’d love to have you join our team of volunteer mentors at Redd Elementary School this fall. Please let Lynda Perry know by email if you plan to attend the orientation at RFM.
Redd’s student population — primarily African American and Hispanic, with an extremely high percentage from low-income families — faces stark educational disparities. Our volunteers build relationships with students that can help them build their social/emotional skills and support their academic development. Some of us meet with one student at a time; others meet with a small group of students once a week, often during the students’ lunch breaks.
Volunteers are required to complete a one-hour orientation and an annual background check. Orientations have already started. Join us in the Community Room for an in-person orientation on Thursday, September 4 at 11 am. OR sign up for an Eventbrite orientation session today! Our partner Communities in Schools handles the orientations and the background checks required of all Richmond Public School volunteers who work regularly with students.
If you can’t commit weekly, we’ll let the RFM community know when special one-time volunteer opportunities arise for events like read-alouds and festivals (no orientation or background check needed for these).
Please contact Lynda Perry at if you have questions and/or to let us know if you sign up for an orientation at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/volunteer-orientation-rps-and-communities-in-schools-of-richmond-tickets-686968540397?aff=oddtdtcreator !
by Diane Bowden | Aug 20, 2025 | Activity
Peace and Social Concerns Committee is hosting a luncheon on October 12 at rise of meeting to benefit the Friends Association for Children. Please come and learn more about FRIENDS and our connection to it. Here’s some history about the organization which opened in 1868 and came under management of black Richmond churches in 1871.Thanks to Mary Fran Hughes-McIntyre’s History of Richmond Friends Meeting for the following information.
After the Civil War, as leader of the Ladies Sewing Circle for Charitable Work, Lucy Goode Brooks, a formerly enslaved person, convinced her circle that an orphanage was needed. She asked Cedar Creek Meeting (later Richmond Friends Meeting) for help in raising money to start the home.
With Lucy, John Bacon Crenshaw, clerk of Cedar Creek Meeting, was instrumental in starting the Friends’ Asylum for Colored Orphans. Receiving contributions from the Freedman’s Bureau, Philadelphia Friends, Negro citizens of Richmond, and others, Friends established a home and school, and after three years turned it over to the “colored ministers” of the city, with the following invitation:
Friends: Deeply impressed, at the close of the late unhappy contest with the necessity for such an Institution -- Your friends the Quakers with considerable labor collected the necessary funds and erected what is now known as the Orphan House for Colored Children.... Trusting that you will appreciate the great importance of such an Institution, where the helpless orphans may be received and sheltered from the cold charities and cruel temptations of a heartless world till opportunity offers to place them in suitable homes, where they may receive the sympathy, care, and training, their sorrowful lot so much needs....
This institution was a continual place of involvement for Richmond Friends who served on the Executive Board even after it became a Community Fund enterprise in 1941.
by Diane Bowden | Aug 20, 2025 | Uncategorized
Friday, September 19, 2025, 4 pm to Sunday, September 21, 2025, 1 pm
Shepherd's Spring Retreat, Global Village & Camp Center, 16869 Taylors Landing Rd, Sharpsburg, MD 21782
Register Now
Living in the Presence
"Summoned or not, God is present." Carl Jung
How do we experience this presence?
Perhaps as important, how do we share that experience with others?
How do we take our deepest Quaker truth and practice the presence of the Holy in the public square?
Come join Friends and fellow seekers as we explore together our experiences of the Presence of Spirit. (We might each name the Spirit differently: the Holy One, God, Christ, Light, Higher Power, or Ground of All Being.) We'll offer stories about how we have come to recognize this Presence within ourselves and beyond ourselves. And we'll share practices that Friends have actively engaged as ways of opening ourselves to this Presence. There will be some teaching and some time for reflection around adding or deepening spiritual practice in our daily routines. Plus time for rest, fellowship and fun! Please consider joining us.