by Diane Bowden | Apr 10, 2024 | Activity, Adult Spiritual Education, Announcement, History - Quaker
Quakerism 101, a four-session introduction to Quakerism, its history, writings, values, and beliefs held its first session on Sunday, April 28, at 9:30 am with more than 30 friends attending. This session addressed “The Light Within: What Quakers Believe" with a panel discussion from Howard Garner, Steve Humphrey, and Rita Willett. Three other sessions that are planned for later this year:
• Quaker History: Revolution and Evolution on June 22, 9:30 am on Zoom.
• What do Committees Do? RFM Organization, Business Meeting, and Terminology, date TBD
• Living in the Light: Quaker Organizations in the US and Around the World; How Quakers Live in the World Today, date TBD
by Diane Bowden | Feb 21, 2024 | Minuted Decisions
By Margaret Edds
Bette Diebold Gilchrist, a plain-spoken Midwesterner by birth, an intellectually curious biologist by profession, and a lifelong seeker after truth, died on May 5, 2022, in Richmond, Virginia. A member of the Richmond Friends Meeting since January 20, 1992, she was admired for her kind disposition, her love of nature, and her stalwart determination in facing life’s challenges. At her memorial service, one longtime friend summed up Bette’s life with an original poem entitled, “She Persisted.”
Bette was born on June 15, 1939, in Yankton, South Dakota, the daughter of Charles Alois Diebold and Gladys Olson. She grew up in Gayville, South Dakota, pop. 278 at the 1940 census. She embraced the strong work ethic of her Norwegian ancestors and often spoke of both the challenges and joys of life in an isolated, rural community. The latter included a memory, shared in Meeting for Worship, of walking through crunching snow on a starlit night to a Christmas Eve service at her family’s local Lutheran church.
After graduating from Gayville High School, Bette attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she earned a B.S. degree. Later, she received an M.S. degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an M.R.C. degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She taught biology for many years at Chickahominy Middle School, Stonewall Jackson Middle School (now Roberto Clemente Middle School) and Patrick Henry High School, all in Hanover County, and at John Tyler Community College in Chester (now Brightpoint Community College). On a nature hike after a summer shower, Bette delighted a friend with a lecture on the reproductive characteristics of the earthworms dotting the trail.
Introduced to Quakerism by her friend and teaching colleague Laura Cribbs, Bette began regularly attending First Day services at Richmond Friends Meeting in the fall of 1990. Applying for membership, she recalled that “spirituality has been an important part of my life since I was a child.” Both prayer and Bible reading, as well as participation in church activities were important to her in adolescence, she wrote.
In the mid-1970s, Bette was introduced to the practice of meditation, which she continued throughout her life. She was drawn to eastern religions and their disciplines, including yoga, and attended an ashram in New York State. Such training, she wrote, increased her connection with the inner self or inner Light. “Naturally, I love the silent worship and the simplicity of the Friends Meeting.” Through her years of membership, Bette served on Richmond Friends Meeting’s nominating committee (including as its clerk in 1995 and 2004), the Care and Counsel Committee, the Ministry and Worship Committee, and the Adult Spiritual Education Committee. Her quiet voice and sound, practical wisdom were valued.
Bette was married on December 27, 1964 at the Lutheran Church in Gayville to Rohit Nanavati, whom she later divorced. The couple had two sons: Mark Charles Nanavati, born January 19, 1970, and Jay Rohit Nanavati, born July 13, 1974. Bette married Bruce Gilchrist, a mathematician and computer expert, on May 28, 2008. They enjoyed several trips to England, Bruce’s birthplace. After his unexpected death in May 2015, his obituary noted that he “loved, respected, and cherished Bette” and that “together they traveled, laughed, and went to the zoo.”
Bette spent her final years at the Westminster Canterbury Retirement Community in Richmond, Virginia. Despite physical challenges, she continued to display determination and persistence until her death.
by Diane Bowden | Feb 21, 2024 | Minuted Decisions
(Final version, revised 28 January 2024)
As Friends, our belief that there is “that of God” in everyone grounds our practice of upholding the worth of each human being. Each person is guided by an Inward Teacher toward truth; each has the capacity to experience and be transformed by Spirit. The fullness of our lives – as individuals and as a community – unfolds as we live into these spiritual truths. Just as we value each person, these core beliefs lead us to value the diversity of culture, race, and ethnicity that enrich the human family. Richmond Friends Meeting commits to being a faith community of deep hospitality for and inclusion of all people.
We recognize that inequality and injustice based on race are deeply rooted in our society. Richmond Friends Meeting commits to challenging and repairing racism and racial bias in ourselves as individuals, within our Meeting, and in our Meeting’s relationships with the wider world.
We embrace these commitments as guides for our personal lives, our life as a community, and our Meeting’s engagement in the wider world. Living more fully into our commitments will require listening, humility, and a willingness to be transformed. It will require holding the creative tension between discernment and the urgency to right action. We hold this minute as a guide as the Meeting seeks to live into our commitments in these ways:
- RFM will make it a clear, strong priority to understand and act on issues related to race and racism.
- We will be undergirded by our Quaker faith as we embark on this work, seeking to reflect and strengthen our relationship with Spirit.
- As expressions of our faith, our commitment to justice, love, and compassion — and our testimonies of equality, community, peace, integrity, simplicity and stewardship — will guide our work.
- We seek to be in community among different races to provide positive opportunities for mutual learning and spiritual growth.
- Living with integrity means consistency between our actions and our deeply held beliefs. The actions we take will make clear RFM’s stand against racism and will uphold our commitment to nurturing a community inclusive of all people.
- RFM will research and reflect on our history as a meeting in order to discern right response to any past harm and injustices, as well as to be emboldened by previous Quaker efforts at racial progress and healing.
- We will seek to understand the history – and we lament the ongoing realities – of systemic racism. This understanding will be fundamental in discerning action.
- RFM will collaborate with groups and organizations that promote racial healing and seek to dismantle some aspect of structural racism.
- We will seek to support and learn from the initiatives of people of color and those of Quaker organizations that are addressing issues of race and racism.
- We recognize that this is an ongoing process, and we will hold each other in the Light and accompany one another as we seek to learn, to be transformed, and to be of service.
by Diane Bowden | Aug 4, 2023 | Clerk’s Business
SAVE THE DATE: Thursday, September 14, 7-8:15 p.m.
Zoom presentation by the C. Wayne Taylor Bequest Ad Hoc Committee
". . .to be used for the direct benefit of needy people residing in the Richmond metropolitan area." This was the only guidance provided in the last will and testament of the late C. Wayne Taylor on the use of his estate after his death in July 2020. Mr. Taylor entrusted to Richmond Friends Meeting that estate and decisions about its distribution to the wider community. Since June 2021, the Ad Hoc committee charged with researching and making recommendations of possible uses of Mr. Taylor's bequest has been hard at work.
In this Zoom presentation, you will learn about the arc of Mr. Taylor's life; what the Ad Hoc committee has discovered from close friends about the values that guided his life; and the research we have conducted over the past two years, with guidance and assistance from community organizations. A Zoom link will be provided the week of September 11.
Randee Humphrey, Denna Joy, Scott Morrison, Barb Pedrotty
C. Wayne Taylor Ad Hoc Committee
by Diane Bowden | Aug 2, 2023 | Clerk’s Business
The Race and Racism Ad Hoc Committee will host 4 listening circles, continuing our charge of engaging the Meeting in an inclusive and open discernment process to learn what our meeting is led to do around race and racism. The listening circles are open to all attenders- whether or not you submitted a written response to the query. Two listening circles will be held in person, and two will be held on zoom. You are invited to attend as many as you would like. Members and attenders who are people of color are invited to contact committee co-clerk Allen Lee who will be organizing and scheduling a listening circle for people of color.
The scheduled listening circles to date, open to all attenders:
August 20th at 12:30 p.m. in the Community Room
August 24th at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom
August 27th at 1:00 p.m. in the Worship Room
We are looking forward to your participation.
Thank you,
Allen Lee, co-clerk, Kathleen Morgan, co-clerk, Margaret Edds, Ruth Morrison, Lynda Perry, Michael Pierce, Monica Shaw, Rita Willet