by Diane Bowden | Jan 28, 2016 | Peace and Social Concerns
The Disaster Relief Group going to South Carolina in March will hold a chili luncheon on March 6. It will be an opportunity for you to eat a tasty lunch, contribute financially, and meet the people going.
If you cannot attend and would like to support the trip, you can write a check to Richmond Friends Meeting with a note that it is for the Disaster Relief trip. Individual volunteers will pay their own expenses for the trip. Donations will go to support the work of the group.
The state of South Carolina had heavy flooding in the unprecedented rains in October 2015. The group of volunteers will represent Richmond Friends Meeting in this effort and will be hosted and sponsored by the United Methodist organization, UMCOR.
If you are interested in joining the group, contact Ada Hammer or Frances Stewart.
by Diane Bowden | Jan 27, 2016 | Adult Spiritual Education
This six-session series will be held on the 2nd and 4th First Days (Sundays) in February, March, and April from 9 am to 10:45 am. The series is designed for newcomers, long-time members and attenders, and those who are considering membership. One or more of our Meeting’s elders will facilitate each of the sessions. Each session will have assigned readings from the BYM “Faith and Practice 2013” (see below) and other readings selected by the facilitators. Each session will include a presentation, experiential activities, sharing, and questions and answers.
Session 1 February 14 How We Worship
Session 2 February 28 Living Our Testimonies – Part I
Session 3 March 13 Living Our Testimonies – Part II
Session 4 March 27 Appreciating From Whence We Came
Session 5 April 10 How We Organize Ourselves and How We Conduct Our Business
Session 6 April 24 How We Act to Change the World
The text for the adult spiritual education series “Living the Quaker Life” will be the proposed 2013 Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice. The Adult Spiritual Education Committee will provide a free copy of this text to all who commit to participate in as many of these sessions as their personal schedules allow. To obtain a copy, see or contact a member of the Adult Spiritual Education Committee.
by Diane Bowden | Jan 26, 2016 | Committees
Each year the Ministry and Worship Committee prepares a Spiritual State of the Meeting report. The committee writes the report using information from two sources: the year-end reports submitted by each committee of the Meeting and, equally or more importantly, sharing by Friends during a meeting open to everyone at which the committee takes notes. This year the meeting for sharing about the spiritual state of our meeting will be held on Saturday, February 27, 2016, beginning at 9 am, in the Community Room. Coffee, juice and bagels will be served. The meeting will end by noon. All friends are welcome and encouraged to attend.
by Diane Bowden | Jan 13, 2016 | Library
Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices [QuakerPress of FGC 2010 356p.]
celebrates, critiques, questions, and reflects on the Quaker faith experience. Writing and visual art by teenage and young adult Quakers from around the world and across the theological and cultural spectrum of the Religious Society of Friends give readers a window on the spiritual riches and witness these Friends offer. The contributors in this volume challenge and inspire, as they witness to and celebrate Quakerism as it has been, as it is, and as it could yet be. The voices here come together in a symphony, cacophonous but also deeply resonant. Listen and you will hear that their Spirit – here called by many names – is undeniably rising.
[https://www.quakerbooks.org/book/spirit-rising]
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd [Viking Press 2014 369p]
It is a story about two women in Charleston, South Carolina in the first half of the 19th century. One of the women is a slave girl named Handful who has been raised by her mother to be strong and proud despite being treated like chattel. The other is Sarah Grimké, the daughter of wealthy landowners. Sarah is the black sheep of the family in that she sees slavery as inhumane, and also desires a profession of her own, although she is only a woman. Inspired by actual historical figures like Sarah and Angelina Grimké and Denmark Vesey, and enlivened by original creations like Charlotte and Handful, The Invention of Wings is the extraordinary story of two struggles for freedom. Much to the chagrin of her family, Sarah converted to Quakerism and moved to Philadelphia in 1821; by 1829 Angelina had also become a Quaker and decided to move north to be with her sister.
[http://www.npr.org/2014/01/11/260192246/finding-flight-in-the-invention-of-wings]
Aging in Community by Janice Blanchard [2nd Journey Publication 2013 250 p.]
As 78 million boomers turn 66 years old at a clip of 10,000 a day, aging is about to get better! The generation that fought for Civil Rights, rallied for women’s equality, and protested the Vietnam War has a track record of creating positive social change. Now boomers are confronting a social injustice that impacts us all, independent of gender, class, or color — ageism. One facet of this emerging Age Revolution is how and where we grow old. Because many have watched their parents struggle to stay in their family homes or saw them wither away in nursing homes — lonely, bored, and often helpless — they are determined to find a better way. In this anthology, editor Janice Blanchard brings together the perspectives of visionaries, practitioners, and pioneering elders who together are forging an exciting new paradigm of aging— aging in community.
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482302659/ref=rdr_ext_tmb]
The Girl From the Tar Paper School by Teri Channeled {Abrams Bks. for Young Readers 2014 55p.]
Lessons on Brown v. Board of Education on this 60th anniversary should not begin with the 1954 Supreme Court decision but, instead, with the decades of activism that led to the historic ruling. And there is no better way to hook young people than with the school walkout led by 15-year-old Barbara Rose Johns in Prince Edward County[Farmville], Virginia, in 1951. Carefully planned with a sworn-to-secrecy group of fellow high school students, Johns arranged to have the principal called out of the building and then held a high school assembly to announce the walkout to demand a new school building.
[https://zinnedproject.org/materials/the-girl-from-the-tar-paper-school/]
Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow, an Organizing Guide by Daniel Hunter
The Study Guide and Call to Action spans the entirety of The New Jim Crow, engaging the critical questions of how we managed to create, nearly overnight, a penal system unprecedented in world history, and how that system actually functions — as opposed to the way it is advertised.
This important resource also challenges us to search for and admit the truth about ourselves, our own biases, stereotypes, and misconceptions, and the many ways in which we might actually be part of the problem.
[http://www.newjimcroworganizing.org]
Race to Incarceration, A Graphic Retelling by Sabrina Jones and Marc Mauer Sabrina Jones, a member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective and an acclaimed author of politically engaged comics, has collaborated with Mauer to adapt and update the original book into a vivid and compelling comics narrative. Jones’s dramatic artwork adds passion and compassion to the complex story of the penal system’s shift from rehabilitation to punishment and the ensuing four decades of prison expansion, its interplay with the devastating “War on Drugs,” and its corrosive effect on generations of Americans.
http://thenewpress.com/books/race-incarcerate
Here are the new Pendle Hill pamphlets that have arrived.
- A Quietness Within: The Quiet Was as Faith and Spirituality
- Recovering Sacred Presence in a Disenchanted World
- The Door In
by Diane Bowden | Dec 25, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
Submitted by Betsy Brinson & Curt Torrell
The decision to allow women to serve in all combat roles by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on December3, 2015 should be enough to reverse Rostker v. Goldberg, the Supreme Court decision upholding women not required to sign up for Selective Service. That ruling was based on the Pentagon policy that excluded women in combat. It has been tested in the 90’s by Clinton and Congress yet reaffirmed many times since for the same reason.
Revisiting this would mean either a new Selective Service law or a new case brought before the Supreme Court, neither of which is likely to happen before Presidential elections. A case would be strengthened by the fact that Solomon and Thurmond amendments (denial of federal and state education loans, jobs and training) plus required SS registration to get a state driver’s license are imposed only on men.
The decision to open up all military positions to women complicates the issue even more. Women now presumably will be subject to draft. In Virginia when you get a driver’s license at age 16, your name is given to Selective Service. Most people do not even realize this is what they are doing when they apply for a license. If there is a draft and one gets notice, you only have about nine days to get an appeal together. This is why the Quaker House program to document now is so important to our peace testimony.