Work Days at The Clearing
Join Friends for work days at The Clearing on Saturday, September 5, 9:30 am – 2:00 pm and Saturday, October 3, 9:30 am – 2:00 pm.
Four Asian Quakers Share Their Stories
The Race and Racial Justice Team is presenting a program, “Four Asian Quakers Share Their Stories.” It will take place in the community room at the meetinghouse on Saturday, September 26, 9:00 am to 11:00 am (8:30 am for bagels).
Monti Datta, Eunkyung Ahn, Danette Kong, and Allen Lee will take turns sharing their stories about being Asian, being a Quaker, and how being each of these contributes to the other.
Please direct questions to Allen Lee.
Spiritual Formation
Adult Spiritual Education is resuming Spiritual Formation this fall!
We are all pilgrims on a journey, taking different routes to the same destination. We are all seekers on a quest, searching for that which is greater, and our relationship to it, hoping to arrive at the Ground of Our Being. Along the way, we encounter other pilgrims and share the experience in moments of sacred intersection that feed our spirit, deepen our experience, strengthen our resolve, and build community. This is the Spiritual Formation Program. And we invite you to journey with us.
There are many ways to get involved:
- Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s Spiritual Formation Retreat is in September, weekend of September 11-13 at the Claggett Center in Adamstown, MD. Scholarships are available through the Adult Spiritual Education Committee. Registration closes on August 24th.
- We invite you to participate in Spiritual Formation here at Richmond Friends Meeting with “large group” discussions and “small group” opportunities to build spiritual friendships offering mutual support and accompaniment.
- There is also the year-long online program offered through Zoom to Friends throughout the Yearly Meeting also offering large and small groups. (October-May)
If you wish to participate, a table at Potluck will be sponsored by Adult Spiritual Education Committee on September 27th. We hope you will join us to learn more!
Befriend a Young Student at Redd Elementary
Imagine being greeted with a wide smile and sense of anticipation from your student when arriving at your classroom. This has been true for me – a wonderful experience of being a volunteer mentor — spending time with and getting to know my sweet kindergartener this past year. I’m grateful for the opportunity and I look forward to participating again in the fall. It’s an experience you don’t want to miss!
If you have one or two hours a week to spare and would like a chance to make a meaningful contribution in the community, consider joining our team of volunteer mentors at Elizabeth D. Redd Elementary School. Most of the students at Redd come from low-income families, primarily Latino or African-American. Many are immigrants. All could benefit from a consistent friendly presence in their lives.
Mentors commit to weekly visits with assigned students in kindergarten through 5th grade. You can choose the day and time to volunteer and which grade level you’d prefer to work with. We often meet during the students’ lunch break. Some of us meet with more than one student at a time, or meet individually with multiple students.
Whether playing games together, making art, reading or making conversation, we are helping students to build social and emotional skills that support their academic development. And we are having fun doing it!
We plan to hold an in-person orientation for new volunteers sometime in September. If you are interested in learning more about our experiences, please contact Lynda Perry, Kathryn Newland, or any of our other volunteers: Marjorie Bertolino, Mike Cluverius, Danni Kong, Mary Beth Martin, and Janet Thoroman. We will be welcoming at least two new volunteers this fall, and we hope to welcome you also.
This volunteer mentor opportunity is truly a valuable experience. Please join us!
Quaker Earthcare Witness Day of Action
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) Global Day of Action: Saturday, September 19, 8:45 to Noon
Worship made visible: head, heart, hands & voices
Join the collaboration of QEW, Sierra Club Falls of the James Group & AFSC Love as Action for a local trash cleanup (location coming!) including breakfast snacks and a short meeting for worship!
A QEW Day of Action – twice yearly in Fall and Spring – envisions Meetings creating a locally organized community event where Friends choose an action that fits its own land, gifts, needs, and community and gather in love, listen to the Spirit, care for the land and one another, and let our worship be visible.
Why do humble actions as a community? This Day of Action is a way for Friends to:
- Bring communities together through shared labor, laughter, sweat, and love.
- Make Earthcare visible as a living Quaker witness.
- Invite neighbors, youth, families, and seekers into meaningful action.
- Deepen the spiritual connection between worship and ecological repair.
- Connect spiritually across time zones and share our stories around the world.
More information is forthcoming from Barb Adams and Diane Bowden.
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) is a network of Friends (Quakers) in North America working on Earthcare concerns. We work to inspire Spirit-led action toward ecological sustainability and environmental justice and a spiritual transformation in our relationships with each other and the natural world. As all our communities are being impacted more and more by the climate crisis, we feel an urgent leading to share our witness.