Memorial Meeting for Chris Maxwell, April 4, 11 am
Please join us to reflect on the life of friend, Chris Maxwell, with a memorial meeting for worship on Saturday, April 4 at 11 am.
ECWG Spring Hike and Picnic, April 12
The Earthcare Working Group (ECWG) will host a Spring Hike and Picnic as a social event for Meeting on Sunday, April 12, 1 to 3 pm, at James River Park Pony Pasture. Meet at 1:00 pm at the Pony Pasture parking lot. Bring a bag lunch and good walking shoes. The Working Group will provide drinks. Margaret Porter-Daniel and Katy Rugg will share information on medicinal plants along the way.
Questions or need a ride? Contact Arthur Shurcliff at aschurcliff@icloud.com
Register for Spring Retreat!
Friends of all ages are invited to our Spring Retreat on May 22-24 at The Clearing. Come for the whole weekend or just part of it! Camping and rustic indoor accommodations are available, and meals will be provided with a variety of dietary needs and preferences in mind. Learn more about The Clearing here: https://staging.richmondfriends.org/theclearing/
This year’s theme is “Opening to Joy.” The retreat will be interactive and will spring from the ideas and gifts of our community—so you can look forward to deep conversations, creative experiences, and plenty of play. And you won’t want to miss the epic talent show hosted by the Willow Working Group!
This is an intergenerational gathering, and families and children are warmly welcome. We hope to fan the flames of community connection as we share what brings us joy—whether through conversation, artmaking, or time together outdoors.
More details coming soon; please stay tuned. Please help us plan for your participation and register early, by Sunday, May 17! This online form makes it easy to register: https://bit.ly/RFMRetreat2026 . Also, please note, there is NO COST to attend Spring Retreat.
Questions? Contact Ted Heck at 804-726-1056 (call or text).
Reading Between the Lines, April 5
The Adult Spiritual Education committee will host a one-hour Reading Between the Lines (formerly Bible Workbench) 9-10 am (through Zoom) on First Day, April 5. We’ll discuss a few different accounts of the stories of Easter morning: who showed up at Jesus’s tomb, what they found, who they told, who they touched—or didn’t touch, how each of them was recognized—“met” in their grief. We’ll continue discussion on what it is to “enter” into different kinds of darkness—including darkness that is “nourishing” (Hirsh). The facilitator will screen-share the texts and send the zoom link through the Newslist (as well as the contact list for “regulars”) a few days before our session.
FGC The Gathering, July 7-12
Friends General Conference (FGC) The Gathering of Friends will be at the University of Vermont, July 7-12, 2026. The theme is “A Window and a Door: A Prayer.” Enjoy worship, fellowship, workshops, reflection, rejuvenation, and fun! Go to FGCQuaker.org/the-gathering for more info. Adult Spiritual Education (ASE) Committee has scholarships available for anyone who would like to attend. Please contact a member of ASE for more information.
Reading Between the Lines in-person, March 1
The Adult Spiritual Education Committee is hosting an in-person introduction to the ongoing Reading Between the Lines scripture study from 9:15 to 10:30 am on Sunday, March 1, in the community room. Facilitator Leslie Shiel will give a short introduction and explanation; then participants will discuss John 3:1-17 (the story of Nicodemus visiting Jesus in the night).
You do not have to be Christian to appreciate and be moved by these (often) subversive and wildly shaped texts; this method of study uses metaphor and story to explore scripture. Leslie will provide print copies of the text, including parts from the original Aramaic (from Neil Doublas-Klotz’s book Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus). Newcomers who are curious and regulars who want a refresher - all are welcome. Nursery care will be provided.
Threshing on Immigration Concerns, March 21, 10 am to noon
On Saturday March 21, from 10 am to noon, Friends will gather in the worship room to share thoughts and feelings about current immigration issues. A threshing session is an opportunity to consider a particular issue, listening to one another and to Spirit, trusting that "grains" of understanding and truth will emerge in the process. No decisions are made at a threshing session. There will be queries to guide the process. This will be an in-person gathering and all are welcome.
March 8 Luncheon for CrossOver Healthcare
On Second First Day / March 8, Peace & Social Concerns will host a fundraising luncheon at rise of Meeting to benefit CrossOver Healthcare Ministries, which provides uninsured and Medicaid neighbors with primary and specialty healthcare, pediatrics, women’s health and prenatal care, mental health, and more.
CrossOver was hit very hard by federal and state budget cuts in 2025. Your generous donation to our luncheon will help them maintain services and ideally even restore HIV care for new patients, which they had to suspend last May.
That’s First Day March 8, at Rise of Meeting. P&SC provides a nicely varied lunch. You please be as generous as makes sense for you.
Reading Between the Lines, February 1, 9-10 am
The Adult Spiritual Education Committee will host a one-hour Reading Between the Lines—through Zoom—on First Day, Feb. 1, from 9-10 am. We will discuss—along with single lines from Micah, Psalm 15, and 1 Corinthians 1, the Beatitudes—found In Matthew 5:1-12. As part of our conversation, we’ll see the translation offered by Neil Douglas-Klotz in his book Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus. Words like “ripening,” “dissolving,” “extra unhealthy holdings,” going beyond who we thought we were, “darkness” as meaning “what’s unknown,” and more—will help us as we consider—with new eyes and ears—a text that may now seem too familiar to us. We’ll consider a progression of steps rather than a set of formulas. The facilitator will send the Zoom link through the Newslist a few days before the discussion.
Reading Between the Lines on Break in January
Reading Between the Lines will return on February 1 after taking a break in January.
Songs of the Soul, January 11
The Adult Spiritual Education committee invites you to participate in a program of worship-sharing with music that speaks to us spiritually. The relaxed, candlelit evening session is scheduled for Sunday, January 11, starting at 4:30 in the community room.
If you would like to include a song or piece of music that is meaningful to you, email Lee Bloxom with the subject line “songs of the soul.” The music can range from ancient to current, be recorded or live, instrumental or with lyrics. In the body of the email, include the title of the selection and the name of the artist. If you’re not planning to perform your song live, include either a digital recording (.mp3, .mp4, or .wav file formats) or a link to it on YouTube or Spotify.
We’ll have time for reflection and worship sharing after each selection.
The deadline for song submissions is Monday, Jan. 5
We look forward to soul sharing through music on a mid-January eve: January 11, 4:30 to 6 pm.
German Candlelight Event, January 19, 5 pm
January 19, German Candlelight Event, 5-6 pm: At the end of World War II, a German Quaker family took in many orphans. Having nothing to celebrate the holidays, they gathered the children to light candles and share the gift of themselves, their talents, and Spirit. This custom has spread to many American meetings. This year, we will have our first such candlelight service. Join us by bringing a gift of yourselves - a message of gratitude and hope, a song, a joke, or any gift you wish to share.
Day for All People: Advocate with VICPP at the General Assembly
The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and Virginia Interfaith Power and Light are hosting Day for All People on Wednesday, January 21, 2026. This is a great opportunity to learn about justice and make a difference in our state laws! Join faith leaders in Richmond to meet with legislators about affordable housing, maternal health, higher education in prison, and other important issues. Day for All People will start at 8:00 am and end around 2:30 pm. Early bird registration (before January 1) is $30. Then it's $40. Find out more information and register at: tinyurl.com/2026DFAP
A small group of us will be going. Would you like to join us? Contact Monica Shaw with questions.
It's a great way to make January more interesting!
Courageous Conversations in Multi-Racial Settings
The Race and Racial Justice Team will sponsor a two-day workshop on learning how to have courageous and caring conversations in multi-racial settings. The training will be held on two Saturdays, January 31 and February 7, 2026, from 10 am to 2 pm at the Meetinghouse. Shelli Brady and Jo Booker of Coming Together Virginia, one of RFM’s partner organizations for 2025, will conduct the training.
Goals:
· To increase your willingness to engage in conversations, especially about race, with people whose racial identity differs from your own
· To know how to handle such conversations gracefully (without micro-aggressions)
· To accept that mistakes will be made and to learn to address errors with integrity and kindness
· To be able to respond appropriately whether you committed a mistake or witnessed it
Attendance in the workshops will be limited to 30 people. Registration is required. In accordance with the nature of deep, personal work and the request of the instructors, participants will be required to attend both sessions. There will not be a zoom option. We regret any inconvenience. You may sign up for the workshop on a list at the Meetinghouse bulletin board or by contacting Plum Cluverius.
Clerk’s Potluck Breakfast and Sing Along, December 7
Please join us for our annual celebration of the holiday season with food, song, and fellowship on Sunday morning, December 7, from 9:15 - 10:30 am in the Meetinghouse community room. Please bring a breakfast dish to share and your singing voice!
Reading Between the Lines (Bible Workbench), December 7
The Adult Spiritual Education Committee will host a one-hour Reading Between the Lines (formerly known as Bible Workbench) on First Day, Dec. 7, from 9-10 on Zoom. We’ll discuss Matthew 3:1-12: the link between the verbs “crying out,” “preparing,” and “making” when a “new thing is being made.” The facilitator will send the zoom link through the Newslist a few days before the session.
Sunday Singing in December
We will be singing each First Day in December between meetings for worship, from about 10:35 to 10:55. Why? Because it is such a great season for song! Please join us around the piano.
Last Gardening Opportunity for 2025, Saturday, November 15, 9-11
This Saturday, 11/15 is your last chance to do some gardening at the Meetinghouse this year!!! The garden team will be planting bulbs, moving a couple of plants, doing some final weeding and tidying before we put the garden to bed until spring. Come anytime between 9-11 am and stay for as little or as long as you like. All ages and abilities welcome! Bring tools and/or gloves if you have them but we also have tools available. See you Saturday!
Fundraising Luncheon for Friends Association for Children, October 12
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.
Fall Retreat on “Spirit-Led Action” September 27 at The Clearing
The Adult Spiritual Education Committee invites you to attend Fall Retreat from 9:00 - 4:00, Saturday, September 27 at The Clearing. The theme of this year’s retreat is "Spirit-Led Action". Join us for an experiential workshop led by members of the ASE Committee, with opportunities to reflect on and share spirit-led action in small groups. We hope you will join us for an inspiring day led by members of the ASE Committee. Bagels and coffee, and lunch will be provided by the Ministry and Worship Committee.
Meeting for Weeding, Saturday, August 9
Please join the RFM garden team for our August 9 Meeting for Weeding from 8 am - 10 am. We can use your help to keep our grounds looking lovely! Come for as little or as long as you like. We promise good company and the satisfaction of seeing your work achieve immediate results.
EarthCare Working Group Fall Hikes for the Quaker Community
The EarthCare Working Group is hosting three Quaker Community Hikes this fall, hoping to continue them in the Spring and beyond.
Saturday, October 11, Yike! Hike 8:30 pm (after dark) at Larus Park- Looking for luminescent fungi and critters w/fluorescent lights
November Date TBD Endurance (6 mile) Hike Buttermilk Trail (N) (Giving thanks when the hike is over!)
Reading Between the Lines, August 3
The Adult Spiritual Education committee will host a one-hour Reading Between the Lines (formerly Bible Workbench) on First Day, August 3, from 9-10 am on Zoom. We will discuss Luke 10: 25-37: receiving help when one is hurt, sometimes from unlikely sources. We will discuss mercy, storytelling, being tested—and getting to the deeper issues under our surface questions and motives. The facilitator will send the link through the Newslist a few days before our meeting.
Meeting for Weeding: Saturday, July 12, 8-10 am
Saturday, July 12, is our (summer) monthly Meeting for Weeding and it’s your chance to show some love to our grounds by clearing away all the weeds that take moisture and nutrients from the native plantings and pollinators we are nurturing. We’re meeting from 8-10 am while it’s still relatively cool. Come for any part of that time or all of it! Bring gloves and weeding tools if you have them. Our plants, our gardens and our neighbors will thank you!
Special Dates for Meeting for Worship at The Clearing in May & June
For the months of May and June, we will have meeting for worship at The Clearing on the second Sunday of the month. These dates are May 11 and June 8. On July 6, the regular worship schedule of first Sundays will resume through October.
Kids Need Camp!
The Spark newsletter to the BYM Camp families contains the following: A Letter to Campers
The directors of our camps have a letter written directly to your children. Here’s what they want to make all campers hear from them before camp starts:
To all our fabulous campers new and returning (and to all of those wonderful staff and volunteers too!)
Our friends, I’m sure you’ve noticed that we are in a hard time in our country, a time where lots of people are being judged and excluded and treated badly. That weighs heavily on our hearts and it makes us more excited than ever to create a community with you this summer where each of us can be fully welcomed and belong. So we wanted to get a jump start on reminding you now that in just a few short months, we can’t wait to welcome you!
We can’t wait to welcome you and your family if you have been in this country since your grandparents, grandparents, grandparents, or if you’ve just arrived, or if your ancestors were the first humans who ever lived here. We can’t wait to welcome all the things you want to share about that family: the languages you speak, your favorite comfort food, the funny inside jokes you have, the pet name your aunty calls you.
We can’t wait to welcome all our boys and girls (no matter who someone said they were when they were first born) and all our campers who aren’t boys or girls! We are excited for you to show up just as you are with all of the fun quirks and special sauce that make you you. We trust you when you say who you are. And we love creating lots of space for you to still be figuring that out too.
At camp we know that every group of people is equally full of goodness or “Light” even though we are not all the same. By respecting each other's differences (and being open to the places we might be more similar than we thought!) we can learn from each other and have fun in new ways. We are excited for you to bring all the things you’ve learned from whoever your people are.
At camp we want to celebrate the awesomeness that comes in bodies of all different shapes and sizes, and in minds of all different types and styles. We all challenge ourselves to do new things, knowing that what is hard for one person might be easy for another and vice versa. But all of us bring gifts to the community that only we can bring and the community wouldn’t be the same without each one of us.
Because of all that, we are excited to welcome you, each one of you, and all parts of you. We can’t wait for the community you will help us create together!
With so much love,
The BYM Camp Directors:
Dyresha (CQC), Brick (OQC), Hope (SQC), Rosie, and Jesse (TA)
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How to help
See: bymcamps.org
- Encourage kids aged 9-14 to sign up for camp. There is a sliding-scale for registration fees and RFM has additional scholarships available. Encourage your non-Quaker friends to sign up their kids too!
- If your child is already signed up, you can earn $200 by referring other kids who sign up for camp.
- Sign up for Spring Work Days. The one at Shiloh Quaker Camp is the first Saturday in May.
- Donate to BYM Camps scholarships or to RFM scholarships.
- Ask how else you can help: Anna Best and Al Best are the RFM contacts.
Work Day at The Clearing, Saturday, May 10
The Clearing Building & Grounds Committee invites Richmond Meeting members and attenders to join us at The Clearing to prepare for the 2023 season and for our annual RFM Spring Retreat (which will be at The Clearing). This is a great opportunity to spend some time getting to know folks in Meeting and getting to know The Clearing. Please mark your calendars and join us if you're able! All levels of ability are welcome; families and children encouraged to participate! The next date is:
Saturday May 10
Each workday will start at 9:00 am and go to about 3:00 pm (give or take an hour), depending on what jobs we have to get done that day.
Some of the things we will be working on include Clearing campsites and trails, replacing some signage around the property, sweeping out the Pavilion (floors, cabinets, cobwebs on the ceiling, etc.), and spreading gravel on the path between the large cabin and the Lodge.
Stuff you might consider bringing:
· Your lunch! And maybe some snacks and/or any beverage you want beyond the water that is available at The Clearing
· Clothes that you don't mind getting dirty; wear layers that you can put on or take off depending on the temperature.
· Sturdy shoes or boots
· A hat
· Work gloves
· Bug repellant
· Sunscreen
· Tools, if you have them
Although Clearing Buildings & Grounds Committee members will bring our extra tools to share. The following might be useful: rakes, clippers, loppers or shears for trimming vegetation, a hammer, and tools for digging up roots (very useful for preventing vegetation from growing back in campsites and trails as quickly).
Anyone with questions is welcome to call Al Best or Ted Heck with questions. Also, please call or email either of us to RSVP so we can plan our work.
RE Announcements for April, 2025
Quaker Camps
We encourage all those interested in attending camp to register as soon as possible since camps fill up. Children who do not attend Quaker meetings are welcome to attend camps as well, so children may invite their friends and cousins! C&C has $500 for every child who attends. Please contact Anna Best or Al Best if you have any questions about Quaker camps.
Celebrating Neurodiversity
April 13th, 2:00-3:00pm EDT on Zoom
“How do we as Quakers welcome and support families and children living with neurodiversity?”
Mary Mendez-Bonnell
Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/630795763
Passcode: Friends
To call in by phone: 929-205-6099; Meeting ID: 630-795-763
Reading Between the Lines, April 6
The Adult Spiritual Education committee will host a one-hour Reading Between the Lines (formerly called Bible Workbench) on Sunday, April 6, from 9-10 a.m. on Zoom. We will discuss John 12:20-33: A troubled soul. The meaning of “glory.” What is required in times when we are aware “this hour has come.” What choices may be available during “this hour.” What to let go of, what to hold onto. How to hear possible affirmation. The facilitator will send the zoom link through the news list a few days
before the session.
Register for Spring Retreat at The Clearing
Friends of all ages are invited to our Spring Retreat on May 23 – 25 at The Clearing. Friends are welcome to come for all or part of the weekend. Camping and rustic accommodations are available. Meals are provided that accommodate a variety of dietary needs and preferences. Learn more about The Clearing at https://staging.richmondfriends.org/theclearing/.
Our theme this year is The Friendly Frolic: Creative Spirit, Dancing Feet, Quaker Arts & Soul Retreat, with (in case you can’t tell) a focus on community and fun! Activities are still being confirmed, but will include community-building and getting-to-know-you exercises, singing together, arts and crafts, and dancing, maybe even with a band! There will, of course, be a fabulous menu to tantalize your taste buds and your sense of smell! More details are coming soon; please stay tuned. Please help us plan for your participation and register early, by Sunday, May 18! This online form makes it easy to register: https://bit.ly/RFMRetreat2025. Also, please note, there is NO COST to attend Spring Retreat.
See below for a DRAFT schedule and a suggested list of things to bring to the Retreat.
Anyone with questions is welcome to reach out to Ted Heck by call or text.