Goose Creek Friends
Newsletter May 2017
Goose Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Lincoln, Virginia
Queries for Fifth Month:
Meeting for Business
Are our Meetings for Worship with a Concern for
Business held in the spirit of worship, seeking the
guidance of God?
In what ways do we each take our right share of
responsibility in the service of the meeting?
Do we humbly set aside our own preconceived
notions as to proper action, seeking instead Divine
guidance as to the right course?
Is the Meeting aware that it speaks not only through
its actions but also through its failure to act?
Monthly Meeting for Worship
with a Concern for Business,
Fifth Month:
Meeta Pradhan from The Mountain Institute will
offer a presentation on the Institutes work on June 18
at the rise of Meeting.
Friends approved Jean Browns request to use the
Meeting House on a Thursday afternoon in May for a
meeting of a rural preservation group. The Clerk will
be in contact with her to work out a specific date.
Meeting approved use of the First Day School room
by Martha Mason Semmess tai chi instructor for a
class on Monday evenings, 6-7:00. This will be on a
trial basis through Labor Day. There is the possibility
that a beginners class might be offered as well.
Meeting approved the report of the Jane Pancoast
Shepherd Scholarship Committee, presented by
Frannie Taylor, with thanks.
Maria Nicklin presented the annual report of
the Religious Education Committee. Their two
biggest challenges remain the same as last year:
increasing numbers in the First Day School and on
the committee. Maria noted that the Friendly Adult
Presence program is working very well. Book Sunday
will be held on June 4. Two Friends are assuming Ed
Leggetts practice of underwriting the cost of books
for our high school students. The Committee will be
inviting members to join the committee when their
interests so lead them. Our bicentennial timeline
project presents one opportunity for the interaction
of adult Friends with First Day School. Maria also
reported that a stop-motion animation workshop will
be offered to youth in Meeting as well as from the
surrounding community to encourage greater youth
participation in Religious Education activities and,
hopefully, the SPICES Peace Troupe. This report was
received with great thanks.
Meeting approved use of the Meeting House for
the stop-motion animation workshop on August 19,
10:00 am - 3:00 pm.
The Peace and Social Concerns Committee presented
a minute put forward by Herndon Friends regarding
sanctuary for immigrants. The Committee requested
approval by Goose Creek Friends. After discussion,
and with some requests for edits of punctuation in
order to clarify meaning, the minute was approved.
Friends agreed to hold over a Peace and Social
Concerns recommendation that Meeting join
Sanctuary DC/MD/VA, a network of congregations in
the region. Additional information was requested.
The Clerk raised a request for Meeting to support
attendance by two members of Goose Creek at
Friends General Conference this summer. Meeting
approved underwriting attendance by Suellen Beverly
and Sheila Kryston. It was mentioned that the
SPICES Peace Troupe will be presenting a program
at the BYM Annual Session, and may have some
expenses that we could support as well.
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | May 2017 | Page 2
Save the Date!
Goose Creek Meeting House
Bicentennial Celebration
Saturday, October 21, 2017, 9:30 3:00
Help celebrate the 200th year of our brick meeting
house, the legacy of Goose Creek, and Friends' long-
time presence in this part of Loudoun County.
The Bicentennial Committee will meet on May 20 at 9
am to work on planning the celebrations program and
its family-friendly activities. All are welcome to come
and participate in the planning. We will be inviting
past members and families as well as the greater
community to help us celebrate.
Quaker Events
June 2-4, 2017: Family Camp Weekend at Opequon
Quaker Camp (Brucetown, VA)
Family Camp Weekends at Baltimore Yearly Meeting
Camp Properties offer us all a chance to enjoy our
beautiful camp properties during the greening-up time
of year. Individuals and families are invited to enjoy
the camps for a day or for the weekend. A program
coordinator will plan activities such as playing in the
creek, a crafts project, or hiking around one of the
most precious places on earth. There will also be
plenty of work projects to do! We will enjoy meals
together, have time to explore, and even spend time
around a camp fire in the evening. We invite you to
join us for a BYM Quaker Camp experience, give
the gift of your time, participate with children in
activities, and find yourself rejuvenated. For more
information, see www.bymcamps.org/programs/
family-camp-weekends/. To register, contact David
Hunter, Camp Property Manager:
davidhunter@bym-rsf.org or 301-774-7663
June 17: Sixth Month Interim Meeting
Join Friends from all parts of the Yearly Meeting as we
gather at Gunpowder Friends Meeting (Sparks, MD)
on Saturday, June 17, to conduct the business of the
Yearly Meeting. If you plan to attend, please register
in advance so that our hosts can plan for committee
spaces and food for lunch and dinner. To register, and
for more details, go to http://www.bym-rsf.org/events/
interim/sixth17.html/
The agenda for the afternoon Meeting for Worship
with a Concern for Business is now available. If you
have any items that you wish to have included, please
contact Marcy Seitel, clerk of Interim Meeting, as
soon as possible (imclerk@bym-rsf.org).
June 23-28: Quaker Spring Experiencing the
Inward Christ Together Oakwood Friends School
(Poughkeepsie, NY)
Are you longing for more quiet opportunities to
worship and share with other Friends? Would you
enjoy taking part in a radically unprogrammed
retreat with Friends from a variety of theological
backgrounds for a week or just a few days? The
program will be shaped by Gods leading as the week
unfolds. Each day will include Bible study, worship,
quiet time, evening explorations, and fellowship.
Fees by freewill offering (guideline of roughly $46-
60/adult/day for dorm room and meals). Deadline to
register for the childrens program is June 1. For full
information and registration, go to www.quakerspring.
org, or contact the planning group at quakerspring@
gmail.com/
Baltimore Yearly Meeting
Annual Session
Growing Towards Justice Acting on Faith
August 1-6, 2017 Pre-session Retreat begins July 31
Hood College in Frederick, MD
Children from birth to 8th Grade attend for free!
These Times! What to Do?
Lets Explore Together at Annual Session
From Ken Stockbridge, Presiding Clerk:
When I look at the theme narrative (p. 2) for this
years Annual Session, Growing Toward Justice
Acting on Faith, I quickly feel overwhelmed by the
range of issues cited, especially realizing how little
Im doing about them. Yet I take heart in knowing
that I am part of a vibrant spiritual community in
which so many people are involved in great efforts
on these and other concerns. Our blessed community
provides a space in which we can support each other
in growing into our gifts and leadings, integrating
our contemplative and activist impulses as mutually
supportive and essential aspects of the life of the
Spirit. This is true both in our local Meetings and in
the wider Quaker community.

Our Annual Session is an especially rich opportunity
to connect with Friends from other Meetings to
learn what each other is doing and explore ways to
work together. It offers a truly exciting variety of
plenaries, workshops, interest groups. Junior Yearly
Meeting provides rich programs and experiences for
our children. We share fellowship at meals, worship
sharing, and other times. Through our business
sessions, we co-create our blessed community,
making decisions that include everyone (which is a
revolutionary act in the current partisan, polarized
political environment).
Imagine if you left our Annual Session with a greater
sense of clarity of what you are personally led to do,
what you can do that makes a difference, and who
wants to share in that work with you. Wouldnt that
help energize you? Wouldnt it help energize our
shared Quaker communities and our witness, locally
and in the Yearly Meeting?
Come. Be a part of it. All are welcome, for a day or
for the whole week.
Is there someone in your Meeting who would like
to enrich their Quaker experience? Wed like to help
them. The more people who come to Annual Session,
the more it enriches the gathering. And Annual
Session attenders carry their experiences back to their
Meetings, benefiting the broader Quaker community.
Easter First Day at Goose Creek Friends Meeting, 2017
Photo by Sarah Huntington
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | May 2017 | Page 3
Yet we know that the cost of attendance is substantial
and may be preventing some Friendsparticularly
those who have never beenfrom attending.
Thats why we offer each Meeting the opportunity
to send three Friends for two days each at no cost.
We hope that youll identify three people within your
Meeting whom you feel would benefit from attending
the session and who would not be able to attend
otherwise. We are seeking participation by those who
have not yet attended Annual Session, or havent
attended in over 10 years. We hope people from your
Meeting will be among them.
Attenders at Annual Session over the years have found
it to be an enriching experience. Friends gain insight
into the Quaker business process, become a part of a
broader family of Friends, and come home refreshed
and rejuvenated. Many people have taken us up on
this offer, and liked the experience so much that they
returned the next year on their own.
Meeting News
Jack Douglas Webb was born to Cindy and Nathan
Webb on May 9. Congratulations to Cindy and
Nathan, and to Jacks grandparents Nancy and Doug
Brown. Cant wait to meet him!
Page 4 | May 2017 | Goose Creek Friends Newsletter

Sundays Facing Bench

Meeting for worship at 9:45 a.m. MAY
First Day School at 10:00 a.m. Martha Mason Semmes
Fellowship at 10:45 a.m. JUNE
Debbi Sudduth
Calendar
MAY
First Day
5.20 Saturday 9 am Bicentennial planning meeting
School
5.28 Sunday 11 am Ministry & Oversight Committee meeting 05/07/17
Hannah Janney
JUNE
05/14/17
6.4 Sunday 11 am Book Sunday
Mothers Day Lesson
Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business
6.18 Sunday 11 am Presentation on The Mountain Institute 05/21/17
by Meeta Pradhan Reggie Simms
6.25 Sunday 11 am Ministry & Oversight Committee meeting 05/28/17
Memorial Day Lesson
Change of address: Elia Hoag, 2322 Lenora Lane, Richmond, VA 23230

First Day School, May 2017

05/07/17 Hannah Janney. Friend Perry Epes will give the First Day students a
sense of how Hannah Janney's sitting in silence on a log in the forest
was a basis for the foundation of the Goose Creek Friends Meeting, and
how her meditation relates to our current practice. If the weather is
NEWSLETTER
good, he will lead them down to her monumental plaque on the rock The Goose Creek Friends Newsletter
across from the graveyard and let them sit in silence themselves. Perry is published monthly by the
will read at least one stanza of a poem that he wrote, and give them an Goose Creek Friends Meeting,
18204 Lincoln Road, P.O. Box 105,
exercise to prompt them in writing a verse of their own if they like. Lincoln, VA 20160.
05/14/17 Mothers Day Lesson & Crafts CLERK
05/21/17 Reggie Simms History Talk. Neighbor Reginald Reggie Simms, Debbi Sudduth, 540.338.3363
Historical Research Team of Lincoln Preservation Foundation, will dfsud@comcast.net
share his knowledge of the area with the students as part of the ASSISTANT CLERK
preparation for our upcoming Bicentennial Celebration. Reggie has been Patricia Barber, 301.432.5706
patloubar@gmail.com
a tireless advocate for the preservation of the African American story. His
TREASURER
family was part of the original Grace Church congregation in Lincoln. Annie Carlson
05/28/17 Memorial Day Lesson & Crafts goose.creek.treasurer@gmail.com

Teen Discussion Group NEWSLETTER EDITOR

Catherine Cox, 301.834.6892
If three or more teens (ages 13-17) are present, they are welcome to head over to blycox@comcast.net
Allen's shop next door for a youth-led discussion group. Students and FAPs are WEBSITE & FACEBOOK
encouraged to make sure the conversation stays related to Quakerism. www.goosecreekfriends.org
https://www.facebook.com/
Goose-Creek-Friends-Meeting-
150892438287560/?rc=p
VOICE MAIL
540.751.0323
Consensus a secular method, involving a rational process and DONATIONS
producing general agreement. The authority is the group. Please direct donations for
Sense of the Meeting a religious method involving a spiritual Goose Creek Friends Meeting to
Annie Carlson, P.O. Box 105
process and producing a spirit-led decision. The authority is God as Lincoln, Virginia 20160
discerned by the group in worship. Arthur Larabee, 2002