by WebPost | Aug 20, 2025 | Activity
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.
by WebPost | Aug 20, 2025 | Uncategorized
Friday, September 19, 2025, 4 pm to Sunday, September 21, 2025, 1 pm
Shepherd's Spring Retreat, Global Village & Camp Center, 16869 Taylors Landing Rd, Sharpsburg, MD 21782
Register Now
Living in the Presence
"Summoned or not, God is present." Carl Jung
How do we experience this presence?
Perhaps as important, how do we share that experience with others?
How do we take our deepest Quaker truth and practice the presence of the Holy in the public square?
Come join Friends and fellow seekers as we explore together our experiences of the Presence of Spirit. (We might each name the Spirit differently: the Holy One, God, Christ, Light, Higher Power, or Ground of All Being.) We'll offer stories about how we have come to recognize this Presence within ourselves and beyond ourselves. And we'll share practices that Friends have actively engaged as ways of opening ourselves to this Presence. There will be some teaching and some time for reflection around adding or deepening spiritual practice in our daily routines. Plus time for rest, fellowship and fun! Please consider joining us.
by WebPost | Aug 20, 2025 | Uncategorized
Friendly Eight sign-up sheets are on the bulletin board. Anyone wishing to serve as a convener for an interest group of your choosing, please start a sign-up sheet to let people know about your group.
If you're new to the idea of Friendly Eights and want help getting started, contact Sallie Rugg or Michael Pierce.
by WebPost | Aug 20, 2025 | Activity, Adult Spiritual Education
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.
by WebPost | Aug 20, 2025 | Uncategorized
RFM will hold our traditional Meeting for Worship and march around the neighborhood to commemorate the International Day of Peace Meeting for Worship on September 20 (not on September 21) at 6:30 pm. This is a sweet time together as we join to mark our Peace testimony on the day the United Nations has set aside to focus on peace and its creation. We hope that members will join in Richmond Peace Education Center’s (RPEC) activities and celebration of the International Day of Peace on September 21 from 11 am to 5 pm.