by WebPost | Feb 22, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
Employment numbers are up. Gas prices are down. Stock market is up. It seems like the hard times are over… for me maybe, or you. But, in Richmond, where 26.3 % of its residents live below the poverty line, many go to bed hungry and many children go to school without breakfast to carry them into their day.
For this reason, Peace and Social Concerns committee is sponsoring a food drive for Fan Free Clinic in March. Because FFC provides so many services; medical assistance, mental health counseling and aides testing, every donation they receive for their food pantry and every clean paper bag saves money they can spend on these other needed services. A box of cereal or pasta, a jar of peanut butter or pasta sauce, a can of tuna or salmon won’t make a dent in your grocery bill, but could feed a family of four for a day or two. So hold these people in the light and keep them from being hungry by participating with us in our Spring Food Drive. Every bit helps. We will also accept money to give to Fan Free Clinic; no amount is too small.
by WebPost | Feb 22, 2015 | Minutes of Business Meeting
Meeting began with silence at 11:00 am. Forty-four (44) members and attenders were present. Barbara Myers was greeter. Mary Julia Street from Ministry and Worship sat on the facing bench to hold Meeting in the Light. Doug Reed, Shea Allen Moore, Laura Wead, Kaylee Wead, Mike Callahan, Jim Mustin and Carol Hendricksen were welcomed as first-time attenders to MWB. Tracey Cain read the Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) Queries on Spiritual State of the Meeting.
Religious Education: Catherine Roseberry announced that the BYM Junior Young Friends Conference will be held at RFM the weekend of March 14-15, 2015.
Peace and Social Concerns: Clerk Denna Joy announced: (1) The film “Five Broken Cameras” will be shown on Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 5:30 pm at the Meetinghouse. This showing is in conjunction with the Richmonders for Peace in Israel and Palestine. Discussion will follow the showing. (2) On March 1, 2015 and March 8, 2015, “gently used” items will be collected for donation to The Thrifty Quaker to benefit Quaker House. A Friend noted that The Thrifty Quaker is also collecting items for box lunches for school children. (3) March is the food drive month for the Fan Free Clinic. Food items will be accepted each Sunday in March. Friends are encouraged to donate.
Adult Spiritual Education: Betsy Brinson announced the following: (1) The ASE Winter Series “Spirit and the Environment” will have events on Sundays March 1 and April 12, 2015, from 9:30 to 10:45 am. The March 1 program on Nature and Spirituality will be led by Lynn Domina, writer and poet. The April 12 program will be a presentation by Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy. Copies of an essay that will be discussed will be made available before the event. All are encouraged to attend. (2) On March 8, 2015, from 9:30 to 10:45 am representatives from Quaker House will present a program on conscientious objection. At 11:00 am, a presentation will be made to Young Friends.
Website Committee: Dan Shaw reported for the committee: (1) The committee will investigate installing wireless internet (Wi-Fi) capability at the Meetinghouse, including costs, maintenance, how it would work, and what equipment might be used with it for presentations and other activities. The information will be provided to Monica Shaw (ASE) to share with committees that might want to propose uses of Wi-Fi at the Meetinghouse. In response to questions, Dan stated that no decision has been made about bringing Wi-Fi into the Meetinghouse and that ASE has agreed to provide funds for Wi-Fi, if the Meeting approves installation at some future time. (2) Dan described the sections of the currently functioning and usable RFM website. He also described access to committee folders on Google Drive, including the password. A member of the website committee will meet with each committee to explain how to use the committee folders. In the near future, a Meetinghouse calendar will be added with available dates and times.
Care and Counsel: Barbara Myers announced that the committee is accepting applications for scholarships to Quaker Camp. She encouraged all families to send their children and to apply for scholarships. March 31 is the deadline for applications.
Ministry and Worship: Tracey Cain made two announcements: (1) On Saturday, February 21, the committee will hold the annual Spiritual State of the Meeting meeting. Bagels and coffee will be available at 8:30 am, and Friends will gather and share from 9:00 am to noon, before sharing a potluck lunch. All Friends are encouraged to attend and share thoughts and reflections from the past year. Tracey emphasized that in addition to the importance of the resulting report to BYM, the report allows our Meeting to reflect on the past year and discern what it means for the spiritual life of our Meeting. (2) The Ministry and Worship Committee and the Adult Spiritual Education Committee will hold a Winter Retreat at The Clearing on Saturday, February 28, 2015. Lynn Domina, a poet and teacher, will lead a day of spiritual and creative expression through writing about nature and spirituality. You do not have to be a writer to attend or experience the retreat; all are encouraged to attend. Tracey handed out registration forms to interested Friends. Friends can also register by sending Tracey an email.
Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Bronwyn Hughes distributed copies of the final 2014 financial report and asked for questions. As forecast last month, although contributions were lower than budgeted, a year-end surplus resulted because of lower-than-budgeted building maintenance costs. Several Friends expressed appreciation for the clarity of the report. The Clerk expressed gratitude for the work of the previous treasurer, the current treasurer, and the Financial Stewardship committee.
First Month 2015 MWB Minutes: Approved, with two spelling corrections.
Clerk’s Business: (1) The Clerk announced some neighborhood concerns about the use of the Meetinghouse that arose beginning last summer. Recently, an employee of the city informed us that a formal complaint about zoning violations was filed. The Clerk, clerk of Building and Grounds, and the Trustees are waiting for an official letter of notification from the city informing us of the specific violation with which we are charged. The Clerk stated she had no definitive information or answers to questions to share yet, and asked if any Friends wished to comment. After a number of comments, she stated that in addition to whatever actions Meeting decides to take with respect to the zoning issue itself, we will also want to engage our neighbors constructively to share how we are stewards of our building and to learn how we can be better neighbors. She may form an ad hoc committee to explore this. More information about the situation will be brought forward in the future. In closing, the Clerk encouraged us to respect that of God in everyone, even those who seem to attack us. (2) The next potluck lunch is at rise of Meeting on Sunday, February 22, 2015. (3) The Letter of Support for Rita Willett’s ministry as a teacher in School of the Spirit, approved by Meeting at 12th month MWB, is being finalized and will be shared with the Meeting community.
All business being concluded we settled into silence until the rise of meeting was signaled from the facing bench.
Barbara Hulburt, Clerk
James Thoroman, Recording Clerk
by WebPost | Feb 22, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
There were 14+ Quakers at the VICPP Day for All People on January 20th from 7 different Monthly Meetings in Virginia – Alexandria, Herndon, Hopewell Centre-Winchester, Maury River – Lexington, Midlothian, Richmond, and Virginia Beach. The following attended from Richmond Meeting: Christy Burns, Rhonda Ligon, Laura Cribbs, Monica Shaw, Ben and Julia Hebner, and myself. We met with our State Delegates and State Senators and discussed key poverty, immigration, social justice, and environmental issues currently before the Virginia General Assembly. Legislators we met with included Del. Jimmy Massie, Del. Betsy Carr, Senator Donald McEachin, Senator Stosch’s aide, and Delegate John O’Bannon’s aide. We would like to thank Christy Burn for providing hospitality for Judia Gallinger, the Quaker from Winchester Meeting who attended.
If you have not yet contacted your own Delegate or State Senator, please take this opportunity to do so since the General Assembly will be over for the year soon after you receive this Newsletter. Please remember that you can help them identify your State Senator & Delegate by accessing the following site where they enter their address: http://whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov/.
Following is a link to the key bills VICPP is tracking: https://docs.google.com/a/virginiainterfaithcenter.org/spreadsheets/d/1PSOkDeztK4_lCrS1ocsbdWJrXypml–TNRuIpYjce0I/edit?usp=sharing
Bills being tracked by Virginia Interfaith Center include:
Minimum Wage Increase: VICPP supports HB1512, HB1654, SB681, SB704, SB706 – while it is not likely that these will pass, it is hopeful that SB 704 may gather support so that localities could opt for a higher minimum wage
Virginia’s Earned Income Credit (EIC): VICPP supports SB810 and HB1831 which would make Va’s EIC refundable partly refundable to those who owe no tax. These are both dead for this year.
Redistricting: VICPP is supporting efforts to make the redistricting of State and Federal legislative districts nonpartisan. SJ224 (Lucas) and HJ 584 (Rasul)
Immigration: VICPP opposes efforts to take away in-state tuition from DACA (Dreamers), children of undocumented workers who meet other criteria as state residents. SB722 and HB1356 opposed by VICPP.
Gun Control: VICPP supports SB943 (Favola) which prevent purchase and possession of firearms by those convicted of misdemeanors related to domestic violence, sexual battery, and stalking
Medicaid Expansion: VICPP has continued to work for Medicaid Expansion, though it was clear that nothing would be passed this session. There is still a gap preventing more than 200,000 Virginians from subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
Bills supported by CURE (info from Al Simmons):
Grand larceny; threshold increase: SB1234would increase from $200 to $500 the threshold amount of money taken or value of goods or chattel taken at which the crime rises from petit larceny to grand larceny. The bill increases the threshold by the same amount for the classification of certain property crimes. Passed Senate. In House Courts of Justice (criminal laws)
Environmental Issues (report from Suzanne Keller):
Support two bills that were put forward to help people in the path of the gas pipelines planned to go through Virginia:
Support SB 1338 would repeal the 2004 statute that allows natural gas utilities to enter people’s property without permission. It was left in committee without a vote.
Support SB1166 would have put public service corporations under the freedom of information act to make information more transparent. It was defeated in committee.
Oppose bill drafted by Dominion itself:
SB1349 This is bill that freezes Dominion rates and removes Dominion from the regulatory review that insures they do not overcharge customers. It passed in both houses. PLEASE CONTACT GOV. MCAULIFFE AND ASK HIM TO VETO IT. 786-2211.
by WebPost | Feb 22, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
- Creating a public “information center” about Quakers; a public outreach by Quakers to seekers
- Providing our locality a Quaker place for community service and volunteering
- Encouraging recycling by providing donated thrift items at very low prices
- Helping provide food to hungry local children by partnering with Backpacks of Love as a donation center
- Helping provide food to impoverished local families by partnering with Bethel Baptist Church as a donation center for their Food Pantry
- Giving approximately $1000 to $5000 each and every month to a different charity that has no religious or political agenda (twelve charities receive grants every year!)
- Spot-lighting twelve charities every year by supplying the community with information about them on The Thrifty Quaker bulletin board.
- Working with trusted Social Services agencies and local Quakers to provide Friend$hare emergency funding to non-Quakers who are in danger of losing their home, health, transportation, utilities, or livelihood (approximately a total of $5000 in cash given away every year!)
- Partnering with Rock Church to help victims of addiction by giving our surplus thrift items for resale at their thrift store
- Partnering with Powhatan Community Church by giving our surplus thrift items for resale in order to fund service projects to impoverished villages in Nicaragua
- Providing free clothing and household items to local victims of fire, theft, and poverty
Thank you, Richmond Friends, for making all of this possible by donating and shopping at The Thrifty Quaker. Please tell your friends and family about us! 13567 Midlothian Turnpike, Midlothian VA 23113 804 794-7158 www.ThriftyQuaker.com
Legislative Update from Peace & Social Concerns re
by WebPost | Feb 22, 2015 | Adult Spiritual Education, Finances
Jean Jones Andersen’s passion for spiritual education led her to leave our community funds to support adults in taking classes, retreats, workshops, etc. to further their spiritual education. If you have an idea, vision, or leading towards some kind of spiritual growth opportunity—spiritual formation retreat, classes, etc.–and you need funds to make it happen, the members of the Adult Spiritual Education Committee—clerk Howard Garner, Mary Fran Hughes-McIntyre, Betsy Brinson, Monica Shaw, and Leslie Shiel–invite you to submit your request–a letter to our committee–explaining the project and asking for what you need.
You may leave your letter in the ASE mailbox at meeting house, mail it to Richmond Friends Meeting, 4500 Kensington Avenue, VA 23221-2301 (c/o Adult Spiritual Education Committee), or email one of the committee members.
Guidelines and Application Process for
Adult Spiritual Education Scholarships
From the Jean Jones Andersen Bequest
2015
Richmond Friends Meeting
- Scholarships of up to $400 are available to Members and active Attenders of Richmond Friends Meeting who wish to participate in adult spiritual education activities, especially those sponsored by the wider Religious Society of Friends.
- The scholarships are not intended to cover the full cost of these activities but to supplement personal resources and other scholarships that may be available through the sponsoring organizations.
- In order to be considered, Members and Attenders need to have been actively involved in the life of Richmond Friends Meeting during the preceding year.
- An individual may receive only one scholarship in a twelve-month period.
- Scholarship recipients are asked to write a one-page note documenting the experience for Meeting’s archives.
- In order to apply, an individual should write a letter to the Adult Spiritual Education Committee that includes the following:
- The activity and the sponsoring organization.
- The possible significance of this activity for the individual’s spiritual journey.
- How this experience might be shared with the broader Richmond Friends community when the individual returns from the activity.
- The amount of money being requested (up to $400).
- Other scholarship sources one might pursue.
Application letters should be submitted to the Adult Spiritual Education Committee three months prior to the activity is scheduled to begin.