Goose Creek Friends

Newsletter April 2018

Goose Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Lincoln, Virginia

Queries for Fourth Month:

Caring for One Another
• In what ways do I show respect for that of God in every
person?
• Do I reach out with spiritual and practical care to those
with special needs?
• Am I comfortable making my own needs known to my
Meeting?
• How do we share in the diverse joys and transitions in
each other’s lives?
• Do you consider the needs of grandparents and older
members of the family circle? Peace and Social Concerns Committee members traveled
to Richmond in January with Virginia Interfaith Center for

Monthly Meeting for Worship with a
Concern for Business: Fourth Month
The annual report of the Burying Grounds Committee was
read and approved with thanks. The Committee oversees
burying grounds at Goose Creek Meeting, Waterford, and
South Fork. Bill Cochran and his daughter, Patty Ragan,
have been reviewing Goose Creek’s records of lots and
burials, checking them against the stones in the cemetery.
Patty is creating a computer record of our paper files.
The annual Treasurer’s Report was presented and approved
with thanks.
The Clerk read a letter from John Brown requesting Meeting
membership. She also read a letter from Meredith Brown
requesting membership. Both letters were warmly received
by Friends and both requests were approved. A welcoming
committee will call upon Meredith and John.
Friends approved a presentation on pollarding trees by Eliza
Greenman, to be held at the Meeting House on June 10 at
3pm.
Public Policy (VICPP) “Day For All People." We met with
our State Senators and Delegates, including our very own
Delegate Wendy Gooditis, pictured here with Brett Hoag,
Susan French, Sheila Kryston, Delegate Wendy Gooditis,
Peggy King, Will McCabe, and Jeanne Smith.
SAVE THE DATES!
Mother’s Day (May 13)
after the rise of Meeting at 11:30
Wendy Dotson & Hilary Biesecker on
Midwives for Haiti: 10 Years Old & Thriving
Refreshments, Haitian arts & crafts for sale
What better way to celebrate Mother’s Day?
Bring your friends!
June 10
Book Sunday and Ice Cream Social
at the rise of Meeting
At 3:00, a presentation by Eliza Greenman
on the ancient art of tree pollarding

Friends approved Unity with Nature’s applying for a grant

to plant native plants at the Meeting House.
The annual report of the Hospitality and Housekeeping
Committee was read and approved with thanks.
Continued on next page g
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | April 2018 | Page 2
Quakerism Session: April 15
In this concluding session on Douglas Gwyn’s A
Sustainable Life: Quaker Faith and Practice in the
Renewal of Creation, we will discuss Chapter 8,
“Simplicity and Sustainability: Daily Delight,” and
the book’s Conclusion, “The Sustainable Friends
Meeting: Occupy!” Please join other Friends to talk
about how, in Gwyn’s words, sustainability is “a way
of reviewing the whole of Quaker practice.” You
don’t need to have read the book.
Earth Day!
The Unity with Nature Committee invites everyone
to honor Earth Day on April 22nd by joining us at the
rise of Meeting for a showing of the film “Addicted
to Plastics.” The Committee will share some new-
and old-fashioned alternatives to plastics in our lives. 
Folks are challenged to bring a lunch for themselves
in plastics-free containers or wraps. Beverages will
be provided.
From Peace and Social
Concerns:
Goose Creek Friends met last month to formulate
preferred priorities for the Friends Committee on
National Legislation in 2019, as requested by FCNL.
This is the resulting list:
1. Work for long-term solutions to environmental
problems and pollution.
2. Work toward health care for all (including
addiction-prevention programs) and support
programs that decrease income inequality.
3. Support immigration reform (fostering the rights
and safety of immigrants, refugees, and dreamers).
4. Work to end gun violence (begin by funding
unbiased research on gun violence).
5. Witness and advocate for Native American
concerns.
6. Promote access for all citizens to full participation
in the political process.
7. Support universal national service while reducing
military spending.
The feather now belongs to Bobbi Blok, who
sent us this piece by Kent Allen Brewer.
THE FEATHER
One day, while walking in the prison compound
a feather drifting in the breeze landed at my
feet.  I was mesmerized by its graceful dance
as it floated gently downward.  Picking up the
feather I was instantly attracted to the beautiful
pastels.  Soft hues of coppery browns weaved
throughout various shades of gray with distinct
splashes of white here and there.  The feather
was definitely a keeper.
Each day for weeks I would look at this
amazing piece of creation and imagine all the
strange and wonderful places its owner may
have carried it to.  There are lots of sea gulls
which visit the prison three times each day to
beg food from the prisoners as the men exit the
chow hall.  Perhaps this feather belonged to
one of them.  I can envision such a bird being
carried by trade winds across vast oceans until it
shed its gift inside this very prison.
I wrote my Quaker friend about finding this
special feather and of my thoughts regarding its
possible travels.  You can imagine my surprise
when she responded that the feather could
have belonged to an angel.  Could such a thing
be possible?  So, what am I to do with this
potentially priceless artifact?  Perhaps I’ll send
it to her and let her decide what to do with it. 
Yes, that’s exactly what I’ll do! 
Kent was a member of the South Mountain
Friends Fellowship at the Maryland
Correctional Institute-Hagerstown until the
fellowship was laid down when most of its
members were moved to other facilities.

From Baltimore Yearly Meeting:
BYM Spiritual Formation Spring Retreat:
Living from the Center, May 4-6, Shepherd’s
Spring Outdoor Ministry & Retreat Center
(Sharpsburg, MD)
Quaker mystic Thomas Kelley urged us to reorder
the priorities of our “time-torn lives” by shifting
focus to the Divine Center.
What is the focal point of your life? Can the “inner
vision of God” help you hold your focus through the
blurry haze of the external world? Can it sustain you
in peace?
Join the BYM Spiritual Formation community
at our spring retreat to explore these and other
questions of spiritual deepening. All are welcome!
For more information or to register: https://www.
bym-rsf.org/events/spiritform OR marilynrothstein@
comcast.net/
April 27-29 – Family Camp Weekend at Shiloh
Quaker Camp (Hood, VA)
Individuals and families are invited to come to camp
for a day or for the weekend. A program coordinator
will plan camp-familiar activities for Saturday and
Sunday mornings, as well as Saturday afternoon and
evening. Perhaps you will explore a creek, create a
crafts project, play a favorite camp game or take a
hike in our precious woods. There will also be plenty
of work projects to do, offering people with all kinds
of skills the opportunity to enjoy some meaningful
and satisfying service. We will savor meals together
and spend time around a camp fire in the evening.
Participants are asked to contribute according to
their ability ($25-50 per person). For additional
information or to register please contact David
Hunter, Camp Property Manager, at (301-774-7663
or davidhunter@bym-rsf.org). For more information,
see the BYM Camps web-site at bymcamps.org/
programs/family-camp-weekends/.
Students! Make sure to attend Perry Epes’
awesome Hannah Janney at Goose Creek Friends
First Day School Lesson on April 22! 10:00 AM
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | April 2018 | Page 3
April 27-29 – Men’s Retreat at Catoctin Quaker
Camp (Thurmont, MD)
Since 2002, men from BYM’s Stony Run Meeting
have gathered early in the spring to build connections
among Friends. In recent years, Friends from other
Meetings have participated in the weekend. This
year, all BYM male Friends are invited to gather
at Catoctin for dinner sixth day through lunch first
day – or any portion thereof. The retreat is very
loosely programmed and includes time to relax, work
cooperatively, hike (or nap), talk, tell stories, play,
and have fun. For more information, including the
registration form, contact Blaine Keener (443-414-
9103 or blkomg@hotmail.com).
May 12 – BYM Peace and Social Concerns
Committee Networking Day, Friends Meeting
School (Ijamsville, MD): This has been moved from
March 24.
At the Friends Wilderness
Center:
Saturday, April 14, 10am-2pm –
Finding and Telling Your Stories
Sharing stories can be a deeply spiritual experience.
Lisa Libowitz will guide participants through the
creation and sharing of personal stories. Feel free to
hike the trails following the program. A $10 donation
is requested, but any amount (less or more) will be
appreciated. Please RSVP to Sheila Bach (snbach@
earthlink.net or 304-728-4820) and when doing so
indicate whether you would like to have a home-
cooked lunch (for an additional $10).
Saturday, April 28, 10am-4pm –
Spring Work Day
Come for food, fun, and fellowship, and help out
with spring maintenance chores. Not all of them are
heavy duty! Please RSVP to Sheila Bach as above
to aid her in determining how many will be having a
home-cooked lunch (free for participants).
If this will be your first time visiting FWC, be sure
to go to the website at www.friendswilderness.org
and click on the directions page. GPS systems other
than WAZE will sometimes take you down a road
you’d rather not be on!
Page 4 | April 2018 | Goose Creek Friends Newsletter

Sundays Facing Bench

Meeting for worship at 9:45 a.m. APRIL
First Day School at 10:00 a.m. Carolyn Unger
Fellowship at 10:45 a.m. MAY
Rich Weidner
Calendar
First Day
APRIL
4.15 Sunday 11 am Quakerism discussion
School
4.21 Saturday 9am-12pm Work on Goose Creek archive 04/01/18
4.29 Sunday 11 am Ministry and Oversight Committee meeting Easter & Passover
04/08/18
MAY Community &
5.6 Sunday 11 am Meeting for Worship Individual Gifts
with a Concern for Business 04/15/18
5.13 Sunday 11:30 am Midwives for Haiti presentation Community & Family

NEW MEMBERS 04/22/18
Meredith Kope Brown and John Allen Brown Hannah Janney & Poetry
PO Box 2663, Purcellville, VA 20134 04/29/18
SPICES Peace Troupe
Goose Creek News Workshop
Katie Janney deButts and Tom Riley, along with their daughter Savannah
Mae Riley, celebrated their marriage in Key Largo, Florida, on March 30.
Our warmest wishes to Katie, Tom, and Savannah Mae!
The health of Frank Elmore of Abernethy and Spencer, good friend to many NEWSLETTER
of us in Meeting, has been improving. He has been in rehab at the Dulles The Goose Creek Friends Newsletter
is published monthly by the
Health and Rehab Center, but will probably soon move to the HealthSouth Goose Creek Friends Meeting,
Rehabilitation Hospital in Aldie. David Lohmann has offered to share Frank’s 18204 Lincoln Road, P.O. Box 105,
up-to-date contact details; you can text Dave at 540-454-6403. He reports that Lincoln, VA 20160.

Frank is really enjoying talking to people on the telephone, and that he likes CLERK
Debbi Sudduth, 540.338.3363
having visitors. If you write to Frank, his full name should be used: Charles dfsud@comcast.net
Frank Ellmore. ASSISTANT CLERK
Rich Weidner, 540.554.2747
The Archive Committee invites all Friends to join them on the morning of richard_weidner@hotmail.com
April 21 (9-12) to go through boxes of Meeting’s historical papers. These TREASURER
items need to be identified and organized. Sounds like fun! Annie Carlson
goose.creek.treasurer@gmail.com
NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Catherine Cox, 301-471-5330
“Let us seek to live in compassion and patience with one blycox@comcast.net
another. Grace and latitude should mark our relationships.… WEBSITE & FACEBOOK
Of course, we live and speak the truth as it has been given to www.goosecreekfriends.org
us, but the business of straightening each other out belongs to https://www.facebook.com/
Goose-Creek-Friends-Meeting-
God, not us.”– Richard Foster, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding 150892438287560/?rc=p
Harmony in a Complex World (1981) DONATIONS
Please direct donations for
Goose Creek Friends Meeting to
Annie Carlson, P.O. Box 105
Lincoln, Virginia 20160