Goose Creek Friends
Newsletter February 2019
Goose Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Lincoln, Virginia
Queries for Second Month:
Membership
• How can I actively support the
meeting community?
• How can I support the Clerk of Meeting
and clerks of committees?
• How am I maturing into the fullness of
membership in this spiritual community?
• How does the meeting community nurture
my spiritual growth and transformation?
• In what ways does the Meeting make its
needs clear to each of us?
Monthly Meeting for Worship with a
Concern for Business: Second Month
Friends approved use of the Meeting House
for a production of Meredith Bean McMath’s
play “All for the Union,” to take place probably
the second weekend in August. This play
recounts the true story of three young women
from Waterford who helped with Loudoun’s
Underground Railroad and created a newspaper
to boost the morale of Union soldiers. Meredith
and the play’s director, Jenna Powell, visited
Meeting to answer questions. They will work
closely with our Property Committee.
John Unger read the 2018 Annual Financial
Report of the Meeting Trustees. One of the
Trustees’ responsibilities is to act as stewards in
safeguarding and investing Goose Creek’s capital
funds. They are also responsible for managing
our insurance coverage. After reviewing the
report, Friends approved it with thanks.
Friends approved making the Camping
Committee a working group within the Religious
Education Committee.
Friends with Delegate Wendy Gooditis at the daily session of the
Virginia House of Delegates in January. See story on page 2.
Friends from Goose Creek recently attended
a meeting of a new independent Loudoun
County network called Faith Community. The
group is intended to help coordinate responses
to community needs. Friends approved a
continuing involvement.
Carolyn Unger described Goose Creek Friends’
offering of the invocation at the daily session of
the Assembly of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Accompanying Carolyn were Martha Mason
Semmes, Sheila Kryston, and Peggy King.
February 10: Discussion – The
Spiritual State of the Meeting in 2018
Each year we gather to reflect upon what the
spiritual state of the Meeting has been over the
previous twelve months. The impetus for this is
the report that Baltimore Yearly Meeting asks
us to submit: our discussion becomes the basis
for what we say in that report. But always we
find that this time for group reflection has deep
value for us as individuals and for the Meeting
as a whole.
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Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | February 2019 | Page 2
Continued from page 1
BYM has sent us four queries to consider.
These will be distributed via email before the
discussion. But the Ministry and Oversight
Committee has created this general query for
our use:
• Are we as a Meeting being faithful to our
leadings regarding the people we are called
to be?
• Are we growing in our capacity to be a
channel of light in a world of darkness?
• What are specific examples of such light?
• How can we bring more light into our world?
• Where do we fall short?
Please take some time to ponder these questions,
and please stay for a while after Meeting for
Worship on February 10 to talk about them.
Quaker silence in the Virginia
House of Delegates
This is a long link to type, but it will lead you
to a video of Goose Creek Friends leading the
Virginia House of Delegates in silent prayer:
https://sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00304/Harmony/
en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20190131/-
1/10696?mediaStartTime=20190123120001&me
diaEndTime=20190123120344&viewMode=2
Wendy Gooditis, a member of Meeting who is
the member of the Virginia House of Delegates
representing District 10, invited Goose Creek
Friends to open the Virginia House of Delegates
Session on Wednesday, January 23, with an
invocation in the manner of Friends.  Carolyn
Unger, Sheila Kryston, Martha Mason Semmes,
and Peggy King supported Wendy in her desire
to bring Quaker traditions to the House of
Delegates in Richmond.
From Baltimore Yearly Meeting:
February 23 – Religious Education Retreat at
Frederick Friends Meeting (Frederick, MD)
Please join us for a day focused on Teaching
Friends across the Generations. . . [to be] held
at Frederick Meeting House, February 23 from
10-3:30pm, with a snow date of April 13. The
morning will focus on what we have found most
meaningful and successful in our individual
Meetings. We will share with each other our
most successful lessons and programmatic
approaches and have time to hear from a couple
of our elder teachers. In the afternoon we will
brainstorm ideas about some common challenges
we face … We will close by exploring and
developing an idea which emerged from our RE
discussion/listening groups: Learning Boxes
for Teaching Across the Generations. This
would involve developing “Learning Boxes”
or resource packets that would contain lesson
plans, book recommendations, etc. for each
age group, from preschool to adult RE. Each
Learning Box would focus on one particular
theme or topic, such as simplicity or compassion.
All members of the Meeting would concurrently
study some aspect of the same theme, giving
an opportunity for increased intergenerational
cohesion and interaction. For this retreat to be
most productive, we need you. If you can’t make
it, please recruit someone from your Meeting
to attend. For information or to register, please
contact Ellen Arginteanu, at ellenandjules@
protonmail.com or 814-206-6712.
Young Friends will meet February 22-24 at
Sandy Spring Friends Meeting.
March 2 – BYM Change Group Training:
Reflect on Yourself to Stop Implicit Bias,
Frederick Friends Meeting (Frederick, MD)
The ad hoc Growing Diverse Leadership
Committee and the Working Group on Racism
invite you to this free Change Group training
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Continued from page 2
to realize our vision of overcoming racism and
becoming a multicultural religious society. Our
lead facilitator is Dr. Amanda Kemp assisted by
Dr. Erika Fitz. Both are members of Lancaster
Monthly Meeting. Each training session will be
from 10am to 5pm (with an hour lunch break).
You’ll find details and registration information
at a link on this BYM page: http://www.bym-rsf.
org/events/localcommittee.html
March 23 – Third Month Interim Meeting at
Annapolis Friends Meeting
Get to know Yearly Meeting Committees and
Friends from other Meetings! Be a part of
important decision making. Join Friends for
morning committee meetings and the afternoon’s
Interim Business Meeting. Annapolis Friends
Meeting will host the Third Month Interim
Meeting. Friends will begin gathering at
10:00am. Committee meetings will begin at
10:30. Check the Yearly Meeting website for
more information. (www.bym-rsf.org/events/
interim/third19.html).
Save the date: March 17
Miriam Westervelt will offer a presentation
of the doctoral work she recently completed
on “Gender dimensions of land change among
indigenous Maasai in southern Kenya.”
Lincoln's resident peacock visits the Meeting House.
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | February 2019 | Page 3
Meeting News
Landon Hughes and Everett Svedlow have
announced the birth on January 30 of their
little brother, Ace. Ace is otherwise known as
Asher James Svedlow. His parents are Cameron
Hughes and Jacob Svedlow. Congratulations to
them all!
From Carolyn Unger, who is Goose Creek’s
marriage officiant: “It is with great pleasure
that we celebrated the marriage of Lucas
Kosbob and Natalie West on a snowy First Day,
January 13, 2019, in a quiet ceremony held at
the Meeting House in the presence of God and
family and friends. Carolyn Unger, officiant,
presided. We wished them happiness and health
while they cherish each other as long as they
both shall live.”
Libby and Mark Walker have sent news of
their daughter Eve. She finished high school
a semester early and hopes to spend a month
this spring in Costa Rica contributing to the
preservation of sea turtles through a program
called the International Volunteer HQ. In the
fall Eve plans to attend Northern Virginia
Community College. Congratulations, Eve!
Congratulations also to Kelsey Welsh Parris,
daughter of Eleanor Welsh and niece of Beth
Welsh, and a birthright member of Goose Creek
Meeting. Kelsey earned her Masters of Business
Administration degree from Loyola University
of New Orleans in December 2018. She lives in
New Orleans.
Friends have been missing Nancy Uram on First
Days. She continues to recover at home from the
effects of a fall she had in December.
Page 4 | February 2019 | Goose Creek Friends Newsletter

Sundays Facing Bench

Meeting for worship at 9:45 a.m. FEBRUARY
First Day School at 10:00 a.m. Debbi Sudduth
Fellowship at 10:45 a.m. MARCH
Wednesdays Rich Weidner

Discussion Group at 7:00 p.m.

First Day
Calendar School
FEBRUARY 02/03/19
Elizabeth Fry
2.10 Sunday 11 am Discussion of the spiritual state of the Meeting 2018
2.11 Mon. 5 pm SPICES Peace Troupe working group meeting 02/10/19
The Lord's Prayer
2.17 Sunday 11 am Meeting of committee clerks and co-clerks
2.20 Wed. 6 pm Religious Education Committee meeting 02/17/19
2.24 Sunday 11 am Ministry & Oversight Committee meeting An Introduction to
Bible Study
MARCH
02/24/19
3.1 Sunday 11 am Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business Right Sharing of
3.10 Sunday 11 am Quakers and the Bible World Resources
3.17 Sunday 11 am Mimi Westervelt on women and
water in southern Kenya
3.31 Sunday 11 am Ministry & Oversight Committee meeting
BIRTH
Asher James Svedlow, to Cameron Hughes and Jacob Svedlow,
on January 30, 2019. NEWSLETTER
The Goose Creek Friends Newsletter
is published monthly by the
MARRIAGE Goose Creek Friends Meeting,
Lucas Kosbob, to Natalie West, January 13, 2019 18204 Lincoln Road, P.O. Box 105,
Lincoln, VA 20160.
CLERK
Rich Weidner, 540.554.2747
richard_weidner@hotmail.com
ASSISTANT CLERK
Allen Cochran, 540.338.6485
Seven Goose Creek Friends Cochransstone@aol.com
went to Richmond on Jan. 22 to TREASURER
advocate with lawmakers as part Brian Burgher
of the 2019 Day for All People, goose.creek.treasurer@gmail.com
organized by the VA Interfaith NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Center for Public Policy. Pictured: Catherine Cox, 301-471-5330
Some GC Friends with Delegate blycox@comcast.net
Jennifer Boysko and others. WEBSITE & FACEBOOK
www.goosecreekfriends.org
“When early Friends affirmed the priesthood of all believers it was seen https://www.facebook.com/
Goose-Creek-Friends-Meeting-
as an abolition of the clergy; in fact it is an abolition of the laity. All 150892438287560/?rc=p
members are part of the clergy and have the clergy’s responsibility for DONATIONS
the maintenance of the meeting as a community. This means helping to Please direct donations for
contribute, in whatever ways are most suitable, to the maintenance of an Goose Creek Friends Meeting to
Brian Burgher, P.O. Box 105
atmosphere in which spiritual growth and exploration are possible for all.” Lincoln, Virginia 20160
– Britain Yearly Meeting, 1999