From Care & Counsel: Friend David Hines passed away at 6:23 am today, July 18, from brain cancer. His wife Liza Bruce was with him. David and Liza were married under the care of Richmond Friends Meeting eighteen years ago.
Details about a Memorial Meeting for Worship will be shared in a later message. Please continue to hold Liza in the Light, with tender love.
Visiting Among Friends booklets are available in the library. They are small,
pocket size books which list the names of all the monthly meetings with their addresses and hours of worship. It is a way to encourage, facilitate and support visits among local meetings. Please consider visiting another meeting if you are traveling this summer. Or get to know Midlothian Friends, a short drive away. Go to the BYM website and look for Visiting Meetings under the heading WHAT WE DO. Once you have made a visit, fill out the Visiting Meetings form.
Richmond Friends Meeting is a diverse community of seekers. We welcome all who wish to explore Quaker principles, testimonies and way of worship.
If you wish to consider membership after attending Meeting and participating in our community, this may be helpful as you continue your quest:
We suggest that you attend Meeting for Worship on a regular basis, become involved in committee work, and participate in Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business in order to fully understand the meaning of the commitment to become a member. Members of the Committee on Care & Counsel will be happy to suggest books and other readings that may illuminate your path.
If you are led to seek membership, begin by submitting a letter to the clerk of Meeting with a personal statement of why you wish to request membership in the Religious Society of Friends. If you wish, describe the journey that led you to this point.
Next, the clerk will submit the letter to the Care & Counsel Committee. A few RFM members will become your Clearness Committee. They will meet with you at your convenience to discuss your letter and your readiness for membership. Based on the report of the Clearness Committee, the Care & Counsel Committee
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may discern that you are ready for membership or members may suggest additional steps that will help you prepare for membership.
After the committee approves the membership request, the recommendation will be brought to the next Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business. There, it will be held over for a month so that Friends who may not know you will have an opportunity to become acquainted. At the following Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, the application will be brought to the entire community for final approval.
We seek to make this a loving and welcoming process. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask any member of Care and Counsel, or Lynda Perry, clerk of meeting, for further guidance.
Adult Spiritual Education reminds Friends that scholarship funds are available for attendance at Friends General Conference and Baltimore Yearly Meeting Annual Session. Please contact ASE’s clerk, Barbara Hulburt, or any other member of ASE to request these funds
Adult Spiritual Education is delighted to announce that one of RFM’s own — Dash Shaw, a celebrated graphic artist, animator, and filmmaker — will be presenting a session for us on Saturday morning, July 23rd from 9:30 to 10:30. We are honored to have Dash, son of Monica and Dan Shaw, who grew up in the Meeting and has since received many accolades and won numerous awards for his work. He will talk with us about his research and theprocess of making his graphic novel, Discipline, about a Quaker soldier in the war between the States. Discipline was published by the New York Review Comics and named one of the Graphic Novels of the Year by both the New York Times and the Guardian.
We encourage you to read the book before the session, but Dash’s presentation will be engaging whether you have had the opportunity to read it in advance or not. There are two copies in the library and Discipline is also available to purchase at Amazon and Barnes & Noble online