Goose Creek Friends
Newsletter November 2019
Goose Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Lincoln, Virginia
Queries for Eleventh Month:
Caring for One Another
• In what ways do I show respect for that of
God in every person?
• Do I reach out to those in distress? If I find
this difficult, what holds me back?
• 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?
Monthly Meeting for Worship with
a Concern for Business: Eleventh
Month
Friends approved with enthusiasm the new
Meeting membership of Sue McCollum.
A Meeting for Worship will be held on
Christmas Eve at 7:00pm. The Christmas
potluck dinner and carol sing will be held on
December 22 at 6:00pm.
Friends approved use of the Meeting House
for a joint meeting of Baltimore Yearly
Meeting’s Camping Program Committee and
Camping Property Management Committee
on Saturday, February 1.
The Clerk read two letters of thanks, one
from Friends of Loita Forest in Kenya
describing how our donation helped to
empower and train seventy women at
a beekeeping workshop, in addition to
helping with the purchase of five bee boxes.
The second was addressed to Dr. Miriam
Westervelt and Goose Creek Friends,
thanking us for our support of two girls in the
TEMA Project. Miriam added her thanks for
our support of this project, which sends girls
to school. She explained that it costs about
$150 a year to send a Loita girl to primary
school. Sending a girl to boarding secondary
school costs about $450 for a year, and
results in saving her from circumcision and
very early marriage. She said that there are
3,000-5,000 girls who could use this funding
to attend school. Meeting will talk about its
next donation during our upcoming budget
discussion. In the meantime, individuals can
donate to Friends of Loita Forest through
Mimi Westervelt.
Fred Bishopp read the 2020 Nominating
Committee Report. Its members’
conversations with committee clerks
indicated that most committees have
been working well during the past year.
Nominating Committee members talked with
as many Goose Creek Friends as they were
able to reach and received various questions
and suggestions for the smooth functioning
of Meeting. The report included a list of
committee appointments for 2020.
Ed Devinney read the annual report of the
Finance Committee. The Committee has
been working to make Meeting’s finances
more modern, transparent, and informative.
They welcome new committee members,
Continued on next page g
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | November 2019 | Page 2
whether or not they are Friends with “a thing
for numbers.” The Committee is grateful for
regular contributions made throughout the
year. But it is giving time again! Meeting
approved this report with thanks.
From the Unity with Nature
Committee: Climate in the
Pulpit Month
Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, a non-
profit that works with all faiths on saving
energy, going green, and responding to
climate change, has designated November
as Climate in the Pulpit Month. They
have invited congregations to raise up
Creation care and climate change as part
of their weekly services and through
educational efforts.
Since we don’t have a single minister who
gives sermons at Goose Creek, our Unity
with Nature Committee is offering messages
of concern for the Earth in our Meetings for
Worship and providing environmental facts
and tips for Earthcare at the rise of Meeting.
We hope you will join us in holding Creation
especially in the Light this month.
Here is one of our quotations, from beloved
poet and writer Wendell Berry:
“I take literally the statement in the Gospel
of John that God loves the world. I believe
that the world was created and approved by
love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by
love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it
can be redeemed only by love. I believe that
divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the
world, summons the world always toward
wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation
and atonement with God.”    following the leadings of the Spirit as
Sunday, November 17
What Do Quakers Believe?
A discussion of what Quakers believe
will be held after the rise of
Meeting for Worship.
Stay also for a soup lunch!
Baltimore Yearly Meeting Notices:
Attention All Women of Baltimore
Yearly Meeting. Your presence is welcome
at our annual women's retreat, February 7-9,
2020, just a few short months away. Spend
time relaxing, reconnecting, and restoring
your joy with workshops, chanting, worship,
long walks, and delicious meals. Diligence
in Love, Overcoming Isolation is the theme.
For more information and to register, go
to: womensretreat.bym-rsf.net/.
Pendle Hill would like to invite all Friends
to participate in a Pendle Hill Quaker
Institute on “Practicing Our Heritage of
Mysticism and Resistance,” from Thursday
evening, December 12, through lunch on
Sunday, December 15.  A host of speakers,
panelists, and workshop leaders will help
us consider the unity of Quaker faith
and practice – listening, discerning, and
Continued on next page g
 Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | November 2019 | Page 3

we bring our gifts to living in a broken

world. Join Thomas Hamm, Vanessa EVENTS IN
Julye, Eileen Flanagan, Stephen Angell,
Jose Santos Woss, and Quakers from DECEMBER
around the country in worship, learning,
sharing.  (https://pendlehill.org/events/the-
pendle-hill-quaker-institute-practicing-our-
heritage-of-mysticism-and-resistance/)

Goose Creek News

Bobbi Blok was spotted by another Goose
Creek Friend along the C&O Canal towpath.
She is walking the towpath with a group in
support of Tracy Danzey, president of Resist Sunday, December 8
Rockwool, who is walking across Denmark
in order to publicize the environmental Bible Meditation
challenges that the proposed Rockwall plant at the Rise of Meeting
will present to West Virginia. Prepare for the Christmas season
You’ll see a letter from the Stewardship and by entering into meditation based
Finance Committee, enclosed if you receive on passages from the Bible.
a physical copy of the newsletter or attached
if you’re reading this online. As 2019 Sunday, December 22
begins to wind down, please be generous to
Christmas Tree Decorating
Meeting if you can! If you are thinking of
making a gift of stocks or investments, you
at the Rise of Meeting
can contact Ed Devinney (ejd@devinney. Friends of all ages welcome!
com or 540-454-5384) or John Unger
Potluck & Carol Sing
(junger@verizon.net or 540-338-4620).
6:00 PM
Don’t miss the fun at this year’s
Christmas potluck dinner
and carol sing!

Tuesday, December 24
Meeting for Worship on
Christmas Eve
Page 4 | November 2019 | Goose Creek Friends Newsletter

Sundays Facing Bench

Meeting for worship at 9:45 a.m. NOVEMBEr
First Day School at 10:00 a.m. Carolyn Unger
Fellowship at 10:45 a.m. december
Wednesdays Rich Weidner
Discussion Group at 7:00 p.m. First Day
Calendar School
NOVEMBER 11/03/19
Voting Rights (teens)
11.3 Sun. 11 am Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business Fall Fun (elem. & nursery)
11.17 Sun. 11 am Discussion: “What do Quakers believe?”
and a soup lunch 11/10/19
11.20 Wed. 6 pm Religious Education Committee Meeting Quaker Plain Speech
11.24 Sun. 11 am Ministry & Oversight Committee meeting (teens & elem.)
11/17/19
DECEMBER Gratitude (teens)
12.1 Sun. 11 am Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business Quaker Superheroes (elem.)
12.7 Sun. 11 am Meditation on the Bible 11/24/19
12.22 Sun. 11 am Christmas tree decorating John Woolman & Simplicity
6 pm Christmas potluck dinner and carol sing (teens & elem.)
12.24 Tues. 7 pm Christmas Eve Meeting for Worship *elem. = elementary age group
12.29 Sun. 11 am Ministry & Oversight Committee meeting
New Member
Susan Ives McCollum, 113 Amalfi Court, Purcellville VA 20132 NEWSLETTER
The Goose Creek Friends Newsletter
Change of address [updated from last month] is published monthly by the
Goose Creek Friends Meeting,
Carolee and David Chamberlin, 214 Sunrise Ridge Road, 18204 Lincoln Road, P.O. Box 105,
Lexington, VA 24450 Lincoln, VA 20160.
CLERK
Rich Weidner, 540.554.2747
rich.blacksmith1@gmail.com
ASSISTANT CLERK
Allen Cochran, 540.338.6485
Cochransstone@aol.com
“Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness, and bearing one
TREASURER
with another, and forgiving one another – and helping one Brian Burgher
another up with a tender hand, if there has been any slip or fall.” goose.creek.treasurer@gmail.com
– Isaac Penington, 1667 NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Catherine Cox, 301-471-5330
blycox@comcast.net
WEBSITE & FACEBOOK
Quaker Jargon of the Month www.goosecreekfriends.org
https://www.facebook.com/
Goose-Creek-Friends-Meeting-
Queries: “The Queries are a device long used by the Religious Society 150892438287560/?rc=p
of Friends for prompting both corporate and individual self-examination. DONATIONS
Queries are an encouragement to continue your search, deepen your Please direct donations for
Goose Creek Friends Meeting to
journey, and engage the mystery.” Brian Burgher, P.O. Box 105
– Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice Lincoln, Virginia 20160