Meeting Announcements

Links in announcements below are to webpages, not Zoom links.

From the Religious Education Committee:

•  There will be no program on Wednesday June 7th.

• Monday, June 12, 7:00 pm. Taking Personal Testimony a Step Deeper: Quakers don’t hold to creeds but they do have testimonies, a word vibrant with meaning for early Friends. Roanoke Friends will gather to take the concept of testimony a personal step deeper. (Zoom link in calendar above)  A single query will guide us:

"I would like my life to be a testimony to _________ . . . ."

• Monday June 26, 7:00 pm, Spiritual Journey Group Sharing:  (Zoom link in calendar above). Our discussion will be on the spiritual journey, but it will include all who are present. Planning ahead, please let one of the Religious Education committee members (Charlie Finn, Susan Adams, or Judy Mott) know if you would like this opportunity to tell your story in July or later. In case you were unable to attend the recent previous rich individual sharings: Click Here for the Recording of Kent Walton’s Sharing and Click Here for the Recording of Mac Broussard’s sharing.

Help Our Meeting Be a WVTF-FM Day Sponsor: Many people in the Roanoke Quaker Meeting support WVTF-FM, the local NPR station, financially.  Our Outreach Committee would like to invite you to send your checks to the Meeting treasurer.  Please make checks out to “Roanoke Quaker Meeting” and please earmark them as “WVTF-FM contribution”.  If we bundle together several checks, we can send them to WVTF-FM as one contribution and be listed as a sponsor of their programming.  We would get an online blurb, "This program is sponsored by the Roanoke Quaker Meeting", along with our website.  It's good outreach.  Please make out the checks to WVTF-FM and send them to Otis Kenny, Treasurer,

Tuesday, June 6, 7:00 p.m. Sharing Ideas for Use of the Meetinghouse’s Lower Level (on Zoom -- link in the calendar above.) The Meetinghouse Management Committee is beginning the process of deciding 'way forward’ for our use of the lower level space, which had been used by our two renters. With our mortgage paid off, we no longer need to rent out that space, and can use it in some manner in service to a community need. Tuesday’s meeting is Friends to share their ideas for this space. We will meet for an hour during which time we will speak out of the silence. Each Friend can give a brief statement; time is then given for the statement to be recorded and to reflect on the statement. We will go over an hour if more time is needed for each person to speak. No discussion nor decisions will be made at this meeting. All ideas shared will be considered by the committee as we move forward. Hope that you can participate, since this resource gives our Meeting a good opportunity to  be of service. (Herb Beskar)

Monday, June 19 (3rd Monday), 6:30 pm, Quaker Reading Group, on Zoom. We are discussing the beginning 4 and 1/2 pages of John Woolman’s Journal Ch 10 (Moulton ed., pp. 155-159t). Woolman decides he needs to go to the West Indies, as a way to make some restitution for his part in the sale of a young Black man. He enters a time of great confusion. If you’d like a zoom link or a copy of the reading, contact Mike Heller.

Saturday, June 24, 8:00 am-2:00 pm, Groceries Not Guns: Roanoke’s third gun buyback is coming up soon. This is the second year that our Quaker Meeting has had a major role in this event Click Here for the Flyer. We hope you get involved. We need financial donations and volunteers! Please mail donations to the dedicated PO box (not our usual donation address):  Roanoke Quaker Meeting, PO Box 4584, Roanoke, VA 24015; memo line: “Groceries Not Guns.” Thanks for your help! To volunteer or for more information, contact Mike Heller.

Books for the Roanoke City Jail: Our local Roanoke City Jail has a library and a librarian. Many of those held in the jail have not yet been tried (they’re on remand) but they may be held there for weeks or even months. Sue Williams is in contact with the jail’s librarian. The only reading materials currently available are those donated, usually used, whether paperback books or magazines. Sue will receive donations or even collect them and deliver them to the jail librarian. There are discussions to try to set up a way that our Peace & Social Justice Committee can donate money to enable the librarian to meet needs she sees or that inmates bring to her. Contact Sue Williams.

From the Announcement Team:  Please send submissions to these announcements to quakersroanoke@gmail.com by Saturday to be included in Sunday’s announcements. 

Other Announcements:

School of the Spirit is now taking applications for its second version of Participating in God's Power. This year-long program, which starts in February, is an opportunity for Friends who hunger for a deeper spiritual connection to go deep with other Friends who share that hunger. For more information about this program you can click here and read all about it. Our Meeting has funds available to help Friends take courses like this.

The FGC Gathering is still open and you are invited.  The Gathering will be in-person at Western Oregon University, July 2nd - 8th.   If you have never been, ask one of the many Friends in our Meeting who have gone to share what a wonderful experience it is.  DEADLINE TO REGISTER without late fees: JUNE 6  Register Here.  For more information click here or go to the FGC website. Don’t be dismayed by the cost! Our Meeting has funds available to help Friends travel to conferences.

FGC, Virtual Gathering "Listen so that we may Live" - July 2-8 - For those unable to travel to Monmouth, Oregon, there is a virtual option. The schedule available is Bible Half Hour at 8 AM, Monday through Friday; Evening programs on M,W,F, and daily worship sharing with the same group each day. $100 is suggested, however, it is pay as you are led.  

Baltimore Yearly Meeting committee members needed: to serve on one of these committees: Camping Program, Development, Faith & Practice, Program, Stewardship & Finance, and Youth Programs. For more information, contact Mike Heller. A wonderful way to get to know Quakers from across our region, and to serve our wider Quaker community.

Joys and Concerns, Prayer Requests, and Gratitude

Joys:

• So many seats filled at the Meetinghouse.

• Daylilies are blooming!

• To have the Rouses with us in person.

• The Lebanese festival

• 3 grandchildren graduating this month (Herb & Cecily)

• Restoration of spirit from the Strawberry Moon & Lightning Bugs

Please Hold in the Light:

• Those who live along the route of  the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and those who have been valiantly standing against this for the past seven years. 

• Zoe and Charlie Katz as his radiation treatment continues at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.  With no more setbacks, they will head home Tuesday but before that Charlie will ring the bell! 

Concerns:

• Frustration, outrage, and disappointment over the MVP. Please see this letter with a statement from Preserve Craig. 

Gratitude:

• Joy’s bruises are healed and she's on her way to full recovery.

• To Building & Grounds for the beautiful flowers 

Worship Opportunities:

• Saturday Outdoor Worship at 10:30 am: All are welcome each Saturday at Highland Park, Alexander-Gish House, near the entrance to the parking lot on Walnut Avenue SW just off Fifth Street. Please bring a chair if you can.  

• Midweek Quaker Worship: the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays each month at 7:00 pm.  The next one will be Wednesday June 14 on Zoom (see link in calendar above).

• Worship on Zoom and In-Person continues every Sunday at 10:30: We are so pleased that we can continue to worship either on Zoom or in-person in the meetinghouse on Sunday mornings! Masks are no longer required. Unvaccinated participants are welcome and are encouraged to wear a mask. Masks are available in the Meetinghouse. Social distancing is recommended.

Meeting Links: * Link to Roanoke Friends Meeting Website;  Facebook Page;  Facebook Group

Submitted by Patsy Martin and Mike Heller

Send submissions to quakersroanoke@gmail.com