Meeting Announcements

Outdoor Quaker Worship Saturdays at 10:30 am: All are welcome to outdoor worship each Saturday at Highland Park, beside the Alexander-Gish House parking lot on Walnut Avenue SW just off Fifth Street. Please bring a chair if you have one.

Quaker Reading Group is meeting on Zoom on Mon Sep 19, 6:30 pm. We will discuss the last four pages of John Woolman’s Journal Chap 6, in which he is thinking about something he is called to do but which might be very risky. All are welcome to join us. We read a few pages contemplatively and respond from our own experience. (Contact Mike Heller for the Zoom link and the pages.)

Meeting for Business: This month we are meeting on Tues 9/20, 7:00 pm, for Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business. Please join us. 

Visiting Genevieve Waring: Connie Waring hopes Friends will visit Genevieve before Sept 30. Genevieve must return to Baltimore on Oct 1. Consult your new directory for Connie’s phone number. 

Wed Sept 21 at 5:30 pm - Lynching Memorial in Roanoke: A coalition of 30 groups have worked for over three years with the Community Remembrance Project of the Equal Justice Initiative (Montgomery, AL) to memorialize the lynchings that occurred in Roanoke. This event, with soil collection and the placement of an historical marker to remember the lynching of Thomas Smith, will take place near Mountain Ave and Franklin Rd. Parking is available at the Second Presbyterian Church (2nd St and Mountain Ave). Because we hope Friends can attend this event, we have moved Meeting for Business this week to Tuesday evening. (contact Mike Heller, heller@roanoke.edu)

 From Building and Grounds:

Saturday October 1 noon Planting Native Plants at the Meetinghouse.  All are invited.

From Advancement & Outreach:

Welcome/Welcome Back Celebration - Sunday Nov 6, following worship to begin at 12:15. There will be a panel discussion of Quaker beliefs, worship, and service. Please tell Friends who are interested in Quakerism. Attend for all or part of the event.

From Religious Education:

Mon Oct 31, 7:00 pm Pendle Hill Pamphlet Discussion “Radical Transformation:  Long Overdue for the Religious Society of Friends” - 

Other Announcements 

Memorial Service to Celebrate the Life of Ellen DeHaven will be Friday September 23 at 11:00 am at Second Presbyterian Church, 214 Mountain Avenue in Roanoke. Representing the Quaker Meeting, Tony Martin will speak and there will be a brief silent worship. Reception following.  All are invited. 

This Service will be available for viewing by live-stream by Second Presbyterian on YouTube at this Link on Friday morning at 11:00 am for those who cannot attend.  The live stream will available on YouTube for public viewing until Friday September 30.

From Swords to Plowshare Exhibition by Tara Tappert: A past member of the Roanoke Quaker Meeting, Tara Tappert, is the curator of part of an upcoming War, Peace, and Justice Symposium. Titled “War Amongst the People / From Swords to Plowshare,” it will be on view at the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle, PA, from Aug 31-Nov 10, 2022. For more information, go to this website.

Pledge to End Racism* Workshop sponsored by Roanoke NAACP, the Roanoke Unitarian Church, and the Williams Memorial Baptist Church.  This 12-hour workshop begins October 6, meeting on Zoom for 2 hours each Thursday over the following 7 weeks. (flier with details attached)  Space is limited and registrations will be accepted on a first come, first served basis ending on September 30. To register, email the Racial Justice Team of the Unitarian Church at racialjusticeteam@uur

Joys and Concerns, Gratitude & Requests

Joys:   

• Petting all the animals at the fair.

• Judy Marlow, who is soon traveling to visit her son and daughter and their families on the West Coast.

Please hold in the Light:

• Letty Collins and her husband Vince, both with COVID

• Jacki V as she is moving

• Tom’s close friend Dave & his family, whose grandson Noah took his own life

Gratitudes:

• A weed-free day-lily garden

• Successful surgeries for Elise’s grandson and her daughter’s mother-in-law

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

Shared at Meeting:

*The Pledge to End Racism (adapted from the Birmingham Pledge)

I believe that every person has worth as an individual.

I believe that every person is entitled to dignity and respect, regardless of race or color.

I believe that every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others.

Therefore, from this day forward, I will strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from my thoughts and actions.

I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity.

I will treat all people with dignity and respect.

I will commit to working with others to transform my church and community into a place that treats people of all races, ethnicities, and cultures with justice, equity, and compassion, and

I will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort.

Faithfully submitted by Patsy Martin