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committee term limits. We should explore ways to on Northern Virginia Quakers. Friends also approved
sing together. The Jane Pancoast Shepherd Trust and requests from the Lincoln Community League for
Meeting Scholarship committees should merge. use of the Meeting House on December 21 at 3 pm
Elizabeth Evans, Martha Mason Semmes, and Carolyn and again on January 15 in the afternoon, and use of
Ormes will remain on the Nominating Committee. New the parking lot on the evening of December 22 for a
members need to be appointed by Third Month. community bonfire and caroling.
Friends approved the merging of the Jane Pancoast Religious Education noted that what they were
Shepherd and Meeting Scholarship Committees as well formerly calling Friendly Adult Presences are now
as the appointment of Ed Devinney to the Jane Pan- being referred to as Friendly Adult Volunteers (FAVs).
coast Shepherd Trust’s board of trustees.
Meeting approved a donation to Detroit Friends for the Goose Creek News
re-establishment of their meeting house. Dahlia Jo Epling was born on November 13, 2022.
The following dates were noted: Congratulations to her parents, Ashley and Nate, and to
her sisters Mary Rose and Hazel! We look forward to
• December 11 – Second Hour discussion about
seeing Dahlia Jo at Meeting.
Christmas and Quakers
• December 18 – Bonfire and Christmas potluck A son was born to Anna Murray and Riccardo Belletti
dinner and carol sing on November 12. As Riccardo is from Italy and they
• December 24 – Christmas Eve Meeting for live in Dublin, the baby’s name is a mashup of nation-
Worship, 7-8pm alities: Gabriele Pádhraig Belletti. Sebastiano so far
• January 8 – Spiritual State of the Meeting approves of having a little brother. Grandparents Cath-
discussion (Second Hour) erine Cox and Charles Murray recently returned from a
• January 22 – Threshing session about the visit to meet Gabri.
stewardship of our funds, led by the Ad Hoc
Finance Committee
• February 12 – Second Hour discussion led by
Why didn’t the early Quakers
Friends who recently attended the Pendle Hill celebrate Christmas?
workshop on clerking “Friends objected strongly to any special observance
There will be no First Day School on December 25 or of what they called ‘days and times.’ They did not
January 1, though we are looking into possible child- believe that God had made any day holier than any
care for those First Days. other, and so regarded holidays as “contrivances of
man,” which distracted from true religion. Seven-
Friends discussed a request from the Religious Educa-
teenth-century Friends, who looked on the Roman
tion Committee to provide a basket of manipulatives
Catholic Church as anti-Christian, would have to look
for children who might need something to help them
no farther than the very name “Christmas”—the mass
settle for worship. This will be discussed further at
of Christ—to be suspicious.
the threshing session requested by RE (and approved
by Meeting) to discuss the topic of inclusivity – in- “… In seventeenth-century England, Christmas was
cluding how the design of our programs and property usually celebrated with feasting and frivolity. Friends
may interfere with welcoming diverse populations to saw this as, once again, distracting from true religion.
our community. Maria Nicklin will be convener for a And they, like George Fox, thought that the money
group that will make plans for this threshing session, spent on new clothes and carousing in taverns might
including Friends from the Ministry and Worship, better be given to relieve the sufferings of the poor.
Property, Religious Education, and Hospitality Com- Thus as a youth, George Fox felt led: ‘When the time
mittees, and the anti-racism working group. called Christmas came, while others were feasting and
sporting themselves, I looked out poor widows from
Friends approved use of the Meeting House on
house to house, and gave them some money.’”
Saturday, February 25, for a presentation by Johns
Hopkins scholars on their research into the history of – Quaker historian Tom Hamm, Earlham College
slave ownership by Johns Hopkins and the impact of (https://www.friendsunitedmeeting.org/journal/why-
his Quaker beliefs, as well as the impact of slavery didnt-the-early-quakers-celebrate-christmas)
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | December 2022 | Page 3