Goose Creek Friends
Newsletter September 2021
Goose Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Lincoln, Virginia
Queries for Ninth Month: Education
• How can we most effectively foster a spirit of inquiry
with a loving and understanding attitude?
• What effort are we making to be better acquainted
with Quaker faith and practices and the beliefs of
other faiths?
• Do we take an active and supportive interest in
schools, libraries, and other educa- tional resources in
our communities and elsewhere?
• Do we also see nature as a teacher and a guide?
• Do I strive to develop my physical, emotional and
mental capacities toward reaching my Divinely given
potential?
• How do we prepare ourselves and our children to play
active roles in a changing world?
Monthly Meeting for Worship with a
Concern for Business: Eighth Month
Brian Burgher spoke on behalf of the ad hoc committee
on re-opening the Meeting House. Friends approved
continuing to wear masks until further notice. The
subcommittee requests that we approve use of the
Meeting House by other groups as long as the other
groups agree to follow the same protocols that we are
practicing. We are not serving food or drink within
the Meeting House. Friends approved allowing the
sub-committee to make decisions about relevant
protocols on behalf of the Meeting as a whole, based
on guidelines from CDC, the Virginia Department of
Health, and other agencies.
Friends approved use of the Meeting House for a
memorial for Lloyd Grow, the late Arlene Janney’s
brother, on August 14. Use of the Meeting House was
also approved for Loudoun County Public Schools
(August 18), the Lincoln Preservation Foundation
(every second Thursday of the month), and Alcoholics
Anonymous (Saturday mornings). All groups will be
apprised of our COVID-related protocols.
Upcoming Events at
Goose Creek
September 12
History of Indigenous People in Loudoun County.
After the rise of Meeting, Dr. David Clark will present
a hands-on program on the history of indigenous
peoples in Loudoun County. Children are welcome!
This event will be held outdoors and will not take
place if it is raining.
September 19
The Grace Heritage Site. Members of the board of
the Grace Heritage Site will offer a short presentation
at the rise of Meeting. We will hear about the ongoing
project of renovating the 1885 church building. The
work began in 2003 with an archeological dig to find
artifacts and to gather more information about those
who worshiped there until the 1950’s. The goal was
to have the building fully enclosed so that it could be
used as a meeting place and as a standing history of
the local African American community. The church
was built on land acquired from Quakers, Edward
and Eliza Janney Rawson. To find out more about
this project: www.lincolnpreservation.org and www.
savinggraceproject.com. There is also a short video
called “The Saving Grace Project.” Are there ways in
which we at Goose Creek can help our neighbors?
OCTOBER 10
Spiritual Practices and How They Ground Us.
Caroline Pelton and Catherine Cox will lead this
discussion after the rise of Meeting. What spiritual
practices have you found helpful?
Jeffrey Jackson and Garry Smith will visit on September
19 and will speak at the rise of Meeting about Grace
Heritage Center’s need for a new roof.
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Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | September 2021 | Page 2
Monthly Meeting for Worship with a
Concern for Business: Ninth Month
Friends approved the transfer of Mac Robinson’s and
Nancy Robinson’s memberships from Santa Barbara
Friends Meeting to Goose Creek.
Friends approved with thanks the annual report of the
Religious Education Committee, presented by Maria
Nicklin. She expressed thanks to the many who assisted
their work.
The Peace and Social Concerns Committee has been
inundated with requests to assist victims of various
emergencies, natural and political. Friends approved
donations to organizations yet to be determined, to
assist with Haiti hurricane relief and Afghanistan
refugee assistance. Sheila Kryston asked whether
Friends are willing to assist in finding Afghan
refugees homes and providing other essentials. Many
Friends expressed interest.
Friends approved a request from Ruth DeButts to use
the Meeting House grounds for her wedding in October
2022 and the First Day School room for refreshments.
Goose Creek Friends Meeting
Guidance for Meeting for Worship
 There has been a change in guidance from the Centers
for Disease Control in response to changing conditions
due to the Delta Variant of the Coronavirus.
• As a result, we are changing our approach to indoor
Meeting for Worship and other uses of the Meeting
House. Meetings will continue to be held indoors
with the following revised conditions:  “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is
• Anyone with known symptoms of Covid-19 or in
suspected contact with someone with Covid-19
within the past 14 days are not be permitted to
attend in-person meetings.
• All attenders are required to wear masks with full
coverage of mouth and nose. Masks will be provided
for those that forget to provide their own.  of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of
• All attenders are required to practice social
distancing as much as possible. Members of the
same household may sit together.  Service on a Goose Creek committee is a vital way
• There shall be no direct contact between attenders,
such as passing of items, shaking hands, etc. At the
rise of Meeting, it is suggested that we replace the
conventional hand shaking with elbow touching.  foster personal spiritual growth. As the Nominating
• There will be no food or beverages provided
following Meeting for Worship or other uses of the
Meeting House. 
• Attenders are encouraged to use the provided hand
sanitizers frequently while in the Meeting House. 
• Doors will be left open during use of the Meeting
House to provide additional ventilation. 
• Attenders are encouraged to limit the use of
the bathrooms, and are requested to wipe down
all touched surfaces with provided disinfectant
following use. 
• First Day School will continue to be held outdoors
for the foreseeable future and non-vaccinated
attenders are required to wear masks and practice
social distancing. Extra masks and hand sanitizer
are available for attenders. 
• Meeting for Worship will continue on Zoom for
those uncomfortable with in-person meetings. 
In closing, we recognize that these are steps back in our
recovery from the Coronavirus, but they are important
to protect our membership and attenders during these
changing conditions. These conditions for use of the
Meeting House will be in place until further guidance
is provided by the CDC and/or the Virginia Department
of Health.
Respectfully, Brian Burgher, Allen Cochran,
Maria Nicklin, John Unger, Meeting House Use
Subcommittee
Nominating Committee Queries
given for the common good. 8 To one there is given
through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a
message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to
another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of
healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous
powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing
between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds
tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same
Spirit.” – 1 Corinthians 12:7-11
for members and attenders to deepen the spiritual life
of the Meeting, ensure the effectiveness of Meeting’s
corporate operations, build our faith community, and
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Committee begins its work of appointing Friends and
attenders to committees and other positions for 2022,
we ask that you prayerfully consider the following
queries:
• Do you wholeheartedly bring your gifts to help
build the spiritual life of our meeting through
committee work?
• If you have not yet served on a committee, what
gifts and expertise can you offer to support and
enhance our Meeting community? Would deepening
your commitment to Meeting through service on a
committee also deepen your spiritual life?
• Is your acceptance of committee appointments
led by the Spirit or by personal preference? If the
latter, have you considered that you may be missing
an opportunity for spiritual growth on a different
committee?
• Does your current committee work bring you joy?
Does it provide opportunities for you to grow
spiritually? Which committee appointments are you
ready to lay down?
• Is it possible that your gifts and contributions could
be better used on another committee, even one you
have never considered?
A book recommendation from the
Anti-Racism Committee
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Meet Jende and Neni, a young Cameroonian couple
making a new life in New York. When the Great
Recession upends the economy, they are forced to
make an impossible choice. This is a compelling
novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and
the trapdoors in the American Dream. Available
in our Goose Creek library. Winner of the PEN/
Faulkner Award.  Welcome to membership in Goose Creek Meeting,
From the Meeting Cares Committee
Meeting Cares is conducting our annual back-to-school
drive for Mobile Hope, a 501c3 non-profit organization
that empowers homeless and at-risk youth in our
Loudoun community.
To make donating easier this year, we encourage
you to make a direct donation to Mobile Hope and
designate that it’s from Goose Creek Friends Meeting.
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | September 2021 | Page 3
Mobile Hope will track all contributions that come
from Goose Creek and acknowledge the total amount
our community donated. In the past, you have donated
Target gift cards for the back-to-school drive, but this is
no longer feasible due to our hybrid meeting and other
limitations. We hope you will respond to the needs of
these youth with your usual generosity. The back-to-
school campaign will run until September 30.
Here’s how to donate:
https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/mhl OR https://
mobile-hope.org/financial-donations
At the bottom of the form, dedicate your donation to
GOOSE CREEK FRIENDS MEETING.
Quaker News
The Friends Wilderness Center via Zoom – October
10: Sustainable Agriculture: Environmental,
Spiritual, and Practical Aspects of How we Grown
Our Food and Nourish Our Souls. Join Friends
Wilderness Center for a Zoom program on October
10 at 10am, led by local farmers Tom Farquhar and
Robert True. To register, email dfsud@comcast.net. A
Zoom link will be sent on October 9. Please consider
making a donation to FWC by visiting our website at
friendswildernesscenter.org.
BYM Young Friends Conference – September 17-
19: Let's kick off the 2021-2022 school year with a
wicked cool con! Please don’t forget you must PRE-
REGISTER for in-person cons! Young Friends, AKA
high school aged folks, about 14-18 years old. Sandy
Spring Friends Meeting, 17715 Meeting House Road,
Sandy Spring, MD, 20860. To register: https://www.
bym-rsf.org/what_we_do/yutes/yfs/yfcon.html
Goose Creek News and Notes
Nancy and Mac Robinson!
Miriam Westervelt writes: “This year's Waterford
Fair is October 1-3 and will include an exhibit called
‘Travels Travails and Triumphs: 250 Years with
Remarkable Local Quaker Women.’ The exhibit will be
in the basement of John Wesley Church and consists of
panels describing the lives of 12 Quaker women (e.g.,
Mary Yardley Janney, Louisa Brown Steer, Marie Anne
Stabler Parsons)… More information about the fair is
here: https://www.waterfordfairva.org.”
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Page 4 | September 2021 | Goose Creek Friends Newsletter

Sundays Facing Bench

In-person and Zoom Meeting for worship at 9:45 am SEPTEMBER
For the weekly Zoom link, contact Chuck Hough at Sheila Kryston (Meeting House)
chuck.hough@gmail.com Chuck Hough (Zoom)
Wednesdays OCTOBER
Discussion Group at 7:00 (Zoom). For more information, Caroline Pelton (Meeting House)
contact Chuck Hough: chuck.hough@gmail.com Chuck Hough (Zoom)

Calendar First Day School

SEPTEMBER Join in-person for First Day
School outdoors – we meet on
9.12 Sunday 9:45am Meeting for Worship the porch at 10:00. We also
11:00 am Dr. David Clark on Indigenous peoples in post weekly do-it-yourself
in Loudoun County (family friendly) lessons online at http://www.
9.15 Wednesday 7:30 pm Religious Education Committee meeting goosecreekfriends.org/first-
via Zoom day-school/
9.19 Sunday 9:45 am Meeting for Worship PARENT GET-TOGETHER
09/25/21, 1:00 PM
10:45 am Brief presentation on the Grace Heritage Site
https://meet.google.com/yvt-
9.26 Sunday 9:45 am Meeting for Worship bpgd-der
11:00 am Ministry & Worship Committee meeting TEEN GROUP
OCTOBER 09/26/21, 7:30 PM
https://meet.google.com/aob-
10.3 Sunday 9:45 am Meeting for Worship jidw-vcc
11:00 am Meeting for Worship with a Concern
for Business NEWSLETTER
10.10 Sunday 9:45 am Meeting for Worship The Goose Creek Friends Newsletter
is published monthly by the
11:00 am Discussion: “Spiritual Practices and Goose Creek Friends Meeting,
How They Ground Us” 18204 Lincoln Road, P.O. Box 105,
Lincoln, VA 20160.
New Members CLERK
Rich Weidner, 540.554.2747
McDonald & Nancy Ann Robinson, rich.blacksmith1@gmail.com
20591 Crescent Pointe Place, Ashburn, VA 20147 ASSISTANT CLERK
Allen Cochran, 540.338.6485
Cochransstone@aol.com
TREASURER
“For the forest, the shared purpose is life itself, Brian Burgher
existence; everything extraneous stripped away by its goose.creek.treasurer@gmail.com
necessity. Perhaps the goal of the spiritual life is to strip NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Catherine Cox, 301-471-5330
away everything frivolous as well, to pare it all back to blycox@comcast.net
the necessity of connection with the other. If we worship WEBSITE & FACEBOOK
in the sincere presence of that power that takes away our forever-unmet need www.goosecreekfriends.org
https://www.facebook.com/
of things superfluous, we enter the real ecology of the meeting, where all Goose-Creek-Friends-Meeting-
is web.” – James W. Hood, The Ecology of Quaker Meeting (Pendle Hill 150892438287560/?rc=p
Pamphlet, February 2018) DONATIONS
Please direct donations for
Goose Creek Friends Meeting to
Brian Burgher, P.O. Box 105
Quaker Jargon of the Month: Convener Lincoln, Virginia 20160 - OR -
donate online: http://www.goose-
The chairperson of a committee, also referred creekfriends.org/please-support-
to as the clerk of the committee. goose-creek/