Goose Creek Friends
Newsletter January 2024
Goose Creek Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Lincoln, Virginia
Queries for First Month –
Meeting for Worship
• Do I prepare my heart and mind to receive
the power of God’s presence and love?
• How does worship deepen my relationship
with the Divine? How is this inspiration
carried over into my daily life?
• Are our Meetings for Worship held in
expectant waiting for Divine guidance?
• How does our worship inspire our
Meeting’s activities?
First Month Monthly Meeting
for Worship with a Concern for
Business
Friends approved with thanks the report of the
2023 Nominating Committee. One additional
member is needed for the 2024 committee. All
the documents they used during this past year are
available on Google Drive, accessible by request
to the committee. Most committees have new
members in 2024.
Meeting heard reports from the Finance
Committee and the Meeting Treasurer. Last year
we reduced the budget by a small amount; this
year’s budget is reduced further. Expenses are
expected to rise this year by about 10%. Capital
expenses will include bathroom improvements to
increase accessibility, improvements to Oakdale
School, and mold remediation. It was agreed
that we need to have a more focused, Meeting-
wide discussion about the relative sizes of the
donations to other organizations recommended
by committees. The Treasurer pointed out that
he relies upon committees’ recommendations
for these. Friends approved the 2024 budget
with some minor adjustments, understanding
that alterations to the budget can still be made.
Friends offered thanks to those who worked so
hard to prepare the budget.
Meeting approved inviting Larry Roeder, co-
author of the book, Dirt Don’t Burn, to speak
here on February 17 at 2 pm.
Please attend January’s Second
Hour, January 14!
In preparation for writing a Spiritual State of
the Meeting report for 2023 (this is something
that Baltimore Yearly Meeting asks monthly
meetings to do), we will gather after Meeting for
Worship on January 14 to examine how we have
fared together, spiritually, during the past year.
We’ll break up into small groups for worship
sharing, focusing on this query adapted from
BYM’s suggestions: "The whole world seems at
war now.  How does the Quaker peace testimony
live in your meeting?  How do your members
practice the peace testimony – at home, in
meeting, and in the wider world?" Then we will
re-gather to hear what arose for Friends during
the worship sharing.
We would like to hear from as many voices as
possible, so please join the conversation!
Continued on next page ☞
Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | January 2024 | Page 2

Second Hour, February 11 Goose Creek jam session!

– Stewardship of Meeting’s
financial resources
How can we walk in the Light as stewards of
Goose Creek’s financial resources?
The Ad-hoc Finance Committee has been
contemplating this question over past months.
They invite you to a Meeting-wide conversation
about it on February 11.
When:  Sunday, January 28, 4:00 PM
Where:  Goose Creek Meeting House
All are welcome!  Bring your instrument(s) and
a few copies of your favorite music.  Don't have
music?  No worries – we will have plenty to
choose from.  A little rusty?  No worries – we
enjoy making music together no matter what our
skill levels.  Questions or comments?
Contact Mac Robinson (602-363-8367) or
Carolyn Ormes (703-431-1061).

What is worship sharing

in the manner of Friends?

W orship sharing focuses on a particular question and helps us to explore

our own experience and share with each other more deeply than we
would in normal conversation. It seeks to draw us into sacred space, where
we can take down our usual defenses, and encounter each other in “that which
is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

• Reach as deeply as you can into the sacred center of your life.
• Speak out of the silence, and leave a period of silence between speakers.
• Speak from your own experience, about your own experience.
• Concentrate on feelings and changes rather than on thoughts or theories.
• Do not respond to what anyone else has said, either to praise or to refute.
• Listen carefully and deeply to what is spoken.
• Expect to speak only once, until everyone has had a chance to speak.
• Respect the confidentiality of what is shared.

– from Friends General Conference

 Goose Creek Friends Newsletter | January 2024 | Page 3

Special event at Goose Creek

on February 17!
Invite your friends and neighbors …
The Anti-Racism Committee is pleased to
sponsor a talk by Larry Roeder and Barry
Harrelson, co-authors of Dirt Don’t Burn: A
Black Community’s Struggle for Educational
Equality Under Segregation. The book is focused
primarily on Loudoun County and is based on
Loudoun County Public Schools archives along
with other sources. Quakers are featured! All are
welcome. Please join us on Saturday, February
17, at 2:00 pm at the Meeting House.
Page 4 | January 2024 | Goose Creek Friends Newsletter

Sundays Facing Bench

Zoom Meeting for Worship at 9:45 a.m. In-person january
Meeting for Worship at 9:45 a.m. For the weekly Zoom link, Patricia Barber
contact Chuck at chuck.hough@gmail.com
FEBRUARY
First Day School & Oakdale Nursery, 10:00 a.m.
Patricia Barber
Wednesdays MARCH
Discussion Group at 7:00 (Zoom). For more information, Jackie Kosbob
contact Chuck Hough: chuck.hough@gmail.com zoom
Calendar Catherine Cox
***
JANUARY
01.07 Sun. 11:00 am Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business
01.14 Sun. 8:30 am Peace & Social Concerns Committee meeting
11:00 am Second Hour: The Spiritual State of the Meeting 2023
01.17 Wed. 5:00 pm Religious Education Committee Meeting (Zoom)
01.28 Sun. 11:00 am Meeting Ministry & Worship Committee meeting
4:00 pm Jam session
NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY The Goose Creek Friends Newsletter
02.04 Sun 11:00 am Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business is published monthly by the
Goose Creek Friends Meeting,
02.11 Sun. 8:30 am Peace & Social Concerns Committee meeting
18204 Lincoln Road, P.O. Box 105,
11:00 am Second Hour: Stewardship of Meeting’s Lincoln, VA 20160.
financial resources
02.17 Sat. 2:00 pm Authors’ talk about Dirt Don’t Burn CLERK
02.2 Sun. 11:00 am Ministry & Worship Committee meeting Allen Cochran, 540.338.6485
Cochransstone@aol.com

First Day School TREASURER

Brian Burgher
01.07 Teen Group (grades 6-12) Money and Meaning goose.creek.treasurer@gmail.com
Middle Group (grades PreK-5) The E in SPICES, Equality, 1 of 3
01.14 Teen and Middle Groups GAME DAY NEWSLETTER
01.21 Teen Group, Money and Meaning
EDITOR
Catherine Cox, 301-471-5330
Middle Group, The E in SPICES, Equality, 2 of 3 blycox@comcast.net
01.28 Teen Group, Discussion
Middle Group, The E in SPICES, Equality, 3 of 3 WEBSITE &
FACEBOOK
Oakdale Nursery www.goosecreekfriends.org
(Infant-PreK) Children enjoy toys, games, stories and play. https://www.facebook.com/
Goose-Creek-Friends-Meeting-
150892438287560/?rc=p
“In worship we have our neighbors to right and left, before
and behind, yet the Eternal Presence is over all and beneath DONATIONS
Please direct donations for
all. Worship does not consist in achieving a mental state of Goose Creek Friends Meeting to
concentrated isolation from one’s fellows. But in the depth of Brian Burgher, P.O. Box 105
common worship it is as if we found our separate lives were all Lincoln, Virginia 20160 - OR -
donate online: http://www.goose-
one life, within whom we live and move and have our being.” creekfriends.org/please-support-
–Thomas R. Kelly, 1938 goose-creek/