Hopewell Centre

Friends gathered in March of 2010 to review last year's Spiritual State of the Meeting report and spend a period of worship over the queries presented for this year's consideration: Several members said that hearing last year's report, they felt as though it could also stand as this year's report. The Meeting continues to go through many changes with the loss of elders, the entry of new families, and with illnesses and life changes of many. We have continued to pull together in order to serve each other as different members go through times of transition. We see over and over again how pain is a touchstone for growth, pulling us closer, but stressing the ties that bind us.

Even with these losses and changes, however, Friends felt that the 275th Anniversary celebration had brought an infusion of energy to our Meeting: “The Anniversary celebration was like a turning point, and brought incredible outreach throughout the year. Any time that we were put in a position to explain our faith to non-Quakers, it took considerable self reflection. So that was a big growing point for our Meeting.”

We had the opportunity to engage in a variety of outreach activities this year. We held an Open House, inviting the local community to come and experience our Meeting and learn about Quakers. We widened our Homecoming Celebration to include Quaker meetings beyond our own. We held a series of talks for the public, inviting people from other faith communities to join us. A desire for further discussion on the part of those who attended the talks resulted in a revival of our Seekers' Group. In September, we held a Hopewell Birthday Party, and again were pleased at all who joined us.

In the process, at least six new families have begun attending worship, and we are pleased at their enthusiasm and curiosity and what it lends to all of our spiritual journeys. New families have brought children of all ages to us, and the circle of life continues within the Meeting. Friends in the Meeting also had the opportunity to join other denominations at a dinner sponsored by the Religious Studies Students at Shenandoah University. There Friends were shown an intense amount of respect for the way that we live our lives. You could see it reflected back from the young people, when one of our members, asked to speak of our worship, said simply, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Several students have joined us for worship throughout the year as a result of that meeting and our outreach program. Some Friends have become more involved in Yearly Meeting activities and we have found that their involvement with the larger meeting community has been directly enriched our Monthly Meeting.

Far-away Friends also report that the electronic newsletters and other e-mail communications enable them to stay connected to their Meeting community.

Our Seekers’ Group has continued to be active, along with our other Religious Education groups. Together, these groups provide members and attenders with a quiet time and space in which they can explore their beliefs; ask questions about how what they believe fits or doesn't fit in with what others believe; and explore how they can put their beliefs into action in the world.

One member summed up our year's journey: “I was thinking about the process we went through to plan for the Anniversary. We had a lot of ideas and possibilities…. . It really was an opportunity for us to look at ourselves and say, ‘What do we want to say, and how?’ We did it very well. We had a notion that we should limit ourselves since we are small and somewhat inexperienced in how to get our message across. I affirm the Meeting for its decisions. We learned that it may not be as hard as we thought to share our beliefs. I hope we can carry forward the memory of that and keep doing it.”

The biggest wish was that everyone would attend worship at every opportunity and participate more fully in all aspects of the life of our Meeting. That way our sense of community would grow even stronger within the Meeting and we would feel even more connected with those outside of our Meeting.

The impact that an event like a memorial service or a wedding has cannot be over-estimated. In times like this, as we draw together in the Light, the shared experiences in the ministry of relatives, friends and strangers, is something that will be carried with all of us long past the hour or two we are together, enriching all, Quaker and non-Quaker.

Friends feel it is hard to separate individual from meeting-wide spiritual experiences. In going through difficult life events together —such as our elder Virginia Riley's death and illnesses of dear members — we have drawn closer in the past few years as a faith community. With God’s help, our community , with its newly gained level of trust and communication, can make a difference in many ways. The sense is that even in the most difficult time, people feel supported. It is our hope to continue reaching out to each other in Meeting and learning to grow our community, and to touch the world around us in this same manner.

Much has transpired in our Meeting during these past months. For Adult Religious Education, we were visited by Elizabeth Meyer who shared with us her knowledge of and passion for the Psalms. Clerk Linda Wilk and Jim Riley taught us the simple and powerful prayer process they learned at Daniel Snyder’s workshop at Annual Session. We started our second series of Seekers’ meetings for newcomers and others who wish to explore Quaker beliefs, process and history. In the wake of our 275th Anniversary celebrations, we are blessed with new attenders. The spiritual life of the Meeting continues to deepen and our youth programs are beginning to grow again.

As a new decade dawns and our 275th year draws to a close, Hopewell Centre thanks everyone in BYM who supported and joined us in our yearlong celebration of 275 years as a Quaker presence in the Shenandoah Valley. It was a busy year of challenging, nonstop projects and our small Meeting turned it into a joyful process. Now we’re enjoying the fruits of our labor: a revitalization of spiritual energy within the Meeting and a surge of new members as a result of our outreach efforts.

The celebration began in May when we opened our landmark Clear Brook Meeting House to the public. We had advertised our Open House on local TV, radio, and in newspapers and it paid off. Nearly 100 visitors came; some who had passed by for years, wondering who we were. We shared our Quaker history in the Valley and our spiritual ways of today with them…. and some have stayed on with us in Meeting ever since. Our Building Fund benefited as well from sales of members’ crafts and our recently reprinted Hopewell Friends History, 1734-1934, Frederick County, Virginia.

For our annual end-of-summer Homecoming, this special year we sent out press releases and once again invited the community to join us. We greeted BYM Friends from Adelphi, Washington, DC and Shepherdstown Meetings and members of the Bahá’í community in Winchester and Woodstock. Old and new F(f)riends came from near and far to commemorate Hopewell in stories and songs; lunch on our historic grounds; and enjoy a wonderful concert gifted to us by the Bahá’ís.

Perhaps the most challenging project was our series of four Open Dialogues – The Quaker Way: A Spiritual Path for Today -- held in October at Centre Meeting House in Winchester. We asked ourselves: Would anyone come? And what would we say about ourselves? Despite uncertainties, we hung a banner saying “The Quakers Are Here,” lit the candles and waited. And come they did. We had four rewarding evenings, each filled with 12 or 13 eager seekers who wanted to know, Who are you modern Quakers? What happens in Silent Worship? What do Quakers Believe? Our panels of Hopewell members and attenders shared personal experiences as well as Quaker history and beliefs from Faith & Practice and other Quaker writings. Many who came the first night came every night in September, eager to learn more about us.

And it didn’t stop there. Seven or eight attendees at the Open Dialogues expressed a desire to form a Seekers’ Group, and we have already held four meetings in January. (If you would like to look at an outline of these sessions and resources used, please contact Martha Hanley at hanleyml@comcast.net)

In a final recognition of our 275th, we threw a Happy Birthday Hopewell Party! Amidst song, laughter and a BIG birthday cake, members made promises of “Gifts to Hopewell” for the coming years, including: “I can give presence and present$. Smiles too” .… “I would like to offer my handyman skills….”…“I give to Hopewell my wish that it may be a Light in the darkness.”…”I will be mindful to support pastoral care”… and “I can help eat cake!”

A final mention: During 2009, we reprinted our Memories of Hopewell’s 250th which is available at Hopewell for $10 (plus $1 for shipping & handling)…and we are now preparing the 275th Edition of Memories of Hopewell. We still have soft-cover copies of the Hopewell Friends History, reprinted by an attender, along with old genealogies of many Quaker families, available through us. (To order or for more information, contact Jim Riley at jmriley4@ verizon.net)

We invite everyone affiliated with BYM to join us as we mark this historic commemoration of 275 years of worship as Quakers in the Shenandoah Valley. Yearlong activities will include Open House days at our 250-year-old historic, landmark meeting house in Clearbrook, VA. Explore the 250-year-old building, graveyard and grounds; learn about our unique history as Quakers and the first settlers of Apple Pie Ridge and the Winchester area in 1734.

For more information, visit our website at hopecentre.quaker.org. If you’ve never visited Hopewell before, this is the time to do it!

275th Anniversary Schedule of Events:

Four Wednesday Evenings of Open Dialogues on The Quaker Way: A Spiritual Path for Today

Commemorating Hopewell's Presence -- Yesterday and Today -- in the Shenandoah Valley on October 7, 14, 21, 28 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at Centre Meeting House in Winchester, corner of Piccadilly & North Washington Streets.

Hopewell Centre members will share personal experiences as Quakers in the 21st Century and shed “light” on the Quaker spiritual path for those who are curious about The Religious Society of Friends and open to learning more.

Schedule:

• 10/7 Quakers: My Spiritual Home Today-How I got here; Why I stayed (Linda Wilk, Betty McCormick, Pam Hambach)
• 10/14 Quaker Worship – Why the Silence? Who’s the Minister? (Bob Sekinger, Hilde Matheson, Maggie Stetler)
• 10/21 Peace & Social Justice – In My Life, In the World (Anne Bacon, R. Dixon Bell)
• 10/28 Simplicity- Clearing Our Minds, Clearing Our Lives (Jim Riley, Martha Hanley)

Will include a brief Silent Worship, Q & A period, and light refreshments. Open & free to the public.

FRIENDS, LOVE & JOY:
It All Came Home to Hopewell This 275th Year

Hopewell Centre Meeting’s Homecoming, this year in conjunction with our 275th Anniversary, was a resounding success. Old friends arrived from as far away as California and Phoenix. Members of the BYM family came to visit, including Adelphi, Washington, DC, and Shepherdstown Meetings. And members of the Bahá’í community from Winchester and Woodstock joined us for the celebration.

In our Clear Brook Meeting House filled with nearly 100 worshippers we held Meeting for Worship, followed by a sharing of memories of Homecomings past. Becky Ebert, Clerk of Advancement & Outreach, led us off with a retelling of our Meeting’s founding by Quakers who came from Hopewell in Lancaster County, PA in 1734. Jim Riley shared recently found historical treasures, including a certificate of his parents’ – Virginia and Leonard Riley –marriage witnessed at Hopewell in 1940. Maggie Stetler read Martha Walker Lupton Sheetz’s poem “Homecoming,” written in 1966. Others recalled childhood memories and once again, we reminisced about the neighboring bull who serenaded many of our Silences on First Day. We concluded with our own joyous songs.

On hand for visitors to enjoy were A&O’s creative displays illustrating our Meeting’s history in the Valley; members’ crafts, including Bob Pidgeon’s unique Opequon Creek clay mugs and Margie Lancaster’s colorful, contemporary quilts; Dick Bell’s delightful memoir/history piece commemorating our 275th Anniversary; and reprinted paperback copies of Hopewell Friends History, 1734-1934, Frederick County, Virginia. (To order copies, contact Jim Riley at jriley@jtrileycpa.com)

Hopewell’s now legendary potluck lunch was served up at noon. Two standouts on the menu were a replica of Elder Pansy Estep’s (not present) yummy Caramel Cake; and the juicy, beefy “Pansy’s Tomatoes,” planted and harvested by Mary Riley this season from vintage seeds Pansy had given to her years ago. The day blessed us with fair weather and we sat beneath spreading shade trees to break bread, catch up with old friends and get to know new ones.

As festivities drew to a close, the day was made perfect as we listened to the spiritual sounds of Chilean guitarist Ali Youssefi and violinist Pam Hill from Charlottesville, VA. This concert was a gift to us from the Bahá’ís and we can’t thank them enough. The presence of the Bahá’ís on this special day during Worship speaks, as Bahá’í Sallie Grundman put it, to the “profound truth that there is one God, one religion, and that we are all One.”

In this same spirit, in October, we will again reach out to the community with a series of four Wednesday evening “open dialogues” in which we will share with seekers what is like to be a Quaker in the 21st Century.

We close with a thank-you note from a Bahá’í guest Donna Burton who best sums up the day: What a beautiful worship and fellowship you and your Quaker community so kindly shared with us today as you celebrate your 275th Anniversary here in the Valley! I felt privileged to be there amidst such love and joy.

Maggie Stetler

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

And the law of God is written in every heart, and it is there that he manifests himself; And in infinite love, according to our necessities, states, conditions. And as we are all various and different from one another, more or less, so the law by the immediate operation of divine grace in the soul is suited to every individual according to his condition. ~Elias Hicks

Hopewell Centre Meeting has experienced the death of many beloved members and family of our members in this year. It has felt as though we scarcely took a breath from the end of one memorial until the next. Many tears have been shed. In addition, many members have struggled with serious illness, and have been kept from worshiping with us in community. Others are facing major life changes in family, job, or life direction.

When a small meeting goes through a time like this, there is a strain not just on the immediate families but on the Meeting community as a whole. These are our Friends in all manner, and we weep with and for them in these difficult times. As we mourn we feel keenly the absence of loved ones who have worshiped beside us. It is a major change in our lives to turn to those we have relied on and find instead an empty space.

When we are broken and our hearts are open, it is an opportunity to feel compassion for others. We have labored to strengthen the practices that nurture our community. We have all become acutely aware of our own vulnerability, and our sensitivity to each other's needs is raised. We have had to remind each other to return to the comfort of our Quaker process , and to lean into worship for direction and spiritual solace.

We are learning how to honor the losses we have each suffered, and to turn to newfound confidants and make new friends. We are also learning how to accept the responsibilities this lays at our feet for the life of our Meeting and to deepen the pastoral care of our members, respecting that each has different ways of coping. So, even though it has been a year of losses, we are thankful that as a Meeting we had one another to support and help and live through these experiences with.

Several have commented on the presence of our many ancestors in spirit in the meetinghouse, and now some of us can feel the presence of our newly departed with them.

This year we saw three of our young adults leave for college, with two entering the Quaker leadership program at Guilford. We began the year concerned that our children's religious education program would flounder, but when new children began to attend, we found the energy and ability to meet the need. We have had an enriching round of Friendly Eights which the Meeting has expanded to two different kinds of circles, Circles of Friends, and Circle of Trust. Our Seeker's group for those wanting to deepen their understanding of Friends and of their own faith, has continued through the year.

As Friends step forward to meet identified needs of the Meeting, we feel a deepening sense of commitment to the community. In this way our meeting continues to grow. We graciously receive the new attenders who appear regularly. These people pick up some of the jobs that have stood open through loss and illness. As we call each other into accountability for the needs that face our meeting, we all grow spiritually and the empty space seems less a hole and more an opening.

In 2009 we will celebrate our 275th anniversary of Friends in the Winchester area and of Hopewell Meeting. As this year closes, we are commencing to make the plans for a series of events to commemorate our beginnings. Hearts are quickened as we think about those gone before us and we contemplate what we have to offer the world in this complex age. The coming year promises to be an exciting one full of opportunities for celebration of our heritage and faith and for outreach to the surrounding area.

Even in the midst of our sorrow, Hopewell Centre Meeting continues to flourish, and many of us are afforded an opportunity to deepen our faith, and answer the call to step into the shoes of elders. In this, we are truly blessed.

In love and light,

Linda J. Wilk, clerk

Hopewell Centre has been happily engaged in a flurry of committee meetings and plans for the yearlong celebration of our 275th year as a continuous Meeting. We will kick off our anniversary with an Open House on May 16. Everyone is invited to visit Hopewell Meeting House in Clearbrook from 1-5 p. m. to explore our 250-year old landmark building, graveyard and grounds; to learn about our unique history as Quakers who, in 1734, settled the land at Opequon, Apple Pie Ridge and Winchester; and to share in the general merrymaking -- with photo presentations, quilt displays, music and refreshments.

We plan to turn our annual Homecoming – August 30 --into a joyous end-of-summer anniversary party! And by early September we will begin a 4-week-long series of public meetings in which we’ll share our Meeting’s beliefs, values and faith-in-action experiences in the Shenandoah Valley of yesterday and today. We invite all of you at BYM to join us for these events, or simply stop by to visit or worship with us. Plese stay posted for these and other anniversary activities at the BYM website at bym-rsf.org or go to our website: hopecentre@quaker.org.

Already, in the wake of our anniversary, Meeting has experienced a revitalization of corporate spirit as we have all come together to make this year a meaningful and memorable one. We welcome the joy and blessings this day will bring to us all. And to all of you, we wish a bounteous summer.

In 2009, Hopewell Centre Meeting will be celebrating the 275th Anniversary of the formation of Hopewell Meeting in 1734. The oldest part of our Meeting House in Clearbrook, built in 1759, marks its 250th Anniversary as well. Throughout the year we will commemorate our rich history, from the coming of early Friends to “Opeckon” (Opequon) Creek and Apple Pie Ridge (from Hopewell in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) and the role of Quakers in the Shenandoah Valley, (including our links to the Underground Railroad) to our beliefs and testimonies and their relevance for the 21st Century. We invite all of you in BYM’s Monthly Meetings to join us in the celebration. Please look for announcements of events and activities we’ll be sending you via e-mail and regular mail.

On a sadder note, over the last ten months, five of our member/attenders passed away within brief months of each other. We honor their memory and pray for them again here: Ellen Huyett Janney, Irvan O’Connell, Frank Ford, Dr. Bart Harris and Elizabeth Finley. Although our sense of loss has been great, much has been learned and felt as the entire Meeting pulled together to support each other through our grief. At the same time, we have happily welcomed new attenders, many who have brought to us the greatest blessing of all – young Friends.

The Meeting has undergone a revitalization with a reorganization of our committees, and many new Friends and attenders have stepped forward to take a more active role in the business of the Meeting. Advancement & Outreach, our 275th Anniversary Committee and the entire Meeting are currently discussing Quaker Quest with great interest and excitement as we explore the possibility of using it as a major outreach tool. We hope to request the day-long QQ workshop from FGC soon.

Having transformed our Friendly Eights into Circles of Friends and Circles of Trust, we continue to build community and enjoy fellowship as we meet monthly in Friends’ homes. Circles of Trust, based on Parker Palmer’s concept put forth in A Hidden Wholeness, has been particularly gratifying to those taking part as we enter into deeper sharing in smaller groups over a longer period of time. (For more information about how this process works, contact Martha Hanley at hanleyml@msn.com.)

We leave you with this heralding of spring:

“O sweet spontaneous earth… how often have the doting fingers of prurient philosophers pinched and poked thee…has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy beauty…how often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive gods…(but true to the incomparable couch of death thy rhythmic lover…thou answerest them only with spring.) – ee cummings

This November, as we marked the 2nd anniversary of Tom Fox’s captivity in Iraq, Hopewell Centre found itself in a unique position to carry forward Tom’s ministry and honor his legacy as a peacemaker. At the request of Langley Hill Meeting we opened the doors of our Youth House in Clearbrook as a temporary safe haven for an Iraqi refugee family of seven.

With former clerk Anne Bacon at the helm, Hopewell Centre swung into action and member Susan French and others readied our Youth House. With the help of local Muslim leaders Mohammed Khodr and Zafur Jawaid, Anne was able, immediately upon the family’s arrival in Clearbrook, to set up appointments for them with Social Services, local schools, and medical doctors. Happily, our members provided transportation and donated food, school supplies, games and videos and other personal items. Young Friends Julia Melby and Susan Robare kept a friendly watch over the Iraqi teenagers who had enrolled at their high school. In the meantime, Langley Hill Friends Meeting worked diligently to find additional funding so the family could relocate to more permanent housing. So, after just a brief six weeks, our family was on their way to a new home. And although their stay with us was short, all of us who came close to the family, especially Anne and her kids, Rebecca and Matthew, gained a great deal in exchange.

For those of us who did not personally meet the family, it was a joy to see the children drop their shyness and wave to us as they played outdoors and we entered the Meeting House for first-day worship. Anne joyously reports that the mother’s polite, customary two-cheek kiss escalated to a six-cheek kiss in the course of the month! And through their interpreter, the parents told Anne they had never expected Americans to be so nice, and how impressed they were with the care and concern of the local schools’ teachers and administrators. Of course, it is poignant to also note that the husband and wife slept in the same room where Tom Fox had slumbered and found refuge of his own on return visits from Iraq. Their children also marveled to see Tom’s copy of the Quoran in English!

Langley Hill Meeting and other religious communities who have joined with them will continue to assist these families until the federal government can change their official status and make them available for assistance given other refugees. Recently Anne was able to visit with them in their new home and was pleased with how well the family was doing. They sent their greetings and thanks back to their many friends at Hopewell Center.

Our Meeting is saddened by the death on December 24 of long-time member, Hugh Stabler, at the age of 90. He will be greatly missed.

Hopewell Centre Meeting has seen a flurry of community- building activities take place over the last few months. Friendly 8s gatherings, now on-going, have done much to foster personal and spiritual relationships among members and attenders. Our new Seekers’ Group, which began as a newcomers’ study group, is attended bimonthly by all who wish to explore basic Quaker beliefs and practices and develop a sense of what we believe, individually and corporately. Some of us come to “Art Journeys” night each month to share in spirit-led art making, to gain support for our creative gifts, and to relax and have fun. As our sense of community grows, we’ve begun to reach out anew to the community around us. Reinforced with new members, Our Advancement & Outreach Committee is intent on reactivating our website; on finding new ways to make our Quaker presence known outside of Meeting and to welcome and keep new members.

Many of us, our youth included, returned from BYM Annual Meeting renewed in spirit and full of newfound knowledge. Linda Wilk, who led her “Building a Covenant Community” workshop at Annual Meeting, will be on the Committee for Restorative Justice this year, and will also serve as an alternate representative to FUM.

In September we reached out to the March4Peace Group, as they passed through Clear Brook on a walk from San Francisco to Washington, DC to protest the war. We offered them food, rest and transportation in a two-night stopover at our Youth House -- the same place where Tom Fox sojourned – during which time we exchanged information and gifts, talks of peace, hugs and good will.

We wish to congratulate Pam and Jim Smith on the opening of their new “green” store, Good Natured, in Martinsburg, WV.

In closing, we welcome Pam and Mike Hambach, our newest members, to whom the saying truly applies: they “had been [a] Friend[s] without knowing it.”

As we met together on our spiritual state over two sessions, we expressed a sense that love and understanding, patience and peace are a felt presence among us at Hopewell Centre. Six new members, and as many new attenders, attest to our welcoming and warmth. Many were drawn to us as a refuge that centers and grounds them in these tragic and turbulent times. We began 2006 with a sense of renewal, refocused on the challenges before us. With our modest growth has come the challenge of getting to know newcomers.

An open monthly fellowship group and three groups of Friendly 8s helped with this. Newcomers, in turn, had the chance to learn of Quaker faith & practice in Adult Religious Education sessions led by Linda Wilk and Marika Cutler. Occasional sharing after worship also offered time to get to know one another.

We mourned with others the death of Tom Fox who was known to our youth especially. Many of our local community members (some hearing of us for the first time in the news coverage) reached out in support to us. And we were held up through the connection that came with BYM, the larger Quaker community, and responses from around the world. We became unified with many by the larger cause of peace — our gift from Tom. Our Clerk, Anne Bacon, led us through this time in her tireless involvement with other meetings in BYM and with our youth. Marika Cutler and Anne found a way to help our youth express their grief and gratitude for Tom by collecting memories of him in a scrapbook. Though small in numbers (six-seven), our youth group has shown growth in leadership and Friends’ values both in our Meeting and in BYM. Led by Rebecca Bacon and Julia Melby, they presented the scrapbook at Annual Meeting, a significant step in their development as Quakers. In Religious Education, they learned more about conscientious objectors and explored their own leadings.

As a small Meeting with far-flung members, we are challenged to keep all committees operating — especially Advancement & Outreach and Pastoral Care. Our newsletter, E-mail and phone tree (regularly updated) all help. Maintaining two historic Meeting Houses, graveyards, grounds and a youth/guest house is overwhelming at times —physically and financially. We are blessed with the practical gifts of our longtime, trusted Treasurer, Jim Riley, and the elders among us who keep us in touch with the history we have here in our Meeting Houses.

With all the pressing needs before us, we must continually bring ourselves back to what is essential for our Meeting. Adult RE on “Deepening the Spiritual State of the Meeting” helped us focus on what makes for a “healthy Meeting”: welcoming, supporting, challenging all, offering a “spiritual home” to a diverse group, and learning to trust in the Quaker process to guide us through the inevitable conflicts. To help with this, our Ministry & Counsel worked on “Guidelines for Processing Conflicts.” Drawing on what we learned from the conflicts we weathered, we found, possibly, the most important lesson for us was that of “expectant waiting for divine guidance.”

With the arrival of new people, we are challenged to find ways of encouraging them to become more involved in the Meeting and to help them discover the gifts they may offer in service to the Meeting. In our small Meeting (30-50 on most First Days), everyone has an important contribution to make as “members one to another.” One example of this is our flourishing newsletter edited by newcomer Maggie Stetler. It has served to inspire many to share their insights, knowledge, and personal experiences, knitting us together in community.

Another example of using our gifts to serve was our hosting of Interim Meeting. New member, Pam Smith, provided the leadership (and cooking skills) as our Clerk of Hospitality Committee, a position long vacant. The feedback from those who attended, was that they were “well fed” with food and friendship.

As I write this on March 30, our Meeting holds in the Light our dear friends Bob Pidgeon who is undergoing heart surgery today, and Laura Nell Obaugh who is mourning the loss of her grandson Ian. We are grateful for all the ways that we share in the “Life of the Spirit” through times of joy and sorrow.

Out of a fall and winter that saw many health challenges for members and their extended families, we’ve emerged with a renewed sense of mutual caring and understanding. Revival of the Friendly 8’s monthly meetings were attended with great enthusiasm, giving many of us the chance to not only enjoy good food and fellowship in members’ homes, but to know each other on a more personal, deeply spiritual level. One Friend described the experience as “like having a Memorial Meeting while you were still alive!”

We were also gifted with offerings from individual members. In adult RE, Laura Nell Obaugh presented us with a mini-version of her workshop, “Conflict in Meetings,” which she delivered at last year’s Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Mary Robare shared with us her ongoing research of historic Quakers and their material culture, reading to us her soon-to-be published paper, “Quaker Networks Revealed in Quilts.” And Jordan Landes, who is now a student of Quaker history in London, shared some of her findings in “The First Recorded Epistles Exchanged Between Virginia and London Friends,” an article we recently published in our newsletter, The Monthly Silence.

In Youth First Day School, young Friends studied what it means to be a Conscientious Objector, clarifying Quaker beliefs as they pertain to CO status. We dis- cussed the laws as they exist now, and how, if the draft is re-instituted, the laws will most likely change (i.e., women would probably also be drafted). Young Friends also learned the procedure and laws pertaining to registering for the draft and how to compile documentation to support their CO claim. Two of our adult members who took different paths during wartime, came to talk to our youth – Bob Pidgeon, a WWII veteran, and Jim Riley, a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war. They answered questions that helped the youth figure out where they stood in relation to serving or not serving in the military, doing alternative service, etc.

In January, the youth went, one by one, before a Mock Draft Board composed of members of the Meeting who asked them tough questions about their beliefs and what led them to request CO status. In February, the tables were turned, when the youth became the Draft Board and the adults had to answer similar questions. If you would like more information about this project, contact Anne Bacon at am.bacon@comcast.net.

We close with a prayer for personal and world peace and a quote from Albert Camus: In the midst of winter….I learned that there is in me an invincible summer.

Submitted by Maggie Stetler

Hopewell Centre Meeting kicked off the summer as hosts of the Summer Interim Meeting on June 17. It was a great opportunity for us to have a late spring cleaning, to get organized, and spruce up the beautiful and historical, Hopewell Meetinghouse. It was also a rewarding experience for our small Meeting to combine our energies as we welcomed Friends, made them comfortable, and served up a bountiful meal.

The Youth of Hopewell Centre Meeting completed the tribute book for Tom Fox, Touched by the Light, begun during Tom’s captivity in Iraq. At BYM Yearly Meeting in August, they presented copies to Yearly Meeting and Langley Hill Meeting. Copies were also mailed to Tom Fox’s children, Andrew and Kassie. Another copy is housed at Hopewell Meetinghouse in Clearbrook where Tom sojourned with us. Many thanks to all those outside our Meeting who contributed their memories and reflections to this publication.

In the interest of continued healing within our Meeting, we have begun to resurrect Friendly 8s meetings and continue to hold an ongoing Fellowship Group. We also plan to start a group for our newcomers, of which we have a fair number. We welcome new members, Kevin Boles and Catherine Clarke; and we mourn the loss of long-time Friend, Bob Pownall who died on June 12.

Many attended the BYM Annual Meeting in Harrisonburg, bringing back news and much learning. We would like to share one newcomer’s reaction to a single day that week:

For me, the best part of the day was after dinner, when we walked outside and there, on what seemed like the edge of the earth—sun going down—was a vision of play and happiness. Friends were everywhere, including lots of children. Drums were drumming; there were circles of dancing figures. Friends sat in lounge chairs, talking and laughing. We were asked to dip our toes into a children’s swimming pool, as we watched young ones immerse themselves in the less than shallow water. Friends gave us neck and foot massages. Cake and ice cream were served, like nectar, inside. It was a sad feeling to leave that scene, which to me was my personal vision of heaven. And that day, we were indeed there.

But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. -- 1 Corinthians 12: 24-26

The spiritual state of the Meeting must mention this year the effect of Tom Fox's presence with us as he sojourned in our Youth House, and his absence from us as he returned to minister in Iraq. At the end of 2005 we had been informed of his capture, and we were patiently awaiting news of his release. As we held weekly vigils, we held both Tom and the others abducted and their captors in the Light. Sadly, at this writing, we have had news of Tom's death, and we mourn his loss even as we celebrate his life. He has had a profound impact on each of us.

Our response to this crisis is indicative of the deep spiritual well from which we are blessed to draw nourishment. Hopewell Centre Friends drew together to support each other and others during this time. Our seasoned members and new attenders alike drew strength from being part of a common spiritual body this year.

In a retreat with Arlene Kelly of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, in early summer, we felt a sense of building a faith community through a focus on healing. We found that there were some actions that particularly contributed to that healing: Trust-building through transparency of process, ability to listen without judging, and staying open through awareness of the Light in the process.

Following this process, we began a new Fellowship Group, which is open to all members and attenders and meets monthly. Here we explore what it means to be members one of another.

We continue to explore ways our meeting might share the lessons learned with the Yearly Meeting and how we might be of assistance to other monthly meetings who find themselves dealing with a difficult person in their midst. We know now that there were times when our human defensiveness caused us to shut out the loving kindness of the Light, and times which would have been better spent in prayer and listening than debating.

We have been blessed to see the number of attenders, including children, grow this year; and the quality of worship reflects the depth with which Friends are listening and sharing their inner leadings. These leadings seem to be calling us to question what we want from each other as a faith community and what we are willing to give. As we learn to share our commonalities and differences, we strengthen the body of the Meeting. Our inner perspective informs our outer actions.

We have mourned the loss of two beloved and long-time friends, Roger Koontz and Brian Landes, and we will miss each of their unique contributions. Yet these losses are balanced with the presence of new attenders and new members in our midst.

Our children's First Day School has been shored up by the efforts of a dedicated few, and by Fall of 2005, the number of children participating had begun to grow again. The children concluded the year working on a book of memories they and the adults have had of Tom Fox.

Adult RE also seems revived, thanks in part to the questions of new attenders and the strong commitment of some of our members. We have focused our adult RE on the exploration of who we are as community to each other and on the needs and interests of new people within the Meeting. We are drawn to ask the questions of what sort of spiritual body we are, by the composition of the body itself. Being spread far and wide, and being a small meeting by comparison to some, we have had to face our limitations as well as challenge each other to utilize our gifts.

The Nominating Committee faced a difficult task to fill positions vacated by many who had served long and tirelessly. As we face 2006, we have new clerks in almost all the committees, a new clerk and assistant clerk of the Meeting, and we have filled positions on committees which had been vacant. We still face challenges in fulfilling the work of the Meeting at times, due to there being a small core of people who continue to do the bulk of work for the Meeting.

The tale of a visiting attender tells much about the body of our meeting. One worship hour, a friendly but large blacksnake felt called to visit our group. As he slithered over the balcony railing and down the wall, we all felt our own callings: Someone ran, and someone attended to that person; some were amused; some frightened; some were so immersed in worship they didn't even notice. Someone came to the assistance of the snake. Some saw it as a sign, an omen or a new beginning. Silence was not broken as we all followed what it was we believed we must do.

We believe that we move forward into 2006 with a greater awareness of the needs around us, a more honest appraisal of what we are and are not able to offer each other, and a profound desire to be more connected to each other and to support our individual and corporate spiritual journeys.

Yours in the Light,

Please see our care and concern for Tom Fox below.

Our meeting continues to heal and grow since our retreat in June of last year, and we will be reporting more on that in our State-of-the-Meeting report. We regret that our website, http://hopecentre.quaker.org has been out of date for such a long period of time, due to technical difficulties. We plan to be up and running very soon. We thank our retiring Clerk; Anne Bacon, for her steadfastness and wisdom during the last five years; and we welcome our new Clerk, Carol Melby.

We are saddened to report the deaths of two beloved members, Brian Landes and Roger Koontz. We pray for peace in the world.

Submitted by Maggie Stetler,
Hopewell Centre's editor of
"The Monthly Silence" newsletter

Hopewell Centre Meeting has been much concerned and occupied with the kidnapping of Tom Fox in Iraq. Tom, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, was taken hostage in Iraq along with three other CPTers on November 26. Tom had moved into the meeting's youth house near Clearbrook last fall. He was a friend to many of us and visited our Meeting to tell us about his work in Iraq. Since Tom's capture, our now retired Clerk, Anne Bacon, has dealt with the press on many occasions and continues to do so. The Meeting continues to hold weekly vigils at Centre Meetinghouse in Winchester on Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

Prior to Tom's capture, our newsletter, "The Monthly Silence," published his monthly email letter to our Meeting in which he described his activities in Iraq. Now we are publishing selections from his - weblog (www.waitinginthelight.blogspot.com), which contains his spiritual reflections on the Iraqi people and on his purpose for being in Iraq. We have also received and published supportive outreach letters, regarding Tom, from other monthly meetings, including Alexandria and Richmond. We gratefully thank you for your compassionate words.

Our Junior Young Friends and Young Friends have been deeply affected by Tom's capture. Many of them came to know and love Tom through his work at Camp Opequon and at other Young Friends gatherings. In order to counsel and help our youth,  member Marika Cutler, who is a child and adolescent psychologist, met with them at a recent First Day session. Out of that session has come their desire to produce a book, Touched by the Light, which pays tribute to Tom and shows how he has touched their lives. They are writing memories, poems and testimonies and creating art to be included. They have also requested that this be an intergenerational project and have invited our adult members and attenders to submit their own contributions. We plan to share this book with BYM, Langley Hill, and other Meetings, as well present it to Tom and his family upon his safe return.

If you would like to join with us in this project and send a contribution of your own, send to Anne Bacon at abacon@adelphia.net, or contact her for more information at 540-662-5613.

We held a weekend retreat in June entitled, “Building a Faith Community,” which was facilitated by Arlene Kelly of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The purpose was to promote renewal of the Meeting community and healing from conflicts within the Meeting over the past year. Over 25 members and attenders participated. We look forward to continuing this process throughout the coming fall.

The spiritual state of Hopewell Centre Meeting is one of hope renewal and moving forward. We met to review last year's report and worship-share about our memories of the past year and visions for the future. For almost two years, our meeting has been dealing with a crisis that has held the meeting in a stagnant place, and although we have grown spiritually from this experience, Friends overwhelmingly expressed the desire to move forward.

Though the problems of one attender and the impact on our Meeting loomed large over us during this time of conflict, we have felt satisfied that we were able to form a care committee, help this individual find his own center, and move forward towards finding a spiritual home suitable to him.

Some new attenders expressed their grief at only knowing this as a community in pain. A sadness has been felt among members and attenders, about those missing from the meeting as a result of the conflicts within, and about the overall lack of closeness, resulting from the lack of trust of each other and the meeting.

That being said, the Meeting acknowledges many steps we are taking in the process of regaining our center as a spiritual community. A big step forward has been enlisting the help of Arlene Kelly, a member of the pastoral care committee of PYM, who has a calling to help troubled meetings. Hopewell Centre thanks the BYM Pastoral and Care Committee for their referral of Arlene to us. We will be continuing our work with Arlene to rebuild trust and communication within the meeting. We believe that understanding and accepting the experience of ALL members is a key to our healing.

We acknowledge missing first day programming for adult RE, and affirm the reinstitution of second hour activities, beginning with this process. We will continue this spring with a program utilizing the Queries and Faith and Practice of BYM.

We also lament the loss of numbers in the children's RE program, but we celebrate the continuation of the program through the devoted efforts of one or two adults and the exuberance of the remaining children. Youth have continued their first day program with the study of comparative religion and visitation to religious services of other faiths. They have been active in the camping programs, in Junior Young Friends, and in Young Friends. In addition, we wish to acknowledge the leadership that has been shown by some of the youth, in helping the adults to heal from the hurts of the past, as they both "eldered" us and led by example.

We have also made some "modern" adjustments to the functioning of the meeting, both through the electronic distribution of our newsletter (email), and through our trial of a microphone system in the meeting which enables more people to hear the messages delivered in worship and other meetings. We have continued to use Centre Meeting as a resource for community groups, and have held our monthly intergenerational meetings/potlucks there.

We must affirm that the Spirit that has been felt in Hopewell Centre for centuries still lives. Members and new attenders alike attest to this. One Friend shared that Hopewell Centre has been around a long time and experienced other serious divisions, and has survived and flourished. A new attender acknowledged the welcome and calmness she felt on attending her first worship.

The members of Hopewell Centre Meeting celebrate the presence of the Light throughout both our struggles, our victories and our ordinary daily living. As we move forward, we hope to share some of our process with other meetings.

We give thanks for our survival in this "desert experience." As we move forward, it is with a vision of renewal. In this, we see our committees active and functioning with new clerks where needed. We see vibrant Ministry and Counsel and Pastoral Care Committees, serving the Meeting with renewed excitement and commitment. We envision new members and their children engaging with the rest of us to enable us all to grow in the spirit. In this we are truly blessed.

Recently our junior young Friends group wrote a set of questions concerning Meeting for Worship and conducted a survey of the adults in our Meeting. We thought that the questions in the survey might be of general interest to Friends, so we reproduce them here:

1. How do you center yourself?
2. How do you sit still for so long?
3. What do you think about during Meeting for Worship?
4. What motivates you to come to Meeting?
5. Why does the clock move sooo slowly?
6. Why do you come to Meeting instead of worshiping by yourself?