Lynchburg

Membership

We remain tiny - we have 3-6 people most first days. We note that each time someone leaves our group, someone else seems to come. We do a modest amount of outreach, giving programs at area churches and organizations when asked (this month Hannah McLay and Heidi Koring did a presentation on Quakerism at Unity of the Seven Hills that has resulted in a couple of inquiries).

Meeting as community:

While we still remain a very small group, the size has its advantages. We know each other very well and have cared for and responded to each other's needs at various times. We are committed to being a caring community. We don't interact with friends outside of Lynchburg nearly as much as we should. We do, however, welcome visitors and in addition to visitors from Roanoke, Nancy Wellons' sister Martha from New Garden in NC is a welcome and fairly frequent guest.

For the welcome presence of children, see below.

Meeting for worship:

Carter Smith, our new 6-month-old regular attender has been a real boon to the quality of worship at our meeting. As someone said last first Day, he has added greatly to the quality of vocal ministry both by inspiring vocal ministry and through his own example. Our worship is more silent than not, but rich, I think because we are such a rich group for such a small group, ranging in age from 6 months to 84 and in spiritual conviction from very mainline Christian to universalist and non-theistic.

Though largely silent, our meetings do have occasional vocal ministry. And "afterthoughts" continue the thread of our meeting after the rise of meeting.

Meetings for Business:

Good order is woefully (or joyously, depending on your point of view) absent from our business meetings. When we need to conduct business, we are so small that we either reach unity quickly or else can agree to lay things over informally. But we get done what needs to get done.

Testimonies:

To use a probably unwelcome military metaphor, Nancy Wellons leads the charge when it comes to witnessing and social action. Her activism with the Battered Women's Shelter and now with Jamaica have led us to our modest involvement with the shelter/food bank/Salvation Army (we gather and donate food to the food bank and shelter individually and corporately, we gather toys for the Salvation Army's Christmas stocking drive each year) and to Jamaica. We send money and material down with Nancy when she goes to Jamaica. We are in initial discussions about adopting a preschool or small congregation's Sunday school.

About once a year, Heidi, as clerk, sends a letter to the editor of the local paper about some issue that goes against Friends' testimonies, usually the peace testimony. The letter is composed as a group endeavor.

Religious Education:

Adult and children's religious education has been a real "bust" in Lynchburg. We've tried all sorts of approaches to adult religious education from reading and discussing articles from Friends Journal to discussing the queries. While we've had rich individual discussions, we can't seem to pick up momentum. Now that Carter and Amy's children are occasional attenders, we may need to develop a first day curriculum for children. When we've discussed this need the one thing we all agree on is that the parents should bear the brunt of this.

Other issues:

Even though we're a very small group, it's amazing that we've been meeting in Lynchburg for over 15 years.

Lynchburg Indulged continues as a small but stable worship group with four to seven attending every Sunday. The quality and depth of worship and community is nourishing for all. Many members have expressed concern about the lack of vocal ministry: however, discussions after meeting centering on matters of faith have been deep and enriching. As has happened every year, even our small group has dealt with serious health and employment concerns of individual members. Members and attenders expressed gratitude for the degree of prayerful support they have received from meeting during times of stressful transition.

We continue to be active in service in the community and beyond. Some new attenders who are active in the Free Clinic have directed our interests and activities in that direction while a member with an active concern for missions in Jamaica helped us to conduct a very successful food and clothing drive for material aid to Jamaica. We were also very active presenters at the fall retreat sponsored by Quaker Presbyterian Church. Although we continue to be concerned that we aren't growing as a meeting, we remain faithful to the Spirit and to each other.