Quaker Lake Friends Meeting remains a very small meeting. In fact, by the end of 2007 we had only two regular attenders. We did have a number of visitors during the year, but for reasons we could not ascertain, none decided to continue attending for the long term. It was certainly not for lack of attention.

Two of our members have been sojourning in Canada near family for almost three years. We would certainly like to see them return for at least part of the year, but they are perhpas more needed where they are. In short, we are keeping the meeting alive, but just barely. We appreciate anyone who may be moved to hold us in the Light.

About half our meetings for worship in 2007 were silent ones. Answers in response to the question of what we do in worship included opening our hearts to the Spirit, seeking personal direction, and holding people as well as national and world issues in the Light. At the end of worship we sang several songs.

During our discussion hours, we often read and discussed articles from various sources such as spirituality, war and peace, human rights, and the environment. Our inteded focus of these discussions was the discerning of new ways to live with greater integrity and responsibility towards the earth and the human family.

Again in 2007 we participated in the Amnesty International holiday and summer card actions by sending cards with enclosed notes to prisoners and human rights activists around the world. We continued to administer the Virginia Death Row Prisoner Support Fund which supplied periodic small monetary gifts to needy prisoners. Letters were sent to the prisoners along with gifts and correspondence with some results. On the night of state executions we visited at the Farmville courthouse.

In spite of our small size, we feel blessed by our friendships, our worshipping, sharing, and working together, and the Spirit's nurture in our lives.

Our Quaker Lake community continued to be a small, but intimate group in 2006. We missed our two Friends, Charlie and Dianne, sojourning in Canada, but we look forward to their return for part of 2007. Also missed are Jennifer and baby James who departed in mid-year so that Jennifer could return to school. We welcome a new attender, Jim, who plans to spend summers in our area and winters in Mississippi. Tom lived with one of our members for part of year and attended meetings during his stay. While 2006 may perhaps be described as a year of waiting and holding on, we expect 2007 to be a time of growth with old members returning and new attenders joining us.

During 2006 there seemed to be an ebb and flow of vocal ministry during meetings for worship. Weeks would pass with little or no spoken messages followed by a sudden burst of ministry for a week or two. Whether there are spoken message or not, all have come to value and be at peace in the seeking of God’s presence in the silence,

Among our deepest concerns are the ongoing war in Iraq, the death penalty and torture, and the environmental crisis, and these were the focus of many discussion hours. An interesting series was on the Quaker testimonies considered from an ecological perspective.

We continued our support of a child from the African country of Burkina Faso. We also maintained a fund that provides periodic monetary gifts to needy Virginia death row prisoners. At the same time we corresponded with the prisoners supported by the fund. Our advocacy work focused on the environment, human rights, and peace issues. Of particular note, in the summer and at Christmas, we worked together writing cards of encouragement and support to prisoners of conscience and human rights workers around the world. With more Friends involved in the Meeting during 2007 we anticipate an expansion of our peace and social justice witness.

Quaker Lake Meeting continues to be a very small meeting, especially since Charlie and Dianne Obler's move to Canada to be close to family. We felt blessed to have a couple of visitors toward the end of the year, but they, having the same environmental concerns as we, were unwilling to travel an hour to meeting. We believe, though, that we are welcoming of visitors. On those infrequent occasions when visitors are present, we typically take significant time to mutually share something of our stories and commitments and so to reveal our Meeting as a rather intimate family into which they ° are welcomed. In September, Jennifer Mosher gave birth to a baby boy, James. The rest of us have looked forward to James' presence at meeting each week and to interacting with him as he rapidly develops. If not in numbers, we have grown in our mutual support and in spiritual openness.

For more than a year, we have normally met at the home of Nels Beck in Hampden Sydney, and we appreciate his willingness to open his home for the purpose. But, during the year, we changed our meeting time from the early evening to mid-day. Most feel this enhances alertness and thus the quality of our worship. One Friend finds worship to be very calming and peaceful and sometimes wishes the worship hour would continue on. At times there has been a sense of the divine embrace or overshadowing. One memorable worship was an especially emotional meeting just before Dianne and Charlie left for Canada. The form of vocal ministry is as often prayer as reflection. The concern in previous years about the meeting's being too political for some or not political enough for others seems to have been largely resolved. It is hoped this reflects a deeper melding of the spiritual and the political.

When our discussion hour following worship has not focused on some personal or global concern, it has been a time of reading and reflecting on one or another book, including The Hidden Gospel, by Neil Douglas-Klotz, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, by Marcus Borg, and Apocalypse of the Word: The Life and Message of George Fox, by Douglas Gwyn.

Since our shift to mid-day worship, potlucks have become special evening occasions to fellowship and celebrate together.

Our justice concerns include U.S. imperialism, especially as evidenced in the unfolding tragedy in Iraq, environmental degradation, a lukewarm U.S. commitment to renewable energy, and torture, the death penalty, and other violations of human rights. While we value our individual contributions to a better world, we realize we can do more but that our meeting size limits what we can do as a group.

Nevertheless, as a Meeting we continued our sponsorship of Sessere, a girl from the African country of Burkina Faso; we administered the Virginia Death Row Prisoner Support Fund to help needy death row prisoners; we wrote to and on behalf of death row prisoners, prisoners of conscience, those subjected to torture, and human rights workers; and we advocated on behalf of environmental sustainability and nonviolent solutions to conflict. Of particular note, we were happy that there were no executions in Virginia during 2005. Robin Lovitt, whom we had befriended for years and on whose behalf we had advocated, did have his death sentence commuted only hours before his scheduled execution. In fact, we were vigiling at the Farmville courthouse before we heard the good news.

Publication of Peace Seeds was suspended during 2005 primarily due to the editor's increased need to care for elderly parents. He requests the forbearance of Friends who may have missed it and expresses hope that publication will resume in the future.

It is the prayer of Quaker Lake Friends that God's peace, light, joy, truth, and compassion may shine through our lives and shared witness.

We are dismayed at the apparent values held by so many in this country, as evidenced by the recent, fraudulent election. The general feeling is that the U.S. empire is beyond reform and is, in fact, on a course of self-destruction. We are reminded that empires typically overextend themselves militarily and subsequently collapse economically. As we witness environmental, political, and moral decay on every side, we are drawn more deeply inward to find divine healing and renewal and new resolve and strength for the journey ahead. Most of us have adopted one or more spiritual practices--prayer, nature meditation, spiritual reading, yoga, chanting--to aid us on the way. And we have been led during this period of the Iraqi war to reflect on how we can be creative instruments in the building of a new society even as the old unravels and decays.

Toward the end of 2004, we gained a regular new attender with Quaker background. She has brought youthful energy and fresh insight and a beautiful voice to enhance our singing. Her presence has given us hope that our Meeting can indeed grow.

Our new attender's presence has also coincided with a blossoming of vocal ministry in worship following a period of rather infrequent messages. One Friend said he has overcome his aversion to speaking in worship. Often messages have been thematically connected, later ones building on earlier ones. It is felt that our singing at the beginning of worship sets the tone for contemplation. It also gives voice to our aspirations for justice and freedom. For much of the first half of the year, we also had a time of chanting and vocal prayers for the needs of specific people and specific global situations. Our group hug at the end of worship gives us a sense of familial closeness and spiritual unity and expresses our appreciation for one another.

Many of our discussions were on the book, The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus. We have been reading it together and discussing it, section by section. The various Aramaic nuances of the sayings of Jesus suggest a less judgmental, less dogmatic tone than most of the English translations of the New Testament. One Friend finds that this interpretive understanding has given her a new acceptance of troubling biblical passages and concepts. For example,"sin" in this Aramaic interpretation is "disharmony with the universe" and "good" is "ripe" while "evil" is "unripe". Or again, the saying, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me," sounds exclusivistic until it is considered that Aramaic has no verb "to be". The "I am", the Source of Life, the Creative Force, was in Jesus, but is also in each of us.

Our potlucks following discussion hour continued to be joyous occasions of sharing good and much appreciated food as well as personal experiences from the past and present. During 2004 we continued our support for Sessere, a young girl from Burkina Faso; helped Virginia death row prisoners with periodic small gifts from the Virginia Death Row Prisoner Support Fund and corresponded with them; and advocated on behalf of victims of torture, political prisoners, and those facing execution.

SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE MEETING REPORT - 2003

In considering what to include in this report, we focused largely on the question of how well the Meeting has served our needs. This elicited much fruitful discussion with both positive and negative feelings expressed:

• "Meeting is the highlight of the weekend for me."
• "I sometimes feel as if I'm just here if there is only silence during worship."
• "I feel as if I'm treading water, not growing."
• "The Meeting has provided spiritual bonding and nurture for me."
• "I have felt loved; this has enhanced my self-worth, which had become low because of guilt feelings with regard to my sexual orientation."
• "I want to recover my childhood sense of love before cynicism about the world set in."

While we expect to report more fully next year on the fruits of this self-reflection, we can say at this point that the discussion and our participation in FUM's Chain of Prayer have prompted us to extend our worship to 1-1/2 hours with the first half hour consisting of singing, chanting, and intercessory prayer focused on a specific trouble spot or situation around the world.

Toward the end of the year we had a couple of threshing sessions to consider our ministries. We seemed to be led to two new possibilities, after-school tutoring and a vigil on the values we want to see fostered in society, which we hope to initiate in 2004.

Our other ministries, an Amnesty International group, death row correspondence, execution-night vigils, administering the Virginia Death Row Prisoner Support Fund, advocacy, letters-to-the-editor (Farmville Herald), our newsletter Peace Seeds, and supporting a child from Burkina Faso, continue.

Our discussions during 2003 included the meaning of sense of the meeting, the importance of church-state separation, the erosion of civil liberties, and, of course, the war against Iraq. A potluck meal follows Meeting for Worship and the discussion hour each week, and this, given our small size, provides a lively forum for the sharing of personal concerns.

During the last months of the year, we began to meet in Hampden Sydney at the home of a member. This is a more central location for present attenders and may, it is hoped, attract new attenders from the surrounding community.