Seneca Valley Preparative [Sandy Spring] (Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting)

Mailing address:	c/o Nancy Swift, 12228 Wonder View Way, North Potomac, MD 20878
Meeting place address:	Kerr Fellowship Hall, Boyds Presbyterian Church, 19821 White Ground Road, Boyds, MD [Not wheelchair accessible] [No hearing assistance system][maps]
Web site:	http://senecavalleyquakers.org/
First Day schedule:	Worship, every First Day, 11:30 a.m. First Day School, 11:50 a.m. ; Potluck, 12:45 p.m.
Business Meeting schedule:	Fourth First Day of the month, 1:30 p.m.
Travel directions:	From I-270, take Exit #10 MD Route 117 ( Clopper Road ) northwest to Boyds (about 6.5 miles). At the stop sign in Boyds, leave Route 117 (which turns right through an underpass) and go straight ahead onto White Ground Road . The church is on the left approximately 2/10 of a mile down White Ground Road . Park in the far parking lot. We meet in the back building, 19821White Ground Road, Kerr Fellowship Hall, on the second floor.
Clerk:	Lowell Christy;
Treasurer:	Thomas Shapiro;
Ministry & Oversight:	Melinda Kramer;
Religious Education:	Annette Breiling

On the weekend of June 9th Seneca Valley Preparative Meeting (Boyds, MD) hosted a retreat at Camp Catoctin featuring a Spiritual Journey Workshop led by JoAnne Coates-Hunter (Frederick Friends Meeting), an extensive tour of Thorpewood Environmental Center led by Sam Castleman, evening singing led by Richard and Brenda Broadbent (Frederick Meeting), and Sunday morning Meeting for Worship.

The wedding of Seneca Valley member Beth Osuch and Murray Shaw was carried out in good order on Saturday, June 3, under the care of Sandy Spring Friends Meeting at the Sandy Spring Meetinghouse. In preparing for this occasion Seneca Valley Friends were particularly grateful for the assistance of Mochiko and Alan DeSilva and Nancy McIntyre of Sandy Spring Friends Meeting. On July 22 Lowell Christy, clerk of Seneca Valley, and his son Ross represented the Meeting at a recognition wedding ceremony held for Beth and Murray at Coldstream Meeting (London, Ontario, Canada) where the couple now resides.

In the coming months, Seneca Valley anticipates asking Chesapeake Quarterly Meeting to consider taking Friends Meeting School under its care. The school (pre-K through 8th grade), located in Ijamsville, MD, has been under the spiritual care of Seneca Valley since 2000.

The new DVD by Landrum Bolling, Search for Peace in the Middle East, is being distributed through Seneca Valley to Quaker organizations interested in discussing the troubling situation in that part of the world. To request a copy, contact Lowell Christy at lowell@cityofmind.com.

At the same time that our group of members and regular attenders has decided to celebrate and “minute” the spiritual gifts of three individuals who worship with us regularly, we recognize that a preparative meeting of our size must tend to the practical matters which sustain our ability to function as a group. We need sufficient human and financial resources to fuel our leadings to act upon the Quaker testimonies and queries which inspire us and multiply our connections with the wider world of Quakerism.

Lowell Christy, the Meeting’s clerk, wrote the following descriptions of the three women whose contributions we celebrate at this time.

“Annette Breiling for her gift of education and learning and her leading to start her second Quaker school – Friends Meeting School. I feel that this small meeting has been very successful in providing leadership in support of Annette’s leading of Quaker education. A campus of 54 acres, over 100 students and a million dollar budget in less than 10 years is a great accomplishment. But these ten years are only part of the story of a life lived according to a vision of bringing positive change to the lives of so many children and their families.

“Susan Soderberg for her gift of bringing history to life and her leadings that ultimately brought to Montgomery County interpretive events of the Underground Railroad, preservation of the Boyds Negro School and preservation of ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Recent hate crimes (January 8, 2006) against Black Churches in our area and the Boyds school underline the importance of this work.

“Nancy Swift for her profound gift of hospitality and as an ambassador for Quaker thought and practice. As the first person many people meet on First Day at Seneca Valley Preparative Meeting, or speak to on the telephone or in person at Sidwell Friends School where she works, her gift of hospitality and understanding of Quaker process shines. She is not just the face of Quakerism for the Meeting and the schools with which she is associated but their heart. I am sure that even when she goes about her everyday chores of picking up bagels for pot-luck or attending her beloved dance and arts performances she is that quiet Ambassador for Friends.

My purpose is not to elevate these three strong women to some Quaker Hall of Fame or canonize them into Quaker Sainthood, but to allow all of us to see the other and in turn to see ourselves ‘for the first time.’ These three women are known by the ways in which their lives speak. When the Light of the Spirit walks abroad with the Mind and World, things are not just changed, they are transformed.”

Individuals outside of this Meeting concerned about the spiritual and financial health of SVFPM, along with the efforts of our own members and attenders to increase the Meeting’s presence in the wider community, have brought positive change to this Meeting since last year’s report. The Meeting’s connections to Friends Meeting School, which is under our spiritual care, Sandy Spring Friends Meeting, which has oversight over us, and Frederick Friends Meeting, have become stronger, even though our size has basically remained the same.

Through Annette Breiling’s efforts, Friends Meeting School has increased its commitment to inter-faith and multi-cultural activities. The School’s board wants any new construction to include appropriate “sacred space” for Meeting for Worship.

Several members of the Friends Meeting School board or its committees are members or attenders of Frederick Friends Meeting. The leadership of the Frederick Meeting has agreed to introduce the question of strengthening its ties with FMS at the opportune time.

The wedding of Beth Osuch and Murray Shaw in the Sandy Spring Friends Meeting House in early June will be overseen by a committee of Sandy Spring Friends and Seneca Valley Friends.

We are planning to meet with members of Sandy Spring Friends to explore what day-to-day responsibilities for our spiritual and financial health SVFPM can assume as we consider the benefits and obligations of becoming a fully functioning monthly meeting.

Age-related issues are becoming ever more significant in our group. We seek to be appropriately responsive to the needs of our friends coping with physical and relationship difficulties. To be together on First Day to share our joys and sorrows and strengthen our spiritual lives has become increasingly enriching for all of us.

Seneca Valley Meeting was pleased to welcome Carol Briggs into membership in spring 2005.  This is in addition to welcoming Tom Shapiro, who became a member fairly recently. Also accepted into full membership from associate membership were Seth, Trevor, and Tristan Dietz, sons of Jeanne Bowes. We were sorry, however, to have to say “until we meet again” to Beth Osuch, who has moved to London, Ontario, Canada, to take a position at the University of Western Ontario.  Beth will be sojourning with Friends in the London area and maintaining her membership with Seneca Valley/Sandy Spring for the time being.

Seneca Valley Preparative Meeting hosted Chesa-peake Quarterly Meeting on March 14, 2004.  All but two Monthly Meetings were able to send representatives. Approximately 40 people were present for worship and lunch.  Following quarterly meeting with a concern for business, Seneca Valley Friends benefited from advice, observations, and inspirational messages regarding the growth processes of small meetings.  Sen-eca Valley wishes to thank members and visitors alike for their participation and support.