Sunday Apr. 5 – Hybrid Silent Worship (In-Person and on Zoom), 10 am (details)
Sunday Apr. 5 – In-Person Peace & Social Concerns Discussion Group, in the First Day School, 9-9:45 am (details)
Monday Apr. 6 – “Peace Presence Vigil,” at the Thompson Federal Building (corner of Liberty & Virginia Sts.), 5:30-6 pm. (details)
Wednesday Apr. 8 – Zoom Embodying the Light, 10-11 am (details)
Thursday Apr. 9 – In-Person Brown Bag Lunch, 12 noon (details)
Thursday Apr. 9 – Zoom Meeting for Business, 7 to 8:30 pm (details)
Saturday Apr. 11 – Spring Clean-Up at the Meeting House, 9 am-12 pm
Sunday Apr. 12 – Hybrid Silent Worship (In-Person and on Zoom), 10 am (details)
Sunday Apr. 19 – In-Person Silent Worship, 10 am (details)
Sunday Apr. 19 – In-Person Peace and Social Concerns Discussion Group, in the First Day School, 11:30 am-12:15 pm (details)
Wednesday Apr. 22 – Zoom Embodying the Light, 10-11 am (details)
Sunday Apr. 26 – In-Person Silent Worship, 10 am (details)
Sunday Apr. 26 – “Love as Action” Public Silent Worship at Idlewild Park, 1-2 pm (details)
Other Important Dates
Fri. Apr. 24 to Sun. Apr. 26, College Park Quarterly Meeting Spring Gathering at Ben Lomond Quaker Center. Details: https://collegeparkquarterlymeeting.org/
Fri. July 17 to Wed. July 22 – Save the date for Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Annual Session, which will be held at California State University Monterey Bay, in Seaside, CA.
Monthly “Friend-ly News” in English and Spanish from our affiliate Pacific Yearly Meeting: https://www.pacificyearlymeeting.org/wordpress/friendly-news/
You can read about all our Quaker affiliates here.
Announcements
We hold online meetings, spiritual discussions, and yoga on Zoom throughout the year. For details on using Zoom, see our Zoom guidelines.
Reno Friends Meeting Event Details & Other Notices
Join Us for Silent Worship
Every Sunday, 10 am in the Meeting House
Reno Friends Meeting holds Silent Worship in the Meeting House every Sunday at 10 am, with fellowship afterwards. See the schedule above for the Sundays on which we hold Hybrid Worship — on those days you may join us either in person or online via Zoom. You can read more about our setup here. In the case of poor weather, road conditions, or air quality, we may move Silent Worship to Zoom only; watch your email for an alert. You may read about our COVID policy here.
Here is the recurring Zoom link for Hybrid Silent Worship:
https://zoom.us/j/98305205938?pwd=cDZseGdLbWMyYWZsZDdiN00rMjRUZz09
If you cannot attend Silent Worship with us, we invite you to send after-thoughts, joys and concerns, and requests to hold people in the Light to ministry(at)renofriends.org. Our worship clerk will read them at the next Silent Worship.
First Day School
SUn. April 26, at 10 AM in the First Day School Building
Quaker Sunday School for children is known as First Day School, and at Reno Friends it meets on various Sundays at 10 am. Children attend their class in the First Day School building and then join their parents for the last ten minutes of Silent Worship. Please email firstdayschool(at)renofriends.org if you are interested in more information.
“Love as Action” Public Silent Worship
Sun. Apr. 26, from 1 to 2 pm, in Idlewild Park
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has invited Friends across the country to gather in silent worship in public spaces to give witness to the rising authoritarianism and oppression in the United States. Shared witness reflects core Quaker principles: peace, equality, integrity, and community. And taking action publicly is a visible commitment to justice and compassion. By standing together in silence, we affirm that every person has worth, that fear and violence must give way to love and fairness, and that our communities thrive when all are welcomed.
Reno Friends Meeting will join AFSC’s “Love as Action” call for public silent worship on Sun. Apr. 26, from 1 to 2 pm at Idlewild Park, rain or shine. We invite all to bring water, a portable chair or two (if you have an extra), and anything else you need to be safe and comfortable. We will gather at the California Building, which is near the Rose Garden. This activity is in addition to our regular events on 4th Sundays (First Day School, 10 am Worship at the Meeting house, potluck).
Please register at the event website here: https://mobilize.us/s/LyGTxj
Peace and Social Concerns Discussion Group Gatherings
Sun. Apr. 5, 9-9:45 am; Sun. apr. 19, 11:30 am-12:15 pm. In the First Day School building
Reno Friends have been gathering to discuss current events and what we, as Quakers, might do about the state of the nation. These gatherings — facilitated discussions of questions that help us understand and explore the state of the world — are hosted by the Peace and Social Concerns Committee. The Discussion Group meets twice a month:
- On the first Sunday of the month, they meet before Silent Worship, from 9 am to 9:45 am;
- On the third Sunday of the month, they meet after Worship, from 11:30 am to 12:15 pm.
Both meetings in a given month will discuss the same question, to give people a chance to deepen the conversation. The gatherings will take place in the First Day School. The Peace and Social Concerns Committee (P&SC) will email out a reminder of the gathering and announce the month’s question several days in advance; watch for the update email. Stay tuned, and join us!
Young Adult Friends Group
Sat. April 11, 9-noon; Sat. May 2, 2-5 pm
Reno Meeting’s Young Adult Friends (anyone from age 18-39) will be gathering on Saturdays in April and May. Here are our next two planned YAF activities.
April: Pitch in with the RFM house and garden cleanup on April 11.
May: Lake Tahoe Hiking/Walking Worship – Tunnel Creek Trail (Incline Village) May 2, 2pm-5pm
The Ministry committee of Reno Friends Meeting plans to host monthly activities for YAFs. If you are a YAF who would like to be in our group communications or have questions about a planned event, please reach out to yaf(at)renofriends.org.
Peace Presence Vigil
Mon. Apr. 6, 5:30-6 pm AT Thompson Fed. BlD.
A Peace Presence Vigil will be held Mon. Mar. 2 from 5:30-6:00 pm outside the Thompson Federal Building in downtown Reno on the corner of Liberty and Virginia Street. Reno Friends are encouraged to attend in line with our Quaker Peace Testimony.
The Peace Presence Vigils, organized by Sierra Interfaith Action for Peace, are held on the first Monday of each month, from 5:30-6:00 pm, outside the Thompson Federal Building in downtown Reno. These 30-minute, permitted vigils are on a sidewalk and grassy area. At this time of year, it is mostly dark, other than streetlights. Many folks stand for the vigil, but we recommend you bring a camping chair if you need to sit. Young children are welcome with a guardian.
Embodying the Light
Wed. Apr. 8 & 22, 10 am on Zoom
Rhonda Ashurst will lead “Embodying the Light” class this month on Wed. Apr. 8 and Wed. Apr. 22, at 10 am on Zoom. Rhonda offers our “Embodying the Light” class of gentle yoga and Tai Chi/Qigong as a service to Reno Friends and the community.
Embodying the Light is normally held on Zoom from 10-11 am twice a month, on second and fourth Wednesday mornings, but check the schedule at the top of our newsletter, as there are occasional cancellations. The Zoom link will be sent by email. See our website for more about the practice. To be added to Rhonda’s email list for last-minute notifications, email Rhonda at rhonda.ashurst.blog (at) gmail.com.
Brown Bag Lunch
Second Thurday, Apr. 9 at 12 NOON
Join hosts Peg McCall and Melanie Scott for an in-person Brown Bag Lunch at the Meeting House, now on second Thursdays at 12 noon. Anyone who wants to share lunch and fellowship with other Reno Friends is welcome.
Managing our Hold In the Light List
Our Hold in the Light list is read by the worship clerk after our silent worship. A brief period of silence will be held after the names in the Hold In the Light list are read.
We will remove names on the list after two months unless Ministry and Oversight learns of a reason to extend listing an individual or group. In order to manage the list, M&O will periodically contact those who refer individuals for the Hold in the Light list.
Members or attenders who wish to hold the list in the Light during their own practice at home can contact lightlist@renofriends.org and ask for a current copy.
Donating to Reno Friends
Reno Friends Meeting welcomes financial donations to help support our many projects: renovating our rental cottage, making charitable grants to local and national Quaker organizations, paying our operating expenses, and funding scholarships for young attenders to travel to Quarterly and Annual Meetings. If you would like to support Reno Friends, donations can be deposited in the wooden box on the wall just below the bulletin board in the Meeting House. To arrange to make a zelle payment, or a contribution by check, email the treasurer(at)renofriends.org. Thank you from Reno Friends!
Quaker Mission Stamp Project
Suze Rand manages Reno Friends stamp contributions to the Quaker Stamp Mission Project, which supports the Quaker charity Right Sharing of World Resources. Please save your canceled stamps and give them to her or put them in the drawer of the table under the Meeting House bulletin board. No common flag stamps, please. Thanks for helping women in underdeveloped countries by donating your canceled stamps!
Outside Non-Profits That Meet at the Quaker Meeting House
Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families and Citizens Climate Lobby of Northern Nevada hold meetings at our meeting house. You can learn more here.
Carson City Worship Group
You can read about the independent Carson City Worship Group here. If anyone would like to be connected to the Carson group, just email clerk(at)renofriends.org.
Peace & Social Concerns Report: Quaker Institute for the Future
Our Peace and Social Concerns Committee has identified four organizations that may be candidates in the future for inclusion in the grants we make to outside nonprofit organizations with a Quaker connection and/or a purpose that our Meeting has decided is a priority. In 2026, we will feature these four organizations in features in the Reno Newsletter. This month’s feature is the Quaker Institute for the Future (QIF).
Quaker Institute for the Future’s website is rich with descriptions of its work, its history, and its current focus. Summarized below are quotes from the website:
The Vision of QIF: QIF envisions a global future in which humanity is in right relationship with the commonwealth of life. Our concern is global – as well as local.
The Mission of QIF: Advance a global future of inclusion, social and economic justice, and ecological well-being through participatory research and discernment.
- We see inclusion as people having secure and equitable access to the decision-making processes that affect their lives and the common good of their environments.
- We see social and economic justice as people having secure and equitable access to the means of life, and to the opportunity for making a contribution to their communities.
- We see ecological well-being as the resilience of a mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship and the continuous renewal of the whole commonwealth of life.
- We see participatory research and discernment as essential for creating the social and ecological wisdom that advances the common good.
QIF adds a Quaker voice to public discourse. It calls on Quaker experience and approaches that contribute to the advance of governance for the common good, and the promotion of values necessary for social and ecological well-being.
QIF conducts research using practices of collaborative spiritual discernment based on the Quaker tradition of “meeting for worship for business.” The Institute creates the opportunity for scholars and activists to investigate their areas of interest and commitment within the Spirit-led context of Quaker testimonies, other traditions, truth seeking and public service.
Quotes from one of the founding inspirations for QIF, Kenneth Boulding:
“The Society of Friends has a great intellectual task ahead of it… [this] task is spiritual as well as intellectual, in the sense that it involves not merely abstract knowledge, but love and community…. The search …. today is for a human identity which will permit [ humanity] to live in peace …. the true world community for which we all long. In the establishment of this world community, the Society of Friends has a great pioneering work to do.”
— Kenneth Boulding, “The Evolutionary Potential of Quakerism”, Backhouse Memorial Lecture, Australia Yearly Meeting, 1965
“I have been suggesting that one of the things we could do with is an institute for the study of clouded crystal balls … The great predicament of the human race is that all experiences are of the past but all our decisions are about the future. Unless we at least think we know something about the future, decisions are impossible, for all decisions involve choices among images of alternative futures. This is why the study of the future is more than an intellectual curiosity; it is essential to the survival of humankind itself.” — Kenneth E. Boulding, The Future: Images and Processes
In the last decade of his life Kenneth Boulding convened a project he called, “Quaker Studies on Human Betterment” in which he and fellow scholars made presentations and held discussions on various themes of social, economic, and ecological concern. The idea for Quaker Institute for the Future grew directly from this project.
QIF developed from a June 2003 gathering of Quaker economists, ecologists and public policy professionals at Pendle Hill, Wallingford PA. In preparing for this gathering, Tom Head (George Fox University), offered the following guidance:
“Our task…is not to find . . . just the right economic model, nor is it to force a large problem into a small model, but, instead, ….to open ourselves to some of the very largest questions facing humankind and to help each other towards ways of understanding . . . . how to faithfully and humbly respond to the enormity of what is before us.”
Quaker Institute for the Future is a network organization that plans and coordinates research projects. In typical projects, participants bring together available information necessary for dealing with the research questions identified. With analysis and discernment, a synthesis of understanding is created that will help advance knowledge, witness, and action on the issues of concern. Participants have engaged with each other in various configurations for the creation of books, reports, position papers, videos, workshops, and conferences:
- The Summer Research Seminars bring participants together to share their ongoing work and benefit from collective discernment on issues of concern.
- The Circles of Discernment program facilitates the creation of small study groups that research and analyze particular themes and concerns. Groups may be based in one or more Friends Meetings or in a regional location, or they may work through email, conference calls, and Zoom meetings. The goal of a CoD is sometimes to produce a Focus Book publication or other text that informs readers on a critical issue, and helps equip them for witness and action. Some of the active CoD are:
- Bridging Our Polarities
- Homeless People and Housing Justice
- The Money System
- QIF Focus Books publish the manuscripts produced by CoDs and by individual authors on themes that address the Institute’s concerns.
- QIF Youth Grants for Activist/Researchers support people 35 and younger in discerning a moral calling or spiritual leading. Support includes clearness meetings over a period of several months along with $500 to be used in whatever way is most helpful. It also includes support in finding co-sponsoring organizations to arrange an appropriate venue for sharing the results of the discernment and exploring ways to follow up on it in academic study, community-based projects, or whatever avenue best responds to the leading discerned.
The focus of the Institute’s concerns can be characterized in the following way:
* Economic behavior that increasingly undermines the ecological processes on which life depends.
* The development of technologies and capabilities that hold us responsible for the future of humanity and the earth.
* Structural violence and lethal conflict arising from the pressures of change, increasing inequity, concentrations of power and wealth, declining natural capital, and increasing militarism.
* The increasing separation of people into areas of poverty and wealth, and into social domains of aggrandizement and deprivation.
* The prevailing philosophy of individualism and its aggressive promotion as the principal means for the achievement of the common good.
* The complexity of global interdependence and its demands on governance systems and citizen’s responsibilities.
* The convergence of ecological and social crisis into life-support and societal breakdown.
The Institute expects Circles of Discernment will take up concerns relating to one or more of these broad themes.
Quotes from Keith Helmuth’s 8/1/2011 Friends Journal article on “The Spirit of Pendle Hill and the Origin of Quaker Institute for the Future”:
“I often think of the Religious Society of Friends as a sturdy greenhouse attached to the great cathedral of Christendom. Like a greenhouse, it is a structure for maximizing light within a sheltered place. It has beds of soil rich with the accumulation of years. A good deal of current composting goes on as well. Seeds that would find no rooting in the great cathedral are planted here and flourish. Sturdy plants grow here and after careful nurturing, are transplanted into the gardens and fields of the world.
Kenneth Boulding was a scientist and a poet. I think he knew that both streams of endeavor nourish a fully rounded approach to human betterment. The Quaker Institute for the Future, likewise, while deeply concerned with objective data on the state of the world, and on how to intervene against the increasing potential of catastrophe, at the same time turns an open eye to the poetry of the Spirit that lifts our work into love.”
The Quaker Institute for the Future is largely funded by love since there are currently no paid staff. They hope to be able to fund one paid employee in the future.