For the schedule of upcoming events, see the list below. For the monthly Queries, see December: Meeting for Worship. (The blue text on this page and within this web site contains embedded hypertext links. Click on a link to open the web page associated with that link.)
Announcements
We are happy to announce that Reno Friends Meeting has returned to the Meeting House for Silent Worship at 10 am on Sundays. Twice a month, on First and Third Sundays, we will have Hybrid Silent Worship, which will be both on Zoom and In-Person from the Meeting House. Our First Day School for children is open, with a varied schedule of classes on Zoom or in the Meeting House garden (for COVID safety.) We are also holding online meetings, spiritual discussions, book discussions and yoga on Zoom. For details on using Zoom, see our Zoom guidelines.
December 2022 Reno Friends Meeting Schedule
NOTE: There is NO Meeting for Business this month, and there is NO Potluck or First Day School on Sun., Dec. 25. (Instead, there is In-Person First Day School and an Intergenerational Solstice Potluck and Cookie Exchange on Dec. 18; see below for details.) There also is NO Spiritual Discussion this month. Our regular schedule will resume in January, 2023.
Sun. Dec. 4 – Hybrid Silent Worship (on Zoom and In-Person), 10 am (details)
Sun. Dec. 11 – In-Person Silent Worship, 10 am (details)
Sun. Dec. 11 – Zoom First Day School, “Testimonies Overview,” 10 am (details)
Tues. Dec. 13 – RFM Book Club on Zoom, 4-5 pm (details)
Wed. Dec. 14 – Embodying the Light on Zoom, 10-11 am (details)
Thurs. Dec. 15 – Last day to donate to the Winter Clothing and Food Drive
Thurs. Dec. 15 – Knitting Social, with Catie, 10 am (details)
Thurs. Dec. 15 – In-Person Brown Bag Lunch, with Melanie and Peg, 12 noon (details)
Sun. Dec. 18 – In-Person Silent Worship, 10 am (details)
Sun. Dec. 18 – In-Person First Day School, “The Solstice,” 10 am (details)
Sun. Dec. 18 – Intergenerational Solstice Potluck and Cookie Exchange, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm (details)
Sun. Dec. 25 – Hybrid Silent Worship (in-person and on Zoom), 10 am (details)
Sun. Dec. 25 – There will be NO First Day School or Potluck this 4th Sunday because of the Christmas holiday.
Wed. Dec. 28 – Embodying the Light on Zoom, 10-11 am (details)
Other Important Dates
November 1st – December 15th – RFM non-perishable food and seasonal/warm clothing drive (details)
Reno Friends Meeting Event Details & Other Notices
Join Us for Silent Worship Back in the Meeting House
Reno Friends Meeting has returned to the Meeting House for Silent Worship, at 10 am, with fellowship afterwards. We ask that attenders be vaccinated and boosted; masks are optional. If necessary, we may open doors and/or windows for air. We plan to run our air purifiers. If you are not feeling well, we ask that you stay home, even if you are vaccinated. If you test positive and have attended Silent Worship or another indoor Reno Friends event within the previous two days, please contact clerk (at) renofriends.org.
For Hybrid Worship, we will use a webcam and a small video screen so that in-person attendees and remote/Zoom attendees can see each other. The chairs inside the Meeting House that will be off camera are so marked, so you may sit off camera if you prefer. If you are moved to speak during hybrid Silent Worship, please use the mic or ask for the handheld mic so that everyone, including remote attendees, can hear you.
Going forward, we plan to hold Hybrid Silent Worship (Zoom and In-Person) twice a month on First and Third Sundays. Here is the recurring Zoom link for Hybrid Silent Worship:
https://zoom.us/j/98305205938?pwd=cDZseGdLbWMyYWZsZDdiN00rMjRUZz09
For Hybrid Silent Worship on Zoom, we have developed a set of Zoom Worship guidelines. For those who would like to learn more about Zoom in advance, go to https://westernfriend.org/media/how-use-zoom-videoconferencing. If you would rather sit in Silent Worship quietly at home rather than online, we invite you to send after-thoughts, joys and concerns, and requests to hold people in the Light to Rhonda at classes(at)renofriends.org. Our worship clerk will read them at the next Silent Worship.
Occasionally, we may need to run Parallel Silent Worship, which means that the Zoom Meeting will be separate from the In-Person Meeting in the Meeting House. For Parallel Zoom Worship, use the zoom link above.
First Day School: Sun. Dec. 11 on Zoom, 10-11 am; and Sun. Dec. 18 in-person, 10-11, followed by the Intergenerational Solstice Party. (NOTE: there will be no in-person FDS on Sun. Dec. 25)
First Day School meets in Zoom classes on the second Sunday of the month and, for December, in-person on the third Sunday/Potluck Sunday. The theme for December is an overview of the Testimonies, and also the winter solstice. On in-person Sundays, the children sit in worship with their parents for the first ten to fifteen minutes before class and then hold class outdoors for COVID safety, as weather allows. Please contact the Meeting if you are interested in bringing children to the First Day School for the first time or would like to have your children attend First Day School on a Sunday other than the second or fourth Sundays. You can email us at clerk (at) renofriends.org.
Winter Food & Clothing Drive and Local Volunteer Opportunities, from the Peace and Social Concerns Committee, Nov. 1 through Dec. 15
Don’t forget to bring donations for our annual RFM Winter Food and Clothing Drive, which will run until Dec. 15. Hats, mittens, gloves, scarves, jackets and other winter wear, along with non-perishable foods, are all welcome. There will be a drop box at the Meeting House, as well as one in the community. See the Weekly Update for details. The drive is, once again, being graciously hosted by Peg McCall.
The Reno Friends Book Club, Dec. 13, from 4-5 pm
The RFM Book Club meets monthly on second Tuesdays, from 4-5 pm on Zoom. This month (December), the book club will meet Tues. Dec. 13 at 4 pm to discuss The Barn at the End of the World, by Mary Rose O’Reilley. “Deciding that her life was insufficiently grounded in real-world experience, Mary Rose O’Reilley, a Quaker reared as a Catholic, embarked on a year of tending sheep. In this often hilarious book, O’Reilley describes her time in the barn as well as an extended visit to a Buddhist monastery in France. She seeks, in both barn and monastery, a spirituality based not in “climbing out of the body” but rather in existing fully in the world.” (from Amazon) Read more about the book from the publisher.
The book for the January RFM Book Club meeting will be The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd. Read more about the author and the book on the author’s website.
Questions for the group to discuss can be sent to the the book club moderator at bookclub(at)renofriends.org. The Zoom link for the gathering will be sent out in the RFM Weekly Update email.
Embodying the Light: Wed. Dec. 14 on Zoom & Wed. Dec. 28 on Zoom, 10-11 am
Rhonda Ashurst leads our “Embodying the Light” class of gentle yoga and Tai Chi/Qigong as a service to Reno Friends and the community. The class is usually held on Zoom from 10-11 am, on second and fourth Wednesday mornings. This month, the Zoom sessions will be Wed. Dec. 14 and Wed. Dec. 28. The Zoom link will be sent in the Weekly Update. See our website for more details.
Knitting Social, Thurs. Dec. 15, 10 am to 12 pm
Please join us for a knitting social at the meeting house, December 15th at 10:00am, prior to Brown Bag Lunch. All are welcome whether you’re new to knitting or crocheting or have been doing it for years. Bring any projects you’re currently working on or start new. Additionally, please bring any extra supplies you’re willing to share/donate to fellow Friends. We will encourage folks to work on projects that they can finish over the course of the month to be donated on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service January 16th, 2023. Please email Catie Polley at catiepolley@gmail.com with any questions or concerns. Happy knitting! Brown Bag Lunch, Thurs. Dec. 15, at 12 noon.
Brown Bag Lunch, Thurs. Dec. 15, at 12 noon
Join hosts Peg McCall and Melanie Scott for an in-person Brown Bag Lunch at the Meeting House on Thurs. Dec. 15 at 12 noon. Anyone who wants to share lunch and fellowship with other Reno Friends is welcome.
Intergenerational Solstice Potluck and Cookie Exchange, Dec. 18, 11:30 am
Our potluck in December will be on Sunday, Dec . 18 (third-Sunday), and will be an Intergenerational Solstice party led by the First Day School, as well as a cookie exchange. Please bring something for the potluck, two to three dozen of your favorite holiday cookies to share, and a good supply of smiles!
Remembrance Gathering, January 2023, Date TBA
Reno Friends plans to hold a Remembrance Gathering on a Saturday in January of 2023. The gathering will give those who have lost someone or something important to them in the past few years. We plan a gentle gathering around a table, with a chance for people to say or share something about who or what they have lost, and to light a candle. We will share a potluck lunch, hopefully with lots of comfort foods. And all are welcome! You do not need to have lost anyone or something; everyone in the Meeting community is welcome to come and provide love and support for those who have experienced loss. If you are interested in participating, please send an email message to classes@renofriends.org saying you would like to attend, and which Saturdays in January you are available. Please include as many options as possible. We will announce the date once we have it set.
Next Zoom Spiritual Discussion: Tues. Jan. 24, “Quakerism 101: Quaker History,” from 7-8 pm
Over the next months, Reno Friends will use the spiritual discussions to explore Quakerism 101, a program to learn more about Quaker faith and practice. On January 24, we will be discussing Quaker history. We are using a curriculum developed by the Chapel Hill Friends of North Carolina: https://www.chapelhillfriends.org/Q101.html. Each month we will have a different topic and some brief readings. The sessions will then be a chance for Reno Friends to talk and share on the topic. It is not necessary to attend every session in this ongoing series. We do ask that you read the assigned readings ahead of each session (they are all online–see link, above) and come prepared to discuss the material. There will be a facilitator to summarize each reading and pose some queries for us to discuss.
We meet for an hour on 4th Tuesdays from 7-8 pm on Zoom and cover what we can during that time, continuing on in the next month’s session. If you have questions, please email them to classes@renofriends.org. We plan for a leisurely pace, spreading the material in each Chapel Hill curriculum session (there are four) over several of our monthly discussions.
The Zoom links, session topics, and background info for each topic will be sent out in the RFM Weekly Updates. Here is the tentative schedule of Quakerism 101 Topics:
Feb. 28, 2023: Meeting for Worship – Centering Down
Mar. 28, 2023: Meeting for Worship – Vocal Ministry
Apr. 25, 2023: Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business (Edie?)
May 23, 2023: Clearness Committees
June 27, 2023: Quaker Testimonies
July, 25, 2023: Quaker Faith in Action
Aug. 22, 2023: Quakerism of the Future (Catie)
The Spiritual Discussion Committee includes: Rhonda Ashurst, Earl Piercy, Catie Polley and Cliff Smith. The committee welcomes your ideas/topics and encourages you to join us to facilitate a topic of interest to you.
Donating to Reno Friends in 2022
If you would like to support Reno Friends Meeting this summer, donations should be sent to our Meeting Co-Treasurer Katie Dwyer at her home at 40 Arbor Oak Court, Reno, NV 89509. Or you can send money to the Meeting via your bank using the Zelle payment application, which most banks offer for free. To make a Zelle transfer, you’ll need Reno Friends’ bank account number, which you can get by emailing treasurer (at) renofriends.org. Zelle eliminates the need to write a check and, for our Treasurers, to deposit your check at the bank. Thank you from Reno Friends!
Quaker Earthcare Witness
Those who support Quaker Earthcare Witness, a Quaker-led environmental group, say they believe it is important for Quakers to have a place to share concerns about the planet within the context of Quaker values, while also being cared for. One member said: “It is inspiring to be a small part of a community of Earthcare activists.” If you’ve enjoyed and benefited from reading BeFriending Creation this year, please consider making a donation to support our efforts. In peace, Hayley Hathaway, Editor, BeFriending Creation
For suggestions of books recommended by Quaker Earthcare Witness, click here: https://www.quakerearthcare.org/article/qews-favorite-books
Carson City Worship Group
The Carson City worship group meets every Sunday of the month for unprogrammed worship from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm in the living room of the Rectory of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Carson City. Attenders are asked to wear a mask. St. Peter’s, located at 314 North Division Street, occupies a small city block in the heart of Carson City’s Historic District. The Rectory, an historic two-story brick house, sits just south of the church building. If anyone would like to be connected to the Carson group, just email clerk(at)renofriends.org.
Quaker Mission Stamp Project
Read all about it! The current online Right Sharing of World Resources newsletter is focused on the stamp mission that Reno Friends Meeting has been supporting for decades. Learn how this Quaker organization helps women in Sierra Leon, Kenya, and India support themselves, which in turn helps their families and villages. https://rswr.org/sites/default/files/Newsletters/2022-Q1-Newsletter.pdf
Outside Non-Profits That Meet at the Quaker Meeting House
NOTE: These groups are negotiating their return to our Meeting House. Please contact the groups directly for updates.
Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families meets every Thursday from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm, and every Saturday from 5 pm to 6 pm. ACA is a world service 12-step program for those struggling with the legacy of growing up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional home. These groups are open to all.
Citizens Climate Lobby of Northern Nevada works with local and national legislators to pass a carbon tax and dividend to help stop global warming. CCL meets the 4th Tuesday of the month, 6:30 to 8 pm (except for Dec.). For more info, email Betsy Fadali at bfadali(at)sbcglobal.net. Feel free to bring friends and neighbors, if they are interested. For more on CCL, go to www.citizensclimatelobby.org.
Other Quaker Activities & Announcements
College Park Quarterly Meeting
UPDATE? The next College Park Quarterly will be held January 14th, location TBD. Registration details will be posted online at https://collegeparkquarterlymeeting.org/.
Reno Friends Monthly Meeting is a member of College Park Quarterly Meeting (CPQM), a quarterly meeting of the unprogrammed Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in northern California and northern Nevada. CPQM holds Quarterly Meetings in the Winter, Spring and Fall, which are gatherings of Quakers from all the member Monthly Meetings, and it also provides support for member Meetings. There are 24 Monthly Meetings and six Worship Groups in CPQM.
Pacific Yearly Meeting
Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Annual Session 2022 was held July 22-27, 2022. You can read about the 2022 annual session on PacYM’s website, here. Annual Session 2023 will be a hybrid event (in-person gathering with opportunities for remote or online participation) held at Mount Madonna Center July 21-26, 2023.
Pacific Yearly Meeting is a community of “unprogrammed” Friends (Quaker) Meetings in parts of Mexico and the western USA. After decades of independence, PYM recently became affiliated with Friends General Conference. In FGC there is another PYM, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, so Pacific Yearly Meeting is now known as PacYM instead. Reno Monthly Meeting is a member of PacYM, and uses the PacYM book Faith and Practice which sets out the beliefs of Friends, PacYM’s structures and processes, and the spiritual foundation of these processes and of our way of worship. Western Friend is the official publication of Quakers in Pacific, North Pacific, and Intermountain Yearly Meetings. PacYM is a year-round community, and holds a four-day summer gathering called “PacYM Annual Session.”
Ben Lomond Quaker Center, Ben Lomond, CA
For more information about Ben Lomond Quaker Center programs and retreats, including daily online Silent Worship (7:30-8 am), Wednesday morning online Worship Sharing (10-11:30 am), and in-person retreats, go to http://www.quakercenter.org.
Camp Woolman at Sierra Friends Center
Camp Woolman will be offering a number of in-person and online workshops through the winter season. If you are interested in next summer’s camps for children and youths, please contact Programs Director Morgan Street (morgans @ woolman.org).
Write for What Canst Thou Say?
Tell us your stories! What Canst Thou Say? (WCTS) is an independent publication co-operatively produced by Friends with an interest in mystical experience and contemplative practice. WCTS is a worship-sharing group in print. We hope to help Friends be tender and open to the Spirit. Articles that best communicate to our readers are those that focus on specific events and are written in the first person. We welcome submissions of articles less than 1500 words and artwork suitable for black and white reproduction. It is published in February, May, August, and November. The editorial and production team is Muriel Dimock, Lissa Field, Mariellen Gilpin, Judy Lumb, Grayce Mesner, Mike Resman, Earl Smith, Eleanor Warnock, and Rhonda Ashurst.
Reno Friends are welcome to email submissions to Rhonda Ashurst at classes (at) renofriends.org. Please send your text submissions in Word or generic text format, and artwork in high-resolution jpeg files. Photocopied art and typed submissions are also accepted. All authors and artists retain copyright to their articles and artwork published in WCTS. WCTS retains the right to publish initially and to reprint in WCTS anthologies.
Reno Friends Newsletter: How To Contribute
Submissions: Please submit your items for the newsletter by the 25th of the month for inclusion in the following month’s newsletter. Send Friends events and information to Reno Friends newsletter editor Wendy Swallow, wswallow54 (at) gmail.com.
Getting the newsletter in the mail: If you need to receive your newsletter by postal mail, please notify RFM newsletter editor Wendy Swallow by emailing wswallow54 (at) gmail.com or calling 775-473-5559.
Subscribing and Unsubscribing: We use the same email list for all our communications, including the monthly newsletter and the weekly email update.
- To subscribe to our email list, attend Silent Worship with us either virtually or in person and be sure that we get your email address. Add the address “update (at) renofriends.org” to your email address book to help keep our email from going in to your spam folder. If email from us still goes into your spam folder, go into your spam folder, find the email from us, and mark it as “not SPAM.”
- To unsubscribe to the mailing list, email clerk (at) renofriends.org with the subject line “unsubscribe.”