Upcoming Local Worshiping Communities Events

Former Philadelphia Yearly Meeting General Secretary Arthur Larrabee will be leading this workshop. The cost is $50 per person and lunch is provided. There are a limited number of spaces still available, and they are expected to fill quickly. There will be a waiting list in case someone drops out. To reserve your space or to submit questions, send email to Betty McCormick. (bjeanmccormick67@gmail.com)

Who said Quakers don’t sing? Come to our next Sing-In and see for yourself on Sunday, October 8, 2016 at Frederick Friends Meeting. Both shy and sure singers are welcome! This gathering is not about bringing strong singers together—it’s about joining our voices together in a community singing with love.

Do you want to understand more about the current refugee crisis and how people of compassion can plug in and help? The Peace Committee of Sandy Spring Friends Meeting and Maryland Welcomes Refugees announce a forum to be held on from 1:00 pm until 4:00 pm at the Sandy Spring Museum. There are an unprecedented 20 million refugees in the world at present and over half are children under the age of 18. 42,500 people are forced to flee their homes daily due to conflict and persecution, according to the UNHCR. Nearly 5 million have fled the violence in Syria and at least 200 Syrian families will be resettled in Maryland in the coming months. Join in an afternoon of education, networking and action. Recommended donation at the door - $10.00. Doors open at 12:30 pm for registration and light refreshments. For more information, call Bette Hoover (202-329-4667) or Erinn (410-961-1332). Register at www.Md4refugees.org.

Get to know Yearly Meeting Committees and Friends from other Meetings! Be a part of important decision making. Join Friends for morning committee meetings and the afternoon’s Interim Business Meeting. Sandy Spring Friends Meeting, Friends House Retirement Community, and Sandy Spring Friends School are teaming to host the Tenth Month Interim Meeting. Friends will begin gathering at 10:00 am. Lunch will be provided, and the afternoon Business Meeting will be held with dinner following the rise of Meeting. Check the Yearly Meeting website for more information.

Friends Meeting of Washington is offering the second of a series of workshops intended to improve pastoral care practices among Friends. Rev. Dr. Ronald Hopson will lead a workshop on predatory behavior, how it manifests itself, what the warning signs are, and how to recognize and contain it. The fee is $20 and includes pizza for lunch. Registration begins at 9:45am and the workshop runs from 10am to 2:30pm. Workshop leader, Ronald E. Hopson, is Associate Professor of Psychology and Divinity at Howard University. He holds a joint appointment in the department of Psychology, and in the School of Divinity. He teaches courses on Psychopathology, the Philosophy of Science, Psychotherapy, the Psychology of Religion, and Pastoral Care.

Washington Post Reporter Dan Zak will discuss his new book Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age. He says “On a tranquil summer night in July 2012, a trio of peace activists infiltrated the Fort Knox of Uranium in Oak Ridge, Tenn.” His book examines the love-hate relationship the US has to the bomb from the race to achieve atomic power to the solemn 70th Anniversary of Hiroshima. Sister Megan Rice is a peace activist and an octogenarian nun with a criminal record. Four years ago she was one of three who broke into a high security nuclear facility in Tennessee in what was later described as the largest security breach in American atomic history. Carrying a backpack and a deeply held conviction that the United States is breaking international law by quietly keeping up a multibillion-dollar nuclear weapons program, she crawled on her belly under a top security fence, ran across an open field, symbolically poured blood on equipment and raised a banner for peace. For this she was put in prison for three years. Sponsored by Sandy Spring Friends Peace Committee and Pax Christi, the presentation will begin at 3:00pm. For more information, contact Ellen Atkinson (301-774-1328) or Bette Hoover. (bette@justpeacecircles.org)