We welcome all to worship with us
Damos la bienvenida a todos para adorar con nosotros en la Reunión de Amigos (Los Cuáqueros) de Richmond.
You are welcome here.
Fundraising Luncheon for Ramallah Friends School, April 6
Peace and Social Concerns will host a fundraising luncheon at the rise of Meeting for Worship on First Day/Sunday, April 6 to benefit the Ramallah Friends School (RFS) in Palestine's West Bank. Guest speakers are Betsy Brinson, a member of Richmond Friends Meeting now living in Chapel Hill NC, and Faedah Totah Ph.D., an Associate Professor at VCU's School of World Studies, coordinator of the International Studies Program, and mentor to the VCU Students for Justice in Palestine. Betsy and her husband Gordon Davies lived in Ramallah for two years (2009-2011) while working on a definitive history of the Ramallah
Friends School, which traces its Quaker roots to 1869. Faedah is a 1984 graduate of Ramallah Friends School and a sociocultural anthropologist who teaches courses in globalization, development, urbanism, and the Middle East.
Betsy will speak on the current plight of the Ramallah Friends School, where emergency tuition assistance is needed to assist families at risk of leaving the school community due to the 60-80% unemployment levels in Palestine. Faedah will provide additional context about the wartime conditions across Palestine that threaten the present and future educational infrastructure.
Bring your checkbooks! If you cannot attend but are led to contribute, send contributions to Friends United
Meeting, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond IN 47374 and note Ramallah Friends School in the memo line.
P.S. For F/friends living at Westminster Canterbury Richmond, Betsy will visit there on Saturday, April 5 at 10
am in the Jaqueline Room and provide an update on the conditions and needs of Ramallah Friends School and
how you can help. To donate online to RFS: https://www.rfs.edu.ps/en/page/donate
The Healing Place Fundraising Luncheon, March 9
Peace & Social Concerns Committee invites you to lunch on March 9, a fundraising event at rise of meeting to benefit ...
...The Healing Place, a long-term, peer-driven residential recovery program that helps individuals struggling with substance use disorders. It offers services 24/7/365 at no cost.  The men’s program is the longest-running of such programs in the region, now 20 years, and has recovery rates that rival those of expensive private facilities. The women’s program opened in late 2020 to provide a similar long-term addiction recovery program for women in metro Richmond.
Here are a few ways our residents demonstrate success after their time at The Healing Place:
- 765 men and women found recovery and hope at The Healing Place in 2021.
- Nearly 70% of our alumni are sober after one year of completing the program.Â
- Participants find jobs within one month of completing the workforce development component of the program.
- An efficient and effective program model allows us to house and provides recovery services to one person for only $17 a day, compared to $500 a day for a night in traditional medical detox.Â
A representative from the Healing Place will give a brief presentation at the luncheon, and be available to answer your questions after. Lunch is provided by the Peace & Social Concerns Committee. You just bring you appetite and checkbook!! That’s ... First Day March 9 at Rise of Meeting.
Richmond Friends Meeting Joins Democracy Forward Lawsuit Against Department of Homeland Security
Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting and two BYM monthly meetings- Adelphi and Richmond - filed a lawsuit on January 27, 2025 against the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit challenges the Department’s rescission of a decades-old policy to not conduct immigration enforcement at  "sensitive locations," which include schools, hospitals, houses of worship, and public religious ceremonies like weddings and funerals. The new policy allows government agents to conduct enforcement operations in those locations. As a result, people of various faiths will avoid going to their houses of worship for fear of government enforcement. This hurts immigrants who will stay home. And it hurts the houses of worship and the other members who lose the ability to worship with others, including a number of our monthly meetings with ties to immigrants of different kinds.
Learn more about the suit in the complaint filing or this Friends Journal article.
BYM Reparations Delivered to the Pawnee Nation
Three Friends travelled to the Pawnee nation in Oklahoma to deliver a $10,000 check from Baltimore Yearly Meeting. The check was the first of two offered in reparation for a school run for several years in the late 1800s by BYM Quakers that was disrespectful and disruptive of native culture. Check the upcoming winter Interchange for an article on our visit. A more complete report will be placed on our committee’s website.
At the time of this writing, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (H.R. 7227, S.1723), which passed the U.S. Senate on December 20, is awaiting a vote in the crowded agenda of the U.S. House of Representatives. Thanks to all who have worked for this bill and made calls on its behalf. Stay tuned to news from the Friends Committee on Legislation’s coordinator for Native American legislative issues, Rachel Overstreet, a member of the Choctaw Nation. You can sign up to receive FCNL’s Native American legislative update at this address: https://www.fcnl.org/issues/native-americans