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Exploring and Deepening Our Quaker Faith and Practice

• Starting Sunday, October 10 at 9:30-10:30 a.m., and continuing monthly on the second Sunday. 
• We will watch a video and then have a discussion on Quaker faith and practice for both those new to Meeting and those looking to deepen their experience.
• Scroll up to see the first video on "What do Quakers do in Silent Worship?" or click here.

• For more details about the classes, click here. 

Celebrate with Friends around the world on Sun, 3rd October 2021. Please watch and share the FWCC video invitation to World Quaker Day 2021.

• Our theme this year is Resilience and Hope: drawing strength from our Quaker faith. 
• attend BFM's "after worship chat" at 12:15 on Sunday, October 3rd. Share with others "How I came to Quakerism." 
• More details and links, plus ways to worship worldwide: click here.  

The Social Concerns Box for September is the Mary Jane Simpson Scholarship Fund

Each year, this fund awards college scholarships and mentorship to DC public school seniors with high potential who are coping with difficult backgrounds and have low family incomes.

• The fund is managed jointly by Bethesda Friends Meeting, Friends Meeting of Washington, and Langley Hill Friends Meeting. BFM plays a vital role in mobilizing funding, selecting the awardees, and making decisions about program policies and practices. 
• Over the past five years it has awarded 32 scholarships to students from 14 different public and public charter schools. Scholarship amounts are between $2,000 and $2,500 a year. For details on the program, please ask us via our Contact Us form.
• To donate online to this Social Concern, you can go to: https://www.bethesdafriends.org/Donate-Online-Now.   Be sure to designate that your contribution is for the September social concern.  
• You can also send a check, made payable to Bethesda Friends Meeting, to Assistant Treasurer, 3050 Military Rd, NW, Washington, DC 20015. Please write the designation on the memo line.

Sept 25th, 3:00 p.m.: Special book Discussion of The Sum of Us

            On Saturday, September 25, at 3:00 p.m., please join the book discussion (via Zoom) of The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee.  Reading and discussing the book is a way to understand more fully how systemic racism affects us all. Use our Contract Us form for the Zoom link. 

• For a fuller book summary, please go to this event link. 

For people who won’t have the time or energy to read the book (or cannot get a copy easily) and want to follow along and participate in the discussion -- or those who loved the book and would love to hear the author speak about it in her own voice, here are three recommended interviews:

• TED talk: Racism has a cost for everyone.   
• Podcast with Ezra Klein: a discussion about drained-pool politics (the zero-sum stories at the heart of American policymaking) 
• YouTube with Trevor Noah, which provides an interesting contrast to the Ted Talk she gave
• The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together 

Call to Action: BFM’s Identity and Role in Approaching Racism

Sunday, Oct 24 at 1:00 p.m.

Hybrid session: In-person or via Zoom

Will you join us in a conversation about whether BFM wishes to take a journey toward living our Quaker testimony of equality by taking steps to dismantle systemic racism within and around us? We’re gathering on Sunday, October 24, at 1:00-2:30 to engage in a “threshing” session to clarify who wishes to go on this journey, what the initial leg of a collective journey might entail and require, and what preparation we choose to make for embarking on it together.

• In response to Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s “Call to Action” on systemic racism, and after some collective Meeting steps to identify near term actions committees might take, a Threshing Prep group was commissioned to research and ponder how we might conduct a “threshing” process to get more clarity about our community identity regarding systemic racism and the actions we would commit to in order to uproot it. 
• What might we commit to as a group, rather than just as individuals?
• We wish, therefore, to understand who wants to go on this collective journey and sees value in doing it in the context of the BFM community. 
• If we agree that – in light of our blind spots and the nuanced expertise required to do it well – we choose to engage someone to help us, we will need to generate funds from the current budget or from new commitments. 
• A first step would be confirming the willingness of the community to undertake this effort, and to commit money and time to the process, which would indicate the importance we place on it. Is this important to you? 

Will you join us on October 24 and help to shape our approach?  To read more details, please click here. 

Comparative Religions

• A Bible study using the Great Courses series Religions of the Axial Age (800-200 BCE) to examine religions of the ages. 
• Meeting weekly by Zoom, starting Tuesday, October 5, at 7:00 p.m., for a half-hour lecture and a half hour discussion.

More details, click here. 

First Day School Comfort Cases Donation Drive

Thank you to BFM families and the BFM community for making the Comfort Cases Donation Drive such an overwhelming success!

• To read the details on this program and other youth activities, please click here.  

COVID-19 AND END OF LIFE ISSUES

• BFM has formed an End of Life Group to provide legal, spiritual, and practical resources to help our community cope with the uncertainties and fears surrounding the end of life. 
• The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly elevated concerns about the health of family and friends, and the possibility that they could become gravely ill and die. 
• Although conversations with our loved ones about such a possibility are difficult, it’s important to prepare.
• Please click here to see more details and resources.