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Weekly BFM Bulletin & Events

weekly bfm bulletin and events

Week of July 25, 2021

Meeting for Worship & other activities

We worship via Zoom and concurrently at the Sidwell Friends Lower School campus, both outdoors and in the Meeting House, on Sundays at 11:00 a.m.

BFM offers three options for worship

1. In-Person Meeting for Worship in the Meeting House at SFS Lower School

· Masks, social distancing, and Covid self-screening are required.
· There’ll be a laptop connection to “Zoomers” both outdoors and online.
· Fellowship & Hospitality will be informal conversations either outdoors or via Zoom.
· No registration; just a simple sign-In sheet.

2. Outdoor Meeting for Worship on the breezeway at SFS Lower School

· Outdoor Meeting for Worship will continue in the breezeway.
· Masks, social distancing, and Covid self-screening are required.
· There’ll be a laptop connection to “Zoomers” both indoors and online.
· Fellowship and Hospitality will be informal conversations either outdoors or via Zoom.
· No registration; just a simple sign-In sheet.

3. Zoom Meeting for Worship continues online

· See the Zoom link in the bulletin or use our Contact Us form.
· Informal chat time at the end of Zoom worship.
Meeting for Business and Coordinating Gathering will be only via Zoom for the near future.

Technology. We plan to have Friends connected via laptop in the meeting room, outdoors, and viz Zoom.

Meeting for Business and Coordinating Gathering will only be via Zoom for the near future.

CLICK HERE for full details (PDF document).

Scroll down to see our events for the coming week.

Sunday~July 25, 2021

Sunday, July 25	11:00 a.m.	Meeting for Worship
	7:30 p.m.	Experiment with Light (via e-mail/phone, Zoom sharing)
Tuesday, July 27	6:00 PM	Mid-week Meeting for Worship with FMW (Zoom)
	7:00 p.m.	BYM Annual Sessions Workshops (via Zoom)
Wednesday, July 28	8:00 PM	Mid-week Worship (Check in via e-mail)
Thursday, July 29	7:00 p.m.	BYM Annual Sessions Workshops (via Zoom)
Sunday, August 1	11:00 a.m.	Meeting for Worship

Head of Meeting: Ralph B.

Pastoral Care: If you have concerns about personal issues or questions about membership, Bethesda Friends Meeting, or Quaker faith and practice, please be in touch with today's Friendly Ear (a member of the Pastoral Care Committee, see your email bulletin).

The Social Concerns Box for July is AsylumWorks (formerly Asylum Seekers Assistance Project). AsylumWorks (AW) provides holistic services and support for asylum seekers and their families living in the DC Metro region. The focus is on helping asylum seekers regain confidence and control of their lives. AW clients are dramatically more likely to win their legal cases as a result. In 2020 they served 273 adults and 98 children from 42 countries, mostly in Africa. For details: https://asylumworks.org/

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 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.

11:00 - 12:00 on Sunday Meeting for Worship. Bethesda Friends worship together simultaneously in three venues. Friends can (a) participate by videoconference using Zoom, or (b) join a physically distanced group either --outside (on the Breezeway) or --indoors (in the Meeting House) on the Sidwell Friends Lower School campus.

In all venues you can arrive at 10:45 to chat informally before settling into silence at 11:00 a.m. There is also an informal chat time on Zoom at the end of Meeting (about 12:15).

• Worship in the Sidwell Friends Lower School Meeting House. Friends are invited to participate in a meeting for worship in the meeting room at the Lower School. Worship will by hybrid, with a laptop connection to hear and see Friends who are on Zoom or outdoors. Friends participating in this in-person worship must wear a mask at all times and maintain social distancing. Visitors are welcome.

• Worship outside. Friends have the option to worship together outside under the breezeway at the Sidwell Friends Lower School. Worship will by hybrid, with a laptop connection to hear and see Friends who are on Zoom or indoors. Friends participating in this in-person worship must wear a mask at all times and maintain social distancing. Visitors are welcome.

• Participating in worship via Zoom. Friends wishing to join meeting for worship remotely can do so via Zoom. See the most recent email Bulletin for access information and a current Zoom link. Visitors: If you'd like the Zoom link for online worship with our community, please use our "Contact us" form and tell us about your interest in Bethesda Friends. We welcome your joining us.

At noon we will share joys and sorrows and welcome visitors.

Summer Playground Supervision is in session. Summer playground supervision is available for children ages 3 years and up during Meeting for Worship on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. Two paid childcare providers will supervise play in the playground. Children should wear masks and bring their own water bottles. The playground supervisors will bring the children back to the Meeting House area at the close of Meeting for Worship.

6:00-7:00 p.m. on Tuesdays Friends Meeting of Washington Mid-Week Meeting for Worship. To join via Zoom, please see information at http://quakersdc.org/

Bethesda Friends Meeting’s stay-at-home Mid-Week Worship by e-mail on Wednesdays, from 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. While some of our regulars prefer to simply join in Spirit at the appointed time, others enjoy the brief connection provided by an email at the start and end of worship. At rise of meeting, those on that session's email list who are moved to do so may share experiences by reply-all. Contact Dot Lin (see Directory) for more information.

Experiment with Light. Sunday, July 25 and August 15, 7:30-9:00 p.m. How do we quiet our brains enough to hear the still, small voice within us? How might we deepen our experience of meeting for worship? Experiment With Light is a meditative and centering practice based on Rex Ambler’s book Light to Live By, which describes early Quaker meditative habits and translates them into a highly accessible process of clearness and understanding.

You can follow the prompts at home and write or draw responses you have experienced during those prompts:

https://experiment-with-light.org.uk/meditations/ We usually use the meditation on the individual in modern language, full length, 37 minute version. Around 8:30 p.m., if you would like to worship-share from your meditation experience and want to join in a Zoom gathering, please use our "Contact Us" form to request the link. All are welcome.

BYM Annual Sessions We are cordially invited to join Quakers from other area Meetings for the virtual 2021 BYM Annual Session between July 26 and August 8. It is "pay as you are led" and the sessions includes worship, business, and workshops for learning and deepening our spiritual practices. We will be celebrating being Friends together for the past 350 years, which will call on us to consider what hopes we carry for our future. Some of the workshops and times for reports will be in the week ahead of the main session. Your registration will include all events that you wish to attend over both weeks. BFM's Lauren Brownlee is the Plenary Speaker on Tuesday, August 3 at 7:00 PM.

What has not changed is the understanding that it takes all of us to build this beloved community and that the better we understand our Shadows and our Light, the more we are able to love each other fully and be more Whole by living into our intention to be an anti-racist faith community.

For details: https://www.bym-rsf.org/events/annualsession/

More events and into the future

BFM Bulletins are from a new source beginning June 27. There has been a change in the way you receive the weekly bulletin from Bethesda Friends Meeting. This is because, as of the bulletin for June 27, it is being sent via the webmail program associated with the Bethesda Friends website. Please let us know what you think (or if you are not getting it!) by using our Contact Us form.

A Recommended Resource for Understanding Diversity and Inequity in Washington DC. Following up on the discussion at Meeting for Business, here is the link to an important opening to understanding the relationship of Bethesda/NW DC to issues of diversity and inequity.

Bethesda Friends Meeting

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 30152, Bethesda MD 20824

Our Meetinghouse is on the campus of the Sidwell Friends Lower School at the intersection of Edgemoor Lane and Beverly Road in Bethesda, Maryland

We are a member organization of the Religious Society of Friends

www.bethesdafriends.org
301-986-8681
Contact Us

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