Meeting for Worship on the Occasion of Business – December 2025
GRASS VALLEY FRIENDS MEETING
Of the Religious Society of Friends of the Truth
College Park Quarterly Meeting, Pacific Yearly Meeting
MINUTES & RECORD
Meeting for Worship on the Occasion of Business
December 14, 2025
We met in a hybrid meeting in person at the meetinghouse and on Zoom.
Present: Dorothy Henderson, clerk; Gordon Starr, elder to the clerk, Mary Starr, Reed Hamilton, Judy Hamilton, Arly Helm, Kathy McCreary, fosten wilson, Doug Hamm, Amy Cooke, Chamba Cooke, Sharon Davisson, Dianne Marshall, Marily Guida, Dean Olsen.
The Meeting opened with silent worship.
Clerks’ Remarks and Query
Clerk’s remarks will come later. The query: When is a time you felt closest to God in this building?
Friends spoke out of worship. Several spoke moments from The Woolman Semester. Singing before meeting, the harmonies are angelic. God always present when I let myself drop away. Generations going through this place. Sense of a golden rope connecting us all and to all Quaker meetings globally. The sky, the sun the earth coursing through me.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
(see reports appended, committee clerk is noted in bold)
Welcome: Peter O’Rourke (ex-officio, Website and Facebook coordinator), Judy Hamilton (ex-officio email coordinator), Nancy Anderson (ex-officio directory clerk). Peter O’Rourke gave the report, appended
Nominating Committee: (terms as noted), fosten wilson: 2024-2026,
Chamba Cooke: 2025-2026, Dean Olson 2025-2027, Mary Starr 2025-2027,
fosten wilson gave the report, appended
Spirit and Witness: Amy Cooke, 2024-2027, Stuart Smith, 2025-2026, Reed Hamilton, 2025-2028, Dean Olson, 2024-2027, Doug Hamm, 2025-2026, Dorothy Henderson, 2026 (ex-officio, GVFM Clerk), Gordon Starr (ex-officio, elder to the clerk). Amy Cooke gave the report, appended.
Appreciation was expressed for Threshing session regarding the potential move to Peace Lutheran. The following minute was read and approved:
Minute 12.2025.01
Grass Valley Friends Meeting has reached unity to move our Meeting’s regular worship and activities into the town of Grass Valley and to enter into an agreement with Peace Lutheran Church. Approved.
The import of this minute was acknowledged and additional language was offered and requested to be added to the record.
We undertake this step after a period of discernment, listening for the guidance of Spirit and considering the needs of our Meeting and the Nisenan, who have graciously hosted us on this land and who are ready to settle more deeply into their home.
We are grateful for the hospitality and openness extended by Peace Lutheran Church, and for the way this partnership supports our desire to be more accessible, welcoming, and connected.
We recognize that this transition marks an important threshold in the life of our Meeting. We commit ourselves to moving forward with care, good will, and trust, holding one another—and our new partners—in the Light as we navigate the practical and spiritual dimensions of this change.
Through heartfelt deliberations and careful discernment, seeking God’s will, Grass Valley Friends meeting came to unity on moving our place of worship to Peace Lutheran Church in Grass Valley. As we prepare to leave, we give thanks to our Quaker elders who held meeting for worship on this land for the past sixty years. We give thanks to this land that nourished and taught us, deepening our connection to that of God in all. We give thanks to Pastor Christian and the Peace Lutheran community who have so warmly welcomed us to have our place of worship in their buildings. We give thanks to the Nevada City Ranchería Nisenan Tribe who with grace and generosity, invited us to remain in the space we knew as our meetinghouse until it became clear to us that it was time to move on, to allow the Tribe to have their full homeland and to allow us to open to the possibilities that a move to town might offer. We give thanks to God for showing us the way.
In response to deep concern about what appeared to be a racially motivated attack on a person in Grass Valley ,the Meeting came to unity on offering this minute
Minute 12.2025.02. Grass Valley Friends Meeting holds in the Light the person injured in the recent racially motivated assault in our community. We recognize that there is both direct and indirect harm caused by this act, including those who used violence in this way. We hold hope for healing and commit to listening for ways to nurture peace in the face of injustice.
This minute will be made public. Welcome Committee will take responsibility for this.
A letter regarding the incident from the Nevada County Interfaith Council was read and the following minute was approved.
Standing Together in Oneness
Nevada County is home to a rich and diverse community of faiths, each offering its own wisdom and traditions. Yet within our differences, the Nevada County Interfaith Council holds a shared and enduring truth: the oneness of humankind.
Recently, our community experienced an act rooted in fear and division. As spiritual leaders, we cannot be silent in the face of anything that seeks to diminish the dignity of our neighbors. We affirm, clearly and wholeheartedly, that such actions have no place in a community committed to compassion, respect, and mutual understanding.
Every faith represented in our council teaches the inherent worth and sacredness of every human being. When harm is directed at one, the fabric that holds all of us is tugged. Our response is to strengthen that fabric—to show up for one another, to lift up the values we share, and to recommit ourselves to creating a community where all people feel safe, seen, and valued.
The Nevada County Interfaith Council stands firmly for unity, for dignity, and for the simple truth that we belong to one another. We will continue to work together—across traditions, beliefs, and cultures—to nurture peace, deepen connection, and uphold the oneness that binds us.
We invite our neighbors to join us in choosing love over fear, understanding over division, and shared humanity over separation. This is who we are, and this is the future we continue to build together.
Minute 12.2025.03. GVFM approves signing the above document, drafted by the Nevada County Interfaith Council, for publication.
Stewardship: Mary Starr (Clerk), Gordon Starr, Pat Phillips, Reed Hamilton, David Bowman. Dianne Marshall (ex-officio, Newsletter editor), Don McCormick (ex-officio, Librarian), Hailey Wilson (ex-officio Tech Support).
Mary Starr gave the report, appended.
Many details to take up to accomplish the move to Peace Lutheran:
Thirty day notice given December 16th
Start Meeting for Worship at PLC January 4, 2026.
Pay PLC rent before moving in.
Open a P.O. box
Publicizing move on web site, Facebook. newsletter, email,
Notice sent to all on the mailing list.
Change of address at the post office and all Meeting’s various contacts and subscriptions.
Feed-back from the Library committee on what to pack and when.
Notice to the Nisenan of work days.
Determination of items to keep and to leave.
Ad-hoc committee formed to address details. Mary Starr convened, Doug Hamm, Dean Olsen, Dianne Marshall, Kathy McCreary and Reed Hamilton.
Funds will be required from Restricted Meeting House Fund to cover expenses including extra Liability Coverage and possible rent overlap. Minute not required. Treasurer can make decision to use funds.
Religious Education: Judy Hamilton, Doug Hamm, Dean Olson, Reed Hamilton, Don McCormick, Keely McDonald. Substitutes: Gordon Bishop, Gordon Starr, Alan Stahler. Fifth Sunday reader: Anita McCormick.
No report was given.
OFFICER REPORTS and REPRESENTATIVE REPORTS
Treasurer: No report given
Co-Archivists/Recorders: No report given
Pacific Yearly Meeting: No report given.
College Park Quarterly Meeting: No report given.
Interfaith Nevada County: No report given.
Sharings from the wider Quaker world:
Clerk offered mail that comes to Meeting, including thank you letters (Quaker Center, FCNl) and notices of upcoming events. They will be place on table library to be shared.
CLERK’S REMARKS:
Meeting expressed deep appreciation for Dianne Marshall’s work on the Interfaith Letter and to Stewardship Committee for their guiding they transition to PLC.
ITEMS SEASONING or CARRIED OVER
No items seasoned or carried over.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Facebook: please follow the Grass Valley Friends Meeting page, or join the Facebook Grass Valley Friends Meeting group. If you share a post from the page, your friends will see it, and it helps our visibility. Follow this link.
- The 2023-2024 PacYM General Directory. The directory is now available. The Directory is for use by members and attenders of monthly meetings and worship groups within Pacific Yearly Meeting and by Friends serving on Pacific Yearly Meeting committees. It is not to be shared beyond this community. Dorothy and Don have the new password for the PacYM Directory.
- Carl Magruder: You can follow Carl’s healing journey on the CaringBridge.org website HERE. Friends have also set up a daily Meeting for Healing from 7:30 to 8 am (Pacific) on Zoom here or contact Amy Cooke at amylisette@gmail.com for the link.
- Contributions to Grass Valley Friends Meeting are gratefully accepted. You can give by mailing a check to Mary Starr or through Tithely on the website or our newsletter.
READING OF THE RECORD AND MINUTES
The record and the minutes will be read at the beginning of January Meeting for Worship on the Occasion of Business
If you are giving a report to GVFM, please send the actual report to the recording clerk at jenniferjksmith@gmail.com THE WEDNESDAY BEFORE MEETING FOR BUSINESS and share with both Dorothy and Jennifer.
GVFM Newsletter Reminder: Please have items into Dianne Marshall by Tuesday at 10 am.
The Meeting closed with silent worship.
APPENDICES:
- Welcome Committee report
- Nominating Committee report
- Spirit and Witness Committee report
- Stewardship Committee report
————————————————————————-
Nominating Committee Report
Winds of change are present today. People important within our Meeting are changing their roles.
Last spring when Jennifer Smith agreed to continue as our Recording-Clerk, she cautioned that she might need to stop before the 2025-26 year ended. Indeed, Jennifer can no longer serve as our Recording-Clerk. Dorothy has volunteered to both Clerk & serve as Acting-Recording-Clerk in December, to see how that works.
Don McCormick has requested that replacements be found for his roles as Librarian, in Religious Education, & Welcome Committee within Grass Valley Friends Meeting. Al Stahler agreed to lead the First Sunday Religious Ed program with Don shifting to a support role. Since both Don & Al are already on the Religious Education Committee, no change in our “slate” is necessary for this change.
For Don’s Librarian & Welcome Committee roles, Nominating Committee has been unsuccessful finding replacements. Even so, we have agreed that Don can step-back from those positions. The Welcome Committee will still have six members instead of seven. The two other Librarians (Judy & Kathy) have agreed to continue in their roles to complete the week-to-week activities of our Library.
Both Don & Jennifer have made substantial contributions to our Meeting. We understand that it is unreasonable for them to now continue with these jobs within our Meeting. And we thank them both for all that they have accomplished.
/s/ Fosten for the Nominating Committee
Welcome Committee Report
Meeting for Worship – Welcome Committee
Dec. 8th, 2025 / 7:00PM / Zoom
Attendees: Judy, Nancy and Pete
1. Potluck update
a. Holiday party went well – Thanks to our hosts Dorothy and Doug
2. Reviewed “Among Western Friends – What an attender needs to know” workshop initiatives
a. Many of which we currently do:
i. “What do new attenders want and need to know”
ii. “What else does a meeting do besides sit in silence”
iii. “If I have an idea or a need, whom should I ask?”
iv. “When do I speak up in conversation or a meeting?”
v. “Newcomer card”
3. We discussed how nice and encouraging it is to have new Friends attend out Meet for Worship
4. We have had 3 inquiries from Friends who found our contact information either from our Facebook page or FGC’s Quaker Finder (see below)
Next Meeting – Jan. 5th – 7pm
Spirit & Witness Report
12.2025 Spirit and Witness Report to GVFM
12.2025 Spirit and Witness Report to GVFM
Members: Dean Olson, Stuart Smith, Doug Hamm, Reed Hamilton, Dorothy Henderson, Amy Cooke
Peace Lutheran Church
We lift up the work we have done as a meeting to discern our way forward to moving to Peace Lutheran Church. We recommend to GVFM that we approve the minute we have been seasoning since the 11th month and move forward into the planning phase. .
Proposed Minute: Grass Valley Friends Meeting has reached unity to move our Meeting’s regular worship and activities into the town of Grass Valley and to enter into an agreement with Peace Lutheran Church.
We undertake this step after a period of discernment, listening for the guidance of Spirit and considering the needs of our Meeting and the Nisenan, who have graciously hosted us on this land and who are ready to settle more deeply into their home.
We are grateful for the hospitality and openness extended by Peace Lutheran Church, and for the way this partnership supports our desire to be more accessible, welcoming, and connected.
We recognize that this transition marks an important threshold in the life of our Meeting. We commit ourselves to moving forward with care, good will, and trust, holding one another—and our new partners—in the Light as we navigate the practical and spiritual dimensions of this change.
Spirit and Witness programs
○ November 23: Doug: A Force More Powerful video and discussion: Delayed, TBA
○ December 21: Amy (in person) : Stop, Drop, and Roll: a practice for living nonviolently: This workshop will offer practices for practicing nonviolence, moment by moment, in our bodies, our words, and our choices.
“Stop, Drop, and Roll” offers a practice for moments of inner or outer “fire”: reactivity, fear, anger, urgency, or conflict. The practice will be introduced and experienced through brief experiences, silence, and simple embodied exercises. We will explore how to dive underneath our habitual reactions, return to presence, and respond from a place aligned with our commitments to care, truth, and nonviolence.
○ January 25: Worship sharing: How do we keep our spiritual grounding in the midst of change?
○ February 22: Possible program in collaboration with the Peace Lutheran community. TBD.
○ Third Sundays, starting in January. Six month long Quaker Seminary led by Amy, with one topic explored each month.
Witnessing into the World
○ Immigration issues: Judy Hamilton has agreed to be the liaison to the Nevada County Immigrant Rights Network. We are grateful for her service to both communities.
On Wednesday evening, December 3, 2025, Grass Valley Police Officers responded to an assault on West McKnight Way which was purported to be racially motivated involving an adult victim. The victim in this case was working in a commercial parking lot when a vehicle approached him, unprompted. The occupants exited their vehicle and, after hurling racial slurs, physically attacked him. He was later transported to the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital for treatment. Two white male adults and a white male juvenile were arrested. A fourth white male adult suspect has been identified, and detectives are actively working to track and arrest that individual. – Grass Valley Police Department
Minute to be brought forward: Grass Valley Friends Meeting holds in the Light the person injured in the recent racially motivated assault in our community. We recognize that there is both direct and indirect harm caused by this act, including those who used violence in this way. We hold hope for healing and commit to listening for ways to nurture peace in the face of injustice.
Standing Together in Oneness
Nevada County is home to a rich and diverse community of faiths, each offering its own wisdom and traditions. Yet within our differences, the Nevada County Interfaith Council holds a shared and enduring truth: the oneness of humankind.
Recently, our community experienced an act rooted in fear and division. As spiritual leaders, we cannot be silent in the face of anything that seeks to diminish the dignity of our neighbors. We affirm, clearly and wholeheartedly, that such actions have no place in a community committed to compassion, respect, and mutual understanding.
Every faith represented in our council teaches the inherent worth and sacredness of every human being. When harm is directed at one, the fabric that holds all of us is tugged. Our response is to strengthen that fabric—to show up for one another, to lift up the values we share, and to recommit ourselves to creating a community where all people feel safe, seen, and valued.
The Nevada County Interfaith Council stands firmly for unity, for dignity, and for the simple truth that we belong to one another. We will continue to work together—across traditions, beliefs, and cultures—to nurture peace, deepen connection, and uphold the oneness that binds us.
We invite our neighbors to join us in choosing love over fear, understanding over division, and shared humanity over separation. This is who we are, and this is the future we continue to build together.
Minute: GVFM approves signing the appended document, drafted by the Nevada County Interfaith Council, for publication.
Support for Meeting Members
We continue to support Committees of Care for several Meeting members and attenders, as well as three Anchor Committees. There are also those in our Meeting for whom we offer pastoral care. Please let the committee members know if you or someone in the Meeting would like formal or informal support.
Meeting for Clearness for Marriage: Keith Runyan and Nora Lisette’s Meeting for Clearness for Marriage has been convened.
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Cooke, clerk, Spirit and Witness Committee
Stewardship Committee Report
Stewardship Committee Report
Notes from meeting on December 4, 2025
Present: Mary Starr, clerk and treasurer, Gordon Starr, recorder, Reed Hamilton, Pat Phillips, Fosten Wilson, Dianne Marshall, newsletter editor.
Treasurer’s report. Mary reported donations for the preceding month totaled $7,492, a very generous month. Expenses came to $1,567, which included our annual liability insurance. Some donations received were as a result of the appeal letter that went out. But response was not what it has been in past years, possibly due to changing the mailing date from early December to October.
Move to Peace Lutheran. In discussion, the committee’s reading of the threshing session was that, while there was sadness at leaving Yulica/Woolman, this is a good move for us.
Since, at the time of our meeting, the move had not yet been approved by Meeting for Business, we didn’t want to get too wrapped up in specifics. However, there was talk of some early steps to keep in mind upon approval.
• When to give notice to the Nisenan? The committee suggests giving our 30-day notice soon after we make the decision, with a goal of starting Meeting for Worship at PLC January 4, 2026. And, we will need to pay them rent before moving in.
• Open a P.O. box
• And where to publicize the move: web site, Facebook. newsletter, email, notice to all on the mailing list?
• Who will cover the change of address at the post office and all Meeting’s various contacts and subscriptions?
• Feed-back from the Library committee on what to pack and when. The shelves will need to be emptied first in order to move them. And notice to the Nisenan of work days.
• What to do with the things we can’t bring or don’t need?
The committee feels we need a minute from the Meeting approving use of the Restricted Meeting House Fund to cover expenses of moving, including the extra Liability Coverage already paid for our trial Meeting ($105), and possible rent overlap.
We also will suggest to the clerk of the Meeting that she place the approval of the minute for moving at the beginning of Meeting for Worship for Business. Otherwise, much of this report will be moot.
Next committee meeting to be determined where and when.