Freetime Activities and Barnesville Area
Olney Friends School
Olney Friends School is an independent co-educational Quaker boarding school. It has a large campus that includes a gym with basketball courts, spacious lawns, woods, volleyball nets & spacious soccer fields. There is a swimmable pond if you are willing to wade thru a bit of muck on the pond edge. For more information on the school including directions, go to Olneyfriends.org.
Meeting spacesStillwater Meetinghouse and Olney Friends School offer ample spaces for meetings for worship and small workshops and interest groups of all kinds. Our morning meetings for worship and plenary sessions each evening will be held in the historical Stillwater Meetinghouse. This meetinghouse was built in 1878 in the classic traditional meetinghouse style and is the location of Ohio Yearly Meeting (see below).
The Stillwater Meetinghouse is filled with a powerful sense of the presence of well over a century of powerful spirit-led vocal ministry. Our meetings for worship during last year's Quakercamp had a similar powerful sense of being led by the Holy Spirit / living spirit of Christ.
Ohio Yearly Meeting
Ohio Yearly Meeting.. Ohio Yearly Meeting is one of three Wilburite or Conservative Yearly Meetings in the U.S. It has a strongly Christ-centered and biblically rooted faith, but has no pastors. Conservative Yearly Meetings have also maintained a strong commitment to the peace testimony and were the last yearly meetings to give up plain dress, plain speech and separate meetings for business for men and women.
There will be a number of evening presentations and afternoon workshops by leaders of Ohio Yearly Meeting. These had a powerful impact on Friends from other traditions of Friends taking part in last year's Quakercamp. 2 of these presentations are posted here on this website, namely those on the Conservative approach to meeting for business by Susan Smith, former clerk of Ohio YM, and one on the Conservative approach to scripture by Jack Smith, clerk of Buckingham Friends Meeting in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Conservative Quakers are the smallest branch of U.S. Quakers but distinctly different from the other 3 branches. Many Friends from other branches find Conservative Friends' approach to faith and practice uniquely moving and relevant to their own journey with Quakerism. This week offers a unique opportunity for learning from and sharing our own faith journeys with those from different traditions within the Quaker family.
Barnesville Area
Olney Friends School is located on the edge of Barnesville,
Ohio. The town has lots of supermarkets, restaurants, icecream stores,
and a movie theater. There is a mall about 1/2 hour away to the east.
There are wonderful state parks with swimming 30-40 minutes drive away. There are 2 Quaker-owned apple orchards located within 10 minutes of the campus. Another much smaller historic Friends Meeting (The Ridge) is located in one of these orchards.
There is a pioneering intentional community devoted to innovative sustainable home construction methods at Raven Rocks about 45 minutes away.
Free-time ActivitiesSoccer, basketball, volleyball, and ultimate frisbee. The school library has ready internet access. Singing.
There will be many opportunities for getting together in small groups for clearness committees, Bible study, special interest groups, or deepening sharing on subjects that have come up in plenary sessions. Last year groups met to develop queries related to the issue of the use of confidentiality among Friends and on faithfulness in intimate relationships. Meetings for healing were held last year with two experienced Reiki practitioners among the camp participants.
There will be dedicated time each afternoon for naps and unprogrammed fun / family activities.