Leaving in Love

Grass Valley Friends Meeting has recently come through a significant transition: leaving the land that many of us long knew as the birthplace and home of the Meeting and, for over fifty years, Sierra Friends Center and Woolman. The land is now known as Yulića. After the challenges and grace of the preceding years, we came to unity that it was time to move our Meeting into town. This change did not arise from urgency or conflict, but from careful listening, patient discernment, and a shared commitment to walk tenderly with one another, with the land, and with our neighbors.

After the land transfer to the Nisenan, Grass Valley Friends Meeting continued our lease of the meetinghouse. We were received with warmth and generosity. One of our members, Dean Olson, continued his rental of the Ranch House annex, where he had lived for several years. We had a sense of being honored as guests at Yulića and have continued to be welcomed there with respect and care. We hold clearly that the land is theirs, historically and now officially. We carry deep gratitude that the return of the land unfolded in love, and we want to be clear with our community that the Nisenan were steadfast in their welcome of us. That truth speaks to the largeness of their hearts and the integrity of the relationship that has grown between us.

Our Meeting had been holding, for decades, an ongoing conversation about the possibility of moving into town, where we might be more visible and accessible within the Grass Valley community. This conversation continued quietly alongside our work with the Nisenan homeland return.

One of our committees was moved to make an inquiry about possible available space at Peace Lutheran Church in Grass Valley during a conversation with their pastor. That inquiry led, step by step, into a discernment that felt unexpectedly clear and unburdened. Way opened smoothly. The Nisenan supported our decision. We found ourselves acknowledging not only the practicality of the move, but also its deeper meaning: a sense of beginning anew, a rebirth of the Meeting.

Leaving the Yulića site carries poignancy. There is history there, many memories, and love for the land and the meetinghouse, where so much has taken place. Yet there is also a shared recognition that our Meeting lives in the community we form, in our shared connections, and in the hands of God. In releasing something precious, we discover new opportunities opening before us. We wonder whether this new location might offer a fresh welcome, perhaps even making room for former members and attenders to return, and for newcomers to find us more easily.

As a Meeting, we sense that the deep, sometimes challenging work we did together around the return of the Nisenan homeland strengthened us. Practicing deep listening to all sides of that transition brought us into greater unity and trust. That grounding carries forward into this decision as well.

We are also deeply grateful to the ad hoc group whose careful planning made the practical work of packing, moving, and setting up feel easeful. Their quiet faithfulness allowed the rest of us to arrive in the new space without strain.

Today, Grass Valley Friends Meeting feels strong, alive, and vital. We hold the Nisenan and the land of Yulića in love, with abiding gratitude for the relationship we share and for the grace with which this transition unfolded. We step into our new home aware that we are shaped by what we have left behind, and hopeful about what may yet be born among us.