About Us
Vision
Our vision for the Friends Wilderness Center is for individuals, families, and congregations:
- to experience peaceful fulfillment in a wilderness refuge;
- to attain spiritual growth in harmony with nature;
- to learn more about being reverent stewards of the land and to act on that new knowledge; and
- to protect and preserve this natural sanctuary for future generations.
We recognize that all people have good in them and the right and freedom to have whatever spiritual or religious orientation they feel best, we do not preach or recruit. You’re welcome to express your spirituality here.
Mission
Our mission is to care for the natural setting entrusted to us and to enable all to find spiritual nurturance there.
Values
- We offer a sanctuary where individuals, families and congregations may listen to the land and its creatures and deepen their inner lives.
- We nurture renewal of the soul within a wilderness setting, enabling visitors to grow spiritually by harmonizing with nature.
- We honor the privilege of protecting and preserving the land entrusted to us as stewards, and we extend the opportunity to share that stewardship with others.
- We believe the wilderness should be shared with a diversity of people so that the wilderness can bring peace and fulfillment to all who seek it.
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we are seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance with our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s finally all about.”
Joseph Campbell
Native Blue Flag blooms in the Niles Cabin pond in late April
A lovely Luna Moth rests its wings in the early morning air
A vibrant maple leaf is set off by a piece of Catoctin Greenstone
FWC Board of Directors
| Director | Meeting Represented/Board Position | |
| Hayden Mathews | At-large Member, Assistant Clerk – Website Administrator | |
| Greg Robb | Friends Meeting of Washington (DC) | |
| Jonathan Glass | Sandy Spring Meeting (MD) | |
| Loren Garrettson | Sandy Spring Meeting (MD) | |
| Ann Stone | Langley Hill Meeting (VA) | |
| (Representative Sought) | Hopewell Centre Meeting (VA) | |
| Julie Courtwright | Alexandria Friends Meeting | |
| Caroline Pelton | Clerk of the Board, Goose Creek Meeting (VA) | |
| John Flower | Sidwell Friends School, China Folk House Program Rep. | |
| (Representative Sought) | Annapolis Friends Meeting | |
| Martha Mason Semmes | Goose Creek Meeting | |
| Deborah Sudduth | Baltimore Yearly Meeting (Unity With Nature) | |
| (Representative Sought) | Herndon Meeting (VA) | |
| (Representative Sought) | Bethesda Friends Meeting | |
(Representative Sought) | Frederick Friends Meeting |