News of Friends Meetings and Churches
Nominating Committee of Agate Passage Meeting (Poulsbo, WA) has sent a nominating questionnaire to members via e-mail. Friends are to fill out the questionnaire and send it back to the committee.
Berkeley Friends Meeting (CA) Adult Education Committee is sponsoring a discussion series based on Elizabeth Watson’s book Guests of My Life where she writes to describe the solace she found in literature after the tragic death of her daughter. Discussion covers the book itself and selections from texts by the authors Watson writes about.
Boise Friends Church (ID) holds Wednesday Night Classes, preceded by a minimally-priced dinner, Adult classes include “Learning the Journey of Faith,” “Faith Lessons” (videos filmed on location in Israel, and “What does the Bible say about…?”
In order to transport members and attenders who need rides to and from Meeting and other activities, Boulder Meeting (CO) is setting up a central clearing-house of rides and riders on the Meetng’s website. A print-out of the current list is posted in the Meeting House for those without computer access to the website.
Bridge City and Multnomah Meetings (Portland, OR) cancelled Meeting for Worship for Business during December because of snow.
Bridge City Meeting (Portland, OR) had its Intergenerational Winter Celebration cancelled because of snow. The gathering, to reflect on the meaning of Light and Darkness in our lives, has been rescheduled to February 1.
Cochise Friends Worship Group (McNeal, AZ) recently hosted students and staff from the Woolman Semester in Grass Valley, CA.
Corvallis Meeting (OR) is considering changing the time of Meeting for Worship, Meeting for Worship for Business and Adult Education. Starting in February, Meeting for Worship will be held before Adult Education or Meeting for Worship for Business.
Glendora Friends Church (CA) will host the Azusa Pacific University Players Drama, “Archie & Emma,” on January 18. The story is based on real people and events—a love story for the ages—20 years and 2000 miles later.
Grass Valley Meeting (Nevada City, CA) is planning an outreach event about Quakerism. They have invited Jacob and Gretta Stone from Quaker Center at Ben Lomond and expect folk dancing and a potluck.
Multnomah Meeting (Portland, OR) Friends are invited to Come to The Hearth! -- The Meeting’s very own salon/ Quaker living room/joyning from on Saturday evenings at the Meeting House. All ages are invited for World/classical/jazz/folk/sixties music;. Poets, singers, musicians, dancers, storytellers welcome
Newberg Friends Church (OR), on January 18 (6:00 p.m), will present Rich Swingle’s “A Clear Leading,” a one person play, based on incidents in the life of John Woolman who publicly spoke out against slavery.
Friends at Newberg Friends Church (OR) are becoming prayer partners with the girls, Bible College Students, and staff of Caring Hands Ministry in Dharwad, India. Prayer partners will receive pictures and personal prayer requests from their prayer partners and will send pictures, information about themselves, and prayer requests so the prayer partnership can go both ways.
Orange Grove Meeting (Pasadena, CA) invites Friends for a Poetry Evening on Wednesday, January 21. Friends are to bring poetry, songs, or just ears to listen.
Ministry and Worship and Pastoral Care Committees of Orange Grove Meeting (Pasadena, CA) will not form a joint committee. The committees will work with each other.
Redwood Forest Meeting (Santa Rosa, CA) has determined that the barn on its property must come down as a step towards better stewardship of their property. Friends who have possessions stored in the barn are asked to remove them.
The Clerk of Sacramento Meeting (CA) reviewed with Friends traditions and guidelines regarding vocal ministry during Meeting for Worship.
Sandpoint Meeting (ID) is deepening its Quakerism. In January they will be delving into the Integrity Testimony. “Integrity is being all of a (one) piece.” Friends will explore further.
The Community Spiritual Life (CSL) committee of South Seattle Preparative Meeting (WA) has decided to sponsor a round of Friendly 8s, a potluck dinner with a chance to get together outside of Meeting to socialize and get to know each other better. Participants indicate interest and they will be randomly grouped with the host responsible for setting a date. Newer attenders are especially encouraged to participate.
Friends at Friends Community Church Spring Valley (CA) are reminded that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a great read. In this novel the atrocity of slavery is clearly defined as well as the great love of Jesus Christ and his great power over it.
Tempe Meeting (AZ) has decided to cancel the Meeting retreat that had been planned for January, recognizing that the timing has been too tight.
The purpose of the Year of Discernment of University Meeting (Seattle, WA) is to discern “who the Meeting is” as a spirit-led community, what the Meeting is called to do, and what the Meeting has the capacity to do. In order to identify the many things the Meeting is already doing, short articles about its ministries are being included in the Meeting Newsletter.
Last Fall Vashon Friends Worship Group (WA) hosted representatives of Si a la Vida, a program for street kids in Nicaragua to which the Worship Group has sent monthly donations for years.
First Friends, Whittier (CA) has chosen a Clearness Committee to lead the process of transition, including affirming and completing the past, building a new identity for the future, and advising the Pastoral Search Community on the kind of pastoral leadership that will be needed for the future.

Beyond the Monthly Meeting/Churches
The Alaska Friends Conference Spring Quarterly Meeting will be March 27-29, in Homer. The main theme will be an experiential workshop from the Alternative to Violence program.
College Park Quarterly Meeting will gather January 17, 2009 at Palo Alto Meeting.
Evangelical Friends Church Southwest will hold its Annual Conference and Serve Day in three locations. In Southern California the Representative Session and Equipping Community Dinner will be January 23, and the Serve Day, January 24, 2009. In Arizona/Nevada the Equipping Community Dinner will be February 6 and the Serve Day, February 7, 2009. In Northern California the Equipping Community Dinner will be February 20 and the Serve Day, February 21, 2009.
Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy invites Washington State Friends to attend its first Quaker Lobby Day, which will focus on criminal justice issues. It will be held in Olympia on Monday, February 9 with the day beginning at the Olympia Friends Meeting House.
The Midwinter Gathering of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns will take place February 14-16, 2009 at Camp Adams near Portland, Oregon with the theme “Faith Calls for Justice on the Same Terms.”
Each year, Intermountain Yearly Meeting sends queries to member Meetings and Worship Groups. This year’s queries relate to drug and alcohol use and spiritual storytelling and storytellers. Queries include the following: What are the beliefs and experiences of Friends in your Meeting concerning the proper place of alcohol or drug use in the home, in gatherings of Friends, or in everyday life? What benefits do Friends find from alcohol use? Could we be comfortable requesting that alcohol use be avoided at gatherings of Friends?. . . . Are there Friends whose spiritual stories you would particularly like to hear or Friends who would particularly like to learn to tell their story, including stories directed especially to children?
Montana Gathering of Friends (MGOF) will meet February 6-8, 2009.
North Pacific Yearly Meeting Steering Committee meets January 24, 2009 at the Multnomah Meeting House (Portland, OR) This will be the last NPYM Steering Committee Meeting; the Yearly Meeting will switch to a Coordinating Committee status. Steering Committee had authority to act on its own with guidance from monthly meetings; with the new yearly meeting structure, much of the decision making goes back to the yearly meeting at annual session.
The Junior Friends (high-school age) of North Pacific Yearly Meeting will hold their Ski Trip February 13-16.
Northwest Yearly Meeting’s Midwinter High School Retreat will be held January 16-19, 2009 on the Oregon Coast at Twin Rocks Friends Camp. The theme will be “Where’s the Whole Gospel,” with Steve Sherwood, George Fox University, who will teach about relationships and service within the community.
Northwest Yearly Meeting’s Mid-Year Boards will be held February 6-7, 2009.
Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting Continuing Committee will meet Sunday, January 25, 2009, following a semi-potluck lunch.
The Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting Silent Retreat will be held January 30-February 1, 2009 at Camp Huston, Gold Bar, Washingon. This retreat offers an opportunity to reach more profound depths in the Silence of Quaker worship.
Quaker Heritage Day of Berkeley Friends Church will be February 21, 2009. Dan Seeger, New York Yearly Meeting, will speak on: Commerce, Community and the Regulations of Universal Love; The Contemporary Relevance of John Woolman’s Witness on the Economy. www.berkeleyfriendschurch.org
Utah Friends Fellowship will meet in Logan, UT, January 17-18, 2009.
The Walk with Earth Pilgrimage, for the beauty of the earth down the watersheds of the Americas, started March 2nd at San Francisco Meeting. Led by Rolene Walker, this pilgrimage ends in Chile in 2.5 years.
Willamette Quarterly Meeting meets for Meeting for Worship for Business on February 7, 2009, at the Corvallis Friends Meeting House.


PS. Personal note:
It’s been a quiet week here on Aspen Summit Drive. I’ve had a couple of meetings to go to and the usual errands and other things that keep ordinary life moving along. Praise God for ordinary life!
I live in a large apartment complex right beside the freeway. (My cats sometimes watch the cars going by.) However, the window I’m looking out now, as I sit at my desk, faces north, directly at Mt. St. Helens. The mountain is quiet now, glowing white with all the snow we’ve had lately. It’s nice and peaceful—sunshine, no snowstorm, no erupting mountain. It’s a quiet week.
In Friendship,
Nancy