News of Friends Meetings and Churches
Newberg Friends Church (OR) has an ongoing partnership with Caring Hands Ministry, centered in Dharwad, India. This ministry began with Arun and Shobha Massey’s calling to share Jesus Christ and hope with a group called the devadasi, women who serve as religious prostitutes throughout the state of Karnataka. There are now more than 70 girls, daughters of the devadasi, in the Joyful Children’s Home.
Each week Newberg Friends Church (OR) offers a children’s bulletin that follows along with the worship service. It includes questions from worship for Friends to discuss as a family after church. The children’s bulletins can be found on the small tables at the entry to the sanctuary.
Pima Meeting (Tucson, AZ) has posted a map in the Meeting House which shows where members and attenders live to facilitate carpooling to Meeting activities and other events.
Pima Monthly Meeting in Tucson Arizona recently approved its third minute against war. This is the first minute sent to the current administration. We are writing to request that the minute be placed on the agenda for the June gathering.
Friday, July 9th, Redwood Forest Meeting (Santa Rosa, CA) will celebrate 15 years at our Meetinghouse. July 9th, 1995, was the first Meeting for Worship and first Meeting for Business in the Meeting Room.
Paul Anderson will be the Spring Scholar in Residence at the Center for Christian Studies at Reedwood Friends Church (Portland, OR). He will speak on The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel. On Sundays, April 18- May 30, the theme will be Reading John Again . . . for the First Time. The Wednesday evening theme will be Jesus, Christ and John. Marcus Borg will join Paul Anderson on Wednesday, May 19.
Marcus Borg and Paul Anderson will hold a Public Symposium at Reedwood Friends Church (Portland, OR) on Saturday, May 22 with the theme, Jesus in Bi-Optic Perspective: Latest Scholarship on the Synoptics and John.
Reedwood Friends Church (Portland, OR) has received a “Recycle at Work Certified” award. This means the church has improved its certification practices and reduced the amount of waste it produces by implementing the City of Portland’s five recycling steps.
The Rose Drive Friends Church (Yorba Linda, CA) Spring Softball League is open to those high school age and above who are Rose Drive regular attenders. Others can be invited to play if they have no church home and are willing to come to worship services twice a month. Games are Saturdays between 8:00 a.m. and noon; there is no cost to play.
Rose Drive Friends Church (Yorba Linda, CA) held a Cook-off on Sunday, April 18. Friends drew teams from a hat, prepared two gourmet meals, and then determined the best meal.
Rose Drive Friends Church (Yorba Linda, CA) will host a prayer event in the sanctuary on May 6th, 7:00 p.m. for National Day of Prayer. This is a church family and community event and the church is hoping for 200 people to come and pray for our country.
Rose Drive Friends Church (Yorba Linda, CA) is currently building a Short-term Missions Team that will travel to the eastern part of Congo (Africa) to assist in the restoration of various missionary homes and buildings alongside their Mission Aviation Fellowship Missionaries, Lary and Sheryl Streitzel.
After experimenting with different approaches, Sacramento Meeting (CA) settled on including the concept of holding people in the Light following worship as they introduce themselves. This allows an opportunity to pray for friends and relatives of those attending who are facing challenges or celebrations in their lives.
The newsletter editorial team of Sacramento Meeting (CA) conducted a brief survey of Friends’ participation in community service. The survey was designed to learn about the many ways in which individual Friends reach out into the community. Twenty Friends responded to the survey. Eighty-five percent of them engage in community service in addition to their Meeting-related activities. Eleven of these Friends volunteer zero to 15 hours each month, seven give up to 60 hours, and one devotes well over 60 hours per month.
South Seattle Preparative Meeting (WA) is now under the care of Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting.
South Seattle Preparative Meeting (WA) has adopted these principles of corporate giving: Give with joy and lightness; Emphasize Quaker organizations while remaining open to other organizations as well; Give to organizations across the spectrum from local to global issues; Give to fewer organizations in order to make a larger gift to each, and; Be open to new ideas.
Strawberry Creek Meeting (Berkeley, CA) is sponsoring a 6-session course, Quakerism 101, on Monday evening in April and May, in the Berkeley Friends Meetinghouse. Each evening Friends will offer a talk and discussion, followed by worship-sharing and homework. Participants are asked to commit to attending all six evenings.
After worship and announcements at Strawberry Creek Meeting (Berkeley, CA), all are welcome to stay for refreshments. Friends are asked to please bring their own reusable cup and utensils.
A table is now in the center of the room for Meeting for Worship at Tempe Meeting (AZ) for the convenience of those using special microphones. It has also become a repository for Faith and Practice, a Bible and a hymn book.
Tempe Meeting (AZ) will be holding Friendly 8 Dinners on the week-end of April 23/24. Eight adults (and children of those families) will gather for potluck dinners at four host homes.
In the Spring of 2009 Meeting For Worship for Business, the Vancouver Island Monthly Meeting (BC) endorsed a BC Poverty Reduction Strategy along with many other groups and
individuals.
Walla Walla Preparative Meeting (WA) recently celebrated its 30th anniversary as a preparative meeting under the care of Eastside Friends Meeting. They typically have 3 to 12 in attendance at Meeting for Worship and are very active in local environmental issues. One preparative meeting member, Barbara Clark, is currently mayor of the city of Walla Walla.
First Friends, Whittier (CA) held an afternoon dedication service to introduce new pastor, Becky Memmelaar, to the larger Whittier community.
First Friends, Whittier (CA) participated in the 50th anniversary celebration of the Earlham School of Religion. On February 21, visitors from ESR officiated at Meeting for Worship and afterwards received recognition in a reception in Fellowship Hall.
Wyoming Friends Meeting will gather in Laramie, WY on April 30-May 1 for Meeting for Business, sharing, discussion, worship, and fellowship.
Agate Passage Meeting (Poulsbo, WA) Friends were asked to bring their favorite rendering/version of the Bible to exchange ideas on Bible Study!
In searching for ways to bring together Friends of different ages in the meeting, Albuquerque Meeting (NM) will have intergenerational worship. Children and adults will interact during Meeting, separating into small groups based on birthday months. The children will learn about the adults: where they were born, how many siblings they have, how they felt when they first began attending Meeting. Meeting will close with 10 minutes of silent worship. Those adults who want a full hour of silent worship will be able to use the Library.
Bellingham Meeting (WA) contributed Pysanky eggs to the Interfaith Coalition’s Spring Auction. This contributed to the success of Interfaith’s biggest fundraising event of the year.
Bellingham Meeting (WA) is planning for its Annual Retreat, “Visioning the Future of Bellingham Friends Meeting,” which will be an opportunity to share visions for the future, how Friends worship, work together, and care for one another, and what Friends want most in worship and community.
Berkeley Meeting (CA) is presenting an intensive eight week Quaker history series on Quakers in New England in the Seventeenth Century. The last half of the seventeenth century in New England was one of drama for Quakers, with persecution and martyrdom; a bloody war with Native Americans which became a real-world tryout of the infant peace testimony in Rhode Island, where the government was in the hands of Quakers; and at the end of the century, Quakers were
witness to the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, the location of the largest Quaker community in Massachusetts Colony.
Boise Valley Meeting (ID) will view the National Religious Coalition Against Torture video as a Meeting, followed by a potluck.
Canyon Hills Friends Church (Yorba Linda, CA) will present a Mother's Day Musical which is open to ages 5-15 years.
Davis Meeting (CA) will have an open threshing/winnowing/listening session on the aesthetics/design of the current doors to the meetinghouse and how Friends might ensure architectural integrity in the future. Friends are to bring their concerns and be ready to listen to others. This will not be a decision making session but may be a step in that direction.
Delta Meeting (Stockton, CA) has received an invitation from a local Unitarian Church, asking Friends to compare and contrast the difference between Meditation and Quaker Worship. Several Friends are interested but cannot commit to a date yet.
Fellowship Committee of Eastside Meeting (Bellevue, WA) reminds everyone to welcome visitors and new attenders warmly, and not to let them stand alone during coffee time.
Fresno Meeting (CA) approved not having business meeting in May, Mother’s Day.
On the 4th Sunday of every month, after refreshments after Meeting for Worship, Grass Valley Friends (Nevada City, CA) meets for Spiritual Formation, for about an hour. The purpose of Spiritual Formation is to support Friends in their spiritual seeking, in order to deepen the spiritual lives of individuals and of the Meeting. Friends do this by introducing spiritual practices, exploring individual and corporate spiritual themes, and worship-sharing around queries that stimulate spiritual seeking, questioning and exploration.
In preparation for the Meeting’s State of Society Report, Friends from Mountain View Meeting (Denver, CO), answered queries:
- Do you believe God lives in everyone? When is that easy and when is that hard to believe?
- How would you describe our Meeting here to [someone you know] who does not attend?
- What would make this Meeting better for you?
- What should the meeting be spending its money on?
Mountain View Meeting (Denver, CO), held a Called Meeting for Worship for Business on April 11 to consider the right use of MVFM assets and reserves.
Each year the Mountain View Meeting (Denver, CO) Finance and Budget Committee awards educational scholarships. The budgeted amount for this year is a total of $3000.00.
Multnomah Meeting (Portland, OR) will hold Threshing Sessions on the future of First Day School, especially the needs of middle and high school students. How can the Meeting best serve the youth and encourage them to stay with the Meeting?
Beyond the Monthly Meeting/Churches
Alaska Friends Conference Spring Retreat, Tending the Spiritual Taproot of our YearlyMeeting, Individually and Collectively, April 23 – 25, 2010, Susitna River Lodge Talkeetna, Alaska (www.susitna-river-lodging.com), with facilitator, Christine Hall.
Youth of Alaska Friends Conference are invited to gather at Nancy Lake State Park, July 28-30, paddling and hiking to Cabin #1. Each day is filled with spirit-led activities, games and arts and crafts. The menu is simple, cooked family style over a campfire. Each night Friends enjoy s’mores and good singing around the fire. Friends leave July 30 to join the Yearly Gathering of the Alaska Friends Conference. No age limit, kids from age 1 to 90 are welcome!
Barclay Press will celebrate 50 years of publishing ministry among Evangelical Friends in May.
The Third National Quaker Conference on Torture & Accountability is scheduled for September 24-26, 2010 at Quaker Center, Ben Lomond CA. http://www.quakercenter.org/
Two internationally known anti-torture activists will headline the Conference on Torture. Human rights attorney and investigator Scott Horton will be the keynote speaker. Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, will also bring his unique perspective on the work.
College Park Quarterly Meeting will gather May 15-16 at Ben Lomond Quaker Center with the theme, “Listening to Each Other . . . Listening to God. Activities will include a ‘speed listening fishbowl’ and a panel of Friends responding to queries about listening.
Good News Associates is presenting a 3-day “Leadership Institute for Group Discernment” May 17-20 at George Fox University, Newberg, OR. The Leadership Institute is a four-day intensive experience to empower church leaders in group discernment. It will integrate theological, spiritual and practical organizational processes. Each participant is invited to bring both expertise to share and problems to be solved. Insitute Leadership includes Paul Anderson, Bruce Bishop, Chuck Conniry, Lon Fendall, and Jan Wood.
The Joy of Clerking is a one-day workshop for clerks or people considering being clerks, to provide training and support to help you fulfill this task with an eye on how God is stirring and moving your community. The workshop will be offered at George Fox University on Tuesday, May 18 and led by Lon Fendall and Jan Wood of the Good News Association. This workshop is part of the larger “Leadership Institute for Group Discernment.”
Intermountain Yearly Meeting (IMYM) will be held June 9-13, 2010, at Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM, with early program days on June 6-9 The theme will be "Quaker Service in the 21st Century." The registration material is posted at http://imym.org/2010annualgathering. Registrations are due by April 20. Registrations post-marked after April 20 may be accepted at the discretion of the Registrars, but housing may not be available and IMYM will request a $25 late fee.
Calling Friends young and old to the first annual Quaker summer camp by and for InterMountain Yearly Meeting Friends! We are offering a summer camp experience June 13-20, the week following the annual gathering, in Gardner Colorado. A small group of SYF, YAF and OAF volunteer counselors will lead JYF campers in fellowship, fun and plork (play + work) as we experiment with living Quaker testimonies in harmony with nature. Our time will be spent playing games, exploring the woods and streams around Camp, music and dance, making arts and crafts and poems and friends, plork, and in daily Quaker worship and worship sharing. Only IMYM attenders will be able to join this years camp. imym.org/mtnfriendscamp
The Los Altos History Museum will present an exhibit about Frank and Josephine Duvenick, between January and June of 2011. The Duvenicks were active in the Quaker Community and also with The American Friends Service Committee.
Northwest Yearly Meeting will gather at George Fox University for worship, business, and visioning on July 25-29. The keynote address by Superintendent Colin Saxton will be on Sunday and the Outreach Rally will occur on Monday.
The 8th Pacific Northwest Quaker Women’s Theology Conference will take place June 16-20, 2010, at Seabeck Conference Center in Seabeck, Washington. The theme is Walk With Me: Mentors, Elders, and Friends. www.pnwquakerwomen.org.
Pacific NW Quarterly Meeting Spring Gathering is scheduled for April 23-25, 2010, at Lazy F Ranch near Ellensburg with the theme “Compassionate Listening: Finding God in the Midst of Fear,” and featuring a talk by Leah Green, founder of the Compassionate Listening Project. For more information, see http://www.pnqm.org.
Pacific Yearly Meeting’s 64th gathering will be held at Claremont McKenna College, near Los Angeles, from July 26 to 31. George Lakey of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting will be the keynote speaker, and there will be a return visit by Vanessa Julye of Friends General Conference’s Committee for Ministry on Racism.
Pacific Yearly Meeting has selected a Youth Coordinator who will start part time in April and be full time by May. She is Sarah Beutel, a member of Mountain View Monthly Meeting in Denver and Clerk of Intermountain Young Adult Friends.
Southern California Quarterly Meeting will gather at Orange Grove Meeting in Pasadena, CA on Saturday, April 24th under the care of Ministry and Counsel, with the theme of "How has Truth prospered among us", we will be continuing to get to know one another through Worship Sharing around our State of the Meeting Reports.
Friends are invited to mark their calendars for a delightful, family-friendly gathering at Twin Rocks Friends Camp, “Party by the Parkway” on Saturday, May 22, 2010.
Western Half Yearly Meeting (WHYM) will meet Friday May 21-Monday May 24th at Sorrento Centre. Friends are invited to arrive at the Sorrento Centre on Thursday evening so they can join in the WHYM Retreat Day on Friday.
Western School of the Spirit: A dedicated group titled a “Western Program Start Up Committee,” has met several times in phone conference since the consultation. Western Friends will not be moving forward with the proposal for a full two-year program beginning in the fall of 2011 under the care of the School of the Spirit Ministries but are moving forward “in association with” School of the Spirit Ministries.
Willamette Quarterly Meeting Spring Gathering will meet April 23-25 at Sky Camp, east of Eugene, Oregon. The theme is “Living in Harmony: Body and Soul.”
