Westport Quakers

Westport Meeting News:

Please save this date: Ministry and Counsel Committee, in consultation with Steve Correia’s daughters Aliza LeClerc and Larissa Correia, have set the date of May 7, 2022, to hold a memorial service to celebrate the life and spirit of our beloved Steven Correia. The memorial service will take place in our meetinghouse beginning at 2:00 PM. A reception will follow the service in the Community House. 

Steve and June, 2007

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Postponed due the snowstorm earlier this month, Ministry and Counsel Committee has rescheduled the previously planned Second Hour Worship and Reflection session on our Meeting’s Black Lives Matter witness to Sunday, February 27, 11:30 – 12:30 PM. The Second Sunday session will be held in the meetinghouse and on Zoom.

Update and announcement: Westport Friends may remember the previously posted NEYM Faith and Practice Revision Committee’s Draft chapter for review and discussion on Ministry and Counsel committees at the monthly meeting level; Our Meeting’s M&C committee has been reviewing this document, but all Westport Friends are encouraged to review this draft copy as well. Click HERE for the link.

Subject to Monthly Meeting for Business approval, our Ministry and Counsel Committee has set a date of Sunday, March 13, following worship to discuss and receive comments from our members and attenders. The 38 page draft document represents a significant and thorough reworking of what is currently in the 1986 edition of NEYM Book of Faith and Practice. The NEYM Faith and Practice Revision Committee is eager to receive feedback from monthly meetings, so this is our chance to do so as a Meeting community. 

Midweek worship will continue to be offered each week on Wednesdays at 3:30 PM. Please note that the link for midweek worship is not the same as our regular worship on Sunday. A link for joining Midweek worship (which is the same link each week) will be emailed each week on Wednesday mornings. To insure security, we never post Zoom links on websites or portals visible to the general public. Questions? Contact Kevin Lee.

MEETING CALENDAR: (All meetings held via Zoom, in person, or hybrid (meaning in-person and via Zoom), as noted)

• Worship each Sunday in meetinghouse and via Zoom at 10am (hybrid)
• Peace & Social Justice Committee, Sunday, Feb 13, 8-9:45am. (Zoom only)
• Seekers Group, Mon, Feb 14, at 7pm. (Zoom only, Gretchen sends link)
• Midweek worship, Wed, Feb 16, 3:30-4pm (link sent day of, Zoom only)
• Monthly Meeting for Business, Feb 20, at 8 AM is CANCELED
• Seekers Group, Mon, Feb 28, 7-8:30 PM (Zoom Only) 
• NEYM “Bread Day,” March 5, 2022, with Gretchen Baker-Smith and Maggie Fiori. (Details below)
• Ministry and Counsel Committee, Monday, March 7, 7pm. Zoom only.
• NEYM Meeting leaders call, Tues, March 8, 7pm. via Zoom.
• Monthly Meeting for Business, March 20, at 8 AM (Zoom Only)
• JYM Retreat, March 18-20, “We knead each other,” via Zoom
• JHYM (Hoped for!) Retreat, April 1-3. Details TBA 
• NEYM Permanent Board, Sat, April 2, 9am-1pm (Zoom only)
• NEYM Ministry and 3rd Spiritual Life Gathering, April 9, Portland Friends Meeting (hybrid, info HERE)
• BOOK FAIR: July 9-17
• NEYM Annual Sessions, Castleton, VT, August 5-11 (Hybrid – tentative)

MIDWEEK WORSHIP, via Zoom, WEDNESDAYS, 3:30-4:00pm!

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Yearly Meeting/Wider Quaker News:

NEYM Faith and Practice Revision Committee: Draft chapter for review and discussion on Ministry and Counsel committees at the monthly meeting level; [Our Meeting’s M&C committee will be reviewing this document, but all Friends are encouraged to review this draft copy as well. Click HERE for the link. (Also, please see annoucement above under “Westport Meeting News.”

New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter, “You Are the Leaven,” February, 2022, by Beth Bussiere-Nichols of Portland Friends Meeting may be read HERE:

Introduction
For BIPOC Friends
The radical Quaker spiritual journey
Read The Lemon Tree
Preserve your meeting’s history
Best practices in nominating
Coming: bread day
Mysticism, Physics, and Healing book group
Quakers adapting in new ways
Support for addressing racial justice
“Midweek Meditations” returns
We’re hiring!
Reunion coordinator needed
Being an activist
What is required of me?
Your feedback is needed!
“Ministry: the call and the challenge” on video
Sharpen your Zoom skills
Quakers in the news
A last word

Gretchen’s JYM-JHYM latest newsletter, issue of Feb 10, 2022, “Help on the Way!” contains an opening reflection, programming and retreat info for young people, parents and Friends throughout New England Yearly Meeting.  Read her latest bi-weekly newsletter HERE.

Bread Retreat, Nov 2010 K. Lee photo ©

NEYM “Bread Day,” March 5, 2022:

NEYM youth ministers Gretchen Baker-Smith and Maggie Fiori invite Friends of all ages from across New England to a day of connecting with each other and Spirit through baking bread together! This is a hybrid gathering, meaning that Friends can participate by gathering in person in their monthly meeting communities and connecting to the wider community online. Gretchen will share her ministry of baking bread as a practice of listening for Spirit, which she has shared with youth for decades. Save the date, March 5th, tell Friends at your meeting, and look out for registration opening this winter. Contact Maggie at maggie@neym.org with questions.

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Third Gathering on Spiritual Life and Ministry for Friends in New England, April 9, 2022. This event will be held, in person, at Friends School in Portland, ME, and virtually, on Zoom. Additional information may be read HERE.

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Quaker organizations, and our Yearly Meeting as a whole, are offering an amazing array of opportunities to expand our knowledge and improve our practice as Friends in a variety of ways. Check out the following links and see what we are being offered! Also, take a few minutes and explore additional programs offered by NEYM by visiting the Events page HERE.

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Closing:

Abundantly sufficient for our help
is the grace afforded us!
Let all but keep to it, and then safe are their steppings
and sure their preservation;
for, however severe their trials,
the Lord will be near them.

– Job Scott, Quaker Minister, (1751-1793)

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Thank you, Friends,

Kevin Lee