Westport Meeting News:
HOSPITALITY VOLUNTEERS URGENTLY NEEDED!
Friends are needed to oversee Hospitality, scheduled on a rotating basis, following Worship. The Committee is very small. The more volunteers, the fewer Sundays a volunteer need serve.
HOW IT WORKS:
- Each month, a scheduling email is sent out by Gorman, clerk of Hospitality. Friends respond to their availability, then Gorman sends out the schedule for the month.
- Though some Friends bake or buy goodies and absorb the expense as a gift to Meeting, Friends are welcome to submit their receipts for reimbursement.
- New volunteers can shadow experienced Friends and get hands-on training.
- Feel free to ask for help! Friends welcome the opportunity to assist.
Hospitality Responsibilities:
Set-Up
- Make sure a serving table, 4/5 chairs with card table are set up in main room.
- Set up coffee and start it brewing.
- Heat water in electric kettle to boiling, fill thermos for tea.
- Put out cups for coffee/tea and containers of half & half and sugar/sweetener and tea bags on counter.
- Put out napkins, paper plates, and utensils (if needed), on table in main room.
- Select stored baked goods from freezer to thaw and arrange various foods on platter with crackers and put out on table in main room. (Example of foods – cheese, fruit, a baked/bought finger food, dip)
- Crackers, coffee, tea, and paper goods are supplied by Meeting.
Clean-Up
- Announce Clean-Up and feel welcome to request help with cleaning up
- Clear table(s) and counters. Put dishes in the dishwasher and start.
- Put away food, creamer. Foods should be taken home, frozen, or thrown out. Re-usable baked goods can be wrapped well and frozen. Store non-perishables in cabinets to discourage ants and mice.
- Clean any food surfaces and sweep floor of crumbs.
- Make sure all chairs and tables are put away except for one small table in front of food serving window.
- Coffee pots should be turned off, grounds emptied, and re-usable filters washed out. Remaining coffee can be left in the pots for AA.
- Put dirty dish towels, tablecloths in basket under sink.
- If last to leave, make sure oven and lights are off, windows are closed, trash and recycling taken out and doors are locked.
- There is a pad of paper on the refrigerator for noting supplies that need to be replenished or things that need to come to the attention of Property or Hospitality Committees.
– Betty Ann Lee, clerk of Meeting, and member of Hospitality Committee
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Save the Date! Easter Sunday Egg Hunt: Sunday, April 17 at rise of worship.
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)
- JHYM Retreat, In Person, April 1-3, at Woolman Hill DETAILS
- Worship each Sunday in meetinghouse and via Zoom at 10am (hybrid)
- Ministry and Counsel Committee, April 4, at 7pm (Zoom only)
- Midweek worship, Wed, April 6, 3:30-4pm (link sent day of, Zoom only)
- Peace & Social Justice Committee, April 10, at 7pm (Zoom only)
- Seekers Group, Mon, April 11, 7-8:30pm. (Hybrid)
- NEYM Life in the Connections: Ministry and Our Meetings: April 9, 2022, 9am-4pm. (Info below)
- Clean Up Westport (COW), Sat, April 9, 9am – 1pm. (Details below)
- NEYM Meeting leaders call, Tues, April 12, 7pm. via Zoom.
- Easter Sunday Egg Hunt: Sunday, April 17 at rise of worship (More details soon)
- Monthly Meeting for Business, April 24, at 8 AM (Zoom Only)
- Young Friends In Person Spring Retreat, April 22-24, in Portland, ME Details
- Book Fair Committee Meeting, Wed, April 27 at 7pm via ZOOM
- BOOK FAIR: July 9-17
- NEYM Annual Sessions, Castleton, VT, August 6-11. Important Details
MIDWEEK WORSHIP, via Zoom, WEDNESDAYS, 3:30-4:00pm!
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Yearly Meeting/Wider Quaker News:
Gretchen’s JYM-JHYM latest newsletter, issue of March 17, 2022, “Paying attention to our roots” 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.
Life in the Connections: Ministry and Our Meetings: April 9, 2022, 9am-4pm. “Ministry and our meetings can be thought of as interacting parts of a complex ecosystem. We invite Friends to join us in exploring this metaphor and the questions it raises about the relationship between meetings and ministry. This is the third in a series of gatherings focused on spiritual life and ministry and is being planned as a hybrid event. We will have options for in-person and Zoom attendance, and we are striving to have the event feel as if all participants are part of the same group. The in-person portion is planned for Friends School of Portland.” (From NEYM website) Details HERE.
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter, “What Do I Want To Give Myself To?,” March, 2022, by Maggie Edmondson, pastor of Winthrop Center, ME, Friends Church, can be read HERE.
Introduction
For BIPOC Friends
Nurturing Faithfulness
Ministry and our meetings
YAF Retreat
Support for addressing racial justice
Black Quaker Lives Matter film festival
Film: Hunger Ward
Spring ahead
Images from Bread Day
James Varner honored by University of Maine
Worship & technology at your meeting
Maine Friends share worship with Cuba
Quaker witness
Bill Kreidler in print
Passage of the month from Faith & Practice
Quakers in the news
A last word
Update on Letter of Apology to Native Americans may be read HERE.
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.
Nurturing Faithfulness Program: “Who in your meeting is yearning to take “the next big step” in their spiritual journey? Who is yearning to meet God more deeply, hone discernment methods, and more fully express their spiritual gifts in service to your meeting or the wider world?” ( – Jeremiah Dickinson, Interim Clerk of NEYM Ministry & Counsel)
Nurturing Faithfulness is a 9-month faith and leadership program offered by New England Yearly Meeting, in partnership with Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center and the Beacon Hill Friends House. The program is designed to set in place support, encouragement, and accountability for Friends called to listen for what Spirit is leading them towards. It runs from September 2022 to May 2023, with two residencies at Woolman Hill (Deerfield, MA), one online residency, and regular online or locally based connection opportunities, in addition to reflection assignments and readings. You can read more about the program HERE.
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.
Recurring virtual events
- Daily at 8 a.m., Beacon Hill Friends House: Meditation practice
- Alternate Thursdays at 4 p.m., Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL): Thursdays with Friends
- Thursdays at 7 p.m.: Taizé worship
- Thursdays at 8 p.m.: Parents’ Tea-and-Chat
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Worship Sharing on the Peace Testimony
Quaker House is hosting a second Worship Sharing session on Saturday, April 2 at 4:00pm EDT. Friends are invited to join to share their thoughts and discernment about the Peace Testimony of Friends and how the events in Ukraine have affected them.
The Worship Sharing will be unprogrammed and we will wait for messages to rise from the silence. As a time of worship, we will not record the session.
If you wish to participate, send an email to wayne.finegar@quakerhouse.org or call 910-323-3912 and the connection information will be sent to you. This will allow us to have a sense of how many will be joining in worship.
After the time of worship, we will discuss next steps in this discernment. Some options already suggested include:
- Additional worship sharing opportunities.
- More formal presentations from Friends who have written or spoken on these topics (suggestions of names with contact information are very welcome).
- Discussion groups (probably with smaller numbers) focused on topics of interest. These might well include materials for review prior to the sessions.
- Activism sharing with a focus on how to achieve real change in an era of social media.
Wayne W. Finegar II, Executive Director
Quaker House of Fayetteville, NC
223 Hillside Avenue
Fayetteville, North Carolina 28301
877-447-4487 (GI Rights Hotline)
910-323-3912 (office)
443-602-1221 (mobile)
wayne.finegar@quakerhouse.org
www.quakerhouse.org
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Sandwich Quarterly Meeting News:
From Deena Kinsky, SQM Newsletter Editor:
Shared by Northampton Monthly Meeting: Webinar on March 26 at 3 pm, “Nuclear Weapons and Massachusetts: Why MA Needs a Nuclear Weapons Commission and How You Can Help That Happen.” Details HERE.
West Falmouth Peace and Social Order 2nd Sunday lecture series. These will be Sundays from 12-1:00 on Zoom, and registration is required. Check with Brenda Nolan nolanbab@gmail.com if you’d like to register or be put on a mailing list:
- April 10: The Beloved Border Humanity and Hope in a Contested Land
Miriam Davidson a prize-winning Quaker journalist with over 30 years reporting on the borderlands is based in Tucson, Arizona.
Miriam will discuss her new book on border issues. Published in September 2021 by the University of Arizona Press, The Beloved Border describes the work of Quaker researchers and activists, as well as, the influence of Quaker ideas like sanctuary and nonviolence, in helping shape the future of the U.S.-Mexico border region.
- Sandwich Quarter Meetings for Business
-April 23 at New Bedford (State of Society Reports for 2021 are to be presented at this meeting)
-July 23 at W. Falmouth Meeting
–October 22 at Westport Meeting)
- SQM Ministry & Counsel
-March 26 at E Sandwich Preparative Meeting
-September 24 at Mattapoisett
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Westport Community News:
Clean Our Westport (COW): “Martin Costa, organizer of the yearly litter clean up days, affectionately named Team COW (Clean Our Westport), announces this Spring’s clean up day set for Saturday, April 9 (rain date Sunday April 10) 9am-1pm. Several Friends have helped out in previous year’s and if you are interested in volunteering please send a request to cleanourwestport@gmail.com. Clean up tools will be provided.” – Martin Costa
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Closing:
Dearly Beloved Friends, These things we do not lay upon you
as a form or rule to walk by, but that all, with the measure of light
which is pure and holy, may be guided; and so in the light walking and abiding,
these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not in the letter,
for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
– Letter from the Meeting of Elders at Balby, 1656
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Thank you, Friends,
Kevin