Westport Meeting Newsletter, August 19, 2022

Westport Meeting News: 

Peace and Social Justice Committee: P&SJC member Gretchen Baker-Smith asked that we include news of an upcoming symposium on Monkeypox, presented by The South Coast LBGTQ+ Network,  August 24, 5-8 PM EST via Zoom. As Friends know, we are all in a learning curve on this disease that is new to our area as an important public health concern. The symposium will cover the history, symptoms, contagion and treatment of Monkeypox, lead by a panel of public health professionals from throughout the South Coast. To view the flyer, learn more, and to register, please click HERE. 

New England Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions News:

A good number of our Meeting members attended NEYM Annual Sessions at Castleton University in Castleton, VT earlier this month. Some 340 Friends attended in person, and another 160 attended via Zoom. It was a fruitful week of Friends conducting the business at hand, a chance to catch up with many Friends face-to-face after a two-year hiatus of Annual Sessions being held only virtually, and perhaps most importantly, zero persons tested positive for Covid 19 during our stay in VT! That’s a major victory for the many Friends who worked  hard to make that a reality! 

Recent Book Fair News:

A post 2022 Book Fair Letter to our Book Fair patrons in the surrounding community may be read HERE.

A post 2022 Book Fair Reflection by Gretchen Baker-Smith, to Meeting members and Book Fair workers may be read HERE and below:

Reminder: Like most years, no monthly meeting for business will be held this month. Our next monthly meeting for business will be held September 18, at 8am, via Zoom.

Midweek worship continues 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.

Help with Zoom Connections: Instructions for connecting to worship each Sunday, and Monthly Meeting for Business each month, is HERE.
 
Westport Monthly Meeting Minutes may be read in Google Docs HERE.
 

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)
  • Seekers Group, Monday, August 22 at 7pm. Hybrid
  • Midweek Meeting for Worship, Wed, Aug 24, 3:30-4pm. Via Zoom
  • Peace and Social Justice Committee, Sept 11 at 7pm. Hybrid. (Barbara sends link)
  • NEYM monthly check-in for Friends serving their local meetings, Sept 13, 7pm (See below)
  • Monthly Meeting for Business, Sept 18 at 8am, Zoom only.

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

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Yearly Meeting/Wider Quaker News:

Sept 13, at 7 PM: An online check-in for Friends serving in leadership roles in their local meetings.

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Sandwich Quarterly Meeting News:

  • SQM October 22 at Westport Meeting)
  • SQM Ministry & Counsel
    -September 24 at Mattapoisett

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Closing:

Any forms for the cultivation of the religious life
are in themselves always subject to change … they
are scaffolding to be torn down and re-erected in new
forms in accordance with the stage of growth of the
life they seek to aid. To take them as an end in
themselves is idolatry and blasphemy.

Without practice, without discipline, without continuous
devotion, without failure, correction, re-dedication,
re-orientation, there is no growth in the religious life
which is not an episode, or an event, but
a life.

Douglas V. Steere, in Prayer and Worship, 1938)

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Thank you, Friends,

Kevin