Westport Meeting News: (Updated 12.19.21)
Monthly Meeting for Business meet Sunday morning, Dec 19, and after a thoughtful period of discussion, Westport Meeting Friends, in conjunction with our Ministry and Counsel Committee, have decided on the following revision to our typical Christmas Eve Service:
Welcome to “A Christmas Eve Fellowship”
We are on, (!) but, modified to mitigate risks due to rising Covid 19 cases throughout our region. This year, we will gather earlier at 4:30 PM on Christmas Eve for “A Christmas Eve Fellowship” behind the Community House for approximately 30-40 minutes (“Depending on weather and stamina!”) around two fire pits for warmth and singing Christmas carols and hymns, holding tea lights and/or flashlights, which will be provided. Once again, Deana will share her beloved rendition of the “Inn Keepers Wife” story with us all!
To be clear, nothing will be held indoors in the meetinghouse or inside the Community House. Bathrooms will be available inside. We envision this year’s program, called “A Christmas Eve Fellowship,” to be for the youth and adults of the Westport Friends Meeting community, including members and attenders who typically join us year after year on Christmas Eve. We are not inviting the general public to attend this year due to Covid concerns. In the event of inclement weather, we will decide via email to all in advance. Regarding refreshments? As one Friend said, “This year, let’s avoid cleanup chores, but Christmas Cookies are welcome!”
________
Afghan Family being resettled in Dartmouth…items needed: Please read Sandwich Quarterly Meeting News below.
Special Thanks to Sandra and Michael Thompson for creating yet another beautiful Christmas wreath that again, graces the front door of our meetinghouse this holiday season!
Nomination Slate: The 2022-2025 Nominating Committees report to monthly meeting for business on Nov 21, 2021, was approved. Friends may view the 2022-2025 Slate HERE.
Thanks to Westport Meeting’s Peace and Social Justice Committee, on Monday, Nov 29, Signature Signs of Westport mounted a permanent, solid Black Lives Matter sign that resembles perfectly the multiple BLM banners that we previously displayed that were all stolen from Meeting property.
Westport Meeting’s Peace and Social Justice Committee is continuing its work after meeting with the Westport Police to address intolerance and hate within the surrounding community. Committee members Gretchen Baker-Smith and Susan Czernicka meet recently with reporter Ted Hayes, of East Bay RI News. The article, “Westport Friends Deal With a Rash of BLM Banner Thefts,” published Saturday, Dec 18, 2021, may be read HERE on their online edition.
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)
- Monthly Meeting for Business, Dec 19 at 8am. (Zoom only)
- “Discovering Crossroads,” an NEYM sponsored event Dec 18, 2-4pm. (Details below)
- Monthly Meeting for Business, Dec 19 at 8am. (Zoom only)
- Seekers Group, Monday, Dec 20, at 7pm, in-person and hybrid. (Gretchen sends link)
- Midweek worship, Wed, Dec 22, 3:30-4pm. (link sent day of, Zoom only)
- Welcome to a “Christmas Eve Fellowship,”, Dec 24, at 4:30pm. Details above
- CHRISTMAS DAY, Sat, Dec 25
- Seekers Group, Monday, Jan 3, at 7pm. Hybrid. (Gretchen sends link)
- Peace & Social Justice Committee, Monday, Jan 10, 7pm (Zoom only)
- NEYM Meeting leaders call, Jan 11, 7pm. via Zoom.
- NEYM Young Friends Winter Retreat, Jan 15-17, Deerfield, MA
- Vigil – “Hate Has No Place In Westport,” Jan 23, 4pm in meetinghouse
- NEYM “Bread Day,” March 5, 2022, with Gretchen Baker-Smith and Maggie Fiori. (Details below)
MIDWEEK WORSHIP, via Zoom, WEDNESDAYS, 3:30-4:00pm!
________
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.
New England Yearly Meeting Newsletter, “A Boundless Gift,” Dec 10, 2021 may be read HERE:
Introduction
For BIPOC Friends
Save the Date
Coming: Bread Day
Support for addressing racial justice
We’re hiring!
Yearly Meeting State of Society
Help for Quaker parents
An experiment with worship
Donate to the Archives
Legacy Grant announcements
Growing toward right relationship
Gifts from Faith & Practice
Reflecting on our collective well-being
Israel-Palestine working group news
Conversation about The Gatherings
A virtual visit to Ramallah
Help FCNL set legislative priorities
Study at Pendle Hill
Quakers in the news
A Last Word
Gretchen’s JYM-JHYM latest newsletter, issue of Dec 1, 2021, contains reflections, programming and retreat info for young people, parents and Friends. Read her newsletter HERE.
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.
______
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
- Sunday–Thursday at 9:30 p.m. Calming Pajama Party
- 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
Other events coming soon
Connect, Learn, Explore, and Be in Service among Friends Regionally and Globally.
Check out an array of Quaker schools, camps, retreat centers, other yearly meetings and Quaker organizations listed on NEYM’s website.
Quaker Event Registration Dec 18: (NEYM Office asked meetings to share this in our newsletters -ed.)
“Hello!
My name is Emmy Mathis. I am a regular attender at Friends Meeting Cambridge, a Monthly Meeting in NEYM. I was led by Spirit to develop a program around the crossroads of Quaker practice, energy medicine, and social/embodied justice. I was then let by spirit to apply for several Quaker grants, which I have received!
I am developing the second event in the programming for this ministry and wanted to invite Meetings in NEYM to this event. Is it possible to send this to your Meeting’s listserv or allow me to send it to the listserv? (I know listserv is an older word, but I can never remember the accurate term!)
The message would go something as follows (please feel free to adapt and let me know if you have any questions!):
About 9 months ago, Spirit led me to develop a year and a half long program series called “Embodying the Light; Embodying the Beloved Community” that explores the crossroads of Quaker principles, energy medicine, and social/embodied justice. My ministry wishes to expand our Quaker testimony of Peace to include inner peace and examine and offer tools to deconstruct the inner violence that systemic oppression and structural racism causes in us. I also wish to be of service to Friends, and friends of Friends, so that we can fully live into our Peace Testimony and build capacity as justice workers in order to fully embody the Light and the Beloved Community. I have been awarded a few Quaker based grants and am excited to be able to offer active programs for this project!
Please see below for more information and to register.
Date & Time: December 18th from 2-4p.m.
Locations: Zoom
Details: In this workshop, which will take place via Zoom, we will explore and work on embodying the crossroads of Quaker Practice, Energy Medicine, and Embodied Justice. Please join! This workshop is part of an ongoing program series from Embodying the Light; Embodying the Beloved Community.
Childcare funding is available.
Registration: Registration is requested by 12/12/21. Please register HERE. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns! This workshop is sponsored by FMC’s Friends for Racial Justice and has been graciously funded by multiple Quaker grants. Please email me, Emmy, at emmymathis@gmail.com for more information.
In Love and Light, Emmy”
Sandwich Quarterly Meeting News:
Afghan Refugee Information: Deana Kinsky, of Sandwich Quarterly Meeting, provided meetings of our Quarter with recent information about helping Afghan refugees resettle in our area. For ease of reading, the info is on its own page on our site HERE.
________
An email dated 12.4.21 from Deena Kinsky, SQM Newsletter Editor, has current info on an Afghan family being resettled in Dartmouth.
Hello Friends,
Ann Sheehan, who lives in Padanaram, will host an Afghan family in her home soon. She was afraid to put her needs out to the community in case of negative reactions, but had heard that Quakers might be a good source : )
She is hoping for donations of cushions/pillows for the floor, bedding for long twin beds (the kind in dorms) as well as bedding for a full bed (including blankets).
Once the family arrives and she knows ages and sizes, she is hoping for donations of clothing and winter boots. Her email address is annsheehan03@comcast.net if you have these items to share.
Closing:
God needs nothing, asks nothing, and demands nothing, like the stars. …
You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars,
you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.
– Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk
__________
Thank you, Friends,
Kevin Lee