Westport Meeting News:
Rising Together: Making Space for Light and Joy
March 5th is Bread Day! Join us for a Westport Meeting gathering at the Community House or on Zoom. We’ll laugh and chat, and dream of how we can let ourselves be kneaded and softened to let Spirit rise us, together, into community and wholeness.
The in-person component will happen from 3-7pm. We’ll make Pull-Apart Bread, have a dance party, share talents or Tiny Teaches while the dough is rising, share stories and hopes for our community, and eat warm bread with soup before heading home.
We’ll have the Zoom open from 3-5 for those who would like to participate remotely.
Participants who come to the Community House can take the dough home to bake, and those on Zoom can be on screen for less time. Our plans are flexible so that they will work for the most number of people. (If we have extra loaves, we’ll joyfully scheme on how to drop them off to Friends who aren’t with us!)
RSVP’ing by Feb. 24th will help us make a flexible and inclusive plan that works for the most number of Friends.
To help everyone feel safe and stay healthy, we ask that all but our youngest breadmakers wear masks when inside (we’ll have a supply available), eat soup and bread outside (again, youngest excluded), and participate on Zoom if experiencing any possible-Covid symptoms. We will pop a couple of windows open 1 inch, try to have some portable air filters in the Community House Hall, and have hand sanitizer and wipes readily available. Those of us in leadership commit to taking home rapid tests less than 72 hours beforehand.
We are so excited!
Gretchen, Pamela T, Pamela D, Joanna R, and Buddy.
If you have questions, concerns, or requests, contact Gretchen at hellogretchen@gmail.com or 508-287-6441.
(Photo above of Madison Moura shaping her first loaf of Pull-Apart Bread at JYM 2014 by Kevin Lee.)
__________
Notice: Monthly Meeting for Business scheduled for Sunday, Feb 20 at 8am has been rescheduled to Sunday, March 20 at 8am via Zoom.
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. Because Steve was a marine biologist, his cremains will be given to the sea by his family at a future time. Friends may read Steve’s obituary HERE.
__________
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.
Faith and Practice Pastoral Care Chapter Revision: 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.
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)
- Midweek worship, Wed, Feb 23, 3:30-4pm (link sent day of, Zoom only)
- Monthly Meeting for Business, Feb 20, at 8 AM is CANCELED
- Second Hour Discussion: Feb 27. Reflecting on our Meeting’s Black Lives Matter witness. 11:30 – 12:30 (Hybrid)
- Seekers Group, Mon, Feb 28, 7-8:30 PM (Zoom Only)
- Midweek worship, Wed, March 2, 3:30-4pm (link sent day of, Zoom only)
- NEYM and Westport Meeting “Bread Day,” March 5, 2022, with Gretchen Baker-Smith and Maggie Fiori. (Details above and below)
- Ministry and Counsel Committee, Monday, March 7, 7pm. Zoom only.
- NEYM Meeting leaders call, Tues, March 8, 7pm. via Zoom.
- Second Hour Discussion: 11:30 – 12:30. Faith and Practice Pastoral Care revision (See above)
- Seekers Group, Mon, March 14, 7-8:30 PM (Hybrid)
- Monthly Meeting for Business, March 20, at 8 AM (Zoom Only)
- JYM Retreat, March 18-20, “We knead each other,” via Zoom
- Peace & Social Justice Committee, March 21 at 7pm (Zoom only)
- 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)
- Clean Up Westport (COW), Sat, April 9, 9am – 1pm. (More details soon)
- BOOK FAIR: July 9-17
- NEYM Annual Sessions, Castleton, VT, August 5-11 (Hybrid – tentative)
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. (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.
______
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.
________
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
________
Closing:
Hold on to what is good, even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe, even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do, even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life, even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand, even when I have gone away from you.
– Pueblo Blessing
__________
Thank you, Friends,
Kevin Lee