Westport Meeting News:
Vigil: Hate Has No Place in Westport
January 23, 2022
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)
- Ministry and Counsel Committee, Feb 7, 7pm. Zoom only.
- NEYM Meeting leaders call, Tues, Feb 8, 7pm. via Zoom.
- Midweek worship, Wed, Feb 9, 3:30-4pm (link sent day of, Zoom only)
- Peace & Social Justice Committee, Sunday, Feb 13 at 8am. (Zoom only)
- Seekers Group, Mon, Feb 14, at 7pm. (Zoom only, Gretchen sends link)
- Monthly Meeting for Business, Feb 20, at 8 AM
- Seekers Group, Mon, Feb 28, 7-8:30 PM (Hybrid)
- NEYM “Bread Day,” March 5, 2022, with Gretchen Baker-Smith and Maggie Fiori. (Details below)
- JYM Retreat, March 18-20, “We knead each other,” via Zoom.
- NEYM Permanent Board, Sat, April 2, 9am-1pm (Zoom only)
- NEYM Ministry and Spiritual Life Gathering, April 9, Portland Friends Meeting (hybrid)
- BOOK FAIR: July 9-17
- NEYM Annual Sessions, Castleton, VT, August 5-11 (In person- 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.
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 Jan 20, 2022, “Hold Us in All This Uncertainty,” 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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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
Other events coming soon:
- Feb 5: Exploring the Green Book
- Feb 5: Book Discussion: The Lemon Tree
- Feb 5 & 7: Be Like Yeast Training
- Feb 6: Our Life is Love study group
- Feb 9: Board of Managers
Sandwich Quarterly Meeting News:
From Deena Kinsky, Sandwich Quarterly Meeting Newsletter editor: SQM Meeting for Business will be held Saturday, January 22, hosted online by Smith’s Neck Friends Meeting. The program is titled: “The role that beekeeping plays in creation stewardship.” It will be illustrated by a PowerPoint. The discussion will be led by Norma E. York, chair of the Acushnet Agricultural Commission and friend of the meeting.
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> January 9, 2022: Gray Cox, co-founder of Quaker Institute for the Future.
> February 13, 2022: Saskia Van Der Hoop, founder of Sassafras Earth Education on Martha’s Vineyard, Aquinnah Wampanoag land.
Afghan Refugee Information: Please see earlier newsletter containing detailed info regarding the needs of a recently arrived family from Afghanistan HERE.
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Closing:
A church that doesn’t provoke any crisis,
a gospel that doesn’t unsettle,
a word of God that doesn’t get
under anyone’s skin,
what gospel is that?
Very nice, pious considerations
that don’t bother anyone,
that’s the way many would like preaching to be.
Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter
so as not to be harassed,
so as not to have conflicts and difficulties,
do not light up the world they live in.
– Archbishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980)
(Canonized in 2018 as Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez)
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Thank you, Friends,
Kevin Lee