Westport Meeting News:
Sunday, Feb 27, 11:30 – 12:30: Second Hour Worship and Reflection session on our Meeting’s Black Lives Matter witness. The Second Sunday session will be held in the meetinghouse and on Zoom.
If you attend Sunday worship via Zoom and plan to join us for the discussion at 11: 30 AM, please leave your Zoom screen on as we will continue using the Sunday worship Zoom schedule for our discussion.
If you do not plan to attend Sunday worship but want to take part in our discussion regarding our Meeting’s Black Lives Matter witness, please connect to Zoom using the Sunday worship link sent to you each week via email.
If you plan to attend worship in the meetinghouse on Sunday, Feb 27, and plan to participate in the discussion, we’ll take a stretch/bathroom break when worship ends at 11:00 AM and return to the meetinghouse for our planned Second Hour discussion at 11:30 AM.
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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!)
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.)
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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)
- 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: March 13, 11:30 – 12:30. Faith and Practice Pastoral Care revision (See above)
- Seekers Group, Mon, March 14, 7-8:30 PM (Hybrid)
- JYM Retreat, March 18-20, “We knead each other,” via Zoom
- Monthly Meeting for Business, March 20, at 8 AM (Zoom Only)
- 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!
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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. (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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Sandwich Quarterly Meeting News:
From Deena Kinsky, SQM Newsletter Editor:
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:
- March 13: Walking Humbly, Quakers + Right Relationship
Leslie Manning, Clerk, NEYM Permanent Board will speak about her experiences with incarcerated people and their loved ones; her work with the Reparations (for Native Americans) group for New England Quakers and what she has learned about being an ally, standing with and learning from marginalized communities. And, she wants to hear your experiences as well.
- 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 Westport (currently under review for switching with W. Falmouth Meeting)
-October 22 at W. Falmouth (currently under review for switching with Westport Meeting)
- SQM Ministry & Counsel
-March 26 at E Sandwich Preparative Meeting
-September 24 at Mattapoisett
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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
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Thank you, Friends,
Kevin Lee