Westport Quakers

Westport Meeting News: 

Ministry and Counsel Committee:

Quakerism 101 Series at Westport Meeting will hold its first session on Sunday, April 30, at the rise of worship. Friends are invited to bring a lunch. Randy With, co-clerk of our Ministry and Counsel Committee, will facilitate. Our first gathering will explore the question, “What is it that we “do” in Worship?” Newer Friends and more Seasoned Friends are encouraged to join in. The following resources are available in preparation for this discussion:

Chapter 2 of NEYM Revised Faith and Practice: Worship: https://neym.org/faith-and-practice/worship

The following are episodes from the Quaker Speak series:

https://quakerspeak.com/video/why-do-quakers-worship-in-silence/

https://quakerspeak.com/video/quaker-worship-meditation/

https://quakerspeak.com/video/how-to-deepen-quaker-meeting-worship/

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NEEDED: MEN’S HATS AND WOMEN’S/MEN’S GLOVES AND MITTENS: The Pilgrim Church Home urgently needs men’s hats and women’s/men’s gloves and mittens to make available to patrons at their morning breakfast program. Please bring these items to the Westport Friends meetinghouse and leave in the meetinghouse foyer. Barbara Sullivan will deliver them to the Pilgrim Church Home in downtown New Bedford. Questions? Contact Barbara at 774-454-1498.

Ministry and Counsel Committee: The committee will begin working on our Meeting’s State of Society for 2022 soon. The committee welcomes input, in writing, or in person, from Westport Meeting Friends and attenders, on how individuals feel our Meeting faired as we came out of the pandemic in the early spring of 2022 and throughout the remainder of the year. If you would like to email your thoughts, please send your comments to Randy Wirth, HERE.

Newsletter Editor: In 1994, Jean Kennison, due to advancing eye health challenges, asked me if I would consider taking over the Westport Meeting Newsletter. I said “yes,” figuring I would do it for a few years and then pass it on to another Meeting Friend. During that time, as the use of computers and digital formats increased exponentially, our Meeting Newsletter moved from printed monthly formats, painstakingly sent via US Mail, to monthly digital formats that arrived via email. Over time, we incorporated the Newsletter into our Meeting’s website, so that every issue was automatically archived and remained accessible by visiting westportfriendsmeeting.org. In recent years I have found it more efficient time-wise to update the Newsletter each week on a rolling basis, instead of monthly. Doing so has kept content fresher and gives us the ability to easily add content from committees and monthly meeting for business as requested.

After twenty nine years, I still enjoy putting the Newsletter together, but I know, too, that the time is nearing for me to pass this service to the Meeting on to another Westport Meeting Friend. If you, or if you know of another Westport Meeting Friend who might be interested, I am happy to answer questions and explain what’s involved. Choosing the next Meeting Newsletter editor is decided by monthly meeting for business.  Ideally, I would like to help the next Newsletter editor transition into the role as needed. That said, I plan to continue until business Meeting names the next editor to continue after me.  – Kevin Lee

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Approved previous minutes of Monthly Meeting for Business may be read HERE.