News pours in from Friendly sources. Some of you love to know these things, some of you already get this same information, and some of you really are led to other concerns. If you are spending time nurturing relationships with friends (including your non-human friends), your neighbours, your family and your community, you are probably doing the one best thing that can lead to a better world. If you are making changes to live more lightly on the Earth that sustains us, that priority too will leave less mess to the next generations. And if you are taking time most days to keep centred and aware of Spirit, Light will reveal the next steps, and you know this. I love to share opportunities with you, but I never intend to send out guilt or shame if nothing on this list speaks to you. Well, except for the preceding paragraph, of course.
Immediate TRC News:
| MARCH 19 to 21 online TRENT U 45th Elders & Traditional Peoples Gathering along with the Indigenous Women’s Symposium line up. This is a free event and donations are gratefully accepted. Link here to register: https://tapresourcesevents.ca/trentu2021/registration HERE IS THE SCHEDULE: https://somethingcreativegd.wixsite.com/gathering/home |
This Sunday, March 21, after Meeting for Worship, Meeting for Worship for Business will begin at 1 pm. on Zoom. I expect to send the agenda shortly. If you would like to attend but are prevented, please let us know and we will list you under Regrets. This will be Rosemarie McMechan’s last time as Recording Clerk, completing five years of service that has so much helped to hold us together as a Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. We thank Rosemarie and all others who feel led to maintain this communal spiritual exploration, and who remain faithful to that leading when it is not always easy.
No Way to Treat a Child: A letter from Friend Sara av Maat includes a link to an article that gives you one incident in thousands: on average per year, more than 700 Palestinian children are detained by Israeli soldiers. Margie Sumadh will bring details of a request to our Meeting on Sunday. Meanwhile, here is the link from Sara’s letter: As you may already know, in many parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem families are subjected to middle of the night home invasions by Israeli soldiers. Children are arrested, questioned without a parent or lawyer present, and processed through a military court. Here is a recent example……At behest of settlers, Israeli forces arrest Palestinian children picking wild flowers – Mondoweiss
Canadian Friend: Two extra hardcopies of the latest Canadian Friend will shortly be available, and so please let me know if you didn’t get one. You also can download it at https://quaker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/TCF-Winter-2021-1-page-digital-color.pdf We are encouraged to send in a personal subscription—most of us (including myself) haven’t done that. We will continue to receive it for free while money lasts.
Getting to Know Thee: The next Get to Know Thee Friend event will be on Thursday, March 25th at 8:00 – 9:30pm Atlantic / 7:00 – 8:30pm Eastern / 6:00 – 7:30 Central / 5:00 – 6:30 Mountain / 4:00 – 5:30 Pacific
We will be hearing from young Friends, Rachel Singleton-Polster and Christina Tellez.
Rachel was raised in Vancouver Island MM and presently lives on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh territories where she is studying for her Masters in human geography. She has been involved with CFSC for the past decade, first as a program assistant and currently as the Clerk of the Quaker Indigenous Rights Committee.
Christina grew up in Halifax Monthly Meeting and lives in La Paz, Bolivia, where she works with a Canadian NGO and supports rural and urban women’s groups in organizational strengthening strategies. Christina served on CYM’s Education and Outreach Committee as well as in the role of Co-clerk of Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting. She was one of the Canadian representatives to the FWCC World Plenary Meeting held in Peru in 2016.
You can join next Thursday using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81979221265
Friends and Same-sex Marriage: Cowichan Valley Monthly Meeting is re-opening the CYM minute that is included in Canadian Faith and Practice in regard to the clearness for and celebration of same-sex unions. At present each Monthly Meeting is free to establish its own guidelines. Cowichan Valley Friends feel that the time has come to say that no couple is ever excluded from our process of clearness. We will hear more about this, and surely we will find a way to reflect where we are on this now. Although I do not recall a minute, we have the rainbow flag on our Welcome sign, and for quite a few years now we have carried our banner in the local Pride parade. Contact the Clerk if you would like to see the Cowichan Valley minute.
Monteverde School in Costa Rica: https://mfschool.org/ “If you are an experienced educator and have an interest in working at the Monteverde Friends School, please see www.mfschool.org/employment for our overall requirements and for the specific job opening announcements with position details. If you have degrees in the relevant areas and several years of experience putting those degrees to use, can commit to at least 2 years here, and can work in Spanish and English, we hope you’ll consider joining us in this natural paradise!”
Quaker Earthcare Witness is at: https://www.quakerearthcare.org/
The CFSC newsletter is available as a pdf! Click to read! You can subscribe to it! The next workshop with Matt Legge starts on March 24!