Simplicity and Ecojustice
Intermountain Yearly Meeting – 39th Annual Gathering
June 9 - 16, 2013; Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico
Friends, come together this summer for fellowship, business and deepening your Quaker practice. The theme for this annual gathering will be “Simplicity and Ecojustice, in response to the call issued by the “World Conference of Friends” held last year in Kenya.
The Kenya call to simplicity and ecojustice asks us to examine: how to cooperate lovingly with all people who share our hopes for the earth; how to be patterns and examples in a 21st century campaign for peace and ecojustice that could be as difficult and decisive as the drive to abolish slavery; how to love our neighbor as ourselves as we to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; and how to teach our children to live in harmony with each other and all living beings in the earth, waters and sky of our Creator
Joining us as keynote speaker will be Steve Chase of Putney Friends Meeting in New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. Steve is a traveling minister who tells us, “I believe our inspired activism on behalf of creating what Martin Luther King, Jr. called the ‘Beloved Community’ is now more urgent than ever.” Welcome to all who can come for any or all of the week.
Sara Keeney, Clerk
Intermountain Yearly Meeting
Not by My Strength Alone
North Pacific Yearly Meeting – 2013 Annual Session
July 17-21, 2013; Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR
The pleasant campus of Pacific University will give refuge from the pressures of our material lives and in particular the firearms violence that springs from fear in our community. Our theme is “Not by my strength alone: laboring together beyond our comfort zone.”
Becca Mohally Renk and Paul Mohally from the Jubilee House in Managua, Nicaragua will be our Friends in Residence. They will help us explore the vine connecting Friends for 350 years across cultures, discovering that of God and human dignity in everyone.
Other joys and challenges will stimulate our growing edge at Annual Session, including: discernment on a report from the Committee to Evaluate NPYM Structure, a report from our Relationships with other Quaker Organizations Committee, a presentation by American Friends Service Committee, and a "Simple Meal” to benefit the Jubilee House in Nicaragua.
Here now is the call to preparation for this Annual Session. Please read the backgrounder materials posted at www.npym.org. This is a call to monthly meetings to schedule seasoning opportunities in your meetings before the Annual Session.
We, as ministers to and from our local communities, will converge to reinvigorate and discern how our faith is put in action.
Peace,
John Allcott, Presiding Clerk
North Pacific Yearly Meeting
Being Reached by The Life
Pacific Yearly Meeting – 67th Annual Session
July 29 – August 3, 2013; Mt. Madonna Center, Watsonville, CA
In silent worship each of us has at times been “touched to our heart” as we awaken to our deep bonds with one another and the world. We cannot manufacture these moments by effort; rather, they come over us when we drop our defenses, get out of our own way, and trust ourselves to “being reached by The Life” in ourselves and others.
The promise of unity in the Spirit brings us together at Mt. Madonna Center. You are invited to join us! Look forward to a rich mix of fellowship, worship, work and play. I am delighted to report that Diane Randall, the new Executive Secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), will be joining us.
The most prominent item of business facing us is to discern whether we are called to continue the position of the Youth Program Coordinator. We will also consider a generous offer of funds to PYM by Pacific Friends Outreach Society (PFOS).
Please read carefully the background documents posted at pacificyearlymeeting.org. I also urge Friends to arrive at our 2013 Annual Session with genuinely open minds and hearts, ready to discern our unity, allowing ourselves to be “reached by the Life.”
In Friendship,
Steve Smith, Presiding Clerk
Pacific Yearly Meeting