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New Structures, New Life

• Authored by:
• Norma Silliman

Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends (SCYMF) is a relatively new addition to the yearly meetings of Friends in the West. Many SCYMF Friends have been involved with other Western yearly meetings, formally and informally, for years, including involvement in “Convergent Friends” – a fellowship which has met occasionally for more than a decade, bringing together members of liberal “Friends Meetings” and Christian “Friends Churches.” Some of us have also participated for many years in the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women’s Theology Conferences, another opportunity for Friends from different branches to share ideas, worship, and fellowship. So, SCYMF is new, but not new.

On Conflict (January 2023)

Stop Arms from U.S. to Mexico

• Authored by:
• John Lindsay-Poland

Dear Friends: On Monday [12/5/2022], I filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for refusing to release data on crime guns traced from Mexico and Central America back to purchases in the United States, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request I submitted last year.

On Conflict (January 2023)

Calls to the Annual Sessions 2023

• Authored by:
• Jerry Peterson,
• Jana Ostrom,
• Laura Magnani

 

On Perception (March 2023)

Living Grief, Finding Connection

• Authored by:
• Mary Ann Percy

As climate disasters, species extinctions, and the relentless unraveling of the Web of Life on Earth become ever more impossible to ignore, eco-anxiety becomes ever more widespread. There’s now a name for this unique mental anguish – solastalgia – a term created by environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht in the early 2000s. Unrelenting hurricane seasons, devastating forest fires, smoke- and smog-filled air, prolonged drought, extreme heat, clear-cutting – all these can trigger solastalgia. Buddhist deep ecologist, eco-philosopher and activist Joanna Macy expresses this well in The Bestiary:

On Loss (May 2023)

A Meaningful Weekend

• Authored by:
• Geoff Sturr

Dear Editor: I know Western Friend has focused on what our yearly and regional meetings can do to sustain and enhance their respective communities and wanted to share a bit about the spring meeting of Arizona Half Yearly Meeting (AHYM) this past March. We were blessed to have Francisco Burgos from Pendle Hill as our keynote speaker.

On Loss (May 2023)

Radical Welcome

• Authored by:
• Linnea Wang

It was curiosity to see if there were still people called Quakers that brought me to my first meeting at Frank and Jeanine Walker’s home on McLeod Avenue. It was radical welcome that kept me coming.

On Dignity (July 2023)

Othering Among Friends

• Authored by:
• Erin Wilson

As humans, we are taught from a very young age to categorize things based on their characteristics. In my former life as an elementary school teacher, it was part of my job to help young children develop a sense of what is the same and what is different. Children sort things by size, color, shape, texture, etc. This skill serves a purpose, but it also gets used in ways that are problematic.

On Dignity (July 2023)

The Flint and Light of Respect

• Authored by:
• Ragni Larsen-Orta

This is a testimony to the value and differences of Quaker and Indigenous ways of respect as I know them. Quaker testimonies were taught to me through words and light. Indigenous teachings were relayed with the spark of truth and few, if any, words. I find it difficult to use words to describe the latter, but I will try because I was asked to do so.

On Dignity (July 2023)

Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Organization