FWCC Americas Clerk Benigno
Sánchez-Eppler abandoned his Monthly Meeting in
Massachusetts to pull a World Quaker Day triple
play. He picked up Digna and Santos Portillo in
Secaucus, NJ, then dipped under the Lincoln
tunnel and took them to worship at 15th Street
Meeting, New York. At 11 they went to
unprogammed meeting in the same Meeting room
that Chris Mohr and Robin Mohr got married, and
the same room where a little and growing Jewish
girl named Karen Eppler back then worshipped for
a whole decade while going to school at Friends
Seminary. And earlier at 9:30 they worshipped
with the Manhattan Monthly Meeting In a group of
12 or so gathered for semi-programmed worship.
This was the most FWCC single monthly meeting
gathering Benigno Sánchez-Eppler has ever
experienced with the following all represented:
Honduras YM, Jamaica YM, Rwanda YM, 3 differing
Kenyan yearly meetings, New England YM, AND Ohio
Yearly Meeting (Conservative). WOW. Of course
Gloria Thompson, fearless area coordinator and
member of the SoA Executive Committee was there
making it all click. Thanks be to God.
Berea Friends
Meeting, Berea Kentucky
Friends in Berea, Kentucky, USA, celebrated World
Quaker Day by singing songs loved by Quakers around
the world. After a rich meeting for worship, we
posed for this photo. Then we spent a couple of
hours picking up trash along a two-mile section of
highway near town. Finally, we celebrated our
accomplishment with a potluck lunch at a Friend's
house.
Beth Green-Nagle, from
Tahlequah, Oklahoma, celebrated World Quaker Day
speaking about her monthly meeting and her faith
with Friends in Bolivia, thanks to Emma Condori.
Clear Creek, Richmond First, and West Richmond
Friends in Richmond, Indiana, all gathered for
worship together this morning to celebrate World
Quaker Day!
Deep River
Friends Meeting, High Point North Carolina
Friends ( Quakers ) have been worshiping in this
space since 1875. On World Quaker Day we
celebrated this spiritual journey.
Here are some descriptions of
Quaker worship by folks from Deep River Friends
Meeting in High Point, NC...
"Quaker worship refreshes my mind and soul by
allowing space for a direct communion with God. It
is often difficult to find and set aside that space
during our busy days. The Quaker worship experience
invites focus and intention calming my mind yet
challenging me to consider the things that are truly
important - our relationship with God and humankind.
Quaker worship gives me a pause button, pause from
doing, pause from my inner chatter in order to
create, hold and open space in a collective silence
that encourages vocal ministry as we listen to that
of God in each of us Quaker worship assists my
spiritual journey as I expectantly await with
curious wonderment that my condition will be spoken
to. Sometimes my condition is comforted, sometimes
confronted, most often I am challenged to live daily
more Christ like." Heidi Minor "The
simplicity of Quakerism allows us to peel away the
very complicated layers of life so we can focus on
our relationship with God and our relationships with
family, friends and strangers. How are we letting
our life speak? Is our personal spiritual journey
making our worldly space better and promoting peace
on all levels of relationships?" Kathy Solomon
"Silent worship and waiting on the word from God
whether it be His conviction or blessing." Claire
Wilson
"Quaker worship refreshes my mind and soul by
allowing space for a direct communion with God. It
is often difficult to find and set aside that space
during our busy days. The Quaker worship experience
invites focus and intention calming my mind yet
challenging me to consider the things that are truly
important - our relationship with God and
humankind." Sloan Dodson
Greeting from a corner of El
Salvador to all Friends around the world! We
believe that we work together with God to
restore and renew the world and the people and
respect and love each person (top 10 reasons I
am a Quaker).
FGC is proud to help Friends, newcomers, and spiritual
seekers experience the vitality and community of
Quaker faith and practice every day through the
Spiritual Deepening Program, the annual FGC
Gathering, QuakerBooks, the Ministry on Racism
Program, Faith & Play, and much, much more.
How does the Quaker way impact your life each day?
We did not manage a full meeting picture today, World
Quaker Day - but it was a meeting of deep joy. We
held meeting for business, where we accepted with
joy a request for membership letter, seasoned a
minute regarding criminal justice, shared some new
meeting-welcoming procedures, approved donations
to Puerto Rico, and received an endorsed travel
minute from two of our members. We also had
visitors from Scotland!
Green Country Friends Meeting (South Central
Yearly Meeting, FGC) hosted an open house with
introduction to Quakers and a period of Worship in
the Manner of Friends at a local library for a
combined celebration of our 30th anniversary as a
monthly meeting and World Quaker Day. We were
surprised and delighted when four Friends from
Hominy Friends Meeting (Great Plains Yearly
Meeting, FUM) arrived to join us! We displayed the
map of meetings.
For World Quaker Day 2017, Green Street Monthly
Meeting in Philadelphia had a display of where
Quakers are in the world, thanks to Friends World
Committee for Consultation Section of the
Americas. Friends put pins in locations where they
have worshiped with other Friends. We also had a
paper where we could write "Me, too!" to show more
than one of us had worshiped in a particular
place.
On October 1 we presented a program during Adult
First Day School (following meeting for worship, at
the beginning of which Judy read “As the sun rises
in each area of the world…”). About 20 Friends
attended Adult FDS. We had everyone sing the
George Fox song and Friends Forever. We
had those present guess the number of Friends in the
U.S. and in the entire world, and we asked which
country had the most Friends—everyone seemed to know
the answer to that. We showed the video “How
Many Quakers are There in the World?” We
posted the 2012 map and had people stick pins into
locations where they had worshiped. A young
Friend who had participated in our Wales Exchange
program spoke about that, and answered
questions. We considered two queries together,
the one about intervisitation and the one about
connection to the community around the meeting, and
we read the account of what Hill House Meeting in
Ghana did in 2015. As a finale, we played the
video of “The Picnic of the World” (on
youtube). Fellowship hour followed, with a
celebratory cake that had the WQD logo on it..
Heartland Friends Meeting in Wichita, Kansas,
USA, observed World Quaker Day in several
ways. First, the adult education class
watched the Quaker Speak video that explains where
Quakers worship worldwide and spent the rest of
that hour discussing how Friends got to many
countries and why there can be considerable
variation in our faith and practice among monthly
meetings.
During the children’s education time, a Faith and
Play story about George Fox was used to talk about
Quakers long ago and Quakers today. After
worship Friends gathered in the outdoor stone circle
for a picture, then adjourned for a good and simple
lunch. We are glad to be part of the worldwide
Quaker spiritual fellowship!
Friends began World Quaker Day in Adult First
Day School with a discussion launched from
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's "Faith and
Practice," advices from 1694-5 that are so
timely today! Great conversation among Friends!
Friends are reminded that our Religious Society
took form in times of disturbance, and that its
continuing testimony has been the power of God
to lead men and women out of the confusions of
outward violence, inward sickness, and all other
forms of self-will, however upheld by social
convention. As death comes to our willfulness, a
new life is formed in us, so that we are
liberated from distractions and frustrations,
from fears, angers, and guilts. Thus we are
enabled to sense the Inward Light and to follow
its leadings. Friends are advised to place God,
not themselves, in the center of the universe
and, in all aspects of inward life and outward
activity, to keep themselves open to the healing
power of the Spirit of Christ.
Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of
love and truth in your hearts. Seek to live in
affection as true Friends in your Meetings, in
your families, in all your dealings with others,
and in your relationship with outward society.
The power of God is not used to compel us to
Truth; therefore, let us renounce for ourselves
the power of any person over any other and,
compelling no one, seek to lead others to Truth
through love. Let us teach by being ourselves
teachable.
Keep to the simplicity of Truth. Seek for its
manifestations in prayer, in reading matter, in
the arts, and in all experiences of daily life.
Shun the use of mind-changing drugs and
intoxicants, of gambling, and of other
detrimental practices that interpose themselves
against the Inward Light. It is the experience
of Friends that these drugs, intoxicants, and
practices lead to a personal willfulness and
inability to listen for the will of God. Avoid
in daily work those involvements and
entanglements that separate us from each other
and from God. Keep your recreations from
becoming occasions for self-intoxication and
avoid those conventional amusements which debase
the emotions by playing upon them. These, too,
lead to self-absorption and to forgetfulness
that each person’s humanity is shared by all
persons. Live and work in the plainness and
simplicity of a true follower of Christ.
Two young Friends from Montclair
Friends Meeting (Montclair, NJ) at Powell House,
a Quaker conference and retreat center of the
New York Yearly Meeting in Old Chatham, New
York.
Newtown
Friends Meeting, Bucks County Pennsylvania
Newtown Friends Meeting sends
greetings and love to Quakers throughout the
world! We gathered in worship in our meeting
co-founded by Quaker artist Edward Hicks (The
Peaceable Kingdom) and assembled afterwards for
a photo under a sign made by our children to
commemorate World Quaker Day 2017. We then
shared the noonday meal together in the
Gathering Room as is our custom on the first
First Day ("Friendly Firsts") of each month. We
post this photo on our Facebook page and in
local newspapers to share our joy with our
neighbors and others in the wider community and
extend to them a hearty welcome to join us.
Young Friends Group at Orlando Monthly Meeting in
Orlando, FL celebrated World Quaker Day with the
help of an orange. Everyone washed their hands, then
we segmented the orange into "sections"
proportionate to the number of Quakers in the four
sections shown on the 2017 World Map for "Finding
Quakers Around the World." Thanks to our orange
everyone could easily see how Quakers are currently
distributed around the world.
When we had discussed our sections, we reassembled
them into "one world" of Quakers as shown in the
picture. Then, we enjoyed eating the orange.
We celebrated World Quaker Day with a potluck meal. We
watched the QuakerSpeak video on
sustainability. In accordance with the Pisac
Peru minute on sustainability, we discussed what
we might take on as a collective commitment to
action.
World Quaker Day at Paullina Friends Meeting in
Paullina Iowa had Meeting for Worship, Adult
Discussion led by Bridget Durst and Lee Gravel
concerning their work with water quality issues in
NW Iowa, Youth Sunday School followed by potluck
dinner.
On Sunday, October 1st 2017, the public was
invited to join Peterborough Quakers as they
participated in World Quaker Day. The members of
the Peterborough Monthly Meeting of the Religious
Society of Friends (Quakers) celebrated this day
with a local theme of “How We Value Silence.” The
event began at 11:00 at Sadlier House with an hour
devoted primarily to silent worship. From 12:30 to
1:00 we enjoyed a potluck lunch. Then from 1:00 to
3:00 we listened to our Quaker historian and guest
speaker, Gordon Thompson. Gordon had selected
interesting excerpts of original Quaker historical
documents for us to take turns reading. These
readings and the context Gordon supplied for each,
allowed us to gain some insights into the lives of
early Quakers and a better appreciation for their
integrity and wisdom.
Portland Friends Meeting in Portland Maine sends
greetings to Friends around the world. We held you
all in the Light in Worship. We posted the names
of the different meetings where we worshiped this
year on a display board in our foyer, watched a
Quaker Speak video about FWCC and a few gathered
around our WQD banner outside following meeting
for worship.
Providence
Friends Meeting, Providence Rhode Island
Providence Friends Meeting in Rhode Island hosted a
New England Yearly Meeting Young Adult Friends
Retreat and welcomed NEYM Secretary, Noah
Merrill on World Quaker Day! Attenders to our
meeting included two newcomers from China, one a
researcher working at the University of Rhode
Island, and a graduate student from Japan studying
at nearby Brown University. Messages in meeting
brought us into greater awareness of the waiting
worship that circles the globe every first day, but
also reminded us that although as Quakers we share
much, there are significant differences among us.
Afterward, we enjoyed a hearty potluck of
international foods. Providence Friends Meeting
stands together in the light with Quakers
everywhere!
South Bend Friends writing postcards to decision
makers about protecting water, the environment,
and other things after meeting for worship. The
children joined in too.
Wellesley Friends Meeting (MA) celebrated World
Quaker Day with a presentation at our "All Ages
Religious Education" program about the Kakamega
Orphans Care Centre in Kakamega, Kenya. Two
Wellesley Friends, Martha Schwope and Emily
Philbrook gave a moving account of their experiences
as volunteers there. They showed photos of children,
youth and staff and told us about their
relationships and meeting families in the villages.
They also attended Friends worship in Kakamega which
was filled with movement and joyful singing. This
was very different from Wellesley Friends
unprogrammed worship from the silence. The Kakamega
Orphans Care Centre was started by Kenyan Quaker
women leaders of USFW (United Society of Friends
Women) with support from New England Quaker women
from Durham Friends Meeting, ME. Some years ago we
had the pleasure of having Dorothy Selebwa, one of
the founders of the center visit Wellesley Friends
Meeting. We felt blessed to hear from Martha and
Emily about their experiences at the center and are
grateful for the opportunity for individuals and the
meeting to be supporters of this rich ministry of
Kenyan and New England Friends.
West
Philadelphia Friends Meeting, Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
The West Philadelphia Friends Meeting got together
for a potluck for World Quaker Day. We talked about
our experiences with Quaker meetings and
organizations outside the U.S.
Winchester Friends Meeting in
Winchester, Indiana celebrates World Quaker Day
- In every way possible, Winchester Friends
seeks to carry out its calling to make Christ
known through meaningful worship, obedient
witness, and sacrificial service, welcoming all
who are willing into friendship with God and
into redemptive community together.
