Brown background with text reading "Quakers in Canada: News from around Canadian Yearly Meeting." Most of the text is yellow, but the Q is pale green.

Dear Friends,

It is almost the end of September and fall is definitely in the air.  Friends are settling into fall routines including committee work resuming, Half Yearly Gatherings ( both the in-person and virtual)and World Quaker Day is around the corner - this next First Day, Sunday October 2nd. I  (Ro Fife) am serving as your guest editor for this edition so any errors are on me.  Ongoing appreciation and  kudos go to our faithful regular volunteer editor, Rachel Urban Shipley who has taken a break for this month to attend a wedding - her own!  Sending lots of Love and Light  to Rachel at this big life milestone.

Thank you for reading Canadian Yearly Meeting's monthly electronic newsletter—we're glad to have you! If you know others who might like to receive this, please feel free to forward this message so that other friends can subscribe at the link below. Your help in connecting Friends across the country is deeply appreciated!

If you'd like to contribute to the newsletter, email newsletter@quaker.ca by the 15th of the month. We may not be able to fit all contributions in, but we'll try!

Sign up

 

Would you like to know Friends across Canada?

There are a number of ways, but one option you might not yet have considered is to serve on CYM Nominating Committee. The role of this committee is to consider names forwarded by monthly meetings and other Friends to the various Yearly Meeting Committees. In doing this work you will be in contact with Friends across Canada, and you will also discover how our Yearly Meeting functions!

If you’re interested, please contact the Canadian Yearly Meeting Clerks: Ruth Pincoe and Marlyn Manzer at cym-clerk@quaker.ca

We hope to hear from you!

Learn more
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Becoming the Quakers the World Needs ?

Some actions  items for Friends on this World Quaker Day.  With the 2022  theme of Becoming the Quakers the World Needs,  it seemed fitting to share some of the concrete initiatives, projects and campaigns that CanadianFriends might join in as individuals, local meetings or regional groups.  This is a partial list of items of action and support work  generated  by our Yearly Meeting Representatives on the Kairos Steering and Program Committees, and on Quaker Earthcare Witness. Much thanks to their work and their meaningful reports to the CYM  Clearness session September 17th.

  1. Supporting environmental justice laws: private members' Bills 226, 262, 263. Email your federal MP to urge that the party in power fulfil its promise to vote for 226 (to end environmental racism). When will it give the corporate ombudsman real power (of inquiry, in 263)? E-addresses at https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/search:

  2. How does your province rank on the environmental support card? See https://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/provincial/environment.aspx Email your MPP, MLA or MNA.

  3. Hold kitchen conversations with your neighbours, and letter-writing bees: you can get help from Canadian faith groups’ fortheloveofcreation.ca - part of a worldwide multifaith campaign, Season of Creation.

  4. Join regional interfaith networks to warm your heart, and raise your impact: kairoscanada.org/who-we-are/kairos-network

  5. Demand real reconciliation with First Nations, meet with local elders, support land/water defenders. Some provinces still refuse to honour treaties and to endorse UNDRIP. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_on_the_Rights_of_Indigenous_Peoples

  6. Ask your church group to support the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, started by 50 Nobel scientists. See fossilfueltreaty.org/faith-letter. Individuals can also sign: see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_Fuel_Non-Proliferation_Treaty_Initiative for full details of its history and more than 4000 endorsements worldwide.

Learn More
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Renewing Quaker Community with Ben Pink Dandelion

SAVE THE DATES: November 26, 2022, December 10, 2022, January 21, 2023, February 18, 2023.

Canadian Yearly Meeting Education & Outreach and Woodbrooke Quaker Studies are partnering to bring Canadian Friends: Renewing Quaker Community

In this workshop led by UK Woodbrooke Quaker Studies tutor Ben Pink Dandelion, we’ll explore different perspectives on renewing Quaker community and think about how those approaches speak to us as individuals, as well as within our Meetings and Worship Groups. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on ways that strengthen renewal.

Saturdays, November 26, 2022, December 10, 2022, January 21, 2023, February 18, 2023.   Costs expected to be approximately $50.

Register here
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Upcoming Representative Meetings

There will be online Representative Meetings on Saturday October 15, Saturday November 19, and Saturday December 3.

For more details ask your Monthly Meeting Representative or contact our the Canadian Yearly Meeting Clerks: Ruth Pincoe and Marlyn Manzer at cym-clerk@quaker.ca 

Join meeting
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October 14-16: Camp Closing Weekend

"Our final weekend of the season where we help to put our beloved Camp NeeKauNis to bed for the winter. All are welcome to come share in the companionship and closing tasks!

Suggested donation of $20/day to cover the cost of food. Please bring a dessert or snacks to share."

Email neekaunis-clerk@quaker.ca for more information.

 

Learn more
The path down to NeeKauNis' waterfront, a forest path with wooden railings.

Quaker Parent Mutual Support Groups

Co-sponsored by Friends United Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting, and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Quaker parent mutual support groups provide a supportive forum in which Quaker parents can talk about their parenting and their faith. These groups are open to any Friend currently raising children under the age of nineteen. They are free. The groups will meet for one hour every other week for a total of twelve gatherings between November 2022 and April 2023. They will be conducted in English and on the Zoom platform.

In past years, the groups have included Friends from many Yearly Meetings (and isolated Friends) across the theological spectrum of Quakerism. Parents celebrate one another’s successes and provide fellowship for one another through difficulties. Each group has two co-facilitators whose own children are no longer living at home. The co-facilitators are responsible for structuring the conversations, emailing reminders about meetings, and so forth.

Curious to know more? You can read reflections on the first year of the groups on coordinator Emily Provance’s blog, and on the second year of the groups on FUM’s blog. Please email coordinator Emily Provance your questions using the form at the bottom of this page.

The registration deadline is November 1, 2022.

Register
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CYM Contributions Corner

Advice and Query #20 asks, 

"Do you give a right portion of your money to support Quaker work?" 

CYM receives most of its financial donatons in this, the last  financial quarter of our fiscal year.  Have you made a donation for 2022 yet?

 

Donate
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