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,

In this, the week between Christmas and New Year's when it is tradition to lose track of what day it is even more so than in 2020 as a whole, we wanted to send you an email to say, "hello, it's Sunday December 27th." More seriously, if you've recently celebrated something wintry or are about to, warmest wishes from your PubCom newsletter team. 

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!

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The new Quaker.ca is live!

Quaker.ca has received a design update to improve accessibility and functionalitywe hope you like it! The overall structure of the website is the same, and if you have a login for the Business section that should stay the same, but it should now be more visually readable and the search function should be more effective. As with any major update, we're bound to experience some issues. We hope we've preempted most, but if you find another one please email editor@quaker.ca.

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Building the Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting community

As the Covid situation continues to drag on, the CYFYM reps (Steve Ginley, Zaley Warkentin, and Wesley Weima) are seeking clarity as to the future direction of CYFYM and would love the opportunity to discuss with the young Friends community at upcoming meetings, or to hear any feedback/ideas/thoughts you may have. 

The CYFYM website (yf.quaker.ca) has been updated to include an events calendar under the Events drop-down menu and select Online Events! You should be able to find the information as to the dates and times of biweekly Worship and fellowship sessions there.

Quite a few Friends have taken advantage of funding that's been made available for Young Friends to take Quaker related online courses, and we intend to continue that offer in 2021, so please feel free to contact cyfym@quaker.ca if you see something you're interested in!

A black and white sign with an image of a dove inside the letter Q. The sign's text reads, "Quaker Meeting Religious Society of Friends; all welcome."

Top 5 QuakerSpeak Videos of 2020

"2020 has been quite the year for QuakerSpeak! Throughout this year’s quarantine we posted 34 videos and reached over 3.4 million views on YouTube. This week, we’re looking back at 2020 and counting down the top five videos of the year."

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Woodbrooke "Confident Quakerism" course

Woodbrooke is running an online course on Confident Quakerism from February 4 to March 3, 2021. "The heart of the Quaker experience is encounter – as individuals and as a community. It is the basis of all our processes, our discernment and the authority of the Spirit. During our sessions we seek to deepen and enrich our own understanding of encounter and how it provides the foundation for all our Ministry – of both words and action. We will be offering opportunities to go beyond the surface noise of our lives, drawing on a variety of approaches to help us switch off the unremitting chatter of our minds, in order to go deeper and explore further."

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Quaker United Nations Office launches People's Climate Empowerment series

"QUNO's People's Climate Empowerment Series is a helpful resource for anyone looking to become more engaged with climate action. The series connects people with international efforts that can strengthen climate action at all levels."

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Reminder: year-end support to CYM

If you, like your friendly newsletter editor, have opened fundraising letters or emails, thought "oh yes, I should make that gift" and then completely forgotten in the flurry of everyday life or winter holidays, this is the week for any last 2020 donations!

Donations to CYM make many things possible, including staff support to help keep Friends connected across the country. The organizational changes of next year promise to be very exciting, and your donation can help to make them feasible.

Make a donation

People kneel with their fists up in front of the curved building of Toronto's city hall.

Reminder: CYM Meetings for Worship for Business online Jan. 23 and Feb. 6

Two CYM online business sessions are planned for January 23rd and February 6th, 2021. Save the dates, and contact your Monthly Meeting clerk for the Zoom login information.

A wood-paneled room, with pale blue floor and chairs arranged in a square around a table with a plant on it. All the chairs are reddish brown except one blue one.