Dear Friends, As we look forward to the hope of a less pandemic-y summer, Friends are busy creating online events for when you get a little confused by seeing people in 3D and just want to turn your video off. 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 | Register by May 31st: "Hope as a Practice" - June 5 & 19, 2021 CYM Education and Outreach Committee is pleased to announce that registration for ‘Hope as a Practice’ with Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre tutor Tracey Martin is now open. Wanting to build your Quaker practices in 2021? Try this workshop, which has been taught across the United Kingdom for individuals wanting to strengthen their relationship to hope in a world filled with challenges, or to explore hopes you might have for your Quaker community. The two-part workshop will take place Saturday June 5 and June 19, 2021. The closing date for registration is May 31. Detailed Times: The workshops will last 1.5-2 hours long each and start at these times: 9:00am Pacific Time, 10:00am Mountain Time, 11:00am Central Time, 12:00pm Eastern Time, 1:00pm Atlantic Time, 1:30pm Newfoundland/Labrador Time, 5:00pm British Summer time Cost & Registration: The cost is $100, with a sliding scale and full bursary programme available. See the registration form for details. Questions? Email: e-and-o-clerk@quaker.ca Register | | #CYM2021: Register Now and Submit your SIGs Canadian Yearly Meeting online will be held from August 8-14, 2021. The theme is hope. Programming arranged for children ages 6-13 on some mornings, and a family worship on some evenings. Teens and Young Adult Friends have opportunities to gather during the week. Early registration helps the organizers, and is now open for participants, children, and volunteers. Planning a Special Interest Group (SIG)? Got your Monthly Meeting to support you yet? Let the Program Committee know (there is a form for this!). We hope you will join us! Register now! Further information including registration and event schedule: More details | | "In a Time of Transition: Seeds of Change, Roots of Strength" - presentation by Wess Daniels On May 1, Yonge Street Half Yearly Meeting met to hear and discuss a presentation from Wess Daniels, “In A Time of Transition:Seeds of Change, Roots of Strength” Wess Daniels is the William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies at Guilford College in Greensboro North Carolina. Approximately 65 Friends participated and enjoyed the opportunity to listen to Wess and interact with one another in the break out rooms The video of Wess' presentation is available below. Watch | | With Love from Rep Meeting: Sharing Friendly Resources When CYM's Representative Meeting broughts Friends across the country together last week, it turns out they had a variety of interesting resources to share! - Atlantic Friends recommend this video lecture on Benjamin Lay (an early Quaker, vegetarian, quite provocative) that Penni Burrell has permission to share via email pennibu@gmail.com
- There is a lovely new secondary website connected to Ottawa Monthly Meeting, focusing on spirituality, inspiration and creativity at http://westjersey.org/FourthSpace/
- Friends recommend these great Quaker resources https://quakerrecollaborative.org/
- And Ottawa Friends recommend Pendle Hill’s upcoming online events, including one on blended offerings (combining virtual and in person), as well as a daily morning worship:
Never heard of Rep Meeting? Read the basics in section 6.4 of CYM's Organization & Procedure: https://quaker.ca/cympublications/organization-and-procedure/ | | Canadian Friend Subscription Reminder Not receiving the Canadian Friend? Visit the subscription page to update your address or sign up to receive an electronic version. More details | | A Word From NomCom The CYM Nominating Committee met on Zoom during the first week of May to discern the nominations we had received from Monthly Meetings. Thank you to all the MM Nominating Committees for your work and to all Friends that have so generously put their names forward to serve our Yearly Meeting. We want to make you aware that there are still vacant positions on many Committees. If you have a leading to serve our Yearly Meeting or know of a Friend who would be a wonderful addition to our committees, please be in touch with your Monthly Meeting Nominating Committee. - Incoming Clerk: 1 four-year term
- Representative Meeting Recording Clerk: 1 three-year term
- Camp NeeKauNis: 4 one-year terms, 1 two-year term
- CFSC: 2 three-year terms
- Contributions: 2 three-year terms
- Discipline Review: 1 three-year term
- Epistle Summarizing Committee: 1 one-year term, 1 three-year term
- Personnel: 2 two-year terms, 2 three-year terms
- Program: 1 one-year term, 1 two-year term, 2 three-year terms
- Publications and Communications: 1 one-year term, 1 three-year term
- Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel: 1 three-year term
- Canadian Council of Churches Governing Board: 1 three-year term
- Commission on Justice and Peace: 1 three-year term
- Commission on Faith and Witness: 1 three-year term
- KAIROS Steering Committee: 1 three-year term
- Ecological Justice: 1 three-year term
to learn more about these positions, please see the 2021 Nominations Package via the following link (you'll need to log in to the Business section of the site, and will be prompted to create an account if you do not already have one). More details | | CYM Contributions Corner Did you know it's easy to donate monthly to CYM by direct withdrawal from your bank account? Or directly online through CanadaHelps? We hope Friends discern what option is right for them - you can see them all by following the link below. Donate | | For YAFs: Continuing Revolution 2021 online: Love in Hope, Grief, Rage, and Action - June 4-8, 2021 Do you find yourself… - Needing space to grieve and feel the realities of the last year of pandemic, US empire collapse, and more?
- Wanting to build a better world but feeling disconnected from a sense that it is possible?
- Seeing patterns of rage and call outs and wondering how to meet them and move toward healing, accountability, and action?
- Feeling frustrated with how young people seem to be shouldered with providing hope for older generations?
- Wanting to move through deep feeling to a place of possibility?
- Seeking grounding in Spirit amidst the unknown?
…then Continuing Revolution 2021 Online might be for you! Continuing Revolution is an annual conference for young adults, ages 18-35. The event will take place June 4-8, Friday evening through Tuesday evening via Zoom. Conference Fees: Full conference: $50; Daily attendance: $15. Anyone who registers for 1 day is welcome to attend Friday’s opening session. Financial assistance is available. Register | | Friends' Journal is Seeking Quaker Speculative Fiction Submissions The November 2021 issue of Friends' Journal will be speculative fiction/sci-fi themed. As they describe it, "Speculative fiction asks, 'how would the world and the way we live in it be different if X were true?' and examines that question using fiction as a lens.Quaker Speculative Fiction asks, 'how would the world and the way Quakers live in it be different if X were true?'" If you've been itching to get writing, submit your 500-2000 word piece by August 23, 2021. More information | | Watch the Ceremony for International Conscientious Objectors' Day On May 15th, the Peace Pledge Union held a ceremony for International Conscientious Objector's Day. Speakers included: - Israeli conscientious objector Atalya Ben-Abba - Natalia García Cortés from War Resisters' International in Colombia - Actor Michael Mears live from the Conscientious Objectors' Commemorative Stone in Tavistock Square, London Luckily for those of us who missed it, the event was recorded! Watch | | Thomas Merton's The Road Ahead My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to love as Christ loves pleases you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. “The Road Ahead” from THOUGHTS IN SOLITUDE by Thomas Merton. Copyright © 1958 by the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. Copyright renewed 1986 by the Trustees of the Thomas Merton Legacy Trust. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. All Rights Reserved | | | | | |
