Announcements

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Reaching Out

Advices and Queries for the Seventh Month*

Reaching Out

Advices

Friends’ fellowship begins and is nurtured within the home and Meeting. It reaches greater fulfillment as we carry our beliefs into the wider community.

Share your Quaker faith. Take time to learn about other people’s experiences of the Light and, as you learn, give freely from what you have gained. Respect the experiences and opinions of others, but do not be afraid to say what you value. Welcome the diversity of culture, language, and expressions of faith in your Monthly Meeting, the Yearly Meeting and the world community of Friends. Encourage discourse with Friends of Pastoral and Programmed traditions, and with members of other faiths.

Friends have a long history of involvement in public and private education, sharing our values with the world and nurturing future generations. Be mindful of the needs of children in your community and of avenues for deepening understanding between peoples.

Queries

  • How does my life reflect Friends’ beliefs and thus encourage others to be interested in the religious society of Friends?
  • Do I respond generously to inquiries about the Quaker experience and belief?
  • What are we doing to help people of various races, cultures, and backgrounds feel at home among us and we among them?
  • How do we encourage newcomers to return and participate in activities of the meeting?
  • In what ways do we participate in the life of the interfaith community and in the wider fellowship of Friends?

*from Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice (2001), 53-54

Photo by McKenna Phillips on Unsplash

FriendQuaker Annual Session, Conferences and Retreats, Pacific Yearly Meeting

PYM Annual Session 2024

Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Annual Session will be held in person July 19-24,
2024 at Whittier College in Whittier, CA. It will also be possible to attend
remotely via Zoom. This year’s theme will be Transformation. Registration for in-person attendance closes July 1st, and registration for online attendance closes July 15th.

Click here for more information, including the Clerk’s Call,  the schedule, fees, and a link to
registration.

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Social and Civic Responsibility

Advices and Queries for the Sixth Month*

SOCIAL AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

Advices

In the words of William Penn, “True godliness don’t draw men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.” Elsewhere he commented: “It is a reproach to religion and government to suffer so much poverty and excess.”

Poverty within a wealthy society is unjust, cruel, and often linked to skin color, gender, and language. We must examine our own privilege and role in the economic order that deepens this disparity. Friends should be alert to oppression and injustice, and persistent in working against them.

We value our part in shaping the laws of our country. Our task is to see that laws serve God’s purposes and build a just social order. Our first allegiance should be to God, and if this conflicts with any compulsion of the state, we serve our country best by remaining true to our higher loyalty.

If, by divine leading, our attention is focused on a law that is contrary to God’s law, we must proceed with care. Before acting, Friends should pray for further guidance and speak with the Meeting, family members, and all those who might be affected by the decision. If a decision involves disobedience to the law, we should make the grounds of our action clear to all concerned and be prepared to suffer any penalties without evasion. As a community, we must care for those who suffer for conscience’s sake.

Queries

  • What am I doing to carry my share of responsibility for the government of our community, nation, and the world?
  • Am I persistent in my efforts to promote constructive change?
  • How do we attend to the suffering of others in our local community, in our state and nation, and in the world community?
  • Do we try to understand the causes of suffering, and do we address them as a Meeting?
  • How do we, individually and as a Meeting, support the organizations that work to bring the testimonies of Friends into reality in our society?

*from Pacific Yearly Meeting Advices and Queries, 52-55

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries, Harmony with Creation

Advices and Queries for the Fifth Month*

Harmony with Creation

Advices

It would go a long way to caution and direct people in their use of the world, that they were better studied and knowing in the creation of it. For how could [they] find the confidence to abuse it, while they should see the Great Creator stare them in the face, in all and every part thereof?

Adapted from William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude 1693, 12-13

God is revealed in all Creation. We humans belong to the whole interdependent community of life on earth. Rejoice in the beauty, complexity and mystery of creation, with gratitude to be part of its unfolding. Take time to learn how this community of life is organized and how it interacts. Live according to principles of right relationship and right action within this larger whole. Be aware of the influence humans have on the health and viability of life on earth. Call attention to what fosters or harms earth’s exquisite beauty, balances and interdependencies. Guided by Spirit, work to translate this understanding into ways of living that reflect our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

Queries

  •  In what ways do I express gratitude for the wondrous expressions of life on Earth?
  • Do I consider the damage I might do to the Earth’s vulnerable systems in choices I make of what I do, what I buy, and how I spend my time?
  • In our witness for the global environment, are we careful to consider justice and the well-being of the world’s poorest people?
  • Does our way of life threaten the viability of life on Earth?

*from Pacific Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice (2001), 51

FriendQuaker Road Closures, Traffic

Traffic Alert–Sunday, May 5th

The Orange County Marathon will be running Sunday, May 5th, near the Meeting House.  In previous years this has been a headache for anyone driving to Meeting.

The best way to get to Meeting, for anyone coming by car, will be:

405 to Harbor South
Right (west) on Gisler, the first light south of the freeway, by the Arco and In’n’Out
Left on Gibraltar, the first stop sign
Round the bend on Gibraltar
Left on Labrador (Gibraltar ends)
Right on Baker, a four-way stop
Left on Mesa Verde Eats, a four-way stop
Then Meeting will be on the right.

There may be a lot of traffic this way, from people trying to get to the marathon’s route. Here are two links to the Marathon’s website:

OCMarathon.com
Road Closures

Thelink on the right takes you to a page with links to lists of road closures.  If you prefer maps, scroll to the bottom and click on the rectangular thing on the right, in the black bar. That will give you a full-page interactive map.

*Photo by Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash

FriendQuaker Advices and Queries

Advices and Queries for the Fourth Month

Stewardship and Vocation

Advices

John Woolman said, “As Christians all we possess are the gifts of God… To turn all the treasures we possess into the channel of Universal Love becomes the business of our lives.” The principle of stewardship applies to all we have and are. As individuals, we are called to use our time, our various abilities, our strength, our money, and our material possessions with care, managing them wisely and sharing them generously.”

From the indwelling Seed of God, we discover our particular gifts and discern the service to which we are called. In making choices about occupation or education, consider the way that offers the fullest opportunity to develop your individual abilities and contribute to the world community while providing for yourself and your family. In daily work, manifest a spirit of justice and understanding, and thus give a living witness to the truth.

Be ready to limit engagements, to withdraw for a time, or even to retire from an activity that inhibits your ability to follow a higher call. Try to discern the right moment to accept new responsibilities as well as to relinquish responsibility that can pass to others. Be open to your calling in different stages of life. Meetings need the strength and vigor of young people as well as the experience and wisdom of elders. Although they may not be able to contribute great financial support, their energy and insight invigorate the community. As people begin careers and families, they may need the spiritual and experienced help of the Meeting. Later, when families are growing up and careers are established, greater participation in the Meeting and greater financial support may become possible. Welcome the approach of old age, your own and others’, as an opportunity for wisdom and greater attachment to the Light. Meetings should be ready with material and spiritual support for those suffering from unemployment or facing difficult vocational decisions.

Queries

  • How have I been faithful to the leadings of the Spirit in choosing work or vocation?
  • What am I doing with my talents, time, money and possessions?
  • Is my conduct at the workplace consistent with my life as a Friend?
  • How does my daily work enhance my spiritual life?
  • How does the Meeting help and support members who are in job transitions?

*from Faith and Practice of the Pacific Yearly Meeting (2001), 48-49

FriendQuaker Spirituality, Workshops

Online Workshop, Saturday April 20th, 2024 

HEALING PRACTICES and QUAKER SPIRITUALITY 
led by Shannon Frediani

We do not store trauma in the mind;
we store trauma in the body.

Living in our world today involves trauma exposure.
Whether healing from personal trauma or
avoiding being traumatized by working with others who suffer from trauma,
we can learn in this workshop a new form of healing
Bringing attention to our bodies can help us bring our nervous systems
back into balance and to come back to one’s own center of peace.
Balancing and returning to one’s center,
where we encounter Spirit, is building our own resilience.
This 2-session series is an introduction to practices that support the resilience needed to meet today’s challenges.

This program will be conducted online and will consist of two 1½ -hour sessions.  Participants will have the opportunity to do the following:

10:30 – noon: Recognize and reflect on their own responses to trauma exposure.
Learn to interrupt the trauma response.

1:00 -2:30:    Build resilience and new strategies for centering, and
Connect with Spirit and deepen their Quaker faith.

Shannon Frediani is a Quaker teacher, writer, and activist.  She is a member of Santa Cruz Monthly Meeting.  

Register Here


FriendQuaker Conferences and Retreats, Southern California Quarterly Meeting

Invitation to Spring Gathering

2024 Spring Gathering of the Southern California Quarterly Meeting
at Orange Grove Friends Meeting
April 26-27th, 2024

Please join Friends from throughout SCQM, in person and via zoom, to hear about the Spiritual State of the Monthly Meetings and Worship Groups in our Quarter.

We will gather at Orange Grove Friends Meeting, 520 E. Orange Grove Blvd in Pasadena. Please see the OGMM website for maps and maps and detailed directions if needed.

Snacks, coffee/tea, and lunch will be provided for a donation, and there will be activities for children.

We will provide a zoom link for all sessions.

Please register below by midnight, Tuesday April 23rd, 2023.

Register

2024 Spring Gathering Schedule

Friday, April 26 at 6:30 PM Pacific (via Zoom)
Interest Group: Healing from Abuse in Quaker Communities.
Speaker: Windy Cooler

Recognizing and healing from abuse is paramount for a healthy mindset, relationships and community, but within the Society of Friends, where acknowledging this may disrupt our idealized Quaker ‘comfort zone’ because of our peace testimony and our public commitments to pacifism, working on remedying these circumstances, not only applies to interpersonal relationships but also to our other blind spots such as classism and racism. (For more information on Quaker discernment on abuse, see this website).

Saturday, April 27:

9:30 – 11:45 am Worship, Plenary 1, State of Society Reports Part 1

11:45 – 1:00 Lunch Break – optional fellowship 

1:00 – 2:45 pm Plenary 2, State of Society Reports Part 2, 

2:45 – 3:15 Closing Worship