FriendQuaker Southern California Quarterly Meeting, Spring Gathering

Clerk’s Call Spring 2026

SCQM Spring Gathering, Clerk’s Call

Southern California Quarterly Meeting will gather at Santa Monica Friends Meeting on Saturday, April 25th (and via Zoom (from 9 AM until about 3:30 PM)).

You are also invited to a dialogue with members of our Peace & Social Concerns on Friday, April 24th at 6:30 PM. We will share about recent and planned peace and justice actions from our SoCal Quaker community and our work to protect and support members of our communities, especially those impacted by our government’s aggressive and violent immigration enforcement actions, and advocate for peace and humanitarian aid to those devastated by the war in Gaza.

You may register here:

REGISTER

A detailed schedule and other information will be provided to everyone who signed up.

A simple lunch and refreshments will be provided on Saturday for onsite

attenders. We are planning to provide childcare as needed for friends attending with children.

If your monthly meeting has not yet considered the queries for the state of the meeting reports, here those very queries are:

  • How do we appreciate and include those who have joined our Meetings in the last few years? How can we honor and encourage their commitment to the community without presenting a burden of rules and expectations?
  • How do we accommodate the views of those seeing a need for change, having a new idea, and those who value tradition and wish to season any changes.
  • How do the structures and practices of our Quaker meetings appeal to the spiritual journey of the meeting?
  • How can our Meeting find joy in service, in the ministry of small things?

Please send your State of the Meeting reports to me post-haste (or thereabouts) at danstrickland2001@yahoo.com .

In my past calls to gatherings, I’ve mulled over the losses we’ve all had to bear in the last year or so, and how to move past that. I’m seeing people in my neighborhood community still spending energy placing blame for the firestorms, and while I understand the impulse, it’s wearying. I was thinking of talking about how one can move past loss and focus on rebuilding, letting go of the blame. This, however, feels clichéd, lacking in empathy. I feel strongly that progress, change, recovery happens when we focus on repairs and rebuilding and letting blame fade, but the more I think about it, the more that feels like a position of privilege. This is what is working for me, but as in all, it’s not what works for many.

There are changes in our Meetings, more than usual. The Society of Friends, as in the Viet Nam War era, is being seen as a place of refuge for frightened, vulnerable people to gather and find support. This is what stimulated my thinking when forming the Queries to aid Monthly Meetings with state of the meeting reports. Entering into this is the Pacific Yearly Meeting theme of “Experiment”. You’re all familiar with the old description of the Society of Friends as an experiential or experimental religion. PacYM Ministry feels it’s time for us to try doing things differently, see what works, what doesn’t, and what of our current practice is no longer useful. This will likely be divisive.

There’s an old definition of conservative and liberal that I like: liberals exist to test new ideas, advocate for change to existing structure, while conservatives test the need for that change against the value of institutional practice. So a query could be framed along the lines of how do we accommodate the views of those seeing a need for change, having a new idea, and those who value tradition. Think of the yin/yang symbol, where both are included in one circle, with a part of each in the other.

Another need I see is to appreciate and include those who have joined our Meetings in the last few years. How can we honor and encourage their commitment to the community without presenting a burden of rules and expectations. Can we help our Meetings to willingness to experiment? I see the value of our not-quite-Quarterly gatherings in this: we can hear how other Meetings are doing, what changes are happening across the Quarter, and talk with old and new friends about how best to find love and unity among us.

Dan Strickland, Clerk of SCQM

FriendQuaker Southern California Quarterly Meeting, Spring Gathering

SCQM Spring Gathering: Save the Date!

Southern California Quarterly Meeting
Religious Society of Friends

SPRING GATHERING

WHEN: Friday evening, April 24th (Zoom only) & 9AM to 3PM, Saturday April 25th (Zoom and onsite)
WHERE: Santa Monica Friends Meetinghouse, 1440 Harvard St, Santa Monica, CA 90404

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.

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 at the link below by Midnight, Tuesday April 22, 2026.

Register Here

Dan Strickland, clerk, SCQM

FriendQuaker Conferences and Retreats, Southern California Quarterly Meeting, Uncategorized

Silent Retreat: March 13-15, 2026

TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL FRIENDS’ SILENT RETREAT

Friday, March 13-Sunday, March 15, 2026

Optional Extended Retreat, Monday, March 16, 2026

Prince of Peace Abbey

650 Benet Hill Road

Oceanside CA 92058

Earthquake, Wind, or Fire: Attending to the Still Small Voice

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!

(John Greenleaf Whittier, The Brewing of Soma)

“The poem references 1 Kings 19:11-12, in which the prophet Elijah is confronted by God in the
wilderness. Elijah faced tumultuous times in his prophetic task of speaking truth to power. Whittier,
a Quaker abolitionist, similarly dealt with seismic issues in his commitment to the cause of
anti-slavery and social reform.”

(Max Carter: Stephen G. Cary Memorial lecture, Pendle Hill 2025)

For some of us, this retreat comes after literal fires, winds, and rains. Surely, we have all
experienced political and social storms. We have grief; we have confusion, bewilderment,
anger and overwhelm. We long for peace in the chaos, despite the external turmoil.


What if we bring our fear, discouragement, anger and grief, and lay them at the foot of the
mountain? What might we hear if we surrender our desires and the limitations of our mind
and body and sit and listen to the Still Small Voice? Maybe strength and new purpose,
maybe permission to change direction. Maybe a perspective on what part of Spirit’s work
is ours and what is for others.


The silent retreat offers a sanctuary for us to listen deeply, whether walking the beautiful
grounds, participating in optional activities or sitting quietly in our rooms.

Registration Information

COVID PROTOCOLS:  Masks will be optional. We kindly ask participants not to come if they are
having any symptoms.

REGISTRATION: The retreat is open to members of Friends’ Meetings and to attenders of at least
three months. Please register by clicking here:

REgister

Weekend Retreat FEES:

Registration by February 20th:
Double room, $325 per person
Private room, $350 per person
Financial Aid is available**		Late registration until February 27th:
Double room, $350 per person
Private room, $375 per person
Financial Aid is available**

The Abbey has raised their fees and we had to raise ours accordingly. Our actual per-person costs
are about $350. Those who are able to pay more than $350 will help subsidize others who need
financial aid. Fees include program, lodging, and six meals. We can’t accept registrations
submitted after Friday, February 27th. Cancellations received by Friday, February 20th will receive
a full refund. After that date, a $30 cancellation fee will be deducted.

**FINANCIAL AID: No one is turned away because of lack of funds. We have financial aid
available and many meetings offer scholarship grants. Please contact our registrar, Judy Leshefka,
for details about financial support options (judyleshefka@gmail.com).

Venmo or Zelle: Make your payment to Sarah Crompton, Treasurer for the Silent Retreat: cromptonclark@gmail.com (310) 963-6319.

Check:

Make a check out to our treasurer Sarah Crompton and put Silent Retreat in the memo line. 

Mail your check to:  440 N. Broadmoor Blvd. Springfield, Ohio 45504. 

After registration, you will receive a confirmation letter with more information about the retreat and directions to the Abbey. If you will be using public transportation (bus, train) and need a ride to the Abbey, contact Judy Leshefka by Monday, March 9th.

ARRANGEMENTS: Please plan to arrive between 3 pm and 5:30 pm on Friday, March 13th to check-in and get your room key. Dinner will be at 6 pm. We’ll gather at 7 pm for a brief tour of the grounds, followed by an orientation and preparing to enter into the silence, which will last until late Sunday morning. The retreat will end after lunch on Sunday. Please plan to be present for the entire retreat. The spiritual richness of our gathering is enhanced by each participant, and it can be disruptive to have people arriving or leaving at odd times.

(Questions or concerns: contact Judy Leshefka at 858 652-1406 or email: judyleshefka@gmail.com

EXTENDED RETREAT DAY OPPORTUNITY

March 15-16, 2026

Participants may choose this opportunity to stay an extra day for deeper reflection. They can continue their silence during Sunday lunch and throughout the afternoon or join in conversations.

At 3:45 PM, we will meet for a brief worship and set our intentions for the remainder of the retreat. We will then re-enter into silence. On Monday morning, a writing exercise will be offered as an optional activity. We will all meet at 10:30 AM for worship and worship-sharing. The retreat will end after lunch.

If you wish to stay over, please indicate your intention on the registration form.  We must know by February 27th so we can inform the Abbey. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer any scholarships for this opportunity. The cost will be $150, the Abbey’s

FriendQuaker Southern California Quarterly Meeting, Spring Gathering, Uncategorized

Clerk’s Call to Spring Gathering

A letter from Dan Srickland, Clerk of SCQM

I recently turned 79, not a remarkable number (except for being a prime, of course – I see you, fellow math geeks). The next birthday will be a big one, though. I remember everyone talking about the “Big 3-0”. Well, hold my beer! So it’s for me becoming a time of mulling over where I am, who I am, and where I’m going. A year of reflection. It’s been a year of loss, personal for me as our house and its contents turned to ash in the Eaton Firestorm. A number of Orange Grove Friends’ Meeting people lost much in that firestorm. For myself, I was surprised to discover the degree to which the house, the things within it, the surroundings and neighbors are a part of my identity. The cliché goes “it’s only stuff”, which certainly speaks to Quakers – but I feel a part of me is gone.

Others among my friends have losses – friends, family, spouses – and apart from the ache of each loss, there’s a sense, I think, of wondering how the loss changes us as individuals. I’m an old Peace Corps volunteer, and served in a country where the volunteers tend to remain a tightly knit community. So we hear about, sometimes see in person, our old friends in declining health, hear when they die, and wonder at how friends who are still young – a year or so younger than I, for Pete’s sake – could be gone.

I think many of us feel that same sense of loss over what has happened to our country. I feel some trepidation at mentioning politics in this context, so I’ll be brief, but I see anger, fear, and mourning among my friends. I see, as well, that same concern over a loss of identity, who we are as a people.

At meeting for worship recently a Friend talked about his grandfather, who recently turned 109, putting my 79 in a very different perspective. The grandfather is officially one of the 10 oldest men in the US. The funny stereotype is a reporter asking the elder how they lived so long, and being told the secret is a daily pack of Camels and a pint of Jim Beam. The Friend observed his grandfather over a visit or two, and saw that he constantly had friends come visit. Lots of conversations, jokes, stories. Maybe that’s how we all survive and thrive, as individuals and as communities, spiritual and otherwise. Lots of visits, gatherings (such as this one I’m calling you to), shared meals, telling stories and planning for future gatherings and visits.

Come to the quarterly spring gathering, join us in the Santa Barbara Meetinghouse, and enjoy our extended community. Let us help, support, heal, and find hope with each other.

FriendQuaker Peace, Southern California Quarterly Meeting, Spring Gathering

Friends Peace Teams, April 25, 2025

At 6:30 PM on Friday, April 25th, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Southern California Quarterly Meeting is conducting an online interest group featuring the clerks of Friends Peace Teams, a spirit-led organization working to develop long-term relationships with communities in conflict around the world to create programs for peace building, healing and reconciliation. They will be sharing news about the Alternatives to Violence Project, the Towards Right Relationship with Native Peoples Program, and other peace and social justice work. Please register using the link below if you are interested in joining, even if you do not plan to attend the Saturday morning Spring Gathering program.

Register Here

FriendQuaker Conferences and Retreats, Southern California Quarterly Meeting, Spring Gathering

Spring Gathering April 26, 2025

Registration for the Southern Quarterly Meeting’s Spring Gathering is now open!

Where: Santa Barbara Friends Meetinghouse, 2012 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara
When: Saturday, April 26, 9AM-3:15 PM
What: Friends from across Southern California will share State of the Meeting reflections and other information. Lunch will be provided
Transportation: Spring Gathering is a two-and-a-half hour journey by car under good conditions, and the Santa Barbara Amtrak station is a seven-minute taxi ride from the Meetinghouse.

Register here

FriendQuaker Conferences and Retreats, Fall Fellowship, Southern California Quarterly Meeting

Registration for Fall Fellowship 2024 is Open

Registration is open until October 25, 2024

Click here to register

Call to SCQM Fall Fellowship
November 1-3, 2024
at Temescal Canyon & on Zoom

Friends, we are called to gather again in fellowship at our traditional place, Temescal Canyon. We have a long history with that spot, and if you’ve never been, we encourage you to make the effort to come in person. We plan to have a hybrid gathering, so the option of remote participation will be available, but if it’s at all possible, being in the beautiful place with fellow Quakers from around the Quarter is a wonderful experience.

The Ministry and Counsel Committee has chosen to consider “Faith and Prayer in Action” as the theme for the gathering, and speakers who will lead us to consider this theme are being invited. With the rich variety of people in our Meetings, we hope this topic will stimulate broad discussion. On a very basic level, many of us consider the “Ministry of Small Things” to be prayer – the prayer while washing dishes, preparing food, or arranging the logistics for Fall Fellowship. At the same time, many of us have been appalled by uncaring response from politicians to, for example, mass shootings, with the hypocritical “thoughts and prayers”. This is why Ministry and Counsel has deliberately chosen the phrase “Faith and Prayer in Action”. Come and engage in this worship and learning.

In addition to our keynote presentations and worship sharing on Saturday and Sunday mornings we will have interest and affinity groups, time for fellowship, hiking, plenaries, community night, and worship.

We will be offering a rich children’s program for all ages during plenary and interest group sessions.  Fall fellowship is an opportunity for kids to get to know one another in our geographic region and spend some time in nature. Attendance fees are automatically waived for babies, toddlers, children, and teens.

Please join us for SCQM’s Fall Fellowship on the beautiful grounds of Temescal Gateway Park in the Pacific Palisades, just north of Santa Monica, or via Zoom.  See below for details.

In peace,
Dan Strickland, SCQM clerk

Click Here for more details

FriendQuaker Conferences and Retreats, Fall Fellowship, Southern California Quarterly Meeting

Save the Date for Fall Fellowship!

Southern California Quarterly Meeting
Fall Fellowship
November 1-3, 2024
at Temescal Canyon State Park

On the first weekend of November (1-3),  join Quakers from around southern California at Temescal Canyon. It’s a beautiful location a couple of miles inland from Will Rogers State Beach. We’ll sleep in cabins, share meals in the dining hall, and enjoy discussions, speakers, meeting new people and old friends, and have fun. There will be programs for children and teens. There’s some very fine hiking as well. More information arriving shortly, so keep an eye on your mailbox (of the electronic sort).

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

FriendQuaker Conferences and Retreats, Fall Gathering, Southern California Quarterly Meeting

Fall Fellowship Registration is Now Open

Fall Fellowship

Back to Basics – The Roots and Fruits of Quakerism

at Temescal Canyon and on Zoom
November 3-5, 2023

Register here

Please Join Us

Dear Friends,

We are reminded that Friends have diverse identities, life experiences, and faith traditions. Some Friends come from generations of Quaker ancestors, other convinced Friends have Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, mono or polytheistic, or non-theist backgrounds. 

As an inclusive religion and community of seekers, we strive each day to live with integrity and to listen for and see that of God, the Divine, the Light in all.  

The centering theme for this fall’s quarterly gathering is “Back to Basics – The Roots and Fruits of Quaker Testimonies Then and Now.” 

Paul Buckley, a traveling Quaker minister and author will share with us his perspectives on the Quaker Testimonies in two presentations based on his recently published Pendle Hill pamphlet, Quaker Testimony: What We Witness to the World.   Paul’s presentations will look at early Quaker testimonies, what he considers the 5 essential characteristics of a testimony, how early Friends testified.

Contemporary Quakers have come to “package” our testimonies as the SPICES: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, Stewardship or Sustainability.  Yet we can ask, are these our only testimonies?  Are there others?  

Fall Fellowship is a wonderful opportunity to worship and share together, participate in interest and affinity groups, a meeting for healing, hiking, plenaries, community night, and lots of fellowship.

Families especially are encouraged to attend onsite (the cost for all those 18 and younger are covered by SCQM) as the children’s and teen program committees are planning a wonderful weekend of activities on the beautiful grounds of Temescal Gateway Park in the Pacific Palisades, just north of Santa Monica.  See below for a brief schedule outline and see the scqm.org website for full details.

In peace,
Jane Blount
SCQM Clerk

A Few Notes on Registration

  • There is a registration fee of $25/person for onsite attendance and $5/person for online participation.
  • Additional costs to attend either onsite or online is “pay-as-led”; suggested contribution amounts are on the registration form.
  • We encourage Friends to ask their Monthly Meeting or Worship Group for financial assistance if needed to cover the actual costs of attending.
  • Registration closes at midnight on October 22, 2023. 

Brief Schedule Outline

Friday evening – Zoom only:
         Interest Group – Radical Hospitality

Saturday morning:
         Worship, brief plenary, Keynote presentation, worship sharing 

Saturday afternoon:
         Lunch, Interest groups/workshops, FCNL and our Quaker Advocacy Community – Onsite and Online, The Seekers – Onsite only, “How Long Can I Wear my Sword” – Onsite and Online, affinity groups, free time.

Saturday evening:
         Dinner, community night, informal gathering

Sunday morning
         Breakfast, 2nd Keynote presentation, worship sharing

Sunday afternoon:
Lunch, brief plenary, closing worship

Interest Group Details

Friday Nov 3rd 6:30 – 8:30 PDT 

Radical Hospitality: Join Lloyd Lee Wilson in a discussion on “Radical Hospitality…a way of being in the world that helps to bring the Kingdom of God into full realization …through inclusiveness toward all people, through letting go of personal cravings for possessions and power, and through noncoercion.” See more about the pamphlet and where to purchase it at Radical Hospitality – Pendle Hill Quaker Books & Pamphlets.

This is an online program (those coming Friday afternoon to help set-up are welcome to join us in Stewart Hall).

*Please see information about the Pendle Hill Radical Hospitality reading group on October 18:  https://pendlehill.org/events/pendle-hills-reading-group-october-2023/ 

Lloyd Lee Wilson is a recorded minister of the gospel in West Grove Monthly Meeting, North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative). His publications include Essays on the Quaker Vision of Gospel Order, Wrestling with Our Faith Tradition, Holy Surrender, Change and Preservation in the Same Current, and numerous contributions to Friends Journal, Quaker Life, Quaker Theology, and The Journal of North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative). His message is that “Christ has come to teach his people himself.”

Being Violent While Being Quaker – How long can I wear my sword? – Onsite and Online 

Dan Strickland will share his perspective as a karate student of 50+ years’ standing, how that squares or conflicts with being a Quaker, and what violence is in our lives. Will have a rich discussion around questions like, Does our aversion to violence affect our honesty?  Where is the balance between fear and hospitality?

FCNL and our Quaker Advocacy Community – Onsite and Online 

Come learn first-hand from advocates who have led successful issue FCNL campaigns through building people power and taking action. In this workshop we’ll focus on different ways you can work with FCNL and our Quaker advocacy community to advance our shared vision and values. These ideas can help our meetings and worship groups prepare for deeper work towards the world we seek. 

We will hear from young friends about their experience in the FCNL “Ambassadors” program; our regional FCNL Advocacy Coordinator, Jessica Bahena; and the FCNL Quaker Engagement Program Manager, Bobby Trice. Online and onsite attenders are welcome (onsite participants will meet in Stewart Hall).