A Committee of Latin American Friends (COAL) workshop on the ministry of writing will take place in Juli, Peru in September.  Nancy and Hal Thomas of Northwest Yearly Meeting, who have served God and Friends in South America for many years, will lead the workshops. Friends from multiple yearly meetings in Bolivia and Peru are expected to participate.  The possibility of a second workshop in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, is also being explored. "For much of the time in the workshop, participants will be writing, reading what they've written, evaluating each other's work, etc.  Lots of work, but with orientation, guidance, and lots of enthusiasm," explains Nancy.

 

COAL is also considering a similar workshop in Central America in early 2010.  In the past few years COAL has sponsored multiple writers workshops in Central and South America.  The soon-to-be-published set of Wider Quaker Fellowship pamphlets in Spanish will feature the work of Friends from Guatemala and Honduras, fruits of a recent series of workshops led by Susan Yanos of Earlham School of Religion. The latest workshops are being made possible in part because of a generous gift to COAL from Ulster Quarterly Meeting (Ireland YM)
 

Friends World Committee has joined with other Friends' organizations to co-sponsor a writers conference next year offered by Quakers Uniting in Publications (QUIP). The planners "...hope that this can be an invigorating, future-orienting event for the Quaker writers that attend and leave them better prepared as torch-bearers of the Quaker publishing lineage."
 
The conference, set for April 21-25 at Quaker Hill Conference Center in Richmond, IN, hopes to draw participation from Friends of varied backgrounds. The gathering will examine what it means to use the written word as ministry given the rapid change in which people are communicating in the 21st century. There will be presentations and workshops led by eminent writers, editors, publishers, bloggers, and participants in the new technologies from all the various Quaker traditions. Featured speakers are J. Brent Bill and Tom Hamm, and other confirmed presenters include Vanessa Julye, Donna McDaniel, Lucy Duncan and Susan Yanos of Earlham School of Religion's Ministry of Writing program.  Check the QUIP web page for this event for more information and to support this effort with a donation.

FWCC is pleased to announce that Deborah Seuss, North Carolina YM (FUM), will speak to Friends gathered next March at the Annual Meeting.  A graduate of Earlham School of Religion, Deborah currently pastors First Friends Meeting in Greensboro. She writes:

 

In addition, Deborah served for six months as Friend in Residence at an Anglican Retreat Centre in Perth, Australia, along with her husband.  "I look forward to meeting you all in Baltimore next year" says Deborah.   
 
The Annual Meeting of FWCC Section of the Americas is open to all interested Friends.  The 2010 meeting will take place at Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center near Baltimore, MD, March 18-21.  

If you know any young Friends who will be 16-18 next summer, encourage them to apply for the 2010 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage to the Northwestern US.  This month-long journey, July 16-August 13, 2010, provides a setting for youth to discuss their faith face-to-face and heart-to-heart with other youth from Europe and the Americas. They also complete a service project while on the pilgrimage.  Deadline for applying is September 30th, 2009. Click here for information and to apply.
 
Also in need are several adult leaders.  Same deadline, September 30th, 2009, applies.  Click here for leader description and requirements, and a downloadable application form.

 

For over 70 years the Wider Quaker Fellowship has published writing selections from the breadth of Quaker experience.  Through the messages we publish, we offer people of all faiths, or of no faith, a means to become familiar with the many expressions of living Quakerism.  We've published an online version since 2005.  Future plans include posting many of our prior, timeless offerings on line so that you can search by theme, author and branch of Friends.  New selections are published twice a year. Many prisoners are among those who receive mailed pamphlets.  A gift to the Wider Quaker Fellowship program will help us continue to mail to those who cannot afford to donate.  
 

Make an online donation now.

A few months ago we told you about FWCC's global change initiatives at the world level.  A website dedicated to listing resources for Friends, and for information on upcoming cluster meetings planned throughout the world to address the issues of global change, is now online.

 

View FWCC Global Change website

 

..We respond.  That's what FWCC did when the chance to support a peace conference in Latin America among the three historic peace churches came before us.  We are taking the lead role in exactly the kind of peace work that FWCC is called to do.  Crossing cultures, connecting Friends....this consultation has the potential to create enduring connections among the Historic Peace Churches in Latin America.   
 
FWCC's global view of the Religious Society of Friends continues to expand. The Section of the Americas works to uplift Friends living in all corners of the Americas. This is why we need your support. Not for this particular peace conference, because we have committed our restricted Peace Funds for it, but to support our general fund, to guarantee that FWCC will have the organizational capacity to be able to respond to whatever new work God calls us to do.  Thank you.

 
Donate now