|
|
|
|
|
Section of the Americas
|
September 24, 2009
|
|
|
|
|
Greetings!
FWCC's
online searchable database for meetings, churches and worship groups in the US and Canada has now been enhanced
with a visual, interactive Google Map. Located on the FWCC home page, just click on the map to
find meetings, churches and worship groups. If you want to know more about a meeting - what time worship starts, what branch of Friends it's part of, what languages Friends worship in - then use the FWCC searchable database. Have fun zooming in and finding where
Friends meetings are concentrated! In friendship, FWCC Section of the Americas Interactive Google map FWCC searchable database of Friends Meetings, churches and worship groups.
|
|
 Deadline extended for 2010 Quaker Youth Pilgirmage
Young
Friends now have until November 30, 2009 to consider applying for the 2010 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage that will be held in the Northwestern
United States next summer.
Please share this opportunity with young Friends in your
meeting! The price has now been set at $1,300 for the month-long
pilgrimage; some scholarship funds are available. Travel to and from Seattle, WA, the starting point for the pilgrimage, is additional. Check the FWCC website for details on this event. The Quaker Youth Pilgrimage
connects European young Friends with other 16-18 year-olds from the
Section of the Americas.
The extended deadline also applies to adults seeking to be leaders on this
pilgrimage. Apply nowLeader applicants click herephoto: en route to the next destination, 2008 QYP!
|
Regional Gathering: Living my Faith Today
Sign up now to attend In the Manner of Friends:Living My Faith Today, the October 31-November 1 Midwest-Lower Great Lakes regional gathering to be held at
Ann Arbor Friends Meeting, Ann Arbor, MI. Keynote speaker is Patricia Thomas, a
recorded minister in Wilmington YM.
Patricia also served as the Associate Secretary of FWCC, working in
the World Office in London. To register, download the registration form, or contact registrar Mike Hinshaw.
Thomas Taylor, clerk of the Local Arrangements Committee, can help
you with hospitality questions.
Home hospitality is available, but there are nearby motels as well. Cost for the event, which includes meals
from Friday supper through Saturday supper, is $45. Childcare is available. Friends World Committee for Consultation
seeks to bring Friends of varying traditions and cultural experiences
together in worship, communications and consultation, to express our
common heritage and our Quaker message to the world. The Lower Great
Lakes-Midwest Gathering is part of a regular series of regional gatherings
offered by FWCC Section of the Americas. |
 'Freedom for expressing ideas': workshops in Peru, Bolivia
Twenty-five
Friends from six yearly meetings in Bolivia and Peru met at the Jorge Fox
school in Juli, Peru September 9-12 for a workshop on Writing as
Ministry. Hal and Nancy Thomas of Northwest YM led the workshop. Jesus Huarachi Cutipa, clerk of the
southern region of FWCC's Committee of Latin American Friends (COAL)
writes: "What stands out for me is the freedom we were allowed for
expressing the ideas of each and every one of the participants. It was a
time of unity and brotherhood among the groups of Friends from Bolivia and Peru. It was a great pleasure for me to see Friends from different yearly
meetings share together in meals, overnight hospitality, and in all the
workshop activities." He continues "I really think that the goals of unity and
spiritual sharing were very good...I think we accomplished what we set out
to achieve."
Plans are in the works for Hal and Nancy to collaborate next with Friends in Central America, as a continuation of workshops previously held in that region.
|
Cuba work trip opportunity with Friends United Meeting
Would
you like to spend two weeks in the winter, worshiping with and working
alongside Cuban Friends in the construction of their yearly meeting
building in Holguín? Margaret Fraser, FWCC Executive Secretary, notes: "From my wonderful experience on
this FUM work team earlier this year, I would say: You don't need to speak Spanish. You do
need to be flexible as plans can change as scarce construction materials
become available...Like all cross-cultural
Quaker connections, you have to exercise religious and political
sensitivity. That is part of the joy of connecting with Friends and
crossing cultures."
Date of the work trip is January 28 - February 11, 2010 (2
weeks) and the approximate cost is $1,800. Register by October 10, 2009.
Details, guidelines and a registration form are
available through the FUM website.
|
Bolivian Friends work, study in the US
Through the
work of Bolivian Quaker Education Fund (BQEF), four
young Bolivian Quakers - "...all of whom grew up in poverty on the Altiplano,
in homes without electricity or running water, speaking Aymara as their
mother tongue and learning Spanish as their second language..." have been able to come
to the US
to participate in Quaker education programs, without the assistance of
interpreters. Ruben Hilare was a
teaching intern for the 2008-2009 school year at Oakwood
Friends School
in Poughkeepsie, NY,
while Alicia Lucasi did the same at Carolina
Friends School
in Durham, NC.
Two more Friends are preparing to spend the coming academic year in the US: Emma Condori has just begun a
three-year Master of Divinity program at Earlham School of Religion in Richmond,
IN, and Elizabeth Lucero
will spend the 2009-10 school year as a teaching intern at Carolina
Friends School. The mission of BQEF is to enrich relations between US and
Bolivian Quakers through educational programs. BQEF hopes that "as more doors open here in
the US,
Alicia, Ruben, Emma and Elizabeth will be seen as just the first in a new
wave of interaction between US and Bolivian Friends." For more info on these programs visit
the BQEF website.
|
We need to know you care about FWCCMany of you receiving this e-newsletter don't get to read the letters that we mail out to the FWCC community, asking for their support. But it is so important for us to hear from you, to hear that you do care about the work we do. You read about it every month. Our hope is that it helps you feel, in some way, connected to the larger world of Friends. Twenty-five percent of the unrestricted contributions we receive go to the FWCC World Office in London for their work, which includes support of the Africa Section. Please help us keep up this work by making a contribution. You can easily make a gift online. Click here to find out how. And thank you. Donate now
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
