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Section of the Americas
| May 21, 2013
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Greetings!
I have been thinking about why the Living Water programs of the past year have been so successful, and why the theme continues to engage Friends' interest. This simple metaphor has struck a chord with Friends throughout the Americas because its lessons are accessible to all. Many have felt challenged with messages from speakers whose Quaker backgrounds contrast with their own. Lives are being touched, as Friends draw inspiration from the larger Quaker community. That's why we will continue to explore this theme in our programs for a while longer.
Read below about the current Living Water programs taking place: right now in Central America, next month in Ontario, Canada, and into 2014 at four Section-wide special consultations. Friends at the Memphis, TN Living Water event told us: "This opportunity was special and sowed seeds among us." We hope to keep planting them and that you will be there to gather them up.
In friendship,
Louise Salinas
Associate Secretary
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Reconnecting through Living Water workshops in Central America
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Karen de Calderon (l) and Lidia Henriquez (r) welcome Robin Mohr to Guatemala
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The Living Water program is continuing with a series of workshops in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Robin Mohr, Executive Secretary, is visiting Central America for the first time in her position. She writes: What a joy it always is to be with Friends, face to face and heart to heart. The first workshop last Friday night was specifically for the women in Guatemala Holiness Friends Yearly Meeting. What a blessing to learn how the Holy Spirit is moving among them while exploring the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:3-42. Tuesday night I will cover the same theme with Friends at Ambassador Friends Evangelical Church, also here in Chiquimula, Guatemala.
One of the reasons for this trip is for me to have a much clearer understanding of how Friends are living in their everyday lives as we plan workshops and conferences and programs that will benefit their local churches and meetings and the wider Religious Society of Friends. It is also a chance to meet with the Friends who attended the World Conference last year in Kenya and the representatives who came to the Section Meeting in March to learn how those experiences have changed their understanding of their own calling to serve God and the people around them, here in Central America. I leave Wednesday for Honduras, and then on Friday for El Salvador. I am grateful for all the prayers and encouragement I have received, for myself, my family and the Friends World Committee.
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Water in the desert: Canadian Living Water program in June
The Half Yearly Meetings of Central Canada will host Minga Claggett-Borne and Jonathan Vogel-Borne for a weekend retreat June 7-9 with the theme Water in the Desert: the Inward Journey to Global Transformation. Friends from other yearly meetings in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere are invited to attend this event, offered jointly by FWCC and both Pelham and Yonge Street Half Yearly Meetings. The site is Camp NeeKauNis in Waubaushene, Ontario. The weekend's program will include:
- intergenerational singing and cooperative games around the theme of water in the desert
- interactive exercises and reflection using the imagery of 'sharing water in the desert'
- discussion of queries such as "How does our relationship with the Divine strengthen our peace and justice witness? How do we as individuals and as local meetings respond to the 2012 Kabarak Call for Peace and Ecojustice?"
Please register by this Friday, May 24th. For more information on the program, the venue and how to register, visit our website. Or, download the full registration packet. For questions please contact Virginia Dawson. |
A successful year of Living Water programs
Over 1,700 Friends in North and South America are estimated to have attended the 40+ programs that brought 15 speakers from seven different countries to lead this common-themed series of events through last month. This level of activity has been possible through collaboration between a small staff and a planning committee of ten, and the engagement of at least three dozen on-site local coordinators. Many more Friends helped on the ground in ways such as hosting speakers or visitors, bringing food for a meal or greeting someone arriving at the airport. Today nonprofit organizations are under pressure to deliver quantifiable results of their outcomes. For organizations like FWCC whose work is less tangible - how do you put a number on changing perspectives or opening hearts? - this can be a challenge. The Living Water events have given us a way of measuring our mission-driven impacts at least in part. At the March Section of the Americas meeting, Friends spoke of continued interest in this rich theme, and as a result it will continue to guide our programs through 2014. Read more about the 2012-2013 series of Living Water events here. The Living Water Study Guide, prepared to accompany many of these programs, can be found on our website as a flip-book to read online or for download. This useful resource is great for study or discussion groups anywhere.
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Cradles of Andean Quakerism: QYP coming to South America We're excited to be planning the first Quaker Youth Pilgrimage to South America, not to mention the first to be held entirely in evangelical yearly meetings. The Pilgrimage will take place mid-July through mid-August 2014, and now is the time to consider your role! Will you be a youth pilgrim (ages 16-18) or an adult leader? Or is there a potential applicant in your church or meeting who needs your encouragement to apply? Application materials will be available soon on our website; keep checking back here.
Deadlines for anyone applying as an adult leader of the pilgrimage is November 15, 2013. Pilgrim application deadline is December, 1, 2013. Pilgrim participants should have some Spanish language skills but it is not a prerequisite for participation. Qualified adults with bilingual English/Spanish skills, however, will be given preference during the selection process.
The Quaker Youth Pilgrimage program of FWCC enables young Friends ages 16-18 to learn about Quaker history and process, develop a stronger relationship with God and experience the diversity of Friends' traditions and worship while traveling, living and working together for a month during the summer. Jointly sponsored by the Section of the Americas and the Europe and Middle East Section, the pilgrimage takes place once every two years.
For young people, the pilgrimage is an opportunity to...
- develop your relationship with God
- gain understanding of Quaker process
- explore Quaker history
- experience different Friends' traditions and forms of worship
- form a community and lasting friendships
- participate in a service project
Read more about the 2014 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage.
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Section Consultations: four events, four locations in 2014
Plans are beginning to take shape for the 2014 Section Consultations that will take place between January and April 2014 in four locations: Bolivia, El Salvador, North Carolina, and the West Coast of the United States. Each consultation will consist of a residential weekend conference with participants representing multiple yearly meetings and branches of Friends. "Let the Living Water Flow! Friends serving God's purposes" will serve as the backdrop for the speakers and workshops addressing topics that may include a theological exploration of the theme, bi-vocational ministry, developing intercultural competencies, the environmental work of Friends and other topics. Expectations are for Friends to:
- learn new skills from one another to sustain and grow our meetings
- affirm our mutual Quaker identity
- consider the future of Friends as a whole over the next century
- commit to practices to foster a thriving Religious Society of Friends.
Every generation of Friends has to rediscover the purpose and the strengths of the Religious Society of Friends for themselves and in their own time. Without this renewal, the unique combination of individual faithfulness and social gospel that is the heart of the Quaker movement will risk being lost. Co-clerks for planning the consultations are: Dorothy Grannell (New England YM); Karen Gregorio de Calderon (Guatemala Holiness YM) and Daniel Limachi Mendoza (National Evangelical Friends Church of Bolivia). Yearly Meetings are encouraged to name representatives with attention to their participation in this "threshing session" for the Section. Information will be posted on our Section Consultations web page as it becomes available.
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Muchas gracias! Thanks to all of the Friends and supporters who have donated generously in the last year to the Friends World Committee! Your gifts make it possible to bring FWCC into the lives of even more Friends through our work to:
- publish the emerging voices of Friends in our pamphlet series
- enable young Friends to meet one another across cultural barriers and to explore and deepen their spiritual lives, and
- connect Quakers with one another around the world.
One way to enable more of this good work and make things simpler for yourself is to set up an automatic donation every month. You can read more about the benefits of becoming a sustaining donor on our website. |
Where are Friends one year after the World Conference? Nancy Irving, now the Henry J. Cadbury Scholar at Pendle Hill, reflected a few weeks ago on the current state and future prospects of the worldwide Quaker community, one year after the Sixth World Conference of Friends in Kenya. Nancy recently completed nearly nine years of service as General Secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation in London. Her talk to a group gathered at the Pendle Hill Monday night lecture series can be read here.
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