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Section of the Americas
December 19, 2014
In This Issue
Don't Miss Benigno!
How are you preparing to weave a tapestry of love among Friends?
News from the Northwest
Updated YM Calendar
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Would you like to make new Friends in the coming year? You're invited to attend the Section Meeting in March. Or simply visit a different Quaker meeting or church near your home, or sometime while you are traveling over the next year, no special invitation necessary. Intervisitation knits Friends together. Find Friends near you at www.fwccdirectory.org  

   

Mustard Seed tree

This year, our Mustard Seed campaign has reminded us that small acts can make a big difference. Thanks to some generous long-time supporters, gifts of any size from first-time donors will be doubled until December 31, 2014.  

 

In friendship, 

Robin Mohr 

Robin Mohr

Executive Secretary  

Friends Woven Together in God's Love: Benigno S�nchez-Eppler 

 

Benigno Sanchez-Eppler Looking forward to the Section Meeting in Mexico? Don't miss this opportunity to hear Benigno S�nchez-Eppler address the theme, "Friends Woven Together in God's Love."  God willing, his keynote address on Friday night will inspire and challenge us all. 

 

A member of New England Yearly Meeting, he has traveled in the ministry among Friends in Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, and the United States. He led the Bible Half-hours at NEYM Sessions in 2007, and at the FGC Gathering in 2008. Benigno teaches at Amherst College and at the Cuban Quaker Peace Institute. His decades of work as interpreter and translator for FWCC led him to serve as Co-Clerk of the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage for the last three years. Benigno is a founding co-editor and translator of raicescuaqueras.org 

 

We look forward to seeing you at the biennial Section Meeting, March 12-15, 2015 near Mexico City. For more details as they are published, visit our webpage. To go directly to the registration page, registration is open now!   

  

Did you know it is just as difficult and expensive for a Bolivian to travel to Mexico as it is for her to travel to the United States? We have raised just over $5,000 towards our $15,000 goal to help bring Latin American Representatives to the Section Meeting. Invite a few Friends to work together to contribute to the Section Meeting Travel Fund before the end of the year - gifts from first-time donors will be doubled through our Mustard Seed Matching Campaign! You can make a donation online or mail it to us right away. 

Spiritual & Practical Preparation before the 2015 Section Meeting
Logo and hands weaving
The Section Meeting is the broadest regular gathering of Friends in the Americas, from Alaska to Bolivia, across all the branches of Friends. In March Representatives of affiliated Yearly Meetings will be asked to consider new directions for the work of the Section. Two hour long webinars will be offered for Representatives and Friends who are planning to attend the Section Meeting. They will be at 8 pm EST, on January 14 in English and January 15 in Spanish. We will take questions about the Strategic Plan, and offer advices and queries for preparation, spiritual and practical, for the Section Meeting. If you would like to participate online or by phone, please RSVP by January 9, 2015

 

  

As Section Clerk Jane Snyder wrote last month, we believe that increasing our focus on intervisitation across all the cultural barriers among Friends, better training of Representatives to be bridges among Friends, and exploring alternative funding streams will move us toward our vision:  an integrated and thriving network of Friends from the Arctic to the Andes, woven together in transformational faith, learning to love, listen and witness.   

 

If you would like to read the whole strategic plan, you can download it for free from our website.

News from Northwest USA
Cascade Peak
Mt. Hood, photo by Joe Snyder 

from Elinor Jordan,  North Pacific Yearly Meeting

 

Greetings from Friends in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Evangelical Friends and liberal unaffiliated Friends from Northwest and North Pacific Yearly Meetings have enjoyed worship and fellowship together for many years with FWCC gatherings. Friends in the two yearly meetings have enriched each other's faith and practice in many ways.  

 

In 1995 we started the Pacific NW Quaker Women's Theology Conference with women from NWYM, NPYM and Western Canadian YM. 2014 was our tenth gathering with 80 women.  These are inspiring times of sharing and worshipping together.   

 

Convergent Friends meet once a month in the Portland area.  2014-2015 is the second year where Friends from both Yearly Meetings have sponsored the Quaker Voluntary Service Portland House. Informed by the experience of Northwest Yearly Meeting's YCEW (Youth Challenged to Expand their Worldview), a group of 20 high school youth from North Pacific Yearly Meeting had a service trip in August 2014 to work with the Progresa Quaker Scholarship program in Guatemala. This year's YCEW youth went on a mission visiting among Friends in Ireland. Each week, a group of Friends from two Northwest Yearly Meeting churches and two North Pacific Yearly Meeting meetings gathers together for Bible study.  At each of the two Yearly Meetings' annual sessions, visitors from the other yearly meeting are familiar, friendly faces.

 

How is FWCC making an impact in your yearly meeting?

Email your story to [email protected]! 

Calendar of Yearly Meetings in the Americas 

 

Have you ever wanted to attend another yearly meeting's sessions? Do you wonder when your own yearly meeting will be next year?  Check out the Calendar of YM sessions on our website. If you don't see your yearly meeting listed, please send us the correct dates.