Weekly Announcements for October 11, 2024

The BYM Spiritual Formation Working Group invites Friends to join the year-long spiritual formation program that meets each third Tuesday of the month from 7:00pm-8:30pm via Zoom, beginning on October 15th.  

For years, the BYM Spiritual Formation Program searched for ways to support Friends across the Yearly Meeting who wanted to be in a year-long local spiritual formation group but did not have ready access to such a group. The Covid-19 pandemic invited us to a period of creative development of an on-line program (offered through Zoom) that would replicate the experience many Friends have in their local spiritual formation groups at their Meetings.  

The response to this program has been heartwarming. For the past three years, we’ve been able to host a monthly spiritual formation group gathering for Friends in far-flung places, in Meetings too small to sustain a local in-person gathering, or currently unaffiliated with a local Meeting.  

This program offers what we describe as personal spiritual deepening in, with, and for community. Participants gather each month for times of fellowship and worship sharing in response to short readings and queries that are sent to the group before each meeting.

A second opportunity offered each month is a small spiritual friendship group, when participants have the time for deeper sharing and fellowship.  

FGC Seeks Ministry on Racism Coordinator

Friends General Conference seeks its next Ministry on Racism Coordinator. This is a full-time, one-year, remote role. The Ministry on Racism (MOR) Programs Coordinator works closely with the Associate Secretary for Organizational Cultural Transformation and the Ministry on Racism Associate to help members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) understand and end racism and ageism, transforming our religious society into a beloved community, whole and enriched by racial, ethnic, and age diversity and equity. This term-limited position will support programs and services to Friends and Friends meetings, largely to affiliated meetings in the unprogrammed Quaker tradition.

BYM Workshop with Loretta Ross, Oct 19

The BYM Working Group on Racism is sponsoring three interactive Zoom presentations this fall designed to help Friends understand racism and how to undo the harm it causes. The first workshop, Sat, Oct 19 at 10am, will be led by Loretta Ross. She will discuss how bringing empathy to our antiracism and other social justice work can make it more effective and more enjoyable. Loretta is an activist, public intellectual, and scholar. Her passion is innovating creative imagining about global human rights and social justice issues. Loretta helped launch the movement to end violence against women in the 1970s and is a honored elder of the reproductive justice movement.

Homewood Friends to Host Right Sharing of World Resources, Oct 23 @ 7pm

Join Homewood Friends Meeting to hear a report back from Right Sharing of World Resources, an independent Quaker nonprofit, on their project of giving “micro-enterprise” grants to groups of marginalized women in impoverished countries. This is hosted by Homewood Friends for the benefit of Baltimore Yearly Meeting; come join F/friends from around the region. Registration is required.

Quaker Religious Education Collaborative Conversation Circles

Join Friends from around the world for the upcoming conversation circles held by the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative. Event details will be available online soon!

Friends Supporting Friends Working Group Offers Support to Meetings

Many of us are uncomfortable with conflicts in our Meetings and the community’s ability to listen to how Spirit is working among us may suffer. BYM now provides assistance through the working group, Friends Supporting Friends (FSF)  under the care of the Ministry & Pastoral Care Committee. FSF can provide individual consultation, group facilitation, circle and clearness processes, mediation, conflict coaching, training, etc., depending on an individual Meeting’s discernment on how the Spirit is leading them. Included in the processes that are now available for Meetings is Clinton Pettus’s Friends for the Future, Inc. approach which helps individuals and groups find ways to build, repair and strengthen relationships through speaking, listening, learning, mindfulness and other strategies. If you would like to explore assistance or guidance from Friends Supporting Friends, please contact one of the co-clerks: Bob Rhudy <bobrhudy@yahoo.com> (443) 890-6548 or Ramona Buck <ramonabuck@gmail.com> (443) 418-0392.

October Events at Friends Wilderness Center

Friends Wilderness Center at the Rolling Ridge Conservancy in Harper's Ferry invites you to three exciting events this October.

• This Saturday, check out the Ephemeral Arts in Nature to explore, appreciate & interact with nature while respecting the ideals of "leave no trace" intentions.
• Next Saturday, gather 'round the Open Mic Campfire with your instruments, songs, stories, poems... toast s'mores, share & appreciate gifts freely offered in community.
• On Oct 19, escape the city lights for Meteors on the Meadow: Orionid. The Orionid meteor shower peaks in the predawn hours ~15 meteors/hour anticipated.

Memorial Service for Ollie Moles, Nov 2

Sandy Spring Friends Meeting will host a memorial service for Oliver "Ollie" Moles on Nov 2 at 2:00pm. A reception will follow from 3:--pm - 5:00pm. 

Memorial Service for Becca Gardner-Rhudy, Oct 12

Patapsco Friends Meeting will host a memorial service for Becca Gardner-Rhudy, on Saturday, Oct 12 at 1:00pm at Patapsco Meeting located in Hebron House in Ellicott City and online. Space is limited, so please consider attending online. 

Friends to Hold in the Light

• Oxford Friends Meeting Fall Flea Market, 10/19 
• State College Fall Harvest Dinner, 10/12
• Dunnings Creek "Still Listening" Lecture, 10/20
• BYM Camps Fall Workdays
  
• BYM 2024-2025 Calendar of Key Dates
• Committee Handbook

To submit your items for the BYM Weekly Announcements,
please email Admin@bym-rsf.org. 

Baltimore Yearly Meeting
17100 Quaker Lane | Sandy Spring, MD | 20860 USA
www.bym-rsf.org

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