How is Sheila doing on her walk?
Click on the link in the right hand column under
PFM Member Links to see Sheila’s walk day by day!
Or go to her new page HERE.
-
Sheila Walks the Walk
SHEILA STARTS WALKING THE WALKSaturday, 8 August, 2015
Blessings and love to all my dear Putney MM f/Friends. I hold you all in my heart with deep, wide gratitude! After a wonder-full six days at Yearly Meeting sessions, I have spent two days with my new beloved F/friend Anne Moore of Northampton Friends Meeting. Today I will attend the weekly Peace Vigil here and take the train to Hartford. Tomorrow, Wanny McDonald and I will walk the first two days together, staying the first night in New Britain and the second in Middletown. I’ve already lined up two lakes to swim!
Special message to my support team – I have sent my boots to my son who will have them for me when we meet up in Maine for Thanksgiving. I will wear sandals and walking shoes and my beloved Darn Tough socks!
I have made many contacts and continue to do so with the help of lots and lots of folks. Thanks so much for all yours, inc. contacts and prayers. If you think of anyone else you know, esp. in VA and SC please let me know. And if you are led, hold a special prayer for if I am meant to be either in Philly or DC when the Pope is there. I am asking that logistic query right now.
I will be holding you all in my prayers, too. I have my prayer flag in a special pocket and I take it out each day. And, yes, I did get my Travel Minute.
Love, Sheila
-
QuakerSpeak now showing!
QuakerSpeak is now available on putneyfriendsmeeting.org. Scroll to the bottom of our home page to watch. QuakerSpeak is a Quaker YouTube channel. They interview Friends of all different backgrounds and ask them the core questions of our faith.
QuakerSpeak interviews are personal and intimate. We seek to give viewers worldwide an experience that is entertaining, informative, inspiring, challenging, inviting, unifying and collaborative.
New videos come out every Thursday.
-
The Advance Documents for NEYM Sessions 2015 are now online!
Photo credit: Pat ChaudoinDear Friends,
The Advance Documents for NEYM Sessions 2015 are now online!Wait, aren’t these coming early this year?
Yes! Responding to frequent requests, this year many Friends have worked to ensure that these important materials are available much earlier than in recent years. We hope having them completed over two weeks before Sessions begins will allow each of us to come to business meetings with heart and mind prepared for the important discernment before us this year.
Why would I read the Advance Documents?Good Question! In this downloadable PDF, you’ll find:
Maps and logistical information for Sessions attenders
The current Schedule for the week
Essential documents to inform discernment at business meetings
Financial reports and the proposed budget
Annual reports from your staff and committees
A current listing of Afternoon Opportunities (workshops, etc.)What If I’m not attending Sessions?
The work that happens at Sessions supports the life and ministry of Friends across New England. Whether you plan to attend Sessions this year or not, we hope the reports and business materials will be informative for all New England Quakers and our local meetings. I’m happy to pass on any input you may have.
If you need help accessing these materials, contact the NEYM Office at office@neym.org, or call me at 508-754-6760.Click here to download the Advance Documents
Faithfully,
Sara Hubner
Office Manager
New England Yearly Meeting of FriendsP.S. – Quick Sessions reminders:
If you haven’t made your travel plans, consider using this carpool list
Travel restrictions apply for Saturday arrivals – learn more here
Register by Friday to help us best meet your housing needs -
For where your treasure is…
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
– Matthew 6:21
Dear Friends,
I’m writing to share an exciting invitation:
Two New England Friends are challenging us to join them in financially supporting the new life that is growing in our Quaker communities.
Will you consider a new or increased gift today?Do you see what they are seeing in New England Yearly Meeting…
Engagement and emerging leadership among younger Friends ~ Active participation by Friends from all generations ~ Thoughtful attention to structure and finances ~ Preparedness to make needed changes ~ Growing interest in Outreach, Welcome, and Inclusion ~ Less fear, more Faith?
Do you want to see, as they want to see…
More people finding a spiritual home in our Beloved Community ~ New England Quakers having a greater impact in our world ~ Our faith and practices passed on to our children ~ Financial integrity as the Yearly Meeting builds a better future ~ Greater faith in each other and in our Society?
Here’s how you can help make it happen:
If – and only if – we are able to raise $10,000 in new and increased gifts to the yearly meeting’s annual fund by September 30, 2015, the challenge donors will match amounts in the following ways:
- For increased donations by Friends who already support NEYM, the challenge donors will match the amount of the increases dollar-for-dollar (100%). (So if you gave $100 last year and give $150 this year, they will match $50—your increased gift.)
- For new donations, they will match the donation $1.50 per dollar (150%). (So if you have not given in the last 3 years and give $500, they will give an additional $750.)
- Give Monthly increases will be matched at twelve times the monthly amount. If you pledge a new or increased monthly amount they will match it 12 times the increase (at 100%) or new amount (at 150%). (So a $25/month amount increase equals $300 in matching funds. A new $25/month pledge equals $450 in matching funds.)
But remember:We only have until September 30, 2015
to meet our goal of $10,000 in new or increased gifts in order to receive the match.Will you join me by giving your gift today?
Click here to donate securely online
Sara Smith
Member, Concord (NH) Friends Meeting
Clerk, Development Committee
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
P.S.- Good news! If you’re planning to attend NEYM Annual Sessions, this year your new or increased contribution at the time of registration will count toward the challenge match, so feel free to simply give as part of your online or paper registration. (This applies to an increased donation including your giving to Equalization, but not to the amount you choose to pay for your attendance at Sessions.)P.P.S.- Interested in sharing this invitation more widely? Here’s a link to a PDF flyer you can distribute at your meeting or share with Friends, and a link to the information on neym.org. The challenge donors believe we can meet this goal together – and so do I. And thank you!
-
Visit with Susan Davies
July 19 9:40 – Visit with Susan Davies
My visit is a part of a larger YM outreach effort to strengthen the bonds between monthly meetings and the yearly meeting. My meeting is Vassalboro MM, and I am a member of Permanent Board (PB). PB has initiated its own outreach effort to provide opportunities for monthly meeting Friends to ask questions, and to become familiar with the year-round work of PB and the YM as a whole. Permanent Board is the “continuing body” of New England Yearly Meeting, when the YM is not “in session” ie, the August YM gathering. I hope and expect to travel with a Friend from the Finance Committee who will be able to speak knowledgably about the relationship between YM ministries and the financial health of the yearly meeting. Some of the yearly meetings ministries include our youth programs, Friends Camp, supporting Friends who are called to travel in the ministry, supporting YM committees such as Faith and Practice Revision Committee, Racial, Social and Economic Justice Committee, Earthcare Ministry Committee, NEYM Ministry and Counsel Committee, the NEYM Structural Review Committee, etc. NEYM also has the challenge and opportunity to discern how the Spirit is leading us to be in right relationship and stewardship to the $1.1 million Legacy Gift from the sale of the New England Friends Home.
All of these involvements need the engagement of Friends in our monthly meetings to faithfully blossom and bear ‘the fruits of the Spirit’ and to keep the spiritual life-blood circulating between the monthly meetings and their yearly meeting.
-
CHARLESTON SOLIDARITY VIGIL and CONVERSATION on RACE IN AMERICA
CHARLESTON SOLIDARITY VIGIL and CONVERSATION on RACE IN AMERICA
Centre Congregational Church, 193 Main St., Brattleboro, VT
Wednesday, July 1 @ 5:30 pm
All are welcome. We will honor the lives and memory of the nine people who were murdered at Immanuel AME Zion Church in Charleston, SC. Rev. Bert Marshall, interim minister at Centre Church, will facilitate a conversation on race in America. All thoughtful viewpoints, presented with regard for everyone, will be respected. Afterward, those who are interested will walk up to Brooks Memorial Library for the Frederick Douglass reading at 7:00 pm. Call 802-254-4730 for more information.
-
New England Yearly Meeting Sessions Registration Open!
DEAR FRIENDS,
Online Registration for NEYM Sessions 2015 is now open!
Click here to registerWe look forward to welcoming you to the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends’ 355th Annual Sessions in Castleton, VT, August 1–6, 2015. Our theme this year is: Living Into Covenant Community.
For more information, visit neym.org/sessions.
in faith and service,
Kathleen Wooten
Events Coordinator
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
(781) 640-1269
events@neym.org -
Stop the Gun Riders!
Friends, 
First of all, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who made it out to our celebration this past weekend. It was fabulous to see everyone, celebrate our accomplishments and look forward to our next steps as a growing and influential grassroots movement for commonsense gun laws in Vermont.While our work has primarily been focused on Vermont-based policies, I am also writing to bring your attention to something that is happening in the US Senate right now.
Recently, the House of Representatives approved their version of their CJS Appropriations Act for FY2016 (H.R. 2578). In the process, 11 so-called “gun riders” were added to their bill, and today, the Senate Appropriations Committee is taking up this piece of legislation.
If approved, the riders would:
- Terminate the long gun reporting program which the ATF is using to prevent gun trafficking in those four states bordering Mexico.
- Prevent the ATF from regulating dangerous armor piercing ammunition.
- Prevent the ATF from strengthening the regulations on gun trusts so that local law enforcement can determine who in their communities is able to obtain fully automatic machine guns.
- Reinstate a program ended by Congress over 20 years ago that allows formerly convicted violent felons to obtain dangerous firearms.
These gun-related riders have been added to the House legislation without open debate. Unless the Senate hears from you, these dangerous provisions will make it into the final version of the law, threatening community safety, here and around the country. We need to make it easier, not harder, for the ATF to do its job!
Our colleagues at the Center for American Progress and the States United to Prevent Gun Violence have made it easy for GunSenseVT supporters to speak up on this issue — particularly since Senator Leahy is a key member on the Appropriations Committee that is considering this bill. Simply contact Senator Leahy using this form and ask him NOT to include these bad gun riders in their CJS bill. These riders will only benefit criminals while tying the hands of law enforcement trying to reduce gun violence.
Thanks for taking a minute to speak out on this important subject. I hope you are enjoying this beautiful early summer weather!
Ann
GunSenseVT · PO Box 2533, Brattleboro, VT 05303, United States -
Meet Hubert J Hirwa
Friends,
Brattleboro Worship Group with the support of Putney Meeting has provided support to Hubert J Hirwa to attend SIT. He is now here in Brattleboro. HIs study was sponsored by the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams.. He is currently working in Rwanda.
El Dearborn, Clerk of Ministry & Counsel Committee, has invited Hirwa to lunch at the Meeting House Wednesday June 10th. Anyone available is welcome to join them at about 1 pm.
He will also speak to Meeting at the rise of late Meeting, this Sunday, June 14th.
This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about his work in Africa.
To find out more go to; African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
Putney Friends Meeting 