NOW CLOSED. Call for Proposals: Editor for the Canadian Friend and quaker.ca

Canadian Yearly Meeting (CYM) seeks a contractor to edit The Canadian Friend and to upload materials to our website, quaker.ca. CYM is a religious organization of Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) in Canada.

The contractor will solicit material, edit and produce two issues of The Canadian Friend (CF) per year, to appear in the spring (April) and fall (September/October). Working with an editorial committee, the contractor will set editorial direction for The Canadian Friend. The contractor will receive requests for advertising in The Canadian Friend and communicate with advertisers. The contractor will work in InDesign, and send the issue of The Canadian Friend to the printer, as well as creating a PDF version to be posted on the website. Past issues of The Canadian Friend can be viewed at https://quaker.ca/resources/the-canadian-friend/

Material from The Canadian Friend will also be used as content on quaker.ca, our website.

The editor will solicit and receive additional content to be posted on quaker.ca

The editor will also use our FaceBook presence to post information about material in The Canadian Friend, upcoming deadines, and quaker.ca posts.

Quaker.ca is a WordPress multisite webpage, with public-facing and private sections. Maintenance of the public site will include posting materials, updating contact information, and other updates as requested. The private sections of quaker.ca consist of internal documents and committee webpages. The contractor may be asked to post materials, or to provide technical support to committees posting their own materials.

The contractor is responsible for providing space, software and hardware required for the work, including InDesign, image processing abilities (such as resizing and cropping photos for web use and print), and internet access.

The contractor is encouraged to attend the 2016 Canadian Yearly Meeting gathering (August 5-13) in Camrose, AB, with paid travel, housing and food.

The contractor should have demonstrable experience with InDesign, WordPress and the production of print and/or on-line magazines. Experience with unprogrammed Quaker meetings, particularly within CYM, is desirable. Previous experience or training in journalism, editing and social media is an advantage.

Deliverables:

  • two issues of The Canadian Friend per year
  • regular posting of materials for quaker.ca, to be posted twice weekly on a schedule mutually agreed upon by the editor and Publications and Communications committee.
  • regular posting of new material on the blog for quaker.ca (at least 2 posts per month)

Production of The Canadian Friend will be paid for up to 100 h per issue. Web editor work is expected to be 10 h / month.

This is a one-year contract, to be renewed on mutual agreement for an additional two years, with the possibility of further extension. Work is to be invoiced monthly, and will be paid at a rate of $35/h by the CYM bookkeeper following approval by the Clerk of Publications and Communications committee.

To apply, please send a letter outlining experience and interest in the position, with resume and any other supporting information. Questions and applications may be sent to

Applications should be received by July 10, 2016.

CYM 2016: Registration Form and Registration Material Available!

In preparation for Yearly Meeting session, we have uploaded the following:

  1. Registration Form (PDF version to print and mail) or the on-line form (Excel file to fill in, save and email to the office).  Please note that the Excel form is designed for one registrant per Excel Worksheet.  If there is more than one person in your household registering, please fill out the Person 2 Worksheet, Person 3 Worksheet, etc. by clicking along the bottom tabs.  Questions?  Email .
  2. The Registration Material (all the YM details!).

 

For more information, please visit the CYM 2016 Gathering page.

Celebrating the work of a very dear Friend of CYM

We have received the announcement that Deborah Fisch, Associate Secretary of Ministries of Friends General Conference (FGC), will be stepping down from her functions for health reasons.  For more details, please follow this link: http://www.fgcquaker.org/news/celebrating-work-deborahfisch
 
Deborah Fisch has been a regular and beloved visitor to CYM at our annual gathering for many years now.  This year she was our Quaker Study leader, giving a series of 5 daily talks titled The Joy of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business.  She travelled to Prince Edward Island from her home in Iowa, US, and ministered from a place of great love in spite of failing health; and she received much love from us.  She shared many stories and insights from her many years of clerking for her Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meeting.  
Canadian Yearly Meeting was blessed to be able to receive Deborah‘s ministry this summer.

Epistle from CYM 2015

EPISTLE 2015, August 22, 2015

Loving Greetings to Friends everywhere,
Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends met for the 182nd annual gathering of Quakers in Canada, our 60th as a united Meeting, for the first time on the beautiful campus of the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown. We came knowing that we had many challenging discussions to have and decisions to make.
The pre-gathering retreat, Nurturing Joy in our Meetings, was led by Lesley Read of New Brunswick Monthly Meeting and grew out of silence. Participants moved into small group work and consideration of joy in all facets of our lives.
On Saturday Friends gathered from all across Canada and celebrated community together in the evening. We were welcomed to the traditional Mi’kmaq territory of Abegweit by Indigenous Elder Judy Clark.
On Sunday afternoon, we celebrated the lives of those who died in the last year. That evening we heard the Sunderland P. Gardner lecture, titled Decolonizing Land and Soul: A Quaker Testimony, presented by Alastair McIntosh, Scottish Quaker and activist of Glasgow Area Meeting of Britain Yearly Meeting, whose words were challenging, humorous and thought-provoking. He continued his themes with workshops during the week. The lecture was followed by the traditional ‘cakenight’ in celebration of our beloved Archivist, Jane Zavitz-Bond, who is moving toward release from her long service.
Deborah Fisch of Friends General Conference and Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) led us in Quaker Study titled The Joy of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, with depth and humour. We began our regular week of activities, with Meetings for Worship with Attention to Business, as our Quaker Studies leader has reminded us to call it. An important session took the form of an extended Meeting for Worship with attention to the future of Quakerism in Canada, and the future of our Canadian Yearly Meeting’s functions. We proposed major changes to our structure. We are anticipating a fallow year in 2017 during which we will not meet as Canadian Yearly Meeting in session. We were tested, being unable to reach unity in this matter about which many felt deeply. We remain committed to seeking the spiritually rich and financially-sustainable Yearly Meeting we desire. We learned with sadness of the laying-down of Simcoe-Muskoka Monthly Meeting in Orillia, Ontario, and welcomed with joy the birth of Cowichan Valley Monthly Meeting on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Afternoon programs consisted of worship groups, followed by a wide selection of Special Interest Groups. One afternoon, we took part in community service projects proposed by our hosts, Prince Edward Island Worship Group: labouring in a nearby community garden and tree planting in a river watershed. Funds saved by a simple supper were donated to the university food bank. The week continued hot and humid, and many Friends enjoyed the glory of God’s Creation in salt water on nearby beaches.
Our evenings were filled with interesting activities. “The Experience of the Spirit in my Life”, an annual opportunity for Friends to share spiritual journeys was moving, with Friends sharing sometimes unusual experiences. There was a Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered-Queer (LGBTQ) sponsored film presentation, entitled My Prairie Home, and discussion. Another evening, we were led in considering communication and outreach in times of changing technology, finances and demographics.
Our youth numbers were small but Young Friends particularly loved the sun and activities of Canada’s smallest Province situated on an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Because the group consisted almost entirely of Young Adult Friends, youth joined in on much of the adult programming, including attending Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business meetings, Quaker study, worship groups, Special Interest Groups, and evening activities. Youth-specific activities involved Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, excursions to beaches, late-night brownie baking, a dance, to which we joyfully welcomed older Friends as well, and drawing games. Some Young Friends and Young Adult Friends also enjoyed volunteering with the Children’s Program.
On our last evening together we enjoyed the various gifts and talents of many Friends young and old during our annual family night. The ministries of music, dance, and laughter nourishes us as we prepare to leave this blessed community.
We are grateful for the setting here but recall the unusually severe wildfires in western Canada and the dangers these pose to Western Friends and to Mother Nature. We urge Friends to work ceaselessly, including with faith-based groups around the world, to mitigate and adapt to the challenges posed by changes to Earth’s climate.
Although it was a week spent in serious work and in considering and making decisions, it was also a week during which Joy was a recurrent theme. We approach the coming year spiritually refreshed and full of hope and expectation.
Elaine Bishop
Presiding Clerk

Epistle CYM 2015

Who Says all You Do at CYM is Sit in Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business?

After nearly three rather sedentary days at Canadian Yearly Meeting, mostly in meetings, Wednesday afternoon was a welcomed break. This was our service project time. This year we were offered a choice of two activities: tree planting or helping out at the Charlottetown Farm Centre Legacy Garden. I chose to work at the Garden.

The entire Garden covers an area of ten acres. The one-acre production area of the Garden supplies the food bank, homeless and women’s shelters with organic produce. The neighbouring acre of land is divided up into community gardens, lovingly tended by some 80 gardeners, who supplement their diet in this way. Further afield orchards are being set up.

About seven or eight adult Friends, of a wide range of ages, set off to the Garden on the 10-minute walk down the Trans-Canada trail in the mid-afternoon sun. We were then joined by some of the children participating in the children’s program.

After a short introduction to the Garden, we were shown some very long rows of beans and asked to pull out the lamb’s quarters and the mustard but ignore the other weeds. These two plants towered above the beans themselves, some being almost as tall as the smallest children, preventing the beans’ proper growth. The mustard was also rather deep-rooted and quite a tussle to pull out.

It was hard for the gardeners among us not to disobey our instructions as we were tempted to also weed out the thick growth of weeds around the base of the bean plants. When our time was up, we watered some drooping squash growing out of bales of straw and then liberally sprayed ourselves with the hose pipe to wash off the dry dusty red PEI soil.

We straggled back down the trail, late for supper, but at least feeling that we had fully earned it.

Wednesday supper  at CYM is a simple meal. This is the third CYM at which there has been a simple supper, which is part of a charitable project. The idea is that Friends are offered plain fare but pay the regular price. The money collected then goes to a charitable organization. In this case, PEI Friends chose the charity. The meal – lentil stew and an orange – was not only simple, but also tasty, especially to the famished gardeners.

 

Sheila Havard

Coldstream Monthly Meeting