Tag Archive for: epistle

Canadian Young Friends Gathering Epistle 2017

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The gathered Young Friends ask this epistle be read during announcements after Meeting For Worship:

Loving Greetings to Friends Everywhere:

From 29th Sixth Month to 2nd Seventh Month 2017, around 30 Young Friends from across the country gathered at Camp NeeKauNis in Waubaushene, Ontario for a Canadian Young Friends Gathering. This gathering was organized to bring together a critical mass of Young Friends and Young Adult Friends in order to energize and strengthen our community and rejoice in our time together in worship, play, and good conversation. This gathering was planned in part so that Canadian Young Friends and Young Adult Friends had an occasion to gather while the wider Canadian Yearly Meeting sessions were holding a fallow year, and also as a pre-retreat for the Friends General Conference Gathering happening in Niagara Falls, New York. Along with meals together, work around the camp, and daily meeting for worship, the organizers left space for Friends to offer self-directed programs as they desired. These smaller sessions sprung from the amazing diversity of gifts Friends wanted to share, from the gentle art of cat’s cradle to discussions of the role of Christ in our lives and in Quakerism; from canoeing at sunset, to the plenary workshop on the surprisingly recent history of Christian homophobia and transphobia. Several Friends noted this year’s gathering at Camp NeeKauNis was the largest gathering of Canadian Young Friends in some years. This is with great thanks to the committee (Rachel Urban-Shipley, Jonah Egan-Pimblett, Misia Robins, David Summerhays, Jessica Klaassen-Wright and Christina Tellez) who organised and promoted the gathering, especially the leadership of Jessica and Christina before and during the event. We are also deeply grateful for the support of Education and Outreach for assisting with funding for the gathering, particularly as travel costs are often a barrier for Young Friends who wish to attend. In the midst of this gathering, Friends also felt led to discuss the future of Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting and its relationship with Canadian Yearly Meeting.

Those of us at the Canadian Young Friends Gathering discerned a need and have a strong desire to focus on building our whole community of Young Friends (13-35) especially as the official body of Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting is on hiatus. The current hiatus was chosen because of the a small number of Young Friends attending Yearly Meeting sessions and the difficulty of filling official roles. We are excited about re-kindling the enthusiasm and spirit in Young Friends by growing our connections with each other, both through media and regular gatherings. The gathered Young Friends recognise the role effective communication provides in building and maintaining community. Both Reykia Fick, The Canadian Friend Editor, and Cameron Fraser, now the Canadian Yearly Meeting Secretary, were present at the gathering, and several discussions took place regarding possible ways Canadian Yearly Meeting paid staff and contractors may be able to assist Canadian Young Friends in connecting, communicating, and gathering. Gatherings are a crucial component in maintaining and strengthening the dispersed community of Canadian Young Friends. Those of us present felt a desire to maintain and increase these gatherings. Recognising this, we encourage all Young Friends who are able to attend Canadian Yearly Meeting in Barrie in 2018.

Moving toward Canadian Yearly Meeting in session 2018 in Barrie, we discerned the following steps should be taken over the next year to strengthen the national community of Young Friends and to engage more meaningfully with the wider body of Friends in Canada:

  • The gathered Friends will investigate the possibility of a Young Friends pre-CYM gathering at Camp NeeKauNis in 2018.

These contacts will work with Canadian Yearly Meeting staff to facilitate this initiative.

Canadian Yearly Meeting Secretary, Cameron Fraser, has invited Young Friends into a discussion to assist in creating goals as to how he can best help Young Friends in Canada. This is an open invitation to all Canadian Young Friends who wish to be involved. The regional contacts committed to involvement in this process of goal setting. Any interested Young Friends may contact Cameron Fraser at for more information.

As we build our community, including through further gatherings, we request the continued support of Yearly Meeting’s Education and Outreach Committee. The challenges of holding gatherings are amplified for Young Friends. We are grateful for the support of all those in Canadian Yearly Meeting in dealing with those challenges and in helping us strengthen our common community.

In the Light,

Canadian Young Friends gathered at Camp NeeKauNis, 1st Seventh Month 2017

Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting Epistle 2015

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This year at CYM there were a lot of conversations about communication and how we share our message. With this in mind, Young Friends also experimented with different modes of communication when writing our epistle. This year’s epistle was collaboratively written through a game sort of like ‘broken telephone.’ We each reflected on something we had experienced at yearly meeting and wrote a sentence about it at the top of a page. The paper was passed in a circle and the next person drew and illustration of the sentence. The original sentence was then folded over so that only the illustration was visible and it was passed again. The next person wrote a caption for what they saw in the illustration, folded over the illustration so that only their caption was visible and passed it on. The paper continued to be folded and passed around the circle until we reached the end of the page. We hope you enjoy our collaborative epistle, and the adventures that sprang from our reflections on this week.Learning Quaker process (5)

Chair dance party (6)

Mum, can we use the kitchen to bake a cake (2)

A late night walk (4)

A late night walk (4 ending)We sat through 2 business meetings (1)

Swipe right to hold in the light (3)

Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting Epistle 2014

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After the abundant youth presence because of the Youth Challenge at last year’s CYM, this year had a comparably small and intimate YF/YAF community. Throughout the week, many Young Adult Friends were involved with CYM business. We became reacquainted on Sunday over word games and multigenerational activities. That night we had the privilege to attend the SPG lecture with the keynote speakers Bill Curry and Dale Dewar. The topic was war as a societal disease and how we might diagnose and treat it. Many Young Friends emerged with an interesting new perspective. We anticipate that this lecture may influence our discussions at the upcoming Youth and Militarization Conference being organized by E&O. We then ate cake.
 
The theme of thought-provoking lectures continued on Monday with Mark Birch’s quaker study on simplicity. These lectures continued throughout the week. After an intellectually-stimulating beginning of the week, we dropped our thinking hats in favor of jumping socks and traveled to a trampoline park, where we played trampoline dodgeball and volleyball. We then ate leftover cake. We ended the evening with our first CYFYM business meeting, which was vastly improved by a veritable cornucopia of delicious snacks.
 
The business continued through Tuesday, with a productive threshing session on fostering our Young Adult Friend community. Several ideas arose, including using social networking to connect Young Friends in between gatherings, the prospect of a Quaker book club, and even a suggestion that we might look into the possibility of establishing a permanent Quaker gathering place in Western Canada. We then ate cake.
Wednesday was highlighted by a discussion on LGBTQ issues that lead into a multigenerational dance party. Young Friends made creative use of recycling bins as props in interpretive dance. We then ate cake.
 
On Thursday, Bill and Dale gave their famous talk to the Young Adult Friends. This was in no way eclipsed by our evening activity. We were offered the incredible opportunity by Richard Reed Parry (son of Caroline Balderston Parry) to not only go see Arcade Fire in concert, but to also dance with them through the crowd to their stage in ridiculous costumes, and then go back stage after to meet the band. Their performance was phenomenal, and the night of dancing proved to be the highlight of our week for many of the Young Friends in attendance. We regrettably missed the cake that followed the CFSC talk that night, but several Young Friends were able to scrounge for leftovers.
 
Those of us who were led to go to business meeting on Friday morning were only slightly less alert than normal, as we slowly readjusted to regular volumes of noise. Several Quaker youth donned piratey hats and traveled to the local museum where we played a pirate role playing game beside a real 15th century ship. That evening, we enjoyed a family night full of music, stories, and poetry. We then ate cake. Afterwards, we retired for our final business meeting which carried us early into the following day. Later that morning, the first and only meeting of the youth epistle committee adjourned.

Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting Epistle 2013

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“I saw there was an Ocean of darkness and Death, but an infinite Ocean of Light and Love which flowed over the Ocean of Darkness.”
– George Fox

This year’s Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting was significantly aided by Canadian Yearly Meeting’s generous funding to help Young Friends get to Kemptville for the Youth Challenge. The week was both intensely rewarding and difficult.

Friends of all ages started arriving in Kemptville, Ontario on Friday. There was an inter-generational mixer on Saturday evening. Sunday started with a welcoming meeting for worship for business, and we spent most of the day getting to know each other. Caroline Balderston Parry gave the annual Sunderland P. Gardner Lecture in the evening. We appreciated the interactive elements of the speech. Her ministries provided guidance through some of the difficulties over the week as we dealt with being in the “I don’t know” place.

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Family Night. Photo credit: Bruce Dienes.

Monday through Friday, there was a variety of programming for Young Friends and Young Adult Friends. Rick Townsend ran the teen programme in the afternoons. We appreciate Rick’s help and his awesome beard and apologize for dropping him in a trust exercise. YFs and YAFs were brought together in morning workshops. On Monday and Tuesday, Evalyn Parry ran a well-attended and well-received songwriting workshop on responding creatively to outrage. We wrote songs on everything from a lack of skate parks to gender roles. Thursday and Friday, Janet Ross ran a workshop on privilege and power. On all four days, a workshop on communication was given by Tony and Fran McQuail. Those of us who attended learned about reflective listening, conflict resolution, and firm but loving looks.

After the morning programming, many YFs and YAFs attended Ben Pink Dandelion’s Quaker Study sessions. We are so glad that they were scheduled later in the day than usual. It was great to learn about Quaker history, faith and practice in a way that was accessible to us. Afternoons consisted of Special Interest Groups and Special Action Groups, the most popular being the SIG for Sloth, which was much needed.

Photo credit: Bruce Diennes.

Photo credit: Bruce Dienes.

On Monday evening, there was an LGBTQ2A panel and discussion. We talked about generational differences in perceptions around and attitudes towards sexuality. This event was followed by our first Meeting for Worship for Business which was hard for everyone as we heard the Youth Secretary’s final report. We were up until 2 in the morning sharing intense feelings of anger, sadness, confusion, but mostly love. Katrina McQuail was deeply missed.

Tuesday evening consisted of a huge inter-generational frisbee game followed by Games Night.

On Wednesday, the regular youth programme was interrupted to let us attend CYM M4W4B as the Youth Secretary report was read. We spent the afternoon giving back to the Kemptville community by volunteering at the youth center. We were so productive–we even accidentally did some work for the neighbours! We had a complicated simple meal which was much more satisfying than any of the simple complicated meals we had become accustomed to. At that night’s Meeting for Worship for Business, we invited more seasoned Friends to come hold us in the Light. Grayden Laing and Stephen Robins attended Yearly Meeting Ministry & Counsel as CYFYM representatives. We finished on time (a record!) which meant we could have a dance party followed by a late night dip.

Thursday afternoon, Deborah Fisch clerked a Meeting for Worship Sharing set up by Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel in regard to the Youth Secretary’s report. Many of us attended and were thankful for the caring way in which Deborah facilitated emotional sharing that lead us to a greater understanding and acceptance of what Katrina had written in her report to us. After supper, there was singing in the laundry room, and our penultimate M4W4B. We finished the evening with a riveting game of wink.

Family Night. Photo credit: Bruce Diennes.

Family Night. Photo credit: Bruce Dienes.

Friday was very relaxed. We continued with the programming, then had a final meeting for business with spillover from the night before. After business meeting, Ben Pink Dandelion joined us for an intimate discussion where we were encouraged to ‘ask a Quaker anything’. Family Night was a fitting end to the week with many members of the community participating in balancing as well as sharing music and poetry. The rest of the night was filled with revelry and songs, enjoying each others’ company. We watched movies as we had no-one to read us bedtime stories.

Saturday morning’s exhaustion was balanced by the exhilaration of epistle writing. We would like to thank everyone for upholding us this week in times both joyous and trying. We all feel truly blessed to have been a part of this CYM. 

Stephen Robins, Misia Robins, Christopher Abbott, Lucy Miller and Jesse Zavitz served as the 2013 CYFYM Epistle Committee.

Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting Epistle 2009

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We all gathered together on the first day of CYM with the presence of this year’s teen coordinator, the lovely Janet Ross, and with the intermediate friends coordinator, Teresa Engler. We had an interesting morning talking about cycles, and relationships with nature, and people around us. Monday night was our first ‘unofficial’ business meeting.  However, as time passed, the unofficial meeting became more interesting in the new approach that we were coming up with, due to Peter Stevenson’s thoughts towards the efficiency of the meeting, as it has been an issue in the past that the meetings were getting too long, and were uninteresting. The logic behind the possible changes were, that we could potentially join positions together and make it  easier for nominating committee as well as reducing the time of our business meetings. If this is to take place, it will leave us with more time to discuss what, as YAFs and YFs is more important to us.

Tuesday morning was started with Worship sharing and because this years’ group is larger, we split off into three groups.  After a short snack we gathered back in room 112 and listened to Vince Zelazny.  He explained what he did with his work career in forestry.  After, we headed out into the great outdoors, and found different species of plants and critters. We identified each species with the help Vince Zelazny, and Rebecca Ivanoff. We learned about the Milkweed plant, as well as Plantain and many others. The afternoon went by in a blur we were joined by Tasmin Rajott and her Earth Loom to learn about the commons. The strings were our individual commons. After everyone’s string was attached we were informed that later on in the week, we would play a ‘game’ where we would weave our tapestry and complete the Loom. After that presentation we had the honor of Ellen Gabriel who came to talk to us about her People, and their struggles. She also told us how her People believed that the moon was their Grandmother, the sun was their Elder Brother and the earth was the Mother. She also talked about the outline of the OKA crisis.

Worship sharing was again the start to Wednesday morning, followed by the traditional Sex talk with Bill Curry and Dale Dewar. The YFs and the YAFs were divided into different groups, for the appropriate match of the age, with information.  The afternoon was wonderful, playing in the sun and tie-dying. All youth friends were involved, and the t-shirts as you might have recognized were fabulous! In the evening most of us went to the SPG lecture. Then cake was cut, in celebration of the 30th anniversary, of the Quaker Book Store, and the service of Vernon and Dana Mullen. Later in the evening Maggie Knight took the opportunity to interview youth, in a group for her Quaker Youth Journalism Project. Truths, laughs, support, emotions, and cake were shared among friends.

On Thursday various YFs and YAFs attended different business meetings, participating and gathering more information around several topics, such as Israel/Palestine, and the debate involving FUM. Starting at 7:30 pm the teen group had our first Official business meeting. We set ourselves a goal as to complete most items on the agenda by dark. Everything went smoothly and we only went about 40 minutes over time, which we regarded as a major accomplishment.  Of course as any young friend would say, the night was still young and would not be complete with the annual game of Wink with the added plus of running in the thunder storm. 

Friday started like the rest of the week with Worship Sharing groups, Debora Fisch came to talk to us about FUM. In the afternoon Meredith Egan came to talk about Victims of crime, and how it is important to be with each other when we may be hurting.

All in all this CYM has been an extremely positive and peaceful week. By supporting each other and loving one another, we can achieve anything. We look forward to learning more about the various committees’ and problems in our world, and what we can do as Young Friends to help. This year’s theme was ‘Friends with Mother Earth’. We did just that. This week was about slowing down, taking the time because all around you there are opportunities.  When we take time and slow down it helps us recognize the chances we get in life. We can reach for those opportunities and make it something special. We can turn it into something unique, something that a Young Quaker Friend can do. Young Friends will always be with each other, supporting each other, and loving each other.  Thanks for the wonderful memories, and the peaceful week!