Application for Young Adult Friends to attend the World Gathering
Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) is holding a World Plenary August 5 – 12 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa (https://fwcc.world/wpm/). Prior to that, there is a Global Young Adult Friends (age 18 – 35) event August 1 – 5 2024 (https://fwcc.world/global-young-adult-friends-gathering-announced/). This application is for Canadian Young Adult Friends (18 – 35) to apply to go to both events.
Deadline for applications to CYM is Nov 15 2023. Approved applicants will then need to apply to the FWCC events prior to Dec 31 2023.
An Invitation from Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting (CYFYM)
If you are a Friend aged 13-35 in Canada, you are invited to join CYFYM’s Meeting for Worship With Attention to Business on the 5th of Eleventh Month (November 5th, 2023) at 1PM PST/2PM MST/3PM CST/4PM EST/5PM AST/5:30PM NST.
As a Young Friend in Canada, CYFYM is your meeting. At our business meetings, you are welcomed into Quaker process, and you help discern the path forward for CYFYM.
CYFYM encourages Young Friends to gather in small, local groups to connect to this meeting. If you know other Young Friends in your area, reach out to them and see how many can join you at your home, your meeting house, or some other quiet location. We ask Clerks, parents, and other seasoned Friends to help connect Young Friends in their meetings and provide space for this to happen. You can also send an email to expressing interest in gathering, and we will connect as many Friends as we can.
An agenda will be circulated closer to November 5th. If you have items for the agenda, please send them to .
If you have any questions about the Meeting for Worship With Attention to Business on November 5th, or about CYFYM generally, please send them to
In Friendship,
Stephen Ginley, CYFYM Representative
Zaley Warkentin, CYFYM Representative
Wesley Weima, CYFYM Representative
Caileigh Morrison, CYFYM Session Clerk
https://quaker.ca/cyfym/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2022/08/Header-Logo-Young-Friends-YM-.png00Zaley Warkentinhttps://quaker.ca/cyfym/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2022/08/Header-Logo-Young-Friends-YM-.pngZaley Warkentin2023-10-30 21:44:572023-10-30 21:44:57General Information
WELCOME TO MEETING FOR WORSHIP WITH ATTENTION TO BUSINESS
A Brief Perspective from John Samson of Winnipeg Monthly Meeting
Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business gives Friends an opportunity to practice several of our testimonies as we carry out the practical work of maintaining our faith community. We seek to be Spirit-led in our work, with as much efficiency as possible, achieving a sense of what Friends call “right order.” The following guidelines, developed and refined by Quaker communities over the last 350-plus years, are helpful for both newcomers and experienced Friends.
—If you are led to speak, ask the clerk to recognize you by raising your hand. —Allow silence before and after each person speaks.
—To affirm something someone has said, simply nod or use the phrase, “This Friend speaks my mind.” Please don’t ask to be recognized so that you may express the same thought in other words.
—When you speak, please stand, and speak to the clerk. Keep your comments plain and to the point and speak as much as possible from your own experience. — Expect to speak only once during consideration of a given item. Friends will not generally be recognized to speak on any given issue more than once, except to acknowledge a personal change of perspective during the meeting. The clerk may not call on everyone if there is a clear sense of the meeting.
—When a person speaks in Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, receive the words as you receive vocal ministry in Meeting for Worship – with an open heart and calm mind. If you have a strong reaction to something someone has said, sit with it until a way is clear for you to speak with patience and compassion. Do not react to or critique what others have said, but express your own concerns and insights as deeply and honestly as you can
—When the recording clerk is developing a minute, sit in worship, and hold them in the Light. Please refrain from conversation with your neighbour.
Paradoxical as it may seem, this approach is likely to achieve a decision, grounded on a sense of the meeting, far more quickly than a back and forth discussion would. Everyone has a chance to speak, and to be listened to. Everyone is encouraged to dig more deeply and share more honestly than they normally would. When everyone has spoken once, there may well be a clear sense of how the meeting is led to move forward. The clerk may want to reframe the question in light of what has been said and ask for another round of worship sharing. If there is no unity, further discussion is unlikely to help. The clerk may ask a few Friends to explore the question further and bring back a recommendation to the next meeting.
Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business is the crown jewel of Quakerism. In worship we learn how to listen deeply and open our hearts to the Light and to each other. In business meeting, where we inevitably encounter disagreements and differences, we find out whether we can listen and love deeply enough to be a gathered people, obedient to divine guidance.
https://quaker.ca/cyfym/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2022/08/Header-Logo-Young-Friends-YM-.png00Zaley Warkentinhttps://quaker.ca/cyfym/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2022/08/Header-Logo-Young-Friends-YM-.pngZaley Warkentin2023-10-30 18:46:392023-10-30 18:46:39What’s a Business Meeting?
“…[T]he way forward for our meetings only becomes evident as a few of us, individually and together, have the humility to admit our need for an active faith, a trusting of ourselves to the love of God and to the leadings of God’s Spirit in our lives. The way forward for our meeting depends on some of its members choosing to accept the discipline of a spiritual life, both in solitude and in community. Growth in the spiritual life will then be wholly dependent on our continuing readiness to let God show us what are the right priorities for the use of our gifts, our resources, and – most critically – our time. It will be dependent on our disciplined alertness day by day, so that we become aware that even those previously right priorities have been changed.
It is a life of adventure, of challenge and often of joy – but also a life of paradox, in which discipline is the key to freedom as humility is the key to faith.” Alastair Heron, 1989
CYM Faith and Practice
Please join here at 1 PM Pacific / 2 PM Mountain / 3 PM Central / 4 PM Eastern / 5 PMAtlantic
Loving Greetings to Friends Everywhere,
Our meeting feels hopeful, continuing the tradition of our Yearly Meeting, we are both starting
afresh and growing in faithfulness. There are many challenges in choosing to be a community, it
is difficult, but the reward is ultimately worth it. This we affirm each time we gather.
We are overjoyed for the new faces within our Yearly Meeting and have so much love for those
returning. We recognise the voice of The Spirit in our newest members and they enrich the life
of our meeting. We believe the Friends that surround us carry gifts sorely needed to do the work
of God in our Meetings and in this world.
As we wait, silently and expectantly, the Inward Teacher is available to all who listen, and when
we listen together, we experience true holiness and wholeness. We are grateful to God for the
space to practice faithful discernment as a community of Young Friends. This grounding blesses
us to bring forward this gift to our Monthly Meetings, Half-Yearly Meetings, and to our Sister
Yearly Meeting.
We discerned a unique call. We affirm our business as Friends is practiced with greatest
integrity when we gather in person. Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting will gather again in
person next year. Having clearness on the service needs of our Yearly Meeting requires
additional discernment before our next Yearly Meeting session. As such we call an online
business meeting at 1 pm Pacific Time on the 5th of Eleventh Month, 2023. For this Meeting,
where possible, we encourage Young Friends in common localities to gather in person to
connect to the meeting.
As we rise from Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting, we hold we are never alone. We carry
the witness of our community. God is with us, and if we are careful to listen, always speaking.
Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting
13th of Seventh Month, 2023
An Invitation from Canadian Young Friends Yearly Meeting (CYFYM)
If you are a Friend aged 13-35 in Canada, you are invited to join CYFYM’s Meeting for Worship With Attention to Business on the 5th of Eleventh Month (November 5th, 2023) at 1PM PST/2PM MST/3PM CST/4PM EST/5PM AST/5:30PM NST.
As a Young Friend in Canada, CYFYM is your meeting. At our business meetings, you are welcomed into Quaker process, and you help discern the path forward for CYFYM.
CYFYM encourages Young Friends to gather in small, local groups to connect to this meeting. If you know other Young Friends in your area, reach out to them and see how many can join you at your home, your meeting house, or some other quiet location. We ask Clerks, parents, and other seasoned Friends to help connect Young Friends in their meetings and provide space for this to happen. You can also send an email to expressing interest in gathering, and we will connect as many Friends as we can.
An agenda will be circulated closer to November 5th. If you have items for the agenda, please send them to .
If you have any questions about the Meeting for Worship With Attention to Business on November 5th, or about CYFYM generally, please send them to
In Friendship,
Stephen Ginley, CYFYM Representative
Zaley Warkentin, CYFYM Representative
Wesley Weima, CYFYM Representative
Caileigh Morrison, CYFYM Session Clerk
Time: Nov 5, 2023 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
The Quaker Institute for the Future (QIF) is holding its Summer Research Institute on Zoom from August 16-20. They are also, for the first time, offering $300 stipends to applicants aged 18 to 35 years old to make a presentation on research that resonates with the QIF mission of advancing a global future of inclusion, social justice, and ecological integrity through Spirit-led participatory research and discernment. – CYFYM
Dear Friends,
Please mark your calendars! The Quaker Institute for the Future’s 2021 Summer Research Seminar will take place by Zoom from August 16-20, 2021. Registration will begin on May 1 and will close on July 15. Participants are encouraged to make a donation to QIF that is within their means. Please share this notice with Monthly and Yearly Meetings, Quaker groups and anyone else who might be interested in participating this year.
About the 2021 QIF SRS
QIF Summer Research Seminars create a venue for spirit-led research using Quaker methods of discernment and reflection. The seminars are centered around research presentations that include time for questions, clarification, and discussion, followed by a time of collaborative discernment conducted as a “meeting for worship for sharing.” Time is also reserved for theme-based discussions, worship sharing, artistic and other creative sharing, and informal interactions among participants. More information about summer research seminars is available at http://www.quakerinstitute.org/?page_id=1215
We welcome those who wish to make a plenary presentation followed by worshipful discernment including all in attendance, as well as those who just wish to attend without making a formal presentation.
Stipends for young researchers
In 2021 for the first time, QIF is also offering $300 stipends to applicants aged 18 to 35 years old to make a presentation on research that resonates with the QIF mission of advancing a global future of inclusion, social justice, and ecological integrity through Spirit-led participatory research and discernment.
What QIF asks of successful applicants: QIF will expect successful applicants to make a research presentation of 20-30 minutes during the SRS. The presentation will be followed by a period of Spirit-led discernment involving all participants at the SRS. Because the success of the SRS will depend on participants creating a sense of gathered community as much as possible with the on-line format, we also ask all stipend recipients to attend as much of the SRS as possible given other time demands. Finally, we would like each stipend recipient to write a short reflection (a few paragraphs) about their SRS experience, which QIF can share as a blog post on the QIF website.
The SRS organizing committee will hold one or more orientation sessions for stipend recipients and will be generally available to help stipend holders to prepare for the SRS.
Application requirements: Applicants aged 18-35 years are requested to submit an application providing the following information:
short description of the presentation topic (around 200-400 words)
how the presentation aligns with the QIF mission of advancing a global future of inclusion, social justice, and ecological integrity through Spirit-led participatory research and discernment
status of the research, i.e. are you just getting started, mid-way through, or nearing the end?
the kind of discernment you seek (e.g., if you are just starting your research, maybe you want more of a “brainstorming” response, whereas if you are mid-way through or near the end, you may have specific questions or issues for which you seek more clarity)
Contact information for one or two references, i.e. people who are familiar with you and your work.
Deadlines: Stipend applications are due July 1 and successful applicants will be notified by July 15.
Registration and more information
Please contact me (Geoff Garver) at to register or to apply for a 2021 SRS stipend, or for additional information about the SRS, including more about the stipends and how to apply for them.
Blessings,
Geoff
https://quaker.ca/cyfym/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2022/08/Header-Logo-Young-Friends-YM-.png00Zaley Warkentinhttps://quaker.ca/cyfym/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2022/08/Header-Logo-Young-Friends-YM-.pngZaley Warkentin2021-05-03 16:32:202021-05-03 16:42:20Quaker Institute for the Future
Just to let Friends know that there will be additional Representative Meetings this year. If you are not a representative you are still welcome to attend as an observer. Please contact to receive the Zoom Link.
What is it?
Representative Meeting is a gathering of named representatives from each Monthly Meeting across Canada. They meet to do business and make decisions when Yearly Meeting is not in session.
Next Representative Meeting:
Saturday January 23rd 2021 – 12:30pm Central Standard Time
(CYM Business Session)
*Reporting and Clearness for Trustees and Finance Committee
Saturday February 6th 2021 – 12:30 pm Central Standard Time
CYFYM Representatives met at Friend’s House in Toronto, 9th Month, 27th- 29th. We also met to consult with the CYM Education and Outreach Committee, which met the same weekend. Steve and Zaley observed the Climate March in Toronto, and paid a visit to Yonge Street Monthly Meeting to worship and fellowship with Friends there.
Your Reps will next be attending the Online Representatives Meeting of CYM, 11th Month, 30th.
