Around the Family – Vancouver Island Monthly Meeting

An update from Vancouver Island Monthly Meeting – Written by Marjory Reistma-Street

There is a liveliness these days in our Meeting—both online and in the Fern Street Meeting House. Coffee time, monthly singing, and simple potlucks have started again, post Covid. The StoryTellers, Buddhist Meditation and other renters have returned to the Meeting House with its large library of new books and extensive old ones, new sign, revised insurance policies, and large property – home to native, drought-resistant plants. The “Back 40” is rented to the city, under our stewardship: it is the one green space in a community dense with apartments, renters, and shops. In our online presence, the website and its resources have been refreshed, and the biweekly Fern Street Newsletter, maintained by editor Pashta MaryMoon and the Communications Committee, is distributed to several hundred people who have signed up. There are young people and attendees joining worship and community activities, both online and in person, with the occasional gaming nights, dance and music evening, and a successful toy and clothing exchange. The presence of several young children and parents coming regularly to Fern Street and the annual December community festive gathering bring joy and new obligations, as do the frailties of elders, some living in care. Ministry and Counsel, the Clerking group, and other Friends are sometimes stretched thin, overseeing the Meeting’s spiritual life, giving pastoral care, and ensuring the new technologies for online presence.

The life of the Spirit has been enlivened with a well-attended weekly Zoom worship group and the blended monthly “Hearts and Minds” worship sharing on a spiritual reading.  Once a month, masks are required at Fern Street worship, making it more accessible to all. The Meeting for Worship for Business, also blended, has been deepened with the introduction of spiritual readings followed by time for worship sharing. Canadian Yearly Meeting Clerk Celia Cheatley was part of a blended panel on ministry last spring. Friends have participated in a day retreat in a local nature preserve and the first post-Covid Island Gathering hosted by the Cowichan Monthly Meeting. There is financial support for Friends, rides to attend spring and fall Western Half Yearly gatherings, and the national Canadian Yearly Meeting at Camp NeeKauNis in 2024. Since then, seasoned Friends have been led to reactivate the mid-week silent half-hour worship followed by bag lunches, with up to a dozen in attendance.

Friends from our Meeting have been encouraged to participate online in educational, spiritual renewal Quaker courses with Ben Pink Dandelion from Woodbroke, in England, as well as offerings from Pendle Hill in the United States and our own Canadian Yearly Meeting. Catherine Harding of our Meeting is the clerk of Outreach and Education at Canadian Yearly Meeting. Some seekers reported they had discovered the Self Study Guide to the Canadian Faith and Practice, prepared by our Meeting and reformatted in 2023 for laptops and mobile phones. It is available on the Canadian Yearly Meeting website and the Vancouver Island Monthly Meeting listed under “I’m New” and “Resources.” Since the war in Ukraine erupted, Marjory Reitsma-Street and others have written semi-annual columns on Quaker testimonies for the Faith Forum published on Saturdays in our local newspaper, The Times Colonist, and its Spiritually Speaking blog.

The Peace, Earth and Social Action Committee is also re-energized; there are regular monthly post-worship gatherings and reports. One focus is on supporting the reconciliation activities of individual Friends, such as helping with lunches served at the Native Friendship Centre and distributing Veggie Hampers for First Nations, raising money for language programmes, participating in the “Orange Shirt Day,” and steadfast support to a Friend who has served as a nurse for over 30 years with the Pacheedaht First Nation.

A major focus of the entire Meeting in the fall of 2024 was hosting community gatherings, fundraising events, educational sessions, and meals with Parfaite Ntahuba, Friend Pastor and leader of the Friends Women’s Association and Quaker Peace Network in Burundi. Clerk Janine Gagnier has been led for some years to connect with the health and peacebuilding work of this group, especially through a rich relationship with Parfaite. 

Soon, our long-time, hardworking, and seasoned Friends Sherryll and Gerald Harris will be retiring as Residents and, fortunately, moving close by. For years, Gerald has been and will remain a leader in the 100-year restoration of Bowker Creek, which meanders above and below ground through much of Victoria and Saanich to the ocean. The search for new residents follows a careful year-long Visioning Process of the assets, needs, and directions for our Meeting.