LEYM’s 2020 Annual Sessions will be HELD ONLINE July 30-August 2.
REGISTRATION is now open here – https://leym.conflictstudies.org
Please register ASAP, deadline is July 24th.
Note: People wishing to order T-shirts need to register by July 9.
Every year in early August Green Pastures Quarterly Meeting remembers the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and celebrates peace in the historic Quaker Park in Battle Creek, Michigan. With the park now open, GPQM is able to continue this tradition with in-person worship planned for 11 a.m., Sunday, August 9, outdoors at Quaker Park. Worship will be followed by a picnic, with Friends asked to bring their own chair, food, beverage, and mask. Of course, we will remain attentive to public health advice from the State of Michigan and adjust our plans as necessary.
All are welcome.
LEYM Friends Meetings have been holding their monthly Meetings for Worship with Attention to Business and a number of them have been sharing special Minutes that have been written in response to rising concerns about racism and violence by police. We will be posting these statements on the Resources for Peace and Justice page of the LEYM website.
If your meeting would like to have a minute added to the collection, please send it to leymworker@gmail.com
Lake Erie Yearly Meeting is seeking a database manager, to commence work at rise of Annual Sessions (August 2). The pay is $20 per hour. A job description follows.
The database manager is named by the Nominating Committee to serve a three-year term, renewable indefinitely, usually one year at a time. The database manager works under the oversight of the Publications & Archives Committee, but is not necessarily a member of that committee. Below is a summary of the tasks; find more specific details in Policies and Procedures.
Interested? Please communicate with Jo Posti, clerk (jo.posti@gmail.com).
The Spring LEYM Bulletin is now available here. Like recent Spring issues, it looks ahead to our Annual Meeting, on July 30 – August 2. This year, however, the Annual Meeting is virtual, which has led to many changes in the program and how we will share the experience. The Bulletin explains how meeting via Zoom will work, describes the program for children and youth, provides the full schedule, and previews the four workshops. Unlike in past years, there is no registration form in the Bulletin itself, as registration will happen entirely online.
Other contents of this Bulletin include a message from our clerk, reports from our representatives to Friends organizations, LEYM Friends’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic expressed through poetry and art, and much more. Please note that fewer printed copies are being sent to monthly meetings, on the assumption that Friends are not gathering there for the time being; downloading the Bulletin (as a pdf file) gives Friends an alternative way to enjoy it.
Green Pastures Quarterly Meeting is holding their Spring Meeting virtually on Saturday, May 16th starting at 9 AM. In preparation for the event, a number of new documents have been made available on the GPQM Documents page, including:
The Zoom meeting connection information has been sent out to Monthly Meeting Clerks via the GPQM listserv. If you have not received it, you may contact Deborah Wickering the GPQM Clerk at wickedeb@aquinas.edu to get connected.
Many of us are now spending a lot more time at home and we may be seeking new forms of entertainment to pass the time. Friends may be interested in trying out a cooperative card game developed in 2006 by John Gastil, a Seattle Friend who also happens to be an expert on deliberative group processes. The game, which requires only the use of a regular deck of playing cards and the attached instructions, is full of Quaker culture references. It is called “Friendlier than Thou.” Here’s the description:
The setting is 19th century America, and the 2-4 players in this card game represent a newly formed Monthly Meeting. Your Meeting’s goal is to lead a proper Quaker life and impress your skeptical peers in the larger Yearly Meeting. The members of a sound Monthly Meeting seek a balance among four virtues: community (represented by clubs), clearness (represented by diamonds), love (represented by hearts), and good works (represented by spades). Also, because a Monthly Meeting is only as strong as its weakest links, your new Meeting will be judged based upon the performance of its most dubious member.
You can get the instructions here.
Perhaps some bold modern friends might even figure out how to play the game remotely using an online card deck such as Deck of Cards.
The Pendle Hill Board of Directors have announced that Francisco Burgos will become Executive Director of Pendle Hill, effective September 1. Traci Hjelt Sullivan will continue as Interim Executive Director until that date. 
Burgos is currently Director of Education at Pendle Hill, a position he took up in 2017. “Francisco has done a splendid job of giving new energy and depth to Pendle Hill’s offerings,” noted Maurice Eldridge, Associate Clerk of the Pendle Hill Board and Clerk of the search committee that recommended Burgos’s appointment.
Burgos came to Pendle Hill from the Center for Community Initiatives at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica. From 2012 to 2015 he was Head of School at Monteverde Friends School in Costa Rica. He has also served with the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. and the American Friends Service Committee in Baltimore, Maryland. Burgos has a B.S. in Clinical Psychology from the National University Pedro Henriquez Ureña in the Dominican Republic, an M.A. in Sustainable Development from The School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and a Doctor of Education from Universidad de La Salle in Costa Rica. A Quaker, he attends Providence Monthly Meeting in Media.
In recommending his appointment members of the search committee praised his collaborative approach to leadership, his spiritual gifts, his commitment to social justice and his passion for Pendle Hill. “We have found the right person to lead Pendle Hill in the future,” said Arthur Larrabee, Clerk of the Pendle Hill Board. Larrabee also thanked the members of the search committee and especially its clerk, Maurice Eldridge, for their good work.
While the beautiful campus is currently closed to visitors because of the COVID-19 crisis, the ministry of Pendle Hill continues. Daily worship with a 90-year tradition is joyfully attended electronically by Pendle Hill friends from around the country and the world. Educational programs are being adapted to online formats. Burgos commented, “I am looking forward to providing spirit-led support and leadership within an organization for which I feel passion and inspiration.”
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, many Monthly Meetings within Lake Erie Yearly Meeting are moving their worship online.
Here’s some of the meetings we’ve heard from who will be holding online worship on Sundays:
For an even wider scope, check out this list of online meeting opportunities gathered by Friends World Committee for Consultation. Also of interest:
Update: Now that many local meetings have established their own online Meetings for Worship, LEYM will no longer be hosting our Sunday online worship. You can find other online worship opportunities here.
For the health and protection of our LEYM Meeting community and to support the public health of the wider community in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, LEYM is experimenting with providing online worship, using the Zoom conferencing service.
Many have participated in meetings of various kinds on Zoom; few have participated in a meeting for worship on Zoom. To help establish and sustain the quality of worship, we have prepared some advices below.
Advices for Participating in Online Worship
If you are led to speak:
