Meeting ID: 416 500 5614
Passcode: 182805
Times for Worship – (I am not aware of any changes until 27 March)
As Daylight Savings time comes or goes, clocks in some regions will change. I will try to keep up with those changes, but you should check what time it is where you worship when it is 09:00 in the morning in California. That is when this meeting for worship begins.
You can also send me notice of a change in times in your location.
Worship begins on the hour and ends 55 minutes later.
Starting Sunday March 13 and continuing this week
(I hope these are correct; let me know if there are errors
The times given in red are changes from March 12.)
06:00 AM Hawai’i, US
08:00 AM Fairbanks, Alaska, US
09:00 AM Pacific US and Canada
12:00 PM Eastern US
04:00 PM / 16:00 London, UK
05:00 PM / 17:00 Paris, France
06:00 PM / 18:00 Kyiv, Ukraine
07:00 PM / 19:00 Moscow, Russia
10:30 PM / 22:30 Yangon, Myanmar
01:00 AM Tokyo, Japan
Australia
12:00am / 00:00 Perth, (also Beijing China)
01:30 AM Darwin,
02:00 AM Brisbane
02:30 AM Adelaide
03:00 AM Sydney
05:00 AM Wellington, New Zealand
We have found that the following steps have kept distractions at a minimum and given us a centered, grounded, spiritual experience.
The room opens at 8:45am Pacific time in the US; if you are familiar with security and other co-hosting functions, consider arriving at 8:45 and being trained to co-host this meeting.
You may enter or leave at any time; there is no disrupting bell to indicate someone has entered or left.
The first 10 minutes will be silent for centering, and we close 55 minutes later with the last 5 minutes silent to let the messages settle in our hearts.
The host will mute everyone’s mic at the beginning of Worship. Sink deeply into that Spirit which is in this world but is not of this world and let ministry rise from that Spirit to give us guidance and light.
If a message comes to you – comes to you during this meeting – from deep within or from an un-knowable source beyond yourself – hold it closely before sharing. Ask, Is this information or inspiration? Is this for me? Is it for others? Is it from Spirit?
If you have ministry to offer, raise your digital hand. [It is an icon at the bottom of your Zoom window or under the “more” tab “…”] We leave a cushion of silence between messages, giving everyone a chance to fully absorb the message and return to centering in the Spirit, so please wait patiently to be asked to unmute yourself to speak. On your phone, “raise hand” is *9. You can also use chat to request to speak.
During Worship, use the chat only for contacting a co-host if you are having technical difficulties, you notice something that does not seem right, or you have a question about Quaker worship.
Live transcription is available for those with hearing difficulties; please speak slowly and clearly. Some other functions will be disabled during the meeting to discourage disruptions.
a. Chat will be open for personal messages – do not put questions here for Julie. Send them to her email address fhmus@sbcglobal.net
b. If you want to receive the daily invitations and do not receive them now, put your email address in the chat but be sure you are sending it to Julie Harlow, not “to everyone”.
c. You can rename yourself, indicating your location
d. Several breakout rooms will be opened for the next 40 minutes. You may assign yourself to a room, stay here, or leave the meeting.
1. Silent Worship
2. Worship Sharing on the Query “What is uppermost in your heart right now?” Worship Sharing is an exercise in deep sharing and profound listening. Guidelines for this process will be placed in the chat and are attached.
3. Political Perspectives
4. Sharing Joys and Sorrows
5. Getting to Know Each Other
6. Music
7. Peace Testimony
8. History
9. Philosophy and World View
10. Friends House Moscow with Julie Harlow
11. Open
12. Open
13. Open
Friends House Moscow is an international coalition of Friends, working to support traditional Quaker testimonies with partners in Russia, Ukraine and beyond. It’s work has varied over its 25 years of service within the former Soviet Union. You can learn more about its specific projects, its history and how to support its work at Home. Instructions for donations in Europe are on the website.
 | | Home |
In North America, checks can be written to FHMSA (Friends House Moscow Support Association) and sent to FHMSA, P.O. Box 60253, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Contact Julie if you would like a presentation for your meeting or organization. fhmus@sbcglobal.net If you have questions for Julie, do NOT put them in the chat. Send them to her in a separate email to this address.
What is Unprogrammed Worship?
An op-ed from Julie Harlow,
in response to several questions about this format
Many religious services have a predictable schedule of events within its gathering: a hymn, a vocal prayer, a collection plate, a hymn, a sermon, a hymn, etc. This is the “program” it follows. Quaker “un-programmed” worship has no pattern other than this; we gather at the appointed time and place, and we still our own thoughts, and we wait – expectantly – to hear what Spirit might say to us this day.
Sometimes the message is just for me, so I hold it and see where it fits in my life; how is it relevant to me today. Other times, I feel the message is yearning to be shared; I hold it close to my heart and my heart beats faster. There is a point where the message’s yearning to be shared is stronger than my shyness or discomfort with speaking in a sacred space, and the words come out.
As a listener, I find that brief messages speak to more people than long ones. Your own simple words, spoken from the heart, convey your message better than reading what inspired them.
There is something beyond me; I call it the Presence. In worship, I invite you to sink deeply into that Presence – the Presence that is always with us if only we are still enough to feel it – and simple words may come to us – words of grief or rage, words of hope and healing.
Let us offer them briefly and let us hear them kindly and let us remain in that centered place of love and light and Peace.
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Peace in our hearts, Peace for all the people,
Julie Harlow, Friends House Moscow board
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David Finke, Ohio USA: Land of the Erie to Everyone:
“I did a google search on “Friends Peace Testimony,” and found a great number of declarations on this topic, particularly in times of war, starting in 1660, but also from London Yearly Meeting during the “War of the Austrian Succession,” the Napoleonic Wars, and then the Crimean War, from which I read.”
From an Epistle Issued by Yearly Meeting 1854, during the Crimean War::
“We feel bound explicitly to avow our continued unshaken persuasion that all war is utterly incompatible with the plain precepts of our Divine Lord and Lawgiver, and with the whole spirit and tenor of His Gospel; and that no plea of necessity or of policy, however urgent or peculiar, can avail to release either individuals or nations from the paramount allegiance which they owe unto Him who hath said 'Love your enemies.”
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Peter Dyson, of St Petersburg, Russia, mentioned an organization that watches for violations in religious freedoms. The organization is Forum 18 and this is the link he shared: RUSSIA: Patriarchate priest fined for condemning war in Ukraine
| | RUSSIA: Patriarchate priest fined for condemning war in UkraineForum 18 News Service On 10 March, a court fined Fr Ioann Burdin of the Moscow Patriarchate's Kostroma Diocese one month's average loc... |
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Posted March 03: “Ukrainian Jews Open Doors to Everyone”
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[There have been many requests for this ministry to be repeated. Julie]
03.11.2022 [The quaking of my heart tells me] this is a truth to be spoken. It doesn't come from me. It comes through me from my 11 year-old grandson [who] wrote this last fall, and I want to share this as a testament to how God speaks to young people:
“Hate is something normal. We know lots about hate, but hate is corrupt. Hate prevents change. Hate is craziness. People, hate hurts people. Hate kills people, too. We know hate, but love,… love helps people; love heals.
People love and it forces justice and change. Love is peaceful and gentle; love is new and different.
Change scares people, but it shouldn't. We've gone through change multiple times.
But love is normal. It always has been; it's just mysterious. We don't know that love is what life is when love's full power is released. We become loved. Love is big and everyone needs love.”
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