Registration Open for Online Course that starts Sept 7: Exploring Spiritual Practice

 

Registration is open for a Fall 2021 online course starting Tuesday Sept. 7th, Exploring Spiritual Practices, led by Swarthmore Meeting member Marcelle Martin.  During the ten week course, participants will experiment with numerous approaches to meditation, prayer, and presence.  We'll seek to know more fully the nature of consciousness, our true self, and our connection to the Spirit.   We’ll explore how mindfulness, awareness, and communion with the Divine affects not only our inner and outer lives, but radiates beyond us into the world. We will learn which spiritual practices are most suited to each of us at this time and explore how to make them a more integrated part of our daily lives.  Online class time will include brief presentations, experiencing different spiritual practices, sharing in pairs and groups, and class discussion.  No particular beliefs in God or prayer are required, only a willingness to earnestly try different practices, notice what we experience, and listen respectfully to the experiences and beliefs shared by others.  We will be forming a vibrant community to go deeper together in our spiritual experience and explore the awesome mystery of our relationship to the divine.   TWO SECTIONS OF THE COURSE ARE OFFERED:         Morning: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Eastern Time          Evening: 7 - 9 pm Eastern Time. Intrigued? Go HERE to read details and register for Exploring Spiritual Practices.  Curious but not ready to commit just yet? Watch this 3-minute introductory video.  Or Sign up here for a free introductory webinar where you can sample the course on Sept 7th.  Co-sponsored by New England Quakers in partnership with the Beacon Hill Friends House, this course is open to people of diverse faiths. My latest blog post is Eating for the Planet at www.awholeheart.com

Faith Action August Newsletter

 RantWoman is reproducing the entire Faith Action Network newsletter here in faith that someone among her readers will be interested in one of the many topics and opportunities listed here.

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FAN continues to live into our statewide vision with the help of Regional Organizers, working in their communities across Washington. WE ARE HIRING for part-time, regional organizers in Central WA and Western WA to join a new Policy Engagement Director and our team this Fall. Please see the Regional Organizer job description and reply by Sept. 1 to apply@fanwa.org.

Faith Community Sign on Statement about Boarding Schools

The Interfaith Network for Indigenous Communities (INIC), an ad-hoc committee that FAN facilitates, has issued a statement in response to the tragic discoveries of mass graves at boarding schools in Canada. INIC was organized to mark the 30th anniversary of the Christian church leaders’ apology to Northwest tribes, and we have been meeting ever since to discern ways to carry out our commitments to indigenous communities. Together we drafted this statement (also posted at www.fanwa.org/INIC), with pledges of action steps we all can take, especially if we are aligned with Christian faith communities, to uncover our faith traditions’ complicity with the cultural genocide experienced in boarding schools. We commit ourselves to the pledges in this statement in new ways, especially as Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland moves forward her U.S. Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative, and the National Congress of American Indians resolution builds on that. We are asking you to consider signing on to this statement at our link: https://bit.ly/INICBoardingSchoolsStatement As individuals who sign, we will keep you informed of the steps that will be taken along the way, both regionally and nationally, to carry out these commitments. As faith communities that sign, we will add your community to a list shared with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition as part of our Pacific Northwest commitment. We encourage you to take this statement and make it your own: Share it in your networks. Find ways your faith community can carry out the actions needed. Create your own statement and set of commitments based on your own faith tradition’s history. Follow with us Secretary Haaland’s initiative and other legislation still to be introduced. Encourage your local and national leaders to speak out, like this statement from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Curry. Please join with us and contribute to the conversation and action in the months ahead.

Time for Reparations

During the August recess, we encourage you to speak with your member of Congress about your support for Reparations via passage of H.R. 40, a bill that would create a commission to study reparations for African Americans for inequities dating to the time of slavery. A pastor in Evanston, Illinois, the first U.S. city to adopt a municipal initiative on reparations, told a gathering of faith leaders last week that they can play a key role in moving a community toward action on the long-debated issue, even if it takes a while. The Rev. Michael C.R. Nabors, a Baptist pastor in Evanston and the president of Evanston’s NAACP chapter, said it took more than two decades for his city to provide reparations: “Faith leaders have been involved from the beginning,” he said. You can read more about the press conference and webinar, Reparations: A Moral and Spiritual Responsibility, hosted by Religions for Peace USA: https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/reparations-bill-gains-momentum-as-an-interfaith-cause/2021/07/23/06cb5dc2-ebf8-11eb-a2ba-3be31d349258_story.html

Take Federal Action for Housing and Extend the Eviction Moratorium

With pending action in Congress on extending the eviction moratorium, people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity are on our minds and hearts. Please contact your member of Congress today at this link. 6.5 million households are behind on rent as the COVID-19 pandemic caused devastating economic consequences in an already-bleak economy. It is crucial that our House members vote to extend the eviction moratorium so our nation does not face a new wave of homelessness as the global health crisis continues. Additionally, from our coalition partners at the WA Low Income Housing Alliance: Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) introduced two new bills last week to end homelessness and invest in housing. As Congress continues to debate a national infrastructure package that could pass this summer, the support for these two bills will help drive deeper affordable housing investments in that package. It is critical that our Members of Congress hear directly from you about the need for the robust investments and protections in these two bills: The Housing is Infrastructure Act (H.R. 4497) would provide $320 billion for critical public housing repairs, new affordable housing construction, and rental assistance. This landscape-shifting legislation ensures fair and equitable development while addressing our biggest infrastructure issues, including strategies to ensure sustainable and environmentally resilient housing. Read more about the bill here. Alongside these long-needed investments in our country’s housing infrastructure, the Ending Homelessness Act (H.R. 4496) would establish a universal rental assistance voucher program, provide an additional $10.5 billion to build affordable housing for the most vulnerable members of our communities, ban source of income discrimination (when landlords refuse to rent to someone relying on government assistance or housing vouchers to pay the rent), and reduce segregation by establishing voucher payment standards based on “Small Area Fair Market Rents” (SAFMRs) to make more expensive communities accessible to households using rental vouchers. You can learn more about the bill here. Please click here to take action today!

Getting Ready for Back-to-School

As Governor Inslee has mandated this week mask-wearing when public schools reopen to protect children who are unable to get vaccinated, we want to share resources with you as children across our state prepare to return to school. Washington State Governor’s Office of the Education Ombuds (OEO, www.oeo.wa.gov) is a small state agency under the Governor’s office that was created to help share information with families and communities about our state’s K-12 public schools, help collaboratively resolve disputes between families and schools aimed at reducing educational opportunity gaps and racial injustice.

Events & Opportunities

Fauntleroy Church, UCC, a progressive, open and affirming congregation in West Seattle, is seeking a part-time Communications & Operations Manager. This is a 34 hour/week position paying $23-25/hour, with health insurance on the church’s group plan. Position to begin September 1, 2021. To apply, please go to http://fauntleroyucc.org/comm. WA Poor People's Campaign Call to Action July 12-August 8 Learn more and join in-person and online actions by following the WA Poor People's Campaign on their website or Facebook. "Abolish Nuclear Weapons" Seattle Freeway Bannering Mondays this summer, 8-9 AM NE 45th St overcrossing over I-5, Seattle WA State Redistricting Commission Public Outreach Meetings Virtual - register to speak during the meeting, or tune in via TVW or YouTube. Congressional Districts 7 & 9 July 31, 10 AM - 12 PM Congressional Districts 8 & 10 July 31, 1-3 PM Henry Beauchamp Community Center National Night Out Block Party August 2, 3-6 PM Join Yakima Immigrant Rights Network (YIRN) to promote the Dream Act at a table. 1211 S 7th St, Yakima Decolonizing Curriculum Lunch & Learn August 4, 12-1:30 PM Register to receive the event link. Sponsored by Equity in Education Coalition. Critical Conversations in Education Webinar Series, hosted by the Anti-Defamation League Register to receive the Zoom link: Demystifying Critical Race Theory August 5, 12-1 PM Disrupting Bias in Education August 12, 12-1 PM Using Anti-Bias Principles in the Classroom August 19, 12-1 PM Clean Cars 2030 Rally August 14, 12-2 PM St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave E, Seattle. RSVP requested. Save the Date: Decolonizing Education Conference 2021 November 3-5 Equity in Education Coalition.

Help FAN the Flames for justice year-round; support FAN with a donation!  Events and opportunities are listed on our web calendar and Facebook page. Be sure to check event links ahead of time for whether they are hosted in-person or online. We always post the E-News to our website each week as well at fanwa.org/news/. Stay connected with our emails! Please be sure to list fan@fanwa.org as a safe sender by adding us to your contacts.

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Mark Your calendars: PNQM Fall Session. Sept 24-26 Is it Live? Is it Virtual? Stay tuned.

 

A screen reader accessibility fave (NOT!)
a lot of text embedded in an image.

As always check out PNQM website

This text is here so screen reader users do not have to do various technological contortions to read the text. RantWoman feels no obligation to reproduce the exact look.

QUAKER

FALL QUARTERLY MEETING

2021

Grieving and Dreaming

Gratitude Pain & Transformation

Inspired by the vision of Joana Macy's work

that reconnects facilitated by Mary Ann Percy,

Bellingham Friends Meeting and Tom Rawson,

Lopez Island Friends Meeting

Hosted by Bellingham and Lopez Island Friends Meetings

September 24-26, 2021

Demolition of University Temple United Methodist Church

 A church is ALWAYS more than its building. There will be worship space and much needed spac for social services and some kind of housing, hopefully on a different model than many tall places around it. Will be.

In the meantime an architectural treasure will disappear so something different can be reborn in its place.

KUOW Story about start of demolition / construction

Annual Black Quaker Lives Matter Report

 

BLACK LIVES MATTER BLACK QUAKER LIVES MATTER! Our Annual Summer Presentation to the Global Community Join us online, Thursday, 29 July, 7 PM!

 

 

Text in graphic repeated in announcement

The BlackQuaker Project is excited to announce our virtual presentation, in partnership with Wellesley Friends Meeting, Black Lives Matter/Black Quaker Lives Matter!: Our Annual BlackQuaker Project Summer Report as part of the Wellesley Thursdays summer series.  Our outreach and in-reach ministry is dedicated to celebrating the lives and contributions of Quakers of Color worldwide and documenting and addressing their concerns. Founded on the Quaker principles of Truth, Peace, Equality, Community, and Justice, we are a transnational Quaker ministry seeking the Light in a dynamic and growing global community. Join us over Zoom on Thursday, 29 July, at 7pm, to learn about the recent activities and research of our team and our forthcoming three-year thrust for further representation of Quakers of Color in the Religious Society of Friends and the greater transnational community.     Facilitated by Dr. Harold D. Weaver, our talented young team will showcase our pioneering, ongoing work, with video and other presentations from senior research assistant Susan Spina, Haverford College Center for Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) summer interns Sarah Jennings and Charlotte E. McDermott, and video research assistant Cooper Vaughn. Topics include: A look at our ever-expanding Quakers of Color International Archive (QCIA) at UMass Amherst, which documents the contemporary experiences of Quakers of Color around the world, including Asian Americans, Palestinians, Indigenous Latin Americans, Africans, and African Americans. “Was Paul Robeson a Birthright Quaker?” An investigation into Paul Robeson’s African American Quaker ancestors, dating back to the 1700s. “Housing Structural Violence against African Americans.” Systemic violence in housing, leading to the current vast racial wealth gap in the USA. “Retrospective/Reparatory Justice among Quakers.”  A case for a major commitment of the Religious Society of Friends and an educational program to learn about it.

 

 

The Zoom presentation will formally begin at 7 pm EDT but will open at 6:30 pm for informal interaction. Please invite Friends, friends of Friends, and others interested in the struggle for racial justice against white supremacy. Further information on how to join our Zoom meeting will arrive in the coming days. Please reach out to us at theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions you may have.         Consider signing up for our mailing list to follow our ongoing work, including the expanding Quakers of Color International Archive.  --The BlackQuaker Project Team

Fourth Saturday Worship ON HIATUS for July

The short version: Fourth Saturday Worship is ON HIATUS for July. RantWoman meansto check what the in-person options might be for August. Stay tuned but please also leave a comment if you have strong feelings either way about in-person, masked, 6' apart, with library ventilation worshippers have no control over. 

Having more people than would fit socially distanced in the meeting space historically used would be a good problem to have.

The Longer version, such ministry as offered accompanied by the fluffy purple chicken, offered for consideration

The Fluffy Purple Chicken and
the red metal mocha mug

Niyonu Spann on Advice to White Men (and other people?)

Or, for readers who just need some music:

Two Cuban Dances/Dos Danzas Cubanas - Ignacio Cervantes, arr. Paquito D'...

In Memory of RantDad and to all bassoonists everywhere Chôro na Clave de Dó - Osvaldo Lacerda

Chôro na Clave de Dó - Osvaldo Lacerda as performed by (Leo) Cai Quirk, bassoon, and Byung Hee Yoo, piano

This post is dedicated to RantDad, to his memory because he died on this date in 1995, and to a lot of bassoonists who have played on since then. 

Special acknowledgment to the oil company executive's wife and Billings Symphony concert mistress scouting long ago for bassoon talent at the University of WY the year he graduated from college, to an absolutely hideous first teeny tiny town public school job teaching 7 study halls and band, to the next public school job featuring four single teachers who paired up opposite to the way the town gossips predicted. 

RantWoman goes back and forth about whether both RantParents qualify as gender non-conforming: RantMom taught science and RantDad taught Music and English. RantWoman also remembers a conversation once where a friend commented "Any man could do that" about some home repair task. Um, no RantDad probably would have the sense not to try.

For more Cai Quirk creativity visit Cai's website