Vancouver Monthly Meeting
1090 W. 70th Ave V6P2X9 Vancouver, BC, Canada

Quakers in Canada are part of KAIROS. Through For the Love of Creation, KAIROS has endorsed this e-petition calling on the Canadian government to take climate change seriously and begin taking meaningful action. Please consider sharing and signing today! This petition closes on October 6th. We hope to reach at least 4000 signatures from across the country to attract the attention of MPs, the Prime Minister and other government officials.

Among the treasures I found this morning as I prepared for meeting is this quote from Elizabeth Bathurst. "The Seed, or Grace of God, is small in its first Appearance, even as the Morning Light; but as it is given Heed to, and obeyed, it will increase in Brightness, till it shine in the Soul, like the Sun in the Firmament at its Noon-day Height." ~ Elizabeth Bathurst, 1655-1685 It is among the treasures to be found on the Ben Lomond Quaker Center site here: http://www.quakercenter.org/quaker-quote-archive/

From the Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting Newsletter, 28 August 2020: [Photo of Howard Thurman] Jesus and the Disinherited... Howard Thurman asks, what do the teachings and life of Jesus have to say to those who stand, at a moment in history, with their backs against the wall? The striking similarity between the social position of Jesus in Palestine and that of the vast majority of American Negroes is obvious to anyone who tarries long over the facts. We are dealing here with conditions that produce essentially the same psychology. There is meant no further comparison. It is the similarity of a social climate at the point of a denial of full citizenship which creates the problem for creative survival. For the most part, Negroes assume that there are no basic citizenship rights, no fundamental protection, guaranteed to them by the state, because their status as citizens has never been clearly defined. There has been for them little protection from the dominant controllers of society and even less protection from the unrestrained elements within their own group. The basic principles of his (Jesus’) way of life cut straight through to the despair of his fellows and found it groundless. By inference he says, ‘You must abandon your fear of each other and fear only God. You must not indulge in any deception and dishonesty, even to save your lives. Your words must be YeaNay; anything else is evil. Hatred is destructive to hated and hater alike. Love your enemy, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven.’ Howard Thurman, from Jesus and the Disinherited

The many ways that Quakers around the world worship are captured in this series of videos from Friends World Committee for Consultation. http://fwcc.world/fwcc-news/varying-quaker-ways-of-worship

Canadian Yearly Meeting is one of the member groups of KAIROS Canada. Please consider signing this petition calling on the Government of Canada to have mechanisms in place to investigate human rights violations linked to the Canadian extractive sector abroad.

A message from Tim Takaro of Vancouver Monthly Meeting, who is taking peaceful direct action to stop the TransMountain Pipeline Expansion. Thank you Tim!

Tilbury LNG Expansion Project (on the Fraser River) Impact Assessment process: KAIROS submitted a public comment on the proposed Tilbury LNG Expansion project in BC. Our response was coordinated with KAIROS BC-Yukon regional rep, Janette McIntosh and circle members Ruth Walmsley and Jessica Steele. You can follow Friends of Tilbury for more information on this issue: https://www.facebook.com/friendsoftilbury

For the Love of Creation KAIROS has developed an e-petition which speaks to COVID19 and the climate crisis. Please take a moment to sign the petition. It is open for signature until October 6: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details

Summer Sabbath Series KAIROS is co-hosting an online program (or at-home retreat) with the Naramata Centre from August 24-28 called the Summer Sabbath Series. The program will be facilitated by Sarah Arthurs learn more here: https://www.naramatacentresociety.org/specialty-programs.

In the interest of outreach... unfortunately we are not currently meeting in person. A link to our Sunday worship at 10:30 can be found on our website Vancouver.quaker.ca

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. Howard T...hurman, from Sound of the Genuine his 1980 commencement address at Spelman College. http://m.dailygood.org//the-sound-of-the-genuine-howard-t/

Today in #Quaker history: After many years of struggle and persecution, Parliament passed the Act of Toleration in 1689, which repealed the earlier anti-Quaker laws and allowed Friends to freely and openly worship together. May 24, 1689 #quakers #actoftoleration

Online WHYM Spring Gathering May 15-17 2020

The Canadian Friends Service Committee (quakerservice.ca) is our expression of Quaker service here in Canada.

On this date in 1702 (April 23rd), Margaret Fell died. (Born 1614, exact date unknown.) #Quaker leader. Preacher. Teacher. Writer. Wife of George Fox. Author of... "Women's Speaking Justified" (1666), an argument in favor of women ministers. Born in Kirkby Ireleth, Lancashire, England (now Kirkby-in-Furness, Cumbria). She was 87 or 88 years old when she died. She is thought to be buried in a Quaker graveyard in Sunbrick, Cumbria, England. The passage below is excerpted from Gerda Lerner's 1993 book "The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: From the Middle Ages to 1870": "Margaret Fell, a close co-worker and after 1669 the wife of George Fox, had an active public career. Her books were translated into Hebrew, Latin, and Dutch. She annually made journeys through England, visiting Quaker Meetings and defending Friends who had been imprisoned. She and George Fox were tried in 1664 for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance and for holding Quaker meetings. Her sentence deprived her of all her property and ordered her imprisoned for life. After four years she was released on orders of the King, but she was twice more imprisoned in later life. "While she served her first sentence, she wrote and published 'Women's Speaking Justified,' a fully developed scriptural argument justifying women's active role in biblical history and their right to participate in public religious life. She wrote a coherent theological brief; her tone is self-confident and assertive without any of the apologies present in women's writings for centuries. She cited chapter and verse in the Old and the New Testament, naming every woman who had prophesied, spoken or argued, and providing powerful ammunition for any woman who would reason against orthodox misogyny from the scriptural text. "Margaret Fell's pamphlet, her life and her career illustrate the qualitative leap forward women were enabled to make intellectually as a result of the Protestant Reformation. The fact that Protestant women after her still had to argue, reason and persuade to win equality within church and state speaks to the negative side of the Reformation, its institutionalization of patriarchal orthodoxy, and its resistance to fundamental change. Thus, Margaret Fell's bold re-thinking found no echo until the 18th century, when Ann Lee founded the sect of the Shakers and asserted the role of women as the essential agent in the Second Coming."