Events

The Climate COP (Conference of Parties) is an annual climate summit. This year, the COP will be held in Dubai from November 23 to December 12, 2023.

The COPs can be hard to make sense of or to approach, and yet they are the world’s most organized effort to bring governments and civil society together each year, to attempt to respond to climate change. In our names, major decisions are made–or not made–at these conferences that affect the future of our planet.

Our two COP events are co-sponsored by the Ben Lomond Quaker Center. On November 2, QEW hosted a pre-COP event where we explored the role of COPs in global climate policy, and the role of Friends in these events. After the conference concludes, the Ben Lomond Quaker Center is hosting another discussion and report-back on December 20, 2023 at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific.

Learn more about the Quaker Center event at quakercenter.org/programs/the-2023-climate-cop.

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups, this month we are meeting closer to the solstice to reflect on the shortest days of the year.

In worship sharing, we gather in small groups to focus on a particular query to explore our own experience and share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversation. It seeks to draw us into sacred space, where we can take down our usual defenses and encounter each other in “that which is eternal.”

Together we are creating more opportunities for Friends who care deeply about the Earth and each other to be in spiritual community with one another. We hope you can join us.

Register Here!

In this workshop, Gray Cox will expand on the message of his recently published book Smarter Planet or Wiser Earth?: how Quakers must deal with the kinds of social change we need to address the challenges presented by the Sixth Great Extinction, Climate Change, and the threats of nuclear war and runaway technology with AI.

AI is transforming our relationships with nature and the challenges of combining different forms of intelligence in machines, humans and other natural organisms in wiser ways. We will explore ways of framing AI through an Earthcare lens as well as practical, specific proposals for things we can do as a Quaker community.

Gray Cox teaches philosophy, peace studies, language learning, and artificial intelligence as part of the College of the Atlantic’s program in Human Ecology. He is a long-term member of Acadia Friends Meeting and a co-founder and the current Clerk of the Quaker Institute for the Future.

Join us on Thursday, November 30th, at 7 pm Eastern/4 pm Pacific! You can register here.

Find more about Gray Cox and his book at smarterplanetorwiserearth.com.

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups.

In worship sharing, we gather in small groups to focus on a particular query to explore our own experience and share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversation. It seeks to draw us into sacred space, where we can take down our usual defenses and encounter each other in “that which is eternal.”

Together we are creating more opportunities for Friends who care deeply about the Earth and each other to be in spiritual community with one another. We hope you can join us.

Click Here to Register

All are invited to a Christmas Eve celebration in person at 3:00- 4:30 pm, Sunday, December 24, 2023 at Multnomah Meetinghouse. We will share Scripture readings and singing of the birth of Jesus, with candle lighting and a short period of worship before Joy to the World. Simple cookies and tea social time to follow the lessons and carols.

There will be a holiday gathering on Sunday afternoon, December 10^th at Mike Emert & Nancy McLauchlan’s home, 6017 SE Lafayette St., Portland, OR.

We will gather at 3 pm to sing Christmas Carols. Friends will wear masks. This will be a hybrid event with Zoom on a laptop computer.

At 4 pm we will share a potluck meal together.

Thanksgiving is a week away and plans for our community dinner at Multnomah Friends Meeting House are well underway.  Thank you to everyone who has signed up to bring food and to help on the day of the event. Reminder: We have limited refrigerator and oven space. Please try to bring your food donations to the Meetinghouse social hall on Thursday anytime after 10 am. Thanks.

We are still in need of a few items. Please consider whether or not you can provide one or two of these:
STILL NEEDED
1 or 2 more desserts
2-3 more turkeys (deliver to Pat this week)
2 dozen dinner rolls
3 salads (serving 7-10 each)
1 Tofurkey Loaf
2 veggie dishes (serving 10)

Go to Thanksgiving Dinner Sign up and add your name.

Thanks again and I hope to see you next Thursday.

Cynthia

Please consider joining a group of us from Multnomah Friends Meeting’s Quaker Palestine Israel Network on Monday 11/20 at 3 pm. Last week 13 of us held signs asking Portlanders to work to support a ceasefire in Gaza. Join QPIN and others again this Monday at the MFM meetinghouse (4312 SE Stark) at 3. We will walk to NE Chavez and Stark and carry signs asking people to support a ceasefire in Gaza. Make a sign or just show up and use one of ours. Stay for the full hour or just part of it. Hope to see you there. Questions? contact Cynthia Gilliam

On Wednesday, November 1, 2023 at 4pm,  Bridge City Friends Meeting will meet in Darl’s’s home to have a celebration to remember loved ones who have died.    This is in the spirit of Day of the Dead, a traditional Mexican holiday.

All are welcome to come.  It is a time to share memories and celebrate the lives of the people we love and miss.

• You are welcome to bring a photo or other memento to share, if you want.
• You are welcome to bring stories of your loved ones and perhaps a poem or a song to share.
• We will provide warm cider, gingerbread, and candles.
• Please let Darl or Laura know if you are coming so we can be ready.
• We hope you can come for this time of community, love and healing.

Please call if you have any questions.

Announcement: Adult Education on this October 2nd Sunday (10/8) will take place in blended form from 11:45 am – 12:45 pm. Timothy Travis and Renee Stringham will each speak for around 5 minutes on “Preparation for Worship and Being Open to Vocal Ministry.” Timothy will attend in person, Renee will join us on zoom. Then I will read a paragraph of Advices, followed by several queries related to open worship and vocal ministry. Friends attending will have an opportunity to share reflections on the topic from their own experience.

Please join us in person at AHC or on zoom, same link as for Meeting for Worship. Contact Chris Cradler for questions, M&PC co-clerk, at fergler@comcast.net.