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We would like to invite everyone to join us in a walk around Töölö bay to contemplate sustainability, community, and faith. The Helsinki Quaker Meeting and the Helsinki Anglican Diocese join together on the 13th of October in an interfaith walk following the theme sustainability: planting the seeds of renewal for the world we love.

We will meet next to My Helsinki sign at Kansalaistori at 13.00 to begin the walk with a few words on the Quaker practice of silence, a short statement from the Anglican community and introduction to the theme of the event. We will then walk halfway around the lake in silent contemplation. At the halfway point we will take a short break to conclude the silence and then complete the walk with social conversation before heading to a nearby cafe for coffee.

Because of the event, the meeting for worship on October 13 in Helsinki will be a little bit shorter than usual. After the worship in Pasila, we will gather together for a potluck before heading to Töölö for the walk. Prepare with some food to share, warm clothes and welcome in for a fun event!

Kaikki ovat tervetulleita liittymään kveekareiden ja anglikaanien joukkoon kävelylle Töölönlahden ympäri mietiskelemään kestävän kehityksen teemaa yhteisönä ja uskon perspektiivistä. Helsingin kveekarit yhdessä anglikaaniyhteisön kanssa järjestävät sunnuntaina 13.10. tunnustusten välisen kävelyn, jonka teemana on siementen kylväminen rakastamamme maailman uudistamiseksi.

Tapaamme klo 13 Helsingin Kansalaistorilla Oodin edustalla olevan My Helsinki -teoksen edessä. Kuulemme lyhyet tervehdykset teemaan liittyen kveekareilta ja anglikaaneilta. Kävelemme sitten reitin puoliväliin hiljaisuudessa. Toisen puolen kävelemme keskustellen. Kävelymme päätteeksi kokoonnumme hetkeksi läheiseen kahvilaan.

Tapahtumasta johtuen sunnuntain 13.10. hiljainen hartaus Helsingissä on tavallista hieman lyhyempi. Pidämme hartauden ja tilaisuuden välissä pienimuotoiset nyyttikestit, joten mukaan voi ottaa evästä. Tervetuloa mukaan!

Photo: View over Danube river. Image by Ari.

In the beginning of May I represented the Finland Yearly Meeting at the Friends World Committee for Consulting’s European and Middle-East Section (FWCC-EMES) Annual Meeting. The meeting was held this time in Budapest, Hungary, where the representatives of each Yearly Meeting, representatives from Quaker organizations and visiting Friends all the way from the United States and Mexico traveled to. This was my second EMES meeting, having participated in Germany two years ago, therefore I was a bit more familiar with the meeting and some Friends I had met before.

The meeting’s theme was Living in a Foreign Land and we discussed topics of foreignness, otherness and hospitality. What is it like to settle down and start life all over in a country new to oneself; How can we welcome people around us and build our community a welcoming home to everyone? In places we call home, we often have privileges that we don’t even come to realize. However, it is also possible to encounter feelings of otherness in places you feel belonging to. One fundamental value to Quakers is that of God in everyone, a view that guides us to see the core similarities we are made of.

Many Friends had experiences of this topic and had, for example, lived in countries other than where they were born in. One of the most touching stories was that of a local who works in organizing education and courses for immigrants in Budapest. Grown up in Sierra Leone as a child soldier, he made a long journey full of dangers seeking for something else. After surviving the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean, in which tens of thousands of others every year are not equally lucky with, he arrived ashore somewhere and trekked by foot through forests for four days and nights and found himself somehow at the Hungarian border. In a country that is nowadays known not for its hospitality towards immigrants and strangers, he has made it home and now helps others do the same through his work. What amazed the most was how through all his hardship he always managed to keep his heart open and stay positive.

In ecumenical friendship, we learned a lot from fellow evangelical Quakers and their activities in Hungary, United States and Mexico. In addition to the silent worship, their meeting for worship includes plenty of singing, playing and programmed sermon. It was interesting to get acquainted with and even thought their ways differed from those of our own, we sought to increase our understanding and to gain from this rich heritage and wide range of spiritual insights.

The prompt to live adventurously came to me already before the gathering as I was invited to serve as one of the meeting’s elders. After some discernment I found myself encouraged to undertake this opportunity and help our community. With the warm support from Friends, in the end the task was easy, and it helped me connect better with the gathering. This sharing of various roles, whether big or small, I found a nice way engage everyone in the event.

All in all, what I found the best part about the meeting was to meet Friends from all over the world, hear about their activities and learn about their calling. Some I had met before and now we already knew each other from the start. The same, I’m sure, will happen the next time I am in contact with those Friends I met now for the first time. Perhaps we will have the chance to invite young Friends to experience our own hospitality next year as Europe and Middle-East Young Friends (EMEYF) have decided to have their next Spring Meeting either in Finland or Sweden. The next EMES meeting will take place in Paris one year from now.

More about this year’s EMES meeting can be read from the meeting’s epistle, available online at https://www.fwccemes.org/file_download/422/EMES+Epistle+2019.pdf. I wish to translate it soon to Finnish as well and upload to our website.

In Friendship, Ari

Here is a short epistle regarding my and Elvin’s autumn activities.

Yesterday, Elvin and I went to Quaker worship. We arrived early, as I had the key to the meeting from setting up the previous week. Elvin quickly took to helping set up for yesterday’s meeting. He carried out cups, saucers, and bread plates for the fellowship seating, and placed them around the table. Then, he helped arrange the chairs in the meeting circle, even moving chairs all by himself. Finally, he set the small table in the center of the circle and placed the bible and decorative stones atop.

He was then a bit hungry, so we got him a slice of the fellowship rye bread.

It was now time for worship, and Elvin picked seats, next to one another, for me and him. The group settled into the silence. Elvin chewed his bread, bit by bit, until it was gone, and then sat still, quietly breathing. The meeting seemed to settle after a few minutes had passed, with quiet stillness enveloping our group. Elvin sat holding my hand until our quarter-after departure from the room.

We had planned to leave the meeting at that point, to go to a children’s festival in town. As we were nearing our shoes and jackets in the hallway, Elvin looked up at me and said he would like to stay at the Quakers’ a bit longer. We fetched a couple of racecars from my jacket pocket, found a large sheet of paper and drawing colors, and spent the remainder of the hour drawing a racetrack for the cars. Elvin got to show his racetrack, complete with bandstand, flags, firetruck, trash truck, and two monster trucks, to the Quakers after the rise of meeting.

Our moving date is growing near. Next weekend, the movers will come for a couple of hours. I will try to have everything packed and neatly arranged, so that we can move efficiently. Our new apartment has a small, second bedroom, which can be used as a guest room or work-at-home office. The apartment is also nestled downtown, nearby Elvin’s favorite playground, two nice grocery stores, and a five minute walk to the train station. Elvin’s grandpa will stay with us in our new apartment this Christmas, and will hopefully enjoy the proximity to several cafes and museums.

I hope you and your loved ones are doing well, and will enjoy upcoming holidays together.

Love and Light,
Brylie