Pirkko and Jane would like to offer a non technical opportunity for daily epilogue for anyone who would like to join us in spirit, wherever they are.
We commit to being in silence from 9-9.15 pm (21-21.15) daily to hold our world in Light and to open to whatever comes to us/through us. We invite anyone to join us when it suits them or if it fits with what they are doing. There is no need to let us know that you are joining. We see it as another opportunity for gathering and knowing others are with us. Epilogue will start this evening, 20th March, the day of the spring equinox.
In order to maintain our mailing list up to date and easy to use also for the list members, we have opened
two mailing lists: One for the Quaker matters in whole Finland and another for Helsinki worship group/
those interested in quakerly activities in the capital region.
The idea of these lists is that information can be spread to all the subscribers on the list through one e-
mail address, and the subscribers themselves can also send messages to the list, without a need to know
everyone’s e-mail address separately. Everyone can subscribe and unsubscribe to the list independently, but
anyone having difficulty with that can also ask us to do it by mailing us at suomenkveekarit [at]
gmail.com.
The lists are primarily meant for sharing information on Quaker matters but also any other thing that one
wants to share specifically with Quakers, or for example invite the others on the list to a demonstration,
forest hike, worship or why not a birthday party!
You’ll find more information on the lists and subscription option through the following links: Finland: Finlandkveekarit Capital area: Helsinkikveekarit
Jotta pystyisimme pitämään postituslistamme ajantasalla ja helposti käytettävissä myös listan jäsenille,
olemme perustaneet kaksi sähköpostilistaa: yhden koko Suomen kveekariasioille ja toisen Helsingin
hartausryhmälle/ pääkaupunkiseudun kveekaritoiminnasta kiinnostuneille.
Listojen ideana on, että yhden sähköpostiosoitteen kautta tieto leviää kaikille listalaisille, ja listalaiset
voivat myös itse lähettää viestejä listalle, ilman että tarvitsee tietää toisten sähköpostiosoitteita. Listoille
voi liittyä ja siltä erota itse, mutta jos tämä ei onnistu, voi pyytää listalle liittämistä tai erottamista myös
lähettämällä pyyntönsä suomenkveekarit [at] gmail.com -osoitteeseen, jolloin me hoidamme asian
puolestasi.
Etupäässä listat on tarkoitettu tiedotustarkoitukseen, oli sitten kysymyksessä suoraan kveekareiden asiat
tai vaikkapa jokin muu asia, jonka haluaa jakaa kveekareiden kanssa, tai kutsua toisia listalaisia mukaansa
mielenosoitukseen, metsäretkelle, hiljentymään tai vaikka syntymäpäivilleen!
Dear Friends,
Unfortunately we have to cancel our Yearly Meeting weekend planned for 17-19.April in Ilkko,
Kangasala.
Also the weekly Silent Meetings for Worship in Tampere and Helsinki are cancelled until further notice.
We aim to increase online Finnish Quaker events soon!
Gladly though, the opportunities for international online participation in Meeting for Worship are increasing, as for example Woodbrooke and EMES is now organizing it 6 times a week and the daily 1-hour Meeting for Worship at Pendle Hill that can be joined online.
We warmly recommend everyone to these this options!
3. EMEYF summer gathering: 18-25 July 2020
Europe & Middle East Young Friends have now set the date for their spring
gathering next year, which will this time be in the summer. More details
here: https://www.fwccemes.org/calendar/emeyf-summer-gathering
5. Church & Peace
Here are some of the latest updates from Church & Peace:
– Neda Popovic and Mihael Secen, individual members of C&P and directors of
Intero Centar Croatia, are setting up a podcast studio for making podcasts
about LGBT and faith. They will offer an affirming message of God’s love in
their own language, a lifesaving message of hope – because Christ is
all-inclusive. For more info or if you want to become part of this project
by supporting it with your thoughts, prayers and financial contribution,
get in touch with Mihael and Neda via interocentar@gmail.com.
– Brethren Service Europe office, one of the founding members of Church and
Peace, will be closed at the end of 2019. With this Kristin Flory retires
after 33 years as its representative.
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!
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 event venue, Hotel Walzer. Image: Booking.com
The railroad tracks outside the hotel. Image by Ari
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.
