Sunday April 2, 2023 Schedule:

• 9 a.m. – Meeting for Worship via zoom, with Afterword, learn more here.
• 10:10 a.m. – Singing Worship via zoom. 
• 11 a.m. – Meeting for Worship via zoom, learn more here.
• 11 a.m. – Children’s Meeting, learn more here.
• 11 a.m. – In-person Meeting for Worship with masks and social distancing optional, learn more here.
• 12:00 p.m. – First Sunday Potluck at the rise of Meeting followed by Plastics-free Share Fair.

Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples, a program of Friends Peace Teams, offers this online program: Saturday, April 15, 1-3 p.m. (Pacific Time) – Roots of Injustice, Seeds of Change: Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples. In this 2-hour participatory program, we experience the history of the colonization of Turtle Island, the land that is now known as the United States. The story is told through the words of Indigenous leaders, European/American leaders, and Western historians. We engage with this history through experiential exercises and small group discussions. And we are invited to consider how we can build relationships with Indigenous peoples based on truth, respect, justice, and our shared humanity. This workshop is appropriate for high school students and adults. Register here.

Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples has posted their link on the Eugene Friends Meeting Reparations webpage. Learn more here.

Eugene Friends Meeting Plastics-free Challenge: As one way to address our approved Minute to Reduce Plastics in the World the EFM Earthcare Support Group offers this Plastic-Free calendar. We will focus on single-use plastics, those things that are designed to be used once, then tossed. We will not give much attention to recycling and re-use in this calendar, though these are good steps. Research estimates that only 10% of our plastic waste is actually recycled, and, while re-using a single-use plastic item will stretch its usefulness, it is still another piece of plastic that will eventually go to the landfill.

Week 1 (February 19 – 25): Prepare and begin to fast.

Week 2 (February 6 – March 4): Food shopping.

Week 3 (March 5 – March 11): Your kitchen. Links repaired!

Week 4: Clothing and laundry We will focus on single-use plastics, those things that are designed to be used once, then tossed. Also, you might want to join the Eugene Friends Meeting Earthcare Support Group at our next meeting: Monday, April 3, at 7 p.m. We spend a bit of time discussing plastics and alternatives we’ve found. Just drop us an email and we’ll send the zoom link. Let us know if you have any questions, and happy plastic fasting!

Week 5: Your bathroom

Week 6: Celebrations, travel, and eating out

Week 7: The garden

Friends General Conference in the West this summer! July 2 – 8, 2023

The Friends General Conference Gathering is coming to the West this summer! The Gathering Co-Clerks are seeking volunteers to serve on the Gathering Committee. Learn more about planning and volunteering here.

We are looking forward to joining with Friends from many places to create an FGC Gathering at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR July 2-8, 2023.

“As an OPEN and AFFIRMING congregation, Eugene Monthly Meeting of Friends [Quakers] celebrates diversity in race, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, age, class, marital status, opinion and religious background. We trust this spiritual leading as we seek new understanding of truth and we welcome all who wish to join us in this search.”

We are an unprogrammed Meeting; that is, we worship in silence with no prepared order of service. There is no clergy. Each person settles into silence to seek inspiration and spiritual guidance. Out of worship, one may be inspired to speak from the heart; this is our ministry. Anyone may give ministry, but it should come from the spiritual depths of the shared silence.

Quakers are known for their commitment to nonviolence and the dynamic struggle for peace and justice in the world. For over 350 years we have been active in reconciliation and opposition to war, the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, ending military conscription, opposition to the death penalty, economic justice, and full rights and protection for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

FOR MANY UNFAMILIAR WITH QUAKERS, the way we speak of our faith and the diversity of belief found among us may be perplexing. Even those who have been among Friends for a while may find it challenging to sort out our theology. This difficulty arises in part from the fact that the Society of Friends is not a single, homogeneous group but a large spiritual family with several branches that have evolved in different directions over the past three centuries. Another part of the challenge in understanding Quaker faith derives from our attitude toward creeds or other formal statements of faith. Friends do not make a written creedal statement the test of faith or the measure of suitability for membership.

One belief that is common to Friends is that there is an Inner Light present in every human heart. Life is holy and the spark of Divine Love is recognizable in everyone if we look for it. We find our task and our joy to be, in the words of our founder George Fox, to “walk cheerfully over the Earth, answering that of God in every one.”

Updated 3/26/2023

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