Dear Friends,

This email is being sent to you from the Sierra Cascades Yearly Meeting. We began this morning with worship at Reedwood Friends Church in Portland, OR.  The theme of the conference is “A Life Infused with Hope” and the keynote speaker is Christy Randazzo (they/them). I am looking forward to the workshops on Clerking and Being Clerked; Quaker Action for a Just World: The work of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Bonsai: an introduction to an Ancient Art Form; Telling Our Stories; The Practice of Neighboring; and Soul Collage.  Most of these are still open and available for Zoom participation, if you would like to take part.  I strongly encourage it. (https://www.scymfriends.org/sessions).  Then I will be presenting a proposal for a new funding/grant system for churches.  There will be discussion following its presentation.  We are also welcoming our new clerk, Gillian George.  She will be the first openly transgender woman to serve in a Quaker Yearly Meeting as clerk. (But this year we have four transgender persons selected as presiding clerks – our own Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting, Britain Yearly Meeting, Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association, and Baltimore Yearly Meeting.  This was not planned, but is a statement about the equality, peace and integrity values we uphold as Quakers.)

While I am gone, Brion Pinkerton will be bringing the message on Sunday.  You can find the scripture and the queries for this Sunday in your attached bulletin for Sunday. Brion is a lay leader at Klamath Lutheran Church and preaches once a month for Klamath Falls Congregational.  He is dynamic and upbeat, and this will be a blessing for the church and all who attend.

The following week is a very busy Sunday!  On July 19, we begin at 9:00 with Peace and Social Concerns.  The lion’s share of social justice and peace work done with Klamath Falls Friends is done through the Peace and Social Concerns Committee which is very active and lively.  If you have a concern about an issue or activity in our area, our government, our nation and our environment, please come to Peace and Social Concerns on Sunday at 9.

During worship that begins at 10:00 on July 19, we will be taking up an offering for American Friends Service Committee emergency relief in Gaza.  One serious problem now in Gaza is day-to-day emergency relief, particularly the lack of clean drinking water.  American Friends Service Committee is heading up an operation that works to meet daily needs of the people in Gaza. Peace and Social Concerns is taking up an offering to go to this emergency relief fund during worship on July 19.  There is also a basket in the back of the worship room on the brown box for offerings.  There is a little sign that says that what is collected in the basket will go to Gaza.

Then after worship at 11:00 on Sunday July 19, we will be having a book study of chapters 9,10, and 11 of The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See written by Richard Rohr.  There have been deep discussions, and you are more than welcome to begin these chapters with us and join in with the discussions.  We are just beginning section two of the book on July 19, so you will be able to discuss the book with us without being too far behind.  It is a wonderful book that speaks to our mystic beliefs in our church and lives.

Here are the questions for the June 19 book study:

Have you experienced conversion? Was it a moment (pg. 59-61) or gradual (pg. 61-62)?

What does it mean that wisdom comes from willingness not willfulness (pg. 63-65)?

How do you embrace the paradox that Jesus is fully human and fully divine (pg. 67-69)?

What does it mean to move beyond theism (pg. 69)?

Do you find yourself more drawn to descriptions and affirmations of God and faith or mystery and silence?

What does it mean to have a God and be a people of unconditional love?

Do you see yourself as at the stage of Intellectual Conversion (moving from sense perception to being), Moral Conversion (reaching awareness of your own motives and the common good) or Religious Conversion (a sense of being held in love)?

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Attached you will find an updated copy of the M&C Report for June.  Sorry about  this. There was a change needed, and I did not send out the final version until now.

Don’t forget that our annual picnic in the park will be held on Sunday, August 16 at 10:00 at Moore Park.  Come enjoy the fellowship and fun.  There will be games and lots of laughter.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to sharing with you what I will have learned at the yearly meeting session.

Sincerely,

Leigh