1303 March 2013
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PDFEditorial.
Print PDF By Wies Schuiringa and Mark Johnson, New South Wales Regional Meeting. Dear Friends, Welcome to the first edition of the Australian Friend for 2013. This edition contains mostly reports, commentary and reflections from Yearly Meeting (YM) which was held in Canberra from the 5th through to the 12th of January. We hope that [...]
Some Reflections on Yearly Meeting – Now and Then.
Print PDF By Dorothy Benyei, Victoria Regional Meeting. From attending Meeting for Worship occasionally for many years (our older son had “found” Friends at the age of thirteen), I became a regular Attender at both Meetings for Worship and Meetings for Worship for Business in 1978. I then applied for and was granted membership in [...]
Epistle To Friends Everywhere From Australia Yearly Meeting, 5th to 12th days, 1st Month, 2013.
Print PDF Greetings from Australian Friends in Canberra (meeting place in the language of the Ngunnawal people, traditional custodians of the land). Summer School study themes, climate change, sustainable living, the role of elders, and compassionate communication, provided the ambience of the Meeting – along with 390C heat and the faint smell of bushfires. Friends [...]
Children’s Epistle, Yearly Meeting 2013.
Print PDF Good morning everyone, we’re going to read to you the 2013 Children’s Epistle. At the start of the week, we were just getting to know each other. We were practically hiding in the corners. Soon things started to warm up with the cooperative games such as getting into height order without talking. [...]
The Junior Young Friends Epistle, Yearly Meeting, 2013.
Print PDF On Sunday, 5 January 2013, many Junior Young Friends from around Australia gathered in friendship to celebrate the 53rd Yearly Meeting of Australian Friends on the University of Canberra campus. We came together using theatrical games or ‘theatre sports’ to bond and get to know each other. Some JYFs already had strong [...]
Young Friends Epistle.
Print PDF To Friends everywhere. Fourteen Young Friends met at Silver Wattle Quaker Centre between 29 December 2012 and 5 January 2013. We came by motorcycle, train, car and plane; from diverse locations; some for the first and some for the umpteenth time. We were excited to have amongst us three Burundian-Australian Young Friends, who [...]
Backhouse Lecture Overview.
Print PDF By Julie and Peter Webb, SANTRM. The 2013 Backhouse Lecture was delivered at Australia Yearly Meeting, University of Canberra, on 7th January by Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a professional astronomer and life-long Quaker. The lecture was presented in a way which reflected Jocelyn’s long experience of, and love of, teaching and lecturing. Although the [...]
Reflections from a Yearly Meeting “Newbie”.
Print PDF By Peter Morris, New South Wales Regional Meeting. There is a wonderful paradox between the silence of Quaker meetings and the loud rambunctiousness of meal time. The contrast is a delight and – as a Yearly Meeting “newbie” – engaging and attractive. It has taken more than 50 years to get to my [...]
Quaker Peace Demonstration
Print PDF By Oliver Greeves, SANTRM. The Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC) General John Baker Complex is the Australian Defence Force’s high-security control centre for the military missions in which Australia is involved. Its proximity to Yearly Meeting 2013 in Canberra made it possible for a group of Friends, led by Jo Vallentine, to hold [...]
Report of the AVP National Gathering 12-19 January 2013 at Silver Wattle Quaker Centre
Print PDF By Sabine Erika, New South Wales Regional Meeting. Thirty-three facilitators from around Australia met for a week to take part in a Trauma Awareness Workshop, to exchange new ideas for exercises, to look at future directions and to renew commitment to the principles of AVP. We learned of work with children, prisoners, refugees [...]
Ecological Footprints: A global emergency.
Print PDF By Bob Douglas, Canberra Regional Meeting. This is a report from a summer school at the Yearly Meeting that included 16 participants from all of the Australian Quaker Regional Meetings. The discussion and review of evidence on ecological footprints left participants deeply concerned at the seriousness of the human predicament. But the [...]
Committee Collaboration.
Print PDF By Margaret Clark, Canberra Regional Meeting. Over the weekend 9 and 10 February 2013, the Quaker Peace and Legislation Committee (QPLC) and the Quaker Earth-care Committees (QEC) met for both fellowship and strategic planning. The two committees intend to collaborate to transform the view that Australian society has of itself and others: a [...]
Reflections on Yearly Meeting and Follow Up
Print PDF By Robert Howell, Canberra Regional Meeting. It was really great to hear the strong affirmation from Friends at Yearly Meeting (YM) that they wanted the Peace and Earth-care Office to continue, and learn of the pledges from individual Friends who made the financial position secure for the next year. I am glad [...]
No alternative to atmospheric CO2 draw-down
Print PDF By Andrew Glikson, Canberra Regional Meeting. The current atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) level is already triggering amplifying feedbacks from the Earth system. Consequently, efforts at reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions are no longer sufficient in themselves to prevent further global warming. For this reason, along with sharp reductions in carbon emissions, efforts are [...]
An Orwellian climate Newspeak.
Print PDF By Andrew Glikson, Canberra Regional Meeting. (A highly modified version of the Orwellian article appeared in The Conversation http://theconversation.edu.au/orwellian-climate-double-speak-dominating-discussion-12279#comment_123854 ) “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” (George Orwell) In George Orwell’s novel 1984 the term “Newspeak” conveys changes not only to the language [...]
How about some good news about climate change?
Print PDF By Thea Ormerod, President, Australian Religious Response to Climate Change. www.arrcc.org.au Those of us who want to see action to combat climate change have to grapple with a temptation to despair. Let’s face it, the scientific reports which came out before last year’s talks at Doha make for depressing reading. You may [...]
QSA Notes
Print PDF By Kate Bandler and Jackie Perkins, New South Wales Regional Meeting. Work place health and safety comes to Cambodia with gloves for cane cutters Friends may remember that one of the Living Gifts in the catalogue was for long sleeved gloves to protect the cutters of rattan cane in Cambodia. The bushes [...]
The State of the Society.
Print PDF By David Purnell, Canberra Regional Meeting. David Purnell from Canberra Meeting presented the annual reflection on the reports in Documents in Advance. The full text of the address is included in Documents in Retrospect. What follows is an abridged version. We in Australia Yearly Meeting are a small part of a global community [...]
In response to Jenny Madeline’s “Are there Alternative Models for Yearly Meeting (and Friends Gatherings)?”
Print PDF By Sally Kingsland, Canberra Regional Meeting. Thank you Jenny for publicly raising an issue that I have heard much frustration with privately, and on which I was going to write myself if no one else did! As I write, I am still in the happy after-glow of a great Yearly Meeting (YM) and [...]
Reflections on the discernment processes at Yearly Meeting 2013
Print PDF By Wies Schuiringa, New South Wales Regional Meeting. During Yearly Meeting (YM) in Canberra in 2013 Friends made decisions about matters that are of importance to Quakers in Australia. The pointy end of these decisions is when we need to make decisions about strategies, actions or monies. At this year’s YM, money from [...]
Providence and History.
Print PDF By Reg Naulty, Canberra Regional Meeting. Does God intervene in history? According to the doctrine of Providence, God does intervene. Providence means that God provides for our good. This doctrine is implied by Jesus when he tells his disciples that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God`s knowledge (and presumably, [...]
An Alternative Proposal to Find a Suitable Site for Yearly Meeting 2015.
Print PDF By the “Site Search Committee” of Victoria Regional Meeting . This letter was presented at Standing Committee, prior to Yearly Meeting 2013 in Canberra. Regional Meetings are asked to respond to this letter in time for Documents in Advance for mid-year Standing Committee. In a letter published in the December issue of the [...]
Australian Narrative Crewel Embroidery.
Print PDF By Tessa Spratt, Victoria Regional Meeting. Our position at YM this year was close to perfect. We had enough space to display the 3 framed completed panels and blu-tack onto the wall many samplers that Friends from all over Australia have embroidered in preparation for stitching a panel. We were also able to [...]
On Gazing onto a Lake
Print PDF By Katherine McNamara, New South Wales Regional Meeting. You who walked Galilee on still days like today, You also walked in turbulence, where every boat moored, strained against its anchor. You who knew the churning that would make us seasick, if we didn’t centre on a single point. You who would [...]