June 26th ASE Event Cancelled
The session on Friends General Conference to be led by Michelle Bellows will NOT be held June 26th. It will be rescheduled sometime in the fall.
Pendle Hill Online Course “Exploring the Quaker Way” – Registration Open Until June 5
From Lina Blount, Communications and Outreach Coordinator, Pendle Hill:
Please help me spread the word about Pendle Hill’s online learning offering “Exploring the Quaker Way” which starts in mid June 2016 and runs until late August. Registration for the 8 week course is open until June 5.
We believe this new initiative meets a real need within the Religious Society of Friends. Many local meetings increasingly see the importance of robust religious education and deeper spiritual dialog within the wider Quaker community. Yet, several of these meetings do not have the resources necessary to provide engaging, focused study with experienced educators and classmates from a wide variety of Quaker meetings. Our Quaker Studies Online courses are designed for spiritual seekers who want to engage in personal reflection, focused study, and deep dialog within lively communities of learners guided by seasoned Quaker educators.
The goals of this course are to help seekers, attenders, and interested members of Friends meetings: 1) deepen their understanding of the Quaker movement; 2) better understand the spiritual journey common among early and current Quakers; 3) reflect on their own spiritual journeys within this spiritual tradition; and 4) become more familiar with several key elements of building vibrant and caring Quaker meetings. It is designed for people who want to explore these themes through personal reflection, focused study, and deep dialog within a lively learning community gently guided by seasoned Quaker educators.
The course will be co-taught by Steve Chase and Marcelle Martin, along with a few special guest webinar presenters.
For more information about the course and registration, please follow up here.
Workshop on Ending Racism
A workshop named “Living the Richmond Pledge to End Racism” is being held at the Unitarian Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. on Sat., July 9, 2016 from 9 to 4 and Sat., July 23, 2016 from 1 to 4. The organizers of this event are Annette Marquis and Anita Lee; they are also the organizers of “Living the Pledge to End Racism”. The event is free, donations accepted.
The goals of this workshop are to:
- Integrate the Richmond Pledge into our daily lives
- Recognize and challenge systemic racism
- Confront racism and bias in our everyday lives, and
- Take leadership in ending racism in our community, our culture and our lives.
As part of the workshop participants develop a community of support and an understanding of how to use support in deepening our goal in building a just and equitable, multi-cultural world.
If you are interested in attending this workshop, please email Marcia Dickinson for information on how to apply.
Quaker House Publishes Book on Moral Injury
Quaker House recently published a book of healing strategies for moral injury, Help for Moral Injury: Strategies and Interventions. Cecilia Yocum, PhD, volunteered to write this after attending one of their presentations in Tampa, FL. It is available through Amazon or by contacting QH at qpr@quaker.org or 910- 323-3912. We hope it will be a help to our service members and veterans! Please share this!
In the United States we have been late to recognize and provide supportive services to victims of post-traumatic stress disorder, and are only beginning to recognize a need to address moral injury – debilitating guilt, shame and self-condemnation secondary to inflicting violence State- sanctioned or otherwise, on others. Both exist. Both haunt our society. The strategies and interventions provided in this booklet set forth a means of addressing the injuries to an individual’s moral codes. The conflict or tension with one’s personal codes and that of armed conflict and the aftermath may create conditions which can make it difficult to return to “normal” life.
The strategies and interventions provided here are opportunities for individuals to identify, address, and manage those conflicts or tensions through a structured process and, above all, in a safe supportive environment. The emphasis is on recognizing that agents of injury also suffer, identifying the nature of their emotional and spiritual injuries, and providing a safe environment to facilitate healing. These activities will help those with moral injury develop some tools to work toward the goals listed above along with other goals of understanding moral injury, self- care, and developing personal and spiritual resources. These exercises/activities are designed to be used by counselors/pastoral counselors, psychologists or other mental health workers.
Cecilia Yocum received her Ph.D. in psychology from Ohio State University in 1978. She has over 35 years of experience working with individuals, families, communities, and professional groups and has worked overseas with community-based trauma healing programs in Rwanda, Burundi, and Colombia as a part of Friends Peace Teams. Dr. Yocum has been actively involved with Alternatives to Violence Project workshops, is a past board member of the Florida Center for Survivors of Torture, and has provided psychological evaluations for political asylum seekers. Lynn Newsom, Quaker House co-director, wrote the introduction.
New Spiritual Journey Group for Care Partners
Care Partners are people supporting family members with chronic illness. Being a Care Partner is stressful, so Partners also need care. The group focus will be on the Care Partner’s spiritual journey as it has been impacted by living with the person with the illness; focus will not be on the illness. What are our tools, struggles, victory stories, spiritual practices? We will meet at RFM for 6 sessions, from 9:30 to 10:45 am, before Meeting for Worship for Business on Third First Days from June through November.
Our first session will be June 19, 9:30 to 10:45am, at RFM in an upstairs classroom. A typical agenda will include opening silence, opportunity for checking in, presentation of an article or resource, journaling in response to a question, opportunity for any who wish to share verbally, and closing silence or affirmations. Under sponsorship of Care and Counsel, the group will meet with facilitator-participant Mary Fran Hughes-McIntyre. For more information, email Mary Fran.