Announcements

This page is for short updates from across our Yearly Meeting membership—individuals, committees, or Friends’ organizations.

Helpful links:

Welcome Announcement

Hello Friends!

As noted in the introduction above, this space on the website is meant for sharing updates that may be of interest to OVYM Friends. If you have something you’d like to share, you can email our Administrative Assistant, Susan Lee Barton, or use the form on this page.

For less time-sensitive news, consider sending a submission to Cecilia Shore for inclusion in the next edition of the Quaker Quill.

– Daniel Day,
OVYM Website Administrator

OVYM Social Action Coordinator Webpages

We have a new webpage with connecting topical pages in development. You can find it any time through the “Our Work” tab on our website’s homepage.

Ignite Hope – A Healing Practice with Bill Cahalan

Saturday, July 19th, 1:30 pm Eastern DT /10:30 am Pacific DT

Join OVYM’s Bill Cahalan (Community MM), an ecopsychologist and advocate for the natural world, for a special session designed to cultivate a deeper connection with all life. Bill will address the global biodiversity-climate crisis—the most pressing moral challenge of our time—underscoring our vital role as stewards of Creation to halt further suffering and planetary destruction.
However, this isn’t just about understanding the crisis. Bill will then guide us into a contemplative practice that can open our hearts to a humble, even ecstatic sense of kinship with the local nature around us. We will step outdoors as Bill leads us through slow walking and empathetic gazing, fostering a connection with the vibrant, other-than-human communities that surround us.
We’ll then gather for a sharing circle and discussion, exploring how this powerful practice can be woven into nurturing your own yards and neighborhood landscapes, sparking you toward meaningful action in service to Life and a regenerating Earth.
See the QEW website to register

Quaker Earthcare Witness Monthly Worship Sharing

Tuesday, July 22nd, 7 p.m. Eastern DT/4 p.m. Pacific DT

Our worship sharing seeks to explore our Earthcare callings, nourish our sense of community, and explore queries to draw us into a shared sacred space. Join us to encounter “that which is eternal”.
Click here to register for QEW Worship Sharing

Baldemar Velasquez to speak to Miami Monthly Meeting

Sunday July 27, Waynesville, Ohio

Baldemar Velasquez will address Friends at the White Brick Meeting House on Sunday, July 27, 2025 following Meeting for Worship. 

Baldemar Velasquez was born and raised by a migrant farm worker family from Texas.  In 1967, at the age of 20, Baldemar, his father, and a small group of farmworkers formed the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, FLOC.  He graduated from Bluffton College in 1969.  At a later time, he earned advanced degrees in theology and was ordained as a chaplain to farmworkers.  Baldemar was elected president of FLOC in 1970 and continues to hold that office in the Union…

Baldemar Velasquez has been recognized by many organizations in the U.S.A. and internationally.  He affiliated FLOC with the AFL-CIO and worked in partnership with Cesar Chavez.  Baldemar and the Union are now challenged by the attack on immigrants, documented and undocumented.  The Union is involved in demonstrations and protests.  Baldemar has spoken at the Wilmington College Peace Symposium in the past. 

All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

OVYM Summer Gathering: Community Friends Meeting

Sunday August 3, 2025, 3960 Winding Way, Cincinnati

Everyone is invited to join us for worship, Outdoor cook-out, and tie-dying fun for all ages!

10:00 am Meeting for Worship (child care is provided)

11:30 – 12:30 Picnic lunch with a variety of meat and vegan items from the grill, beverages, and salads. You may want to bring chips, fruit, or dessert, but there will be plenty of food, so mostly just bring yourselves!!

1:30 – 3:00 Tie-dying activity for all ages! We will provide materials including T-shirts to dye in various sizes, but feel free to bring other clothing to dye!

Woodbrooke Course and OVYM Discussion
An Angelic Trouble-Maker: The Life of Bayard Rustin

Thursdays 7 August  – 4 September, 2:00 – 3:30pm EDT (USA)
The live Zoom sessions are at 19:00-20:30 (UK time) every Thursday.

See the Woodbrooke website for more information and to register:
https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses/an-angelic-trouble-maker-the-life-of-bayard-rustin/

Woodbrooke offers a 50% discounted rate for anyone aged 18-35.

Continue the conversation! Paul Ricketts is hosting an OVYM Zoom post-class discussion on Sundays, 10 August-7 September, 3:30-4:30 PM EDT. All are welcome (whether or not you take the Woodbrooke course)!
We’ll use our Sunday discussions to expand on what’s highlighted in Thursday’s class. There won’t be any new content from my side, just a deeper dive into the Thursday material.

Witnessing the Atomic Past: 50 Years of History, Memory, and Art

Wilmington College’s Peace Resource Center invites us to events for their 50th anniversary. All events are free and open to the public, but some events require prior registration.

August 6th (Hiroshima Day) there will be:
A vigil 80 years after: Hibakusha calls us to remember
The opening of an exhibition “Memorializing The Hibakusha Experience” (August 6-December 5)

September 9: Staged reading of “Atomic Bill and the Payment Due”

September 29-30: Westheimer Peace Symposium, “Practicing Art, Practicing Abolition”

September 30: Live performance of radio broadcast play “Borrowed Landscape”

September 30-October 1: Conference on “Archives as Witness: Preserving History, Memory, and Art”

See https://library.wilmington.edu/prc-50 for more information.

Youth and Young Adult Workers Retreat
Hosted by FWCC Midwest Region and Western Yearly Meeting

August 8-10, Quaker Hill Conference Center, Richmond, Indiana
Western YM recently got a grant to host a gathering of people who work with Youth and Young adults, to explore what’s working and what isn’t. I’m hoping this can be a broader conversation among Friends. Friends attending could be employees or volunteers, or anyone with a strong interest in Youth and Young Adult work. The gathering will be August 8-10 at Quaker Hill in Richmond, Indiana. A sign up link can be found here: https://forms.gle/AbcdKYNnqtFGnDuC6.

OVYM Gathering: Camping with Fall Creek Friends

19-21 September: Save the dates! More information coming later. All ages welcome.

Start planning for World Quaker Day!
Theme: Love Your Neighbour

Sunday, 5 October 2025

In these times of global division, our Quaker commitment to nurturing community feels more vital than ever. In the spirit of connection, the FWCC World Office has published our 2025 Letter of Greeting, recognising the “many forces today encouraging us to hate our neighbour,” and calling Friends to see what Love can do.

Accordingly, the theme for World Quaker Day, Sunday 5 October 2025, is “Love your neighbour”, with the guiding Bible passage, Galatians 5:14: “For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.'”

Please save the date, inform your local meeting, and consider which action(s) you might take from the list of ideas on our website, where we’ll share further resources when they are ready.

Would Friends in your meeting like to be part of a collaborative recording project? For World Quaker Day FWCC is inviting meetings to record a video of their group singing the George Fox song. All they have to do is share the recording with Tom Rockwell, who will pass it on to a Friend who is going to splice all the videos together.

Beware of fraudulent e-mail

Always check the “from” address on your e-mail. E-mail from the clerk or administrative assistant should come from ovym.org. If you receive any requests for gift cards for OVYM, please report as fraud and delete. If you find any other e-mail claiming to be from OVYM suspicious, please feel free to call our clerk or administrative assistant to check it out.

To report fraudulent e-mail sent from a Gmail address, you can use this form.

Woodbrooke Quaker Learning Centre:  Did you know that Woodbrooke (in England) offers an ongoing wide selection of courses on Quaker topics? In-person and online.  Varying fees.  

Want to see when committees are meeting? Check out our OVYM calendar. Want to add something to the calendar? Contact the OVYM office.