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 Friends Music Camp Presentation

Saturday, 24 January, 6:00-6:45 p.m. EST, online

The Friends Music Camp Board invites the whole OVYM community and FMC alumni to a presentation on Friends Music Camp that explains what FMC is about and gives an overview of the program.

Friends Music Camp is starting up again this July! We are very happy to bring it back after a few years off.

 We are trying to spread the word to young musicians everywhere about this wonderful opportunity. So many OVYM kids have had a great time at FMC. We’re very excited to share this experience with the next generation. Please help us reach out to parents of young musicians.

The presentation will take 15-20 minutes with informal discussion following (expecting 30-45 minutes in total).

Please visit the FMC website (https://friendsmusiccamp.org/) for more information.

A Return to the Earth: Module 2
Seeing with a Native Eye

Presented by Nia To Go There (Cree)

Saturday, January 24, 3:30-5pm EST, online hosted by Friends Peace Teams

In January and February, Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples will host a series of four transformative webinars with Nia To Go There (Cree), who will guide Friends through different cultural perspectives. Each workshop is part of a series in which each workshop may stand alone. Learn more about decolonization! The first workshop in the series begins January 10. 
Click to register for the zoom link and suggested reading.

This is the first module of a 4-part series. You are encouraged (but not required) to also register for as many of the other modules as you are able to attend:

Module 1: Cultural Perspectives — Saturday, January 10th, 2026

Module 2: Seeing with a Native Eye — Saturday, January 24th, 2026

Module 3: Colonization — Saturday, February 7th, 2026

Module 4: Decolonization — Saturday, February 21st, 2026

National Adult Young Friends Midwinter Retreat

February 13-16, Ottsville, Pennsylvania

The AYF mid-year retreat registration is open!

Click here to register.

Friends Peace Teams Month of Action for Myanmar

Dear Friends,

Myanmar Matters! Join the Myanmar Month of Action.

Yangon (Burma/Myanmar) Worshipping Group asks us to join in a special “Myanmar Month of Action” in February 2026. Friends Peace Teams in Asia West Pacific joins Friends World Committee for Consultation – Asia West Pacific Section for this Month of Action for Myanmar.

Friends who register for this month-long event may pledge to complete any number of actions. The organizers will offer a range of practical actions for peace in Burma/Myanmar, small and big, personal and public. Each Friend can reflect and choose the actions to take, as they feel spiritually led. You will also see and learn about the range of actions being taken by other Friends in other yearly meetings, too.

This will be an opportunity to get to know or remember the situation in Myanmar/Burma since the violent military overthrow of the Myanmar government in February 2021. The “Myanmar Month of Action” is an opportunity to help participating Friends connect and understand more – and have the humble satisfaction of being in fellowship with Friends who have devoted themselves to a peaceful future for Burma. At the end of the month, all who have pledged are free to lay down their service. If you decide to keep going, you may join Friends through FWCC-AWPS or Friends Peace Teams-AWP.

Search “Myanmar” on the Friends Peace Teams website to read more about Friends’ connection and witness in the area. Friends Peace Teams AWP is glad to support the Karen people and to fund a group of Karen high school students, so that the Karen people don’t lose fundamental education for an entire generation.

In Peace,
Friends Peace Teams-AWP with Friends World Committee for Consultation-AWPS

Click here to register for the Myanmar Month of Action.

Spiritual State of the Meeting – Queries for Worship Sharing

As meetings begin to reflect on 2025 and prepare state of society reports, the OVYM office has received some questions about what to consider. Here are some questions from the OVYM Faith and Practice book and shared with us from Baltimore Yearly Meeting.
From Ohio Valley YM:

  1. What is the general spiritual condition of your meetings for
    worship and business?
  2. Does your meeting assemble quietly and reverently for
    worship?
  3. Do most of your resident members attend and find the
    meetings for worship and business valuable?
  4. Do members assist according to their ability in making
    meetings spiritually profitable?
  5. Is the vocal ministry helpful to the meeting? What steps
    have been taken to deepen the vocal ministry?
  6. Do Friends feel a lack of vocal ministry when little or none
    exists? How do you think this lack can be met?
  7. Are you careful to protect your meeting for worship from
    too much speaking or irrelevant addresses lacking spiritual
    value?
  8. How do you keep Friends’ spiritual principles clearly before
    your members and attenders?
  9. What is the spiritual condition of the meeting community?
    Are there adequate opportunities for members and
    attenders to come to know each other in things that are
    eternal?
  10. What conditions and activities have affected the life of your
    meeting in the past year?
  11. How do your members and the meeting as a whole exercise
    stewardship for the things God has entrusted to you?
  12. What are the most pressing needs which you feel for the
    meeting?

From Baltimore YM: Historically, the basic query in examining the spiritual state of Friends communities has been, “How does the Spirit prosper among you?” In addition, Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s Ministry and Pastoral Care Committee annually formulates queries for use in this process. These queries are meant to help you explore the fit between faith and practice in your personal life and in your Quaker meeting, over the past year.

1.  What do I mean by Spirit/ spiritual? Do others in my Meeting mean something else? How do we react to that diversity? 

2.    Does my manner of living flow from my deepest beliefs? Do my Meeting’s actions accord with its deepest shared beliefs?

3.   Have we helped each other recognize and follow leadings? Have we connected and grown in Spirit as a community?

4.  Have we helped one another tenderly, in body and spirit? Are any needs within the meeting going unanswered? 

5.  Has Spirit led us to take social action as a whole community? Am I / are we satisfied with what we are doing together in the world? What do we long to do?

Seeking Resident Friends in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Resident Friends, Auckland Aotearoa: The Friends Centre are seeking a Quaker individual or couple to live and be part of a lively Quaker community from April 2027 for a year or more. Please note this is a voluntary position with accommodation provided. For information and a job description please contact John Flack.

Connect Through Friends Peace Teams Monthly Events

From: Nadine Hoover of Friends Peace Teams

Concerned about the way human beings are treating nature, including each other, and the people who are facing so much violence in the world?

Want to support them in a movement of love and conscience that believes that justice and peace are possible and is working for it?

Friends bring our own ministries or concerns for justice and peace, make connections, and share discernment. Find resources for Writing Statements of Conscience, Right Relationship with Native Peoples, expanding your children’s Justice and Peace Libraries, and much more. Friends share your concern for people everywhere living in violence and war.

Everyone is welcome!

LINK: Friends Peace Teams monthly meetings

Daily International Worship for Peace

Daily at Noon Eastern Time, online

The Daily International Meeting for Worship for Peace started for Ukraine (in conjunction with the Friends House Moscow) and has deep ties to Friends at meetings in Ukraine and Russia. The organizers have a strong understanding of the nuanced religious cultures in both countries. The worship now also holds other warzones in the light, including Gaza.

For more information: https://www.westernfriend.org/community/online-meetings-for-worship/international-worship-for-peace/

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.  

The Rise Of The Nones: People With No Religious Affiliation

Dear OVYM, Just sharing a thought. On years of reflection, I’ve come to think that the future of Quakerism in the United States begins with learning more about the “Nones” and getting to know them better. So, I’ve registered for this January webinar. Maybe others would find this subject and the webinar interesting. From Tom Louderback (Louisville MM)

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