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

World Quaker Day 2026: Let Peace Be Among Us

  • Date: 4th October 2026
  • Where: Online via Zoom
  • Bible passage: Hebrews 12:14, “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy.” 
  • Register here today and we’ll be in touch nearer the time with the Zoom link.

Every year World Quaker Day brings Friends from across different time zones, Quaker traditions and languages to focus on what unites us. This year the focus is Peace. 

There will be three sessions running throughout the day. Friends in Asia West Pacific will be introducing the theme and holding an hour-long webinar. We will then have an extended period of worship, lasting 6 hours, where we will hear from Friends from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean amongst others. Finally, Friends in New Zealand will end the day with a final hour reflection on peace and justice. 

Each hour of worship will be hosted by a different part of the world where prayers for peace are particularly needed. By hearing in particular from Friends facing conflict where they live, we have an opportunity to listen deeply to their experience and learn how their faith shapes the way they interact with the world.

When Friends facing violence are asked how they can be supported, almost always the first request is that we pray. World Quaker Day is an opportunity to hold these Friends and their neighbours in the Light, and to pray that we each might be able to find ways to sow seeds of peace and justice, as well as to nurture the ground where they can grow. 

Register to receive the link and full schedule.

We appreciate the timings for World Quaker Day this year might not fit in with your schedule! If you’re unable to join the online meeting, and would prefer to celebrate in a different way we’d love to hear about your plans. You can still be part of the global community by sharing pictures on social media for us to share.

Helping Neighbors in Springfield, Ohio

There is a food drive for the immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio connected with Wilmington College’s Westheimer Peace Symposium from September 8-October 8. Contact Nancy McCormick for additional information. Nancy will collect the items and get them to the designated area.

Westheimer Peace Symposium
Peace Through Human Dignity:
Justice, Mass Incarceration, and Immigration
Detention in the United States

6-7 October, Wilmington College
The keynote address on Tuesday, Oct. 6 (7 p.m. EDT) will be given by Ayman Soliman. Symposium events are free but registration is required. See the Wilmington College website for a schedule and registration links.

Registration for Westheimer Peace Symposium

Quaker Earthcare Witness Fall Gathering 2026: The Fires That Renew

From Al McGrew of Dayton Meeting: ” I wanted to forward this with a special encouragement that we try to assemble a small cohort of folks from OVYM to join me at the QEW Fall Gathering at the Prairie Woods Retreat Center in Hiawatha, Iowa this Fall (see the invite below — registration by Sept. 30).  I think the staff is assembling an especially timely and inspirational program, and having met Keith this past summer, it may be that we will have some extra interest. Please share and talk it up at your home meetings…”

See the QEW website for more information and a registration link.

October Prayer Gatherings for Immigrant Justice

An invitation from On Earth Peace (Church of the Brethren) to join them.

The Deportation Defense Response (DDR) team would like to extend an open invitation to a Zoom prayer meeting specifically to pray for immigrants who are detained, for those who are at risk of detention and deportation, and for all who are supporting them. 

We invite you to bring prayer requests, concerns, celebrations, prayers, poems, Scripture, and liturgy to share during this time if you would like. You may also choose to come listen and pray silently with us.

Please RSVP to attend any or all prayer gatherings in October.

October Schedule:

Thursday, October 1: 12 pm ET / 11 am CT / 10 am MT / 9 am PT (Past)

Thursday, October 15: 12 pm ET / 11 am CT / 10 am MT / 9 am PT

Thursday, October 29: 12 pm ET / 11 am CT / 10 am MT / 9 am PT

RSVP Here

Sing A New Song: A CD Release Concert of Original Prayer Songs

Sat. Nov. 14, 2026, 10:30am-12pm EST, Bloomington Friends Meeting and online

Who: Gloria Stearns-Bruner
Where: 3820 Moores Pike, Bloomington, IN or online.

Dear Friends, You are warmly invited to my upcoming CD Release Concert of original prayer songs. 

The concert will be interactive. We will sing, listen, and share silence together.

To attend over zoom go to this link.

CDs will be for sale at the concert for $20 each. You may pay with: cash or check. To order a CD please email me.

I hope to see some of you there, 

Blessings

Gloria 🕯️🎶🧡

BBIPOC Friends Minute

Dear Friends

On Wednesday April 1st, 2026, the following Minute was passed by the BBIPOC Friends Wednesday Online Meditation Group:

            “Believing that friends should remove all occasion for war, BBIPOC (black, brown, indigenous, people of colors) Religious Society of Friends online oppose USA attacks & war on Iran as wrong & immoral. 
Let they who have ears hear & hearts ACT.“

We ask Friends to read our collective Minute as an Epistle to/at all Monthly, Quarterly & Yearly Meetings, post on digital forums, and distribute it as widely as possible.

Your help in this endeavour is greatly appreciated.

On Behalf of BBIPOC Friends Wednesday Online Meditation Group, 🪔gloria grace

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.  

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