Albany Friends Meeting

Check this out! "During each week of an eRetreat, you will be invited to consider a selection of essays, videos, queries, spiritual practices, and stories from Friends. The eRetreat content is available to you throughout the week so you can engage at your own time and pace. We know that you may not have the time to dive fully into each piece, and we invite you to choose the content that best fits your schedule and your interest. The materials in each weekly module are labeled according to the estimated time required for engagement." https://www.fgcquaker.org//spiritual-deepening-eretreats-f

You are Invited! To Albany Friends Meeting's annual Christmas Eve celebration; this year features COVID style! The Albany Friends Meeting First Day School invites Friends to the Meetinghouse backyard, Christmas Eve at 3PM. Socially distanced and masked we will do the readings we usually do from the porch with the accompanying carols minus the nativity play. Dress warmly! If you have any questions contact Chris Koster at [email protected].

https://quakerspeak.com//michael-birkel-form-without-subs/ "Quakers threw out everything they saw as empty forms in the church of their day, including communion and baptism." A nugget of history from Michael Birkel

Join us for Meeting for Worship! Every Sunday 09:30 AM (Worship begins at 10 AM) Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting... https://zoom.us/j/459326274 Meeting ID: 459 326 274 Password: 476777 One tap mobile +19292056099,,459326274# US (New York) +13126266799,,459326274# US (Chicago)

Clerk’s Corner, November 2020 A recent Powell House workshop led by a young convinced Friend from the Chatham-Summit New Jersey meeting challenged and engaged participants to consider the original meaning of the Lambs War. Early Friends used this name for their witness in the world turned upside down during the English Civil War. They brought their beliefs, the Lamb’s Weapons, what we now call the Testimonies, literally to the streets, to challenge the Church of Englan...d and the royalty. Adults walked the walk and were often imprisoned for persistent advocacy and service in addressing prison conditions, economic injustice, the devastations of war and the lack of integrity in government and social institutions. Children held worship in the absence of their parents. In the current times are we prepared to stand in the Virtues to actively live by the testimonies as the early Friends meant? Do we practice standing in the Power of Spirit to ground our actions, our work, our daily choices of being present where we live, work, and volunteer? We are now very much turned upside down proportional to the instant, global connectedness of a world both the same and very different than in the time of early Friends. Quakerism is enriched by the diverse cultures and communities where it is practiced. As individuals, in our Meeting, connected to other Friends near and far, we are called to be open to the opportunities to draw from our roots and branches. What canst thou do? Anne Liske, Clerk