LIVING FAITHFULLY: SELF-COMMUNITY-WORLD
… a love (led) letter…
Addressing you as a Friend, we are witness to being part of a wider Will that is not fulfilled in each of us alone, not even in all humanity, but in life on this planet Earth as a whole. In the spirit of being connected, we embrace the strength of opening ourselves towards the joy of hope as well as to the most demanding and threatening questions of our time.
Delighted and grateful, we shared the gift of being provided with the “breath” of vitality for our vision of the future during a “breathtaking” week of encounters in the light. Nourished by this, we wish to invite you, Friend, regardless of who or where you are, to join us. We hope these words meet you on your path in the labyrinth of miracles. Allow us to transport you to the air of our gathering with just one minute of focussed awareness towards the invisible atmosphere here. May this film speak to your condition. We kindly ask you to continue reading after watching…
Welcome back, Friend! If caring is sharing, what did we not share yet? The information you long for, may be the following:
On the 30th of March about 40 people made their way to Eggenburg near Vienna in Austria to spend one week together. Three Friends also attended the meeting online. Friends travelled from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Georgia, Norway, Italy, Austria, Germany and Australia, creating a diverse and vibrant group.
The theme of Living Faithfully: Self, Community, World was the foundation of several discussions and it was interesting to reflect upon how the situation of World affects every Self, and how we can find hope and strength within our European and Middle East Young Friends Quaker Community. We were grateful to host Arne Springorum, a German Quaker climate activist from the Czech Republic, who shared his view on the ecological crisis, his activism, and motivation. As young people who are likely to bear witness to the long term effects of climate associated crises we had a difficult, yet honest, discussion about our feelings on the current reality of our world. In spite of feelings of disempowerment and of these heavier conversation subjects, we brainstormed how we could take action and how we could support those who already do. This led us to form a discussion group to follow up on these ongoing issues. (https://willyandpenn.com/on-the-path-of-sustainability/)
Our week was also filled with singing and dancing together, cooking delicious food, playing pool and card games and exploring lovely Eggenburg and its surrounding nature. We closed each day as a community with a 30 minute epilogue, inside and outside in the courtyard. As per tradition we held several Meetings for Business, where we addressed subjects such as the updating of the website, the possibility of a sliding scale finance policy, and who would be nominated to fill various roles in the community.
The EMEYF Annual meeting will take place in November. The next EMEYF Spring Gathering will be Easter 2025 somewhere in Scandinavia.
What makes this a love letter? LOVE MATTERS!
Try to find some love in in all our questions yet to be answered. Stay curious, inspired, and most of all … live adventurously!