Oxford Friends attended a vigil for racial justice June 8 in uptown Oxford. One of the speakers was a former attender. Some pastoral Friends saw our sign and stopped to chat!
Author: oxfordfriendsmeeting
Barbara Diehl
Oxford Friends Meeting mourns the passage of our beloved Friend, Barbara Diehl, who was a joint member with Clear Creek Meeting. A birthright Quaker, Barbara was a founding member of our meeting. Every year, she organized the Meeting to contribute school kits and hygiene kits for people in need, both in the United States and abroad, via Church Women United. She also annually helped the meeting participate in the Community Empty Bowls Luncheon. Every month, she would remind us of upcoming birthdays and anniversaries in the Meeting. Pictured is Sandra Ward-Angell, showing that Barbara posthumously received an Oxford Citizen of the Years award for her many and wide-ranging community contributions, as a forcefully compassionate witness to the world of human needs around us.
Advent Event
Our Advent Event centered on the theme “Love, Peace, and Joy, What Canst Thou Say?” We shared relevant inspirational poetry, quotations, lives, and art works. Pictured is the Ball family’s jointly-constructed “Peace” banner. Our service project was to collect coats and warm garments to be given away to needy students at the high school where an Oxford Friends member teaches. We were reminded of the economic inequality that surrounds us and were grateful for the opportunity to share with others.
Back-to-School
This week Oxford Friends assembled school supply bags and hygiene kits for the Church World Service Kits Project. CWS distributes the school bags and hygiene kits, along with baby kits, blankets, and emergency clean-up buckets, around the world to impoverished areas, refugee camps, and places hit by flood, tornado, or other disasters.
For more information on where Oxford Friends’ CWS kits are going, please follow this link: CWS Impact Report 2017.
Dear President Trump
We are young, but we have opened our eyes and see what’s going on in the world. We want to have our ideas heard.
In her letter to President Trump for the 4th Annual Student Voices issue of Friends Journal, Oxford Friends youth member Gillian Murray wrote America needs to be a safe place for anybody and everybody. Gillian was inspired by Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In her own words, “Mr. Trump’s presidency has stirred up a lot of thoughts for many people…I wanted to get some of those thoughts on paper. To Kill a Mockingbird represents injustice perfectly and I think describes our situation today very well.”
Interfaith Fest
Oxford Friends joined faith and secular groups from Miami University and Oxford for Interfaith Fest on Sunday, April 23rd at the Uptown Park. The afternoon was filled with fun, food, live music, games, and lots of good conversation.
Thanks to The Interfaith Center for hosting the event, which we hope will be repeated in years to come.
Oxford Friends Support Civil Rights
At the December 6, 2016 Oxford City Council Meeting, Mayor Kate Rousmaniere presented a Proclamation renewing the City of Oxford’s commitment to civil rights, civility and mutual respect. This proclamation was the result of discussion by several Oxford community groups including Oxford Friends, the Oxford Unit of NAACP, Oxford Chapter of PFLAG, the Oxford Community Relations Commission, and the Interfaith Center.
For the full text, follow this link to the Proclamation, or watch a video of the presentation online at the City of Oxford.
World Quaker Day 2016
Inspired by Faith — Witnessing Together in the World was the theme this year for World Quaker Day. Oxford Friends Meeting celebrated the annual event on October 2nd.
