You are here

Join Friends from around the world on the next FWCC Quaker conversation

In its role of providing connective tissue, FWCC is offering a series of  Quaker Conversation sessions to any Friends who want to listen and learn and contribute to concerns important to us, particularly during this time of grief and reflection and, transformation
Session 6:
Please join us on November 28 for Quaker Conversation 6: What is mine to do? Quaker journeys in the Asia West Pacific Section where we will hear from Jo Vallentine of Australia Yearly Meeting and Gerry Yokota of Japan Yearly Meeting.

These two remarkable women have lots to say about how being a Quaker has affected their lives, calling them to their work and activism. “I have been determined to take my Quakerism with me wherever I have felt called” says Jo, referring in part to her 8 years in the Australian Senate. Gerry will talk about being a Quaker in Japan and the importance of Quaker diversity, likening it to the spaces in music. Both women have lived into their Quakerism in inspiring ways.

This conversation will be held at the following times:

  • London, United Kingdom 07:00 GMT
  • Paris, France 08:00 CET
  • Bhopal, India 12:30 IST
  • Western Australia. 15.00 
  • Manila, Philippines 15.00
  • Singapore.  15.00
  • Tokyo, Japan 16:00 JST
  • Seoul, South Korea  16.00
  • Brisbane, Australia 17:00 AEST
  • Melbourne, Australia 18:00 AEDT
  • Auckland, New Zealand  19.00
     
  • Gerry Yokota has been a member of Osaka Monthly Meeting, Japan Yearly Meeting since 1993. She grew up in a Southern Baptist church in the U.S. and became a Quaker as an adult. In her professional career teaching university English to undergraduates and cultural and literary theory to graduate students, she seeks to plant seeds of awareness of issues of social justice and climate justice through courses focusing on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Gerry says:
As an American who has spent the last three decades of my life in Japan, I am keenly conscious of the need to “feel where the words come from,” as John Woolman said in reference to communicating with Indigenous people he encountered in the American colonies. In this Quaker Conversation, I will talk about how Japan Yearly Meeting sustains my never-ending quest to realize What Is Mine To Do in my professional life as an educator in Japan.
 
Jo Vallentine
 – mother, grandmother, teacher, activist, accidental politician, serial offender, has been connected with Western Australia Quaker Meeting since 1972.

Jo will be exploring:

  1. Pathway to Quakers (black sheep of family, Catholic boarding school education, finding Meeting with fabulous mentors)
  2. Anti-nuclear campaigning accompanying motherhood, being led to contest a place in the Australian Senate in 1984 (against all odds, winning a seat)
  3. The accidental Senator (being a peoples’ representative through a Quaker lens, simultaneously creating community)
  4. Continuing with activism (including nonviolence trainings, Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects, committing holy obedience and landing in gaol, round Australia Pilgrimage with Chernobyl survivors connecting with indigenous groups, helping to establish Alternatives to Violence Project in Western Australia
  5. Current contributions (Extinction Rebellion grandparents’ group, lobbying for de-militarisation which could fund all of U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals)
  • This event will be held in English. If you need additional interpretation or assistance, please contact Faith Biddle at the FWCC World Office: faithb@fwcc.world with the subject line ‘interpretation request’.
  • This event will be hosted online. Once you register on Eventbrite, you will get a link to the zoom meeting where this event will be hosted.

Register through Eventbrite. Please join us for an hour and a half of inspiring conversation.

 

Last modified: 
Saturday, 28 November 2020 - 3:21pm