Website: santacruzquakers.org
Contact email: scfm@santacruzquakers.org
Look for the weekly email blast on Friday at 5 p.m.

First Day Schedule

10:30 a.m., Meeting for Worship.
12:30 p.m., Second First Day. Meeting for Worship for the Purpose of Business. Zoom available.
9:30 a.m., Third First Day. Advices & Queries worship sharing. In person at the Meetinghouse.
9:45 a.m., Hymn singing. In person in the worship room. Check the email blast for the schedule.

Live Oak Friends Meeting in Salinas welcomes Santa Cruz Friends to its Zoom worship, held on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Sundays at 11:00 a.m. Check the email blast for the link.

Meeting Calendar

Every Monday, 9:15 a.m. Quaker hike. Contact Mimi for location.
Every Tuesday, 10 a.m. All men are invited to meet for coffee and conversation at The Shrine.
Every Thursday, 7-8 p.m. p.m. Online meeting for worship. Check the email blast for the link or log on through the webpage homepage.
1st, 4th, and 5th Wednesdays Faith Community Shelter at the Meetinghouse.

Saturday, May 2, 9 a.m. Spring work party on Saturday.

Sunday, June 28 after Meeting. Fundraiser for the Puentes Para Las Familias fund (managed by Community Bridges) which benefits families who have had someone deported or detained.

Quaker Center Calendar

Every morning, 7:30 a.m. Quaker Center online Meeting for Worship.
Every Wednesday, 10 a.m. Quaker Center online Worship Sharing.
First Wednesday, 6 p.m. Potluck in the Orchard Lodge followed by worship at 7:15 p.m.

Tuesdays in May, online 6:30 to 8 p.m. Organizing for Climate Resilience with Cherice Bock. This virtual series will explore ways that individuals and faith communities can begin to build climate
resilient communities.
May 15-17, in-person. The Quaker MBA? with Eric Lindner. Do the Quaker Testimonies have a home in the world of business? Yes! Eric will give reasons why Quaker Testimonies are an advantage in commercial affairs.
May 29-31, in-person. Geography of Change, with Valerie Brown. Program is currently full. Send an email to nico@quakercenter.org to join a waiting list.

For more information on these and other Quaker Center programs, see: http://www.quakercenter.org/programs/

Approved Action Minutes from Meeting for Business, 4/12/2026

Minute #1, 4/12/26: Santa Cruz Friends Meeting approves the narrative portion of the March 2026 minutes of Meeting for Business. 

Minute #2, 4/12/26: Santa Cruz Friends Meeting will pay up to 80% of the cost of early registration for anyone active in Meeting who wants to attend this year’s Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Session, July 17-22 in Monterey, either as a commuter or via Zoom, whether they attend all five days or only selected ones. Anyone who is planning to stay on site may receive up to 80% of the early registration commuter cost. Funding for this will come from non-earmarked funds.

Minute #3, 4/12/26: Santa Cruz Friends Meeting approves the recommended changes to the Meeting Guidelines.

Minute #4, 4/12/26: Santa Cruz Friends Meeting approves Ellie-Aucoin-Unruhe to serve on the Meeting Life Committee through March of 2029. 

The following minute was approved at a called Meeting for Business on April 19, 2026:

Minute #1, 4/19/26: Santa Cruz Friends Meeting approves the transfer of membership of Keenan Lorenzato to Redwood Forest Friends Meeting. We hold fond memories of Kennan and are glad that he will continue to be a member of the Society of Friends. We wish him well in his new spiritual home. 

Advices and Queries: Stewardship & Vocation

John Woolman said, “As Christians all we possess are the gifts of God… To turn all the treasures we possess into the channel of Universal Love becomes the business of our lives.” The principle of stewardship applies to all we have and are. As individuals, we are called to use our time, our various abilities, our strength, our money, and our material possessions with care, managing them wisely and sharing them generously.

From the indwelling Seed of God, we discover our particular gifts and discern the service to which we are called. In making choices about occupation or education, consider the way that offers the fullest opportunity to develop your individual abilities and contribute to the world community while providing for yourself and your family. In daily work, manifest a spirit of justice and understanding, and thus give a living witness to the truth.

Be ready to limit engagements, to withdraw for a time, or even to retire from an activity that inhibits your ability to follow a higher call. Try to discern the right moment to accept new responsibilities as well as to relinquish responsibility that can pass to others. Be open to your calling in different stages of life. Meetings need the strength and vigor of young people as well as the experience and wisdom of elders. Although they may not be able to contribute great financial support, their energy and insight invigorate the community. As people begin careers and families, they may need the spiritual and experienced help of the Meeting. Later, when families are growing up and careers are established, greater participation in the Meeting and greater financial support may become possible. Welcome the approach of old age, your own and others’, as an opportunity for wisdom and greater attachment to the Light. Meetings should be ready with material and spiritual support for those suffering from unemployment or facing difficult vocational decisions.

-How have I been faithful to the leadings of the Spirit in choosing work or vocation?
-What am I doing with my talents, time, money, and possessions? Am I sharing them according to the Light I am given?
-Is my conduct at the workplace consistent with my life as a Friend?
-How does my daily work enhance my spiritual life?
-How does the Meeting help and support members who are in job transitions?

Quaker Center Quote of the Week

“True thanking is to enjoy God. Gratitude is a true understanding of who we really are. With reverence and awe we turn ourselves around toward the work God leads us to do, enjoying and thanking with our real selves.” ~ Julian of Norwich 

Queries

• Do you think we must enjoy in order to be thankful?

• Have you experienced gratitude as authenticity? 

• Do reverence and awe accompany gratitude and authenticity for you?

• Have any of these ideas encouraged your leadings toward action?

Library Corner

Did you know that our library has over 1,500 individual books, with duplicate copies of many titles? The most popular include the Ben Pink Dandelion books On Transformation (used by the study group) and Celebrating the Quaker Way. Books on Quaker history are also very popular, as are books on Quaker faith and practice. All library books are cataloged and shelved and can be found in our online catalog where you can search by author, title, or subject. 

To check out a book with your smart phone, follow the directions on the library table. If you need help, speak with a librarian (Deborah, Nancy, or Mimi). When you return your book, place it in the bin on the desk in the library that’s marked with the sign, ‘Return Books Here’. Please don’t put it back on the shelf as it does need to be checked in first. 

The Library Working Group meets periodically to care for our library. We are now in the process of cataloging our precious collection of Pendle Hill pamphlets. The idea for the pamphlets was proposed in 1933 by Quaker devotional writer Douglas Steere, who suggested ‘tracts for the times’ to interpret Quakerism's ‘living genius’. The first pamphlet, published in 1934, by Vincent Nicholson, was titled Cooperation and Coercion as Methods of Social Change. Now, 93 years later, the tradition continues with 6-8 pamphlets published every year. The most recent was published in April of this year, bringing the total number of Pendle Hill pamphlets to about 500!

The Library Working Group welcomes donations that meet the following guidelines. A book must:

• Be about Quakerism

• Be related to spiritual development

• If a children’s book, support Quaker values

• Not be readily available from the public library

Please speak to a librarian before leaving books in the library.

Who Uses Our Meetinghouse?

By Mimi

Our Meetinghouse is beloved by 20 groups who call it home. We have 14 groups that use the Meetinghouse once a week, 5 that use it once a month, and one group that uses it daily. Sixteen of the 20 groups are 12-step, of a wide variety. Some are AA, some are Al-Anon, several are Adult Children of Alcoholics, one is Overeaters Anonymous, and one is Co-Dependents Anonymous. Of the groups which are not 12-step, one is a support group for those mourning the loss of a child, two are spiritual groups, and one is the Song Circle. Most of the groups have been meeting since long before COVID, and at least one has been meeting for about 20 years. 

These groups appreciate using our Meetinghouse and take good care of it. I never worry about theft, vandalism, or damage. Whenever I interface with the groups, they always express how much they feel at home after using the Meetinghouse for many years. One user said, “You have a beautiful ministry with the way you make your space available.” Our rates are cheaper than any others I know of, so it really is a ministry of sorts, making it possible for these important groups to meet.

The meetinghouse is available every second and third Wednesday from 1pm on. To see the full Community Use Calendar, click here. 

Call to PacYM Annual Session – Experiment!

July 17-22, 2026, in person and online

Pacific Yearly Meeting will be held this year in practically our own backyard—at CSU Monterey Bay in Seaside, just 40 miles from Santa Cruz! Registration is open in May, and some financial assistance is available, including scholarships from our meeting through application to Property, Finance, and Stewardship.

Here is the invitation from PacYM clerk Robin DuRant:

Dear Friends,

The past year has thrown a lot at us—social and political violence, moral and value-based challenges, use and abuse of natural, financial and personal resources—to name a very few. When our outward social and political structures fail, we need to turn to our spiritual communities and inward light, seed, oneness–the source of our solace and strength. 

Many of our Monthly Meetings are experiencing shrinking pains or growing pains. Many of our committees—including nominating committees—are limping along with not enough members to do their work.  Our financial resources don’t match the financial costs we have in conducting our business (which is a form of worship). And finally, how do we share news, important information, requests for help, or successful ideas with each other? 

So, I suggest experimenting. We’ve been talking at annual sessions for at least six years about the challenges we face. Let’s try some new things, move off center, take some risks. But not without acknowledging that experimentation has a process. My first experiment is an idea map as the call to Annual Session: I invite you to interact with these ideas and bring your own. 

Lisa Graustein, a member of New England Yearly Meeting, who has traveled widely among Friends in the US and globally, carries a ministry focused on addressing the underlying dynamics of white supremacy, colonization, and climate change. She will be speaking to us about how our faith and practice inform each other. 

Love and Blessings, Robin DuRant, Clerk, Pacific Yearly Meeting