Editorial – Willy & Penn

We need you! 50 ideas for submissions

15 November 2020

Dear readers,

We need your help! Currently, we do not have any contributions in our queue which is why we cannot post anything this Sunday. Instead, we want to use this space to remind you that you are more than welcome to submit something yourself! We are pretty sure that every one of our readers has something in store to share and we would love to publish it! We love to elevate Young European Quaker voices through this online magazine.

You are willing to participate but you just don’t know what to do?

We got you! Here are 50 ideas for content you might draw from. The excuse “I would love to participate but I just do not know what to submit” doesn’t count anymore. 😉

50 ideas for W&P content

What does Quakerism mean to you?
Your experience as a Young Quaker in your local Quaker meeting
Stories about your activism
Theology – what does that mean to you?
Stories about how you live out your Quaker values
What do the testimonies mean to you?
Art you created (be it a huge and detailed painting or some scribbles in your QF&P, we wanna see!)
Poetry
What is your vision for the community of young Friends?
Share your most prized memories of EMEYF or your Quaker journey
Book recommendations?
Book review
Account of a mystical experience
Story about when you felt most/least connected to the Spirit/your inner Light/G-d
Your experience of virtual Quaker meetings and gatherings
Problems/conflict in our communities – and how we resolve them
Growing up in a Quaker family – how is it different from discovering Quakers later in life?
Stories about different experiences in different Quaker meetings – we share the same practices but do we all do them the same way?
Being a young Quaker with few/no other young Quakers in the local meeting
Talking about Theology with non-Quakers
Being a Quaker in a non-Quaker family – do you share about your spiritual journey? If so, how?
Revising QF&P – how did you experience this process?
Review of Quaker lectures or conversations about it
Quakers and how they are portrayed in culture
Experience of being in two faith communities at the same time
Transitioning from one faith tradition to Quakerism
How did you discover Quakerism? What drew you in?
Quaker mentorship – how other Quakers shaped your spiritual journey
Quaker stereotypes
“Growing out of” the the young Quaker community
Art which inspires/has inspired your spiritual journey (be it poetry or paintings or music or…)
Coping with being an isolated young Friend
Membership – what does it mean to you? How did you experience the process of becoming a member? Tell us about your journey to deciding to become a member!
Reacting to negative backlash from family/friends/another community about being a young Friend
How could the Quaker membership model change to be more flexible and to fit with the often less geographically rooted lifestyle of young Friends? (i.e. Friends who move regularly for studies or often spend time abroad)
Interfaith work and dialogue as a young Friend
Visiting Friends in other countries
Different branches of Quakerism – what are young Friends in other branches and traditions up to?
Quaker memes and jokes
Quaker missions and missionary work – what is your stance on this topic, which is handled so differently in different Quaker traditions?
Aging Quaker communities – what can young Friends do?
Being a pacifist at university, when your curriculum and/or your lecturers are not pacifist
Quakerism and racism
Being a POC/belonging to a minority and being in the Quaker community – how was your experience? What can meetings do to be more welcoming and inclusive?
Being LGBTQ+ and a young Quaker – how was your experience? What can meetings do to be more welcoming and inclusive?
Traditional Quaker lifestyles, occupations and crafts
Reports about Quaker events
Recommendations and/or reviews of other Quaker publications, blogs, podcasts…
Experiences on very different political views within one Quaker meeting – how to deal with them in a Quaker way?
Letter to your younger self who just discovered Quakerism

Happy writing and creating! Send us your submissions via this form: https://willyandpenn.com/contact/

Lena

Introduction of a new Editorial Team Member | Vorwort eines neuen Ko-Editors

1 December 2019

German below

Hello F/friends!

I am new to the editorial team of Willy & Penn and would like to make a small post to introduce myself. My name is Lena and I am from Lörrach in Southern Germany at the border to Switzerland and France. I attend Freiburg meeting and enjoy reading, baking bread, and spending time with my dog Fuchur. He is five and a black Labrador, and he is quite Quakerly himself actually; he sees the Light in everyone and would probably greet a burglar with a toy to play with, and is usually found breaking up fights between other dogs in the dog park – all non-violently, of course.

I got the role as W&P co-editor at the last (and my first) annual EMEYF gathering in Quaker house Brussels and am very happy to be able to get involved in this way. I hope that I can learn more about our community and connect with many people through my work for Willy & Penn. What I especially love about this website is the freedom that is given to the authors of the contributions and the huge diversity that results from it. We have a lot in store for the upcoming weeks because we produced some exciting content at the EMEYF gathering!

Speaking of content, you can view this as a reminder that you are always very welcome to send us your contributions! As you know, you can send us anything that is somehow related to Quakers, be it art, a poem, a report about something you have been doing or something you have been learning about or anything else, really. We love to hear from you!

Lena (co-editor of W&P)

Hallo Freunde!

Ich bin neu im Editorial Team von Willy &Penn und mich in diesem kleinen Beitrag gerne kurz vorstellen. Ich bin Lena und komme aus Lörrach in Süddeutschland, direkt an der Grenze zur Schweiz und Frankreich. Ich besuche die Freiburger Quäkergruppe regelmäßig zur Andacht und mag es zu lesen, Brot zu backen und Zeit mit meinem Hund Fuchur zu verbringen. Er ist fünf und ein schwarzer Labrador, und er ist tatsächlich selbst auch ziemlich quäkerisch: er sieht das Licht in jedem und würde einen Einbrecher vermutlich fröhlich mit einem Spielzeug begrüßen. Man kann ihn oft auf der Hundewiese finden wo er Streit zwischen anderen Hunden schlichtet – das tut er natürlich gewaltfrei, versteht sich von selbst.

Ich habe die Rolle als Ko-Editorin für W&P beim letzten (und meinem ersten) jährlichen EMEYF Treffen im Quäkerhaus Brüssel angenommen und ich freue mich sehr mich auf diese Weise einbringen zu können. Ich hoffe, dass ich durch meine Arbeit mit W&P mehr über unsere Gemeinschaft lernen und viele neue Menschen kennenlernen kann. An diesem Online-Magazin mag ich besonders, dass den Autoren sehr viel Freiheit gelassen wird und deshalb die Beträge sehr abwechslungsreich sind. Wir haben einiges in Produktion für die nächsten Wochen weil wir aufregende Beiträge beim letzten EMEYF Treffen erstellt haben!

Wenn wir gerade von Beiträgen sprechen; ihr dürft diesen Post gerne als Erinnerung lesen, dass ihr immer willkommen seid uns eure Beiträge zu schicken! Wie ihr wisst, dürft ihr uns alles senden was auf irgendeine Weise mit Quäkern etwas zu tun hat, sei es Kunst, ein Gedicht, ein Bericht über etwas was ihr gemacht habt oder worüber ihr etwas gelernt habt, oder etwas ganz anderes. Wir freuen uns von euch zu hören!

Lena (Ko-Editorin W&P)

Pictures Of Spring!

22 April 2019

Dear readers,
Thank you for the beautiful pictures of spring from many parts of Europe that you have sent to us. W & P wishes you a nice Easter holiday!

Chers lecteurs,
Merci pour les belles photos de printemps de nombreuses régions d’Europe que vous nous avez envoyées. W & P vous souhaite de bonnes vacances de Pâques!

Уважаемые читатели!
Спасибо за прекрасные фотографии весны из многих частей Европы, которые вы отправили нам. W & P желает вам хорошего пасхального праздника!

Beste lezers,
Bedankt voor de prachtige foto’s van de lente uit vele delen van Europa die u ons hebt toegestuurd. W & P wenst u een fijne paasvakantie!

Kära läsare,
Tack för de vackra bilderna av våren från många delar av Europa som du har skickat till oss. W & P önskar dig en trevlig påskhelg!

Queridos lectores,
Gracias por las hermosas fotos de primavera de muchas partes de Europa que nos ha enviado. ¡W&P te desea unas buenas vacaciones de Pascua!

Liebe Leser,
Vielen Dank für die schönen Bilder des Frühlings aus vielen Teilen Europas, die ihr uns geschickt habt. W & P wünscht euch schöne Osterfeiertage!

Melanie (Co-editor)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Take a picture of spring! │ Mach ein Foto vom Frühling!

14 April 2019

German below:

Dear readers,

in one week, on Easter Sunday, we would like to publish a photo reportage with pictures inspired by the spring. To do that, we need your assistance! What is your connection to this time of the year? Be creative and send us your pictures. You can also write a short sentence to it/them.

Please take notice that any persons on those pictures need to give their okay with publishing for reasons of data protection. So, send us your photos until the 19. April 2019 at our e-mail address: willyandpenn@gmail.com. Thank you very much and happy snapping!

Liebe Leser,

wir möchten in einer Wochen, zu Ostern gerne eine Bilderwand mit Fotos vom Frühling veröffentlichen. Dafür brauchen wir eure Unterstützung! Was verbindet ihr mit dieser Jahreszeit? Seid kreativ und schickt uns eure Bilder. Gerne könnt ihr diese auch mit einem kurzen Satz versehen.

Bitte beachtet, dass wenn Personen auf den Bildern sind, diese laut Datenschutzverordnung ihr Okay zur Veröffentlichung geben müssen. Also, sendet uns die Bilder bis zum 19. April 2019 an unsere E-Mailadresse: willyandpenn@gmail.com. Vielen Dank und frohes knipsen!

Introduction of the new Editorial Team │Vorwort des neuen Editorenteams

3 March 2019

English below

Vor ca. 4 Monaten besuchte ich erstmals die Seite von Willy & Penn und war von seinem Aufbau und Inhalt begeistert. Ich kann nicht genau sagen woran es liegt, aber das Online-Magazin von EMEYF erschien mir viel mehr, als nur eine bloße Aneinanderreihung von Artikeln. Mit seinen differenzierten, mehrsprachigen Beiträgen spiegelt es, meines Empfindens, das Wesen unserer Gemeinschaft wieder. Das Potential dieser Plattform und die Möglichkeiten der (Weiter-)Entwicklung vor meinen Augen erweckten in mir das Interesse, daran teilzuhaben – vielleicht einen Beitrag zu schreiben o.ä.

Wie regelmäßige Besucher von W&P wissen, wurde das Magazin vor etwas mehr als einem Jahr, im Rahmen des LAP wieder entdeckt und als Online-Medium neu belebt. Während dieses Probelaufs wurde jedoch deutlich, dass es fester Strukturen bedarf, denn eine Person allein, kann ein solches Vorhaben kaum bewältigen. (Dafür, dass sie es so wunderbar gemacht hat, meine aufrichtige Bewunderung für Emmie). Auf dem AM im Herbst wurde daher beschlossen, dass zukünftig ein dreiköpfiges Editoren-Team, bestehend aus Emmie, James und mir, W&P betreuen soll.

Ferner wurde über die zukünftige Ausrichtung des Magazins gesprochen. Für wen soll W&P geschrieben sein? Wer darf sich daran beteiligen und womit? Sollte der Aufbau verändert werden? Um es kurz zu machen, es bleibt bestehen, was bisher existiert. W&P ist das Online-Magazin von EMEYF, soll sich darüber hinaus aber an alle Quäker, Freunde und Interessierte richten. Jeder kann, darf (und soll) daran partizipieren, in dem er uns Artikel, Bilder, Fotoreportagen, Gedichte oder andere Beiträge zusendet. Lediglich der Bezug zu den Quäkern bzw. zum Quäkertum sollte bestehen (und das ist ja eigentlich ein sehr weites Feld). Der Aufbau von W&P mit seiner Sprachenvielfalt, den Themen und Beiträgen, der die Vielfalt unseres Glaubens, unserer Lebenserfahrungen und Umwelt widerspiegelt, wird beibehalten, aber mit der Zeit erweitert werden.

Daher liebe Leser, ist es unser erklärtes Ziel für die nächsten drei Jahre, mit eurer Unterstützung (und damit sind von euch eingereichte Beiträge gemeint 🙂 ) das Projekt W&P weiter fort zusetzen und damit dem Austausch von (jungen) Quäkern eine weitere Plattform zu geben.

Melanie (Ko-Editorin W&P)

About 4 months ago I visited the website of Willy & Penn for the first time and was enthusiastic about its structure and content. I can’t say exactly why, but EMEYF’s online magazine seemed much more than just a string of articles. With its diverse, multilingual articles, it reflects, in my opinion, the essence of our community. The potential of this platform and the possibilities of (further) development before my eyes aroused in me the interest to participate in it – perhaps to write a contribution or something similar.

As regular visitors to W&P know, the magazine was rediscovered and revitalized as an online medium just over a year ago during the LAP. During this test run, however, it became clear that fixed structures were needed, because one person alone can hardly cope with such a project. (For making it so wonderful, my sincere admiration for Emmie). At the AM in autumn it was therefore decided that in future a three-person editing team, consisting of Emmie, James and myself, would take care of W&P.

The future direction of the magazine was also discussed. Who should W&P be written for? Who is allowed to participate and with what? Should the structure be changed? To make a long story short, what exists so far will remain. W&P is the online magazine of EMEYF, but should also be aimed at all Quakers, friends and interested parties. Everyone can, may (and should) participate by sending us articles, pictures, photo reports, poems or other contributions. Only the relation to the Quakers should exist (and that is actually a very wide field). The structure of W&P with its diversity of languages, themes and contributions, reflecting the diversity of our faith, life experiences and environment, will be maintained, but expanded over time.

Therefore, dear readers, it is our declared goal for the next three years, with your support (and by this we mean contributions submitted by you 🙂 ) to continue the W&P project and thus this platform for the exchange of (young) Quakers’ voices.

Melanie (co-editor W&P)

Editorial | Data protection

27 May 2018

Dear readers,

A Friend recently asked me whether, like EMEYF, Willy and Penn needs a page outlining it’s data protection policy. Now, because I’ve set up this magazine through WordPress.com I can only follow their data protection policies but nevertheless, it may be worthwhile to explain what these are. WordPress is part of a larger company called Automattic, and you can read their full privacy policy for website visitors here.

Three housekeeping announcements:

> Apologies for only providing this text in English. Many of the terms used are very technical and I am afraid of some of them getting a bit ‘lost in translation’. If you feel called & comfortable to translate it anyway, please contact me.

> If you do read English but are unsure what some of the things mentioned mean, please contact me as well. (Or use google. Google probably knows it better than me.)

> This might not be the most interesting read, but if you make it all the way to the end I will show you some pictures of cats.

What is the GDPR?

Unless you have managed to avoid all contact with the internet in the past few months, you will probably already know that GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, a new data protection law in the EU starting from the 25th of May 2018. Its aim is to give citizens of the EU control over their personal data and force organizations to be more conscious about data privacy.

For example, users must confirm that their data can be collected, each organization must be transparent about how your data is stored and how it is going to be used. Moreover, it has to be made clear to you how you can exercise your right to withdraw your consent to the use of personal data (consequently deleting the data) at any time.

What does this mean for Willy & Penn?

There are several ways in which you may interact with this website. Everyone who has ever visited this website (which you must have in some way if you’re reading this) is a visitor as described below. Moreover, some of you are subscribed to the W&P mailing list (yay, thanks!), in which case not only WordPress but also the website editor (me) can see your email address.

Visitors

WordPress automatically collects some information about visitors to Willy & Penn:

Technical Data from a Visitor’s Computer and Etcetera: WordPress collects the information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available about visitors to a Site, such as the IP address, browser type, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.
Visitor Interactions: WordPress collects information about a visitor’s interactions with a Site, including likes and ratings.
Location Information: WordPress may determine the approximate location of a visitor’s device from the IP address. They collect and use this information to, for example, tally for me how many people visit W&P from each country.
Akismet Commenter Information: Information about visitors who comment on W&P is collected by the Akismet anti-spam service. This includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address… and the comment itself, of course).
Information from Cookies and Other Technologies: WordPress uses cookies to improve your experience of the website. To learn more, please have a look at their Cookie Policy.

WordPress says it uses this information in order to provide their services to users (= the editor of a website) and their sites. The information can be accessed by their staff members and their contractors where needed. They may also use and share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify any individual. For instance, they may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our services. Read more about this here.

Please note that if you comment on an article, that comment will be made public, which means that any personal information you give in it can be used by third parties or indexed by search engines. You need to enter an email address to comment, but this will not be public.

If you would like to have any comment removed, please contact me.

Extra information about the W&P mailing list

When you sign up for the W&P mailing list, your information is not only stored by WordPress but can also be seen by the W&P editor (me). The editor is required by the same law (plus you have my Quaker promise) to only use your email address for what you gave W&P permission to do by clicking ‘confirm’ in the sign-up email: to send you an update each time a new W&P article is released. I have not stored your information anywhere outside the WordPress platform. Moreover, I can only see your email address since this is the only information required for the mailing list. I cannot, for example, see your full name.

If you would like to unsubscribe to the mailing list you can follow the link in any of the W&P emails or get in touch with me. Your email address will then be removed from our records.

Lastly, if you would like to request access to the personal data saved about you, please contact me. I will then contact WordPress to gather this information.

Hurray! You made it! A promise is a promise: here are some pictures of various cats in my life. (Cats are amazing! I would LOVE to have one, but please don’t give me one for my birthday because my apartment is too small..)

This is Semmel (like the bread). We’ve nicknamed her ‘The Tiger’ – can you see why?
[Credits for this amazing shot go to my grandfather.]

P1010590

This cutie is Matze (like the cracker).

P1030049

We call him “The Cow” but he also makes a good hen.

This is Moon, she belongs to a former housemate of my boyfriend. Having to miss her was álmost a reason not to move in together ;).

And when stay over at my aunt’s house, this is how I have to edit W&P…

That’s it for today. If you haven’t seen the birth announcement of Eleanor Stuhr yet, I suggest you pop over to the previous W&P post for some baby happiness. If you are all caught up: adieu!

I hope you have a lovely morning/afternoon/evening/night.

In Friendship,

Emmie