Meeting for Discernment - Winter 2025
Has your meeting been facing questions about growing as a healthy, faithful Quaker community? At the Winter 2025 Meeting for Discernment, we will be seeking Light collectively in extended worship and deep listening using these queries:
How do we welcome and share the experiential essence of Quakerism with the people who are newly coming to our meetings to assure that they are receiving the spiritual part of our faith tradition as well as the visible witness part of our tradition? How do we deepen the spiritual lives of those in the community?
Please consider sending someone from your meeting as a representative to the Meeting for Discernment. This Friend will settle into worship with the larger community, might speak on the condition of their meeting, and return to their monthly meeting to share a sense of what they heard.
Some meetings have experimented with holding a mini-meeting for discernment with the query. This could provide an opportunity to listen for ideas applicable to your meeting, to bring ideas and concerns to all other meetings, or both. You can do this on your own schedule as your monthly meeting calendar allows. If you are able to gather before the Winter Meeting for Discernment, you might want to send someone from your meeting or send us an email (m4d-steering-committee@nyym.org) describing what happened.
The Meetings for Discernment will be in three sessions online via Zoom on Saturday, March 1st. There will be a Zoom meeting on the evening of Friday, February 28th at 7 pm for anyone new to the Meeting for Discernment or interested in holding space as an elder. Below are more details for each session.
Friday, February 28, 7:00pm - 8:30pm via Zoom: Orientation and preparation
The first half-hour will be an opportunity for Friends new to the meeting for discernment to learn about the meetings for discernment. Beginning at 7:30, the focus will change to those Friends interested in holding the body throughout the meetings for discernment sessions. Friends will share their experiences of eldership and prepare for Saturday’s sessions. All are invited to attend as much or as little of the evening as is right for them.
Saturday, March 1, 9:00am - 11:30am: First Session
In this session, we will have extended worship on the query above.
Saturday, March 1, 1:00pm - 3:30pm: Second Session
In this session, we will have extended worship on the query above.
Saturday, March 1, 4 - 5:30 pm: Reflection Session
In the reflection session, we will consider what we heard and/or experienced during the first two sessions earlier in the day.
These gatherings are intended to help the entire body of NYYM discover what concerns, cares, and leadings are rising in our local meetings. The intention of Meetings for Discernment is to help us build strong and vital monthly and regional meetings together. It is also an opportunity for meetings to make recommendations to the appropriate YM committees as led in worship.
Registration is OPEN! Please use the Online Registration Form. Registration is pay-as-led. All Friends are welcome to participate in any and all sessions.