Previous Annual Queries

Each year, LEYM’s Ministry and Nurture Committee prepares a set of queries and readings for the consideration of monthly meetings and worship groups. This practice began in 1985. The queries from 2001-2019 appear here. To see the most recent query, check this page.

Open a document with the queries (PDF)

2019

The world we live in can leave many of us with broken hearts. We turn to one another in our meetings, in worship and in friendship. Let us rest in the Light. What are we finding there?

2018

As we face ongoing degradation of our planet and the general lack of political will to address this, we ask: What are the connections we experience between earthcare and our traditional Quaker concerns for peace and justice? How do we use spiritual guidance to respond with a sense of abundance and hope?

2017

How might we support each other as we find peaceful and persistent responses to actions that exclude and judge?

In what ways do we, as Quakers, hold ourselves and the Other in the Light when our disagreements seem insurmountable?

How do we find common ground as we listen to those with whom we disagree?

2016
Meetings have a welcoming message, whether they know it or not.  What is
yours?

2015

For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; I was naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.
– Matthew 25:35-36, Jerusalem Bible

How might our meeting support individuals and the meeting as a whole in working to increase racial justice within our world? In what ways do we as a Meeting recognize white privilege in our own Meeting? What tools and practices do we use to foster awareness of our personal and corporate biases?

2014

Friends find their essential unity in their profound and exhilarating belief in the pervasive presence of God and in the continuing responsibility of each person and worshipping group to seek the leading of the Spirit in all things.
Faith and Practice of New England Yearly Meeting, 1986

How has our practice of expectant waiting in worship invited the Divine to guide our meeting’s actions? In what ways do our actions in the world as a meeting enrich and transform the spiritual life of the body?

2013

How is Spirit present in building our community? What contributes to loving connections within our meeting? Is our meeting a place of safety in which Friends feel they can be heard? In what ways do we come together, opening ourselves to God’s love, grace, and forgiveness? Do we pause and feel blessed by the Divine? Can we find ways to continue to faithfully engage each other, even in the midst of conflict? When connections appear to be impaired, what Quaker resources might be used to prepare us for listening to God?

2012

• Has our Meeting sought the guidance of the Spirit about the future life of our Meeting?
• What changes do we need to consider? Do we regard children and youth as being integral to the spiritual life of the Meeting? How may we offer support to families in our Meeting?
• How might we, as a Meeting, use a process of discernment to find a path into the next couple of decades?

2011

2011LEYMQuery

• Given the physical and spiritual state of our Meeting, what are our reflections on this information?
• What does a Spirit led Meeting look and feel like?
• What hinders us from following the spirit?
• What is the Spirit leading us to do?
2010

Friends traditionally have used queries to deepen spiritual lives, confront difficult questions, and encourage corporate and individual self examination.

  • How does your monthly meeting use queries?
  • How do you as an individual use queries?
  • Do the proposed LEYM Advices and Queries support these uses? How are they useful? How are they not? How can they be improved upon?
  • Has one or more of these proposed LEYM Advices and Queries profoundly affected you or your meeting?

2009

• What experiences have you had of wonder and awe?
• What experiences have you had of the Light or the Divine?

• What helps you open yourself to these experiences and what gets in the way?
• What practices do you have to deepen these experiences?

• How do we support each other in this awareness?
• How do we support our children in their spiritual journeys?

2008

Are we open to the Other?
What keeps me/us from connecting with those who are different from me/us?
What fears cloud my/our vision of the Light in all beings?
How can I listen with my heart, willing to be vulnerable?
How are we teaching our children that God’s love includes all?

2007

• Do we keep our lives uncluttered by things and activities?
• What conditions of our lives overwhelm us?
• How may our habits and addictions be caused by things such as media, social expectations, or personal shortcomings?
• Do we accept commitments beyond our strength and light?
• How can we center our lives each day in awareness of the Light so that all things take their rightful place?

Read some of the responses to the 2007 Query on Simplicity via this link.

2006

On Discernment
1. What do I understand “divine guidance” and “discernment” to mean?
2. How do I experience divine guidance and discernment in my life and in our life as a Meeting?
3. What are we, as Friends, being called to do or to be in the world at this time?
2005
In what ways has the Living Presence awakened my faith and turned me around?
As a Meeting how do we support each other in being faithful?
2004
On Earthcare – text not available
2003
1. What moves me to live with integrity? When do I have difficulty in witnessing to truth? What gets in the way or blocks my being able to be faithful to this testimony?
2. How does our Meeting live in the life and the power to find wholeness, where we are responsible to one another and to our broader community?
2002
Our Peace Testimony
1. How do I live “in the virtue of that life and power that [takes] away the occasion of all wars?”
2. How do I and my Meeting community witness to the peace testimony and work to build institutions of peace?
3. Do I consider that paying for war is a form of participation in war? What are our alternatives to paying for war?
4. How do I maintain my testimony to peace when a mood of war and violence prevails in the land?
2001
What are the essentials in Quakerism with which all members need to agree?
Which deep elements in our tradition are crucial to remember?
What are the responsibilities of being a Meeting member?
How do we encourage and support regular attenders to consider becoming members?

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