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
2011
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