Connect with the LEYM Spiritual Formation Program
Please join LEYM Friends for the start of our 9 month program where we explore and practice deepening our spiritual connections together through a Fall & Spring retreat and by participating in small spiritual groups throughout the 9 months of the program.

As the kickoff of the 2024-2025 LEYM Spiritual Formation Program, friends are being invited to gather at the Weber Center in Adrian Michigan September 6-8, 2024 for a retreat exploring Mystical Experience and Quakerism with retreat leader Don McCormick.

Teaching and Learning Methods at the Retreat

There will be frequent sharing in small groups, as well as discussion in the group as a whole. Short video clips will also be shown. Most of the program will be interactive—with discussion, people sharing their experiences, worship sharing, and worship.

In the Workshop

Participants will learn about mystical experience and Quakerism. They will have the opportunity to share their experiences and discuss questions they have. The workshop emphasizes perspectives on mysticism from contemporary Quakerism and psychology.

Some Concepts that Will Be Clarified

• The difference between mystical experience, mystics, and mysticism
• The main types of mystical experience
• Nature mysticism
• Group mysticism
• Triggers of mystical experiences
• Current research on mystical experience.

Questions That Will Be Addressed

The questions that you bring to the workshop will be addressed. The following questions will also be addressed:

• Are all mystical experiences focused on God or the Spirit?
• Are Quakers mystics?
• Is Quakerism a mystical religion?
• How do Quakers judge mystical experiences?

Issues in Mystical Experience

• Do mystical experiences change people’s lives?
• Are there racial or gender issues in mystical experience?
• Do mystical experiences lead to ethical behavior or a greater concern for social justice?

A Vision of the Future
At the end of the workshop, we will work together to create a vision of the future of mystical experience in Quakerism, including what we want to keep seeing in the future and what would we want to see changed.

About the Retreat Facilitator

Don McCormick is a member of Grass Valley Friends Meeting in California. He was a professor for thirty years and taught (among other things) psychology of religion. His interests include Quakerism & mystical experience, mindfulness and Quakerism, religious diversity in the workplace, expressing Quaker spirituality in our work lives, and Quaker spiritual autobiography. He leads workshops on these topics. He regularly writes for Friends Journal, and his article “The Mystical Experience: Reclaiming a Neglected Quaker Tradition” was the second most-read Friends Journal article of 2021. He can be reached at donmccormick2@gmail.com.

Get the Retreat Brochure Here.