Bulletin Archives

27 September 2014

Here are PDF files of the earliest Bulletins, starting with Vol. I, #1, issued in the fall of 1961, two years before the yearly meeting was created. These have been scanned from mimeographs and run through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software, and therefore needed to be corrected. Errors may have been introduced in this process. In addition, some of the layout has been changed.

The Bulletins are saved as searchable PDF files.

I-1 Fall 1961
I-2 Jan 1962
I-3 April 1962
I-4 June 1962

II-1 Oct 1962
II-2 Dec 1962
II-3 Jan 1963
II-4 April 1963
II-5 June 1963

III-1 Nov 1963 (the formation of LEYM within the Lake Erie Association)
III-2 Feb 1964
III-3 May 1964
III-4 July 1964

IV-1 Nov 1964

More will be added

Go to the Bulletins page

Spiritual Friendship

10 September 2014

From Opening Doors to Quaker Worship, a publication of the Religious Education Committee of Friends General Conference

During the past few years, a number of Friends serving on the Religious Education Committee of Fiends General Conference have discussed the importance of spiritual friendships. In their work with faith development, they have come to know and emphasize the value of sharing one’s experience of spiritual growth with one particular Friend who is also strengthening his or her faith. They have also collected important resources that describe the purpose of spiritual friendships, how to go about finding a spiritual friend, and different ways spiritual friends can work together. As an encouragement to Friends and meetings to explore spiritual friendships at a deeper level, a few guidelines are offered here.

Guidelines for Spiritual Friendship

  • Spiritual friendships most commonly involve two people who invite God’s working in their lives who make an intentional commitment to hold each other in the Light, and who share with each other their experiences, doubts, ponderings, and prayer time as their spiritual lives unfold.
  • Spiritual friendships can exist for any length of time, from a weekend at a workshop to a spiritual partnership lasting many years. Ideally, spiritual friends can meet face to face on a regular basis, but if circumstances don’t allow that closeness, a spiritual friendship can be conducted by means of letters, phone calls, or even e-mail! What is important is that there be an intentionality about the relationship.
  • Meetings can be structured in a number of ways. Usually a session begins with a time of worship. Then one friend listens while the other shares her/his spiritual progress through the period that has elapsed between sessions. Sections from personal journaling are often shared, as well as efforts at maintaining a regular discipline or areas in which one is especially focusing. One of the purposes for sharing is to name out loud how one experiences God’s presence.
  • The listener pays supportive attention to what is shared, at times reflecting back to the speaker something that is noticed. More listening than reflecting usually takes place. It is important to remember that this is not a co-counseling or therapy session, but a time to allow God into the relationship.
  • After a set period of time, the roles are reversed. Silent worship should conclude the session. Many friends allow a time for informal sharing about non-spiritual matters before the beginning or at the end of the session.
  • Spiritual friends may choose to engage in a planned discipline between meetings, such as meditating or praying at the same time each day, journaling, reading a predetermined passage or book, or fasting. These shared practices can deepen the spiritual relationship between friends by serving as a constant reminder of each other’s commitment and support.
  • Spiritual friendship, though it may arise between individuals who have a casual relationship, is a commitment that requires hard work and a level of trust that takes time to build. Yet if the commitment is strong, having a spiritual friendship is one of the best ways to nurture personal faith development.Return to Spiritual Disciplines

    Return to Spiritual Formation Program

A Sampler of Spiritual Disciplines

10 September 2014

Spiritual Formation Program

Spiritual Formation Retreats

An integral part of LEYM’s Spiritual Formation Program is for each participant to take on the regular practice of a spiritual discipline for the year. Here are some suggestions.

Centering prayer – Choose a meaningful word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly, and silently introduce the word. When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the word. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

Eating mindfully – Description

Examen – a method of prayer from the Jesuit tradition

Fasting – search the web or see www.cru.org/train-and-grow/devotional-life/personal-guide-to-fasting

Gratitude

Guided Meditation – see UCLA’s free guided meditations

Ignatian examination of conscience – how-to can be found in Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, Matthew Linn

Journaling – see journaling

Lectio Divina – a method of engaging with scripture or other writings in a meditative way; see LEYM.org/spiritual-formation/lectio-divina

Listening to meditative music

Meditating – instructions can be found on the web. For specific exercises, see, for instance, Four Meditations to Activate Your Chakras and Inner Wisdom

Memorizing scripture, prayers, poetry

Morning prayer – Start the day by greeting God and giving thanks, using a set phrase such as “Today is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it” or spontaneous words

Movement / Dance

Practicing awareness of the Presence – Turn your attention away from daily activities. Empty your mind of daily cares. Take a deep breath and relax. Sit quietly and allow the emptying of your mind and its replacement with the awareness of God’s presence. More extensive instructions can be found on the web.

Praying

Reading spiritual journals, biography, autobiography, memoirs – Suggestions: The Journal of John Woolman; With Head and Heart by Howard Thurman; The Genessee Diary by Henri Nouwen; Something Beautiful for God: Mother Teresa of Calcutta by Malcolm Muggeridge; One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Reading and/or studying the Bible or another text – Friendly Bible Study Method

Silent or spoken grace before meals – During silent grace, you may hold hands with the others at the table if you wish

Solitude

Spending time in nature

Spiritual direction/guidance – You will need to find a spiritual director

Spiritual friendship – An ongoing relationship for mutual spiritual support; see LEYM.org/spiritual-formation/spiritual-friendship

Walking a labyrinth

Walking meditation – see directions

Yoga / Tai Chi

More suggestions can be found on Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s web site

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Patricia McBee explores Quaker Disciplines in this QuakerSpeak Video

Lectio Divina

26 August 2014

The phrase [lectio divina] means “divine reading.” Originally it referred to the contemplative study of the Bible; today is has been expanded to include any book that brings one closer to truth. The vital feature of this discipline in not what one studies but how one studies it. The approach is a slow, thoughtful, prayerful dialogue with the material, grounded in the faith that behind the words we read there is always a Word to encounter.

We have been schooled to study for information; in lectio we study for insight. We have learned how to “master” a field; in lectio we study so that truth might master us. In the academy we study with our minds, always analyzing and dissecting; in lectio we do not abandon the mind but we let it descend into the heart, where the “hidden wholeness” of things may be discovered again. Normally, we read and question the text; in lectio we allow the text to read and question us. At its best, lectio divina nurtures a contemplative intellect – a mind which does not do violence to self or others or the world, but seeks to live in harmony with it all. If this kind of reading intrigues you, there are traditional steps for doing it.

  • Have a regular daily time. It is through daily, routine practice that one accumulates the fruits of this way of learning. It helps to have a set place where you do this.
  • Prepare your heart and mind. Sit still for a few minutes to clear out the static of busy thoughts that crowd in, begging for attention. As in meeting for worship, gently acknowledge them and lay them aside for now.
  • Read the passage. Some people begin by reading it out loud. This enables it to enter the mind through both eyes and ears. Others read and reread it a number of times so that it becomes semi-memorized. Others go directly to the next step.
  • Read the passage very slowly, pausing after phrase, especially any phrase that grabs your attention. You might inwardly ask what God is saying to you through this passage. The intent of lectio is to be open, to listen to God as we encounter the text.
  • Sometimes the next step is deep thought. Sometimes you are moved into a wordless state of being. Sometimes the former leads into the later. Friends often use the words “meditate” and “contemplate” interchangeably. Traditional usage gave them separate definitions. The words we use are less important than understanding that they represent two distinct states of being in worship.One is deep thinking, living with the text – or an experience, vision, or dream – keeping it present in the mind, returning to it in a variety of circumstances. One puzzles over it, tears it apart, juxtaposes it with incongruous material, looks for new meanings. This helps us more fully understand our experience and incorporate it into our core where it aids our transformation. The other way of being in worship is to slip into wordlessness – similar to what the secular world used to call a “brown study” – a state of inner stillness in which we are in God’s presence.We can’t make this happen through our will power or use of techniques. We can, however, practice the disciplines that put us in the place where God’s grace can touch us and lift us into the Presence.

From Opening Doors to Quaker Worship by Marty Grundy (Cleveland Monthly Meeting), a publication of the Religious Education Committee of FGC. Introductory material from Parker Palmer, “Lectio Divina: Another Way to Learn,” Pendle Hill Bulletin No. 322 (Oct. 1981). Steps based on William H. Shannon, Seeking the Face of God (New York: The Crossword Publishing Company, 1988); and Brian C. Taylor, Spirituality for Everyday Living: An Adaptation of the Rule of St. Benedict (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1989), 64-70

Return to Spiritual Disciplines

Return to Spiritual Formation Program

Spiritual Formation Program

4 July 2014

Spiritual Formation Retreats (Learn More about Fall 2025 Retreat!)

A Sampler of Spiritual Disciplines

Do you seek a deeper spiritual experience?

An invitation

The Lake Erie Yearly Meeting Spiritual Formation Program encourages Friends to listen carefully to God’s call in their lives. All who wish to deepen their spiritual lives are invited to join a spiritual formation group.

This includes participation in a local group and attendance at both an opening and closing retreat along with members of other spiritual formation groups.

Through the retreats and regular local group meetings, participants create with one another a close faith community for spiritual growth, mutual support, and encouragement. The group provides a structured, supportive community in which each member can discern the divine call and prepare to follow it.

Two Retreats

In the autumn, Friends and attenders from the various monthly meetings and worship groups throughout Lake Erie Yearly Meeting gather for the first of two retreats to begin their commitment to a year in supportive community.

During this retreat we reflect on our spiritual yearnings and discern personal spiritual practices that nourish, support, and further our intentions toward Spirit. Both in community and in solitude we listen faithfully to the Inner Light, and seek to support and encourage one another in this discernment process.

There is time during the retreat for each local group to agree on its local meeting schedule and select readings for the year from a selection of books available for purchase.

The concluding retreat in the spring provides an opportunity to share insights, and to evaluate and enlarge on the program as we have lived it out in our daily lives.

All participants in each local group are encouraged to attend these retreats. Others in the yearly meeting interested in the program may attend the retreats as well.

 “I found the retreats perfect for preparing me for my spiritual work.”

Personal Spiritual Practice

Each person chooses a spiritual practice for the year in order to open a new pathway to the Divine. This is a critical com­ponent of the Spiritual Formation Program.

Friends have chosen a variety of spiritual practices, such as journaling, meditation, yoga, daily worship or prayer, devotional reading, chanting, or mindful walking. Some practices may become lifelong exercises. Some may provide unexpected and creative avenues to an experience of the Unknowable.

Some participants find that their practice enables them both to cope with the pressures of the daily world and to enjoy deeper spiritual experience.

Many participants find that the experience of sharing their journey with a small and caring group of Friends helps them feel more connected to the Monthly Meeting. Everyone gains from the process of sharing and being supported on our journeys.

Could this be the year that you gather with Friends to see where the Spirit may begin to lead you?

“Just showing up regularly and sharing personal spiritual experiences
helps keep me in touch with the spiritual in my daily life.”

Local Group Meetings

Each Spiritual Formation Group schedules local meetings for the nine months of the program year. Many groups select one or more spiritual readings and discuss the impact the readings have had on them. These can include books on topics such as spiritual experience, prayer, community, the Religious Society of Friends, scripture, social justice, spiritual journals, or ministry.

Other meetings may provide an opportunity for each person to share where they are on their spiritual path and how their spiritual practice is working. Worship is included at some point during each meeting.

Many insights and deep relationships are forged in these intimate exchanges.

“It is because of this group that I remain as involved in my monthly meeting as I am.”

 If you’ve felt the hunger for a deeper experience of faith, and for companions on the journey, you are invited to join us!

This text as a Pamphlet (PDF)
(best viewed printed back to back, and folded into thirds)

For more information on the Spiritual Formation Program, contact:
Sally Weaver Sommer,  sallyweaversommer@gmail.com

 The Spiritual Formation Program is run by the LEYM Spiritual Formation Committee
under the guidance of the Ministry and Nurture Committee of Lake Erie Yearly Meeting.

Sample Schedule for LEYM Teen Retreat

28 May 2014
Friday   
7 pm Arrival and light snacks
7:30 pm Settling in and getting to know each other (hanging out)
9 pm Meeting for Business to identify clerk and recording clerk, set quiet times, lights out, review expectations, sign up for work crews, discuss other needs participants bring to the weekend
Later Hanging out until lights out
   
Saturday  
9 am Breakfast, prepared, enjoyed, and cleaned up by one of the teen work crews
  Hanging out
10:30 Worship and group time to discuss the day ahead
11:00 Quaker workshop, out trip, or service project
12:30 Lunch (may be prepared, enjoyed, and cleaned up by a different work crew of teens; or lunch bought during out trip/service project)
2 pm Quaker workshop, out trip, or service project
4 pm Rest, out trip, or service project.
6 pm Dinner (prepared, enjoyed, and cleaned up by one of the teen work crews)
7:30 pm Group to evaluate the day, plan for Sunday morning, determine whether there are needs in the group to be addressed. Write a minute of appreciation together to the host meeting.
Later Hanging out until lights out
   
Sunday  
9 am Breakfast (prepared, enjoyed, and cleaned up by one of the teen work crews)
  Packing up things
10:30 Worship with host meeting or attend meeting’s First Day School
After Socialize and eat with child, teen and adult members of host meeting, as led
  Offer assistance in cleaning up following the meal
1 pm Depart

 

LEYM Service Project before Annual Sessions

6 July 2013

This program has been discontinued.

Quakers have a rich history of innovative and challenging service. LEYM wishes to provide opportunities for Friends of all ages to continue this legacy of service through learning, experience, and reflection.

Come join the 2017 LEYM Service Project on July 25-27 before LEYM Begins!

Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Lima, Ohio
Leaders: Olwen Pritchard and Sally Weaver Sommer

Friends are invited to work together with Habitat for Humanity in Lima, Ohio, as part of the yearly meeting’s service project July 25-27. As in the past four years, our days of service will immediately precede LEYM Annual Sessions in Bluffton. This year we will be working with Habitat for Humanity in Lima, Ohio (18 miles south of Bluffton) for two days, midday Tuesday, July 25th, to noon on Thursday, July 27th, while using Bluffton as our home base. We will focus on working in the Habitat ReStore in whatever ways are most needed. We need a minimum of 5 people to proceed with the project.

This is a great opportunity to help others while building community among ourselves. Last year’s group was kept busy moving furniture, cleaning furniture ready for resale, and sharing in a program that addresses value to the local community. We will also offer opportunities for worship and reflection.

LEYM has budgeted generous support to this project so that financial concerns need not prevent anyone from participating. Youth aged 16 and up as well as adults are invited to participate. We hope you are able to join us in continuing this legacy of Quaker service, and can promise you warm fellowship.

Registration form

Please register by July 1. Questions are welcome to Olwen Pritchard at (419)-58-2954 or pritchardo [at] bluffton.edu.

2016 Service Project in Lima, Ohio

Habitat for Humanity in Lima, Ohio, July 26-28, working in the ReStore.

LEYM Service Project 2016 cropped.jpg

2015 Work Camp in Findlay, Ohio

Habitat for Humanity in Findlay, Ohio July 28-30

2014 Work Camp in Detroit

LEYM Work Crew Detroit 2014 croppedTwo groups from Lake Erie Yearly Meeting volunteered their hands and hearts to work with Cass Community Social Services (CCSS) in Detroit this year. Six teens, under the direction of Robb Yurisko, held their summer retreat with CCSS the weekend of July 18-20, followed immediately by an intergenerational group of 12 (11 adults and 1 youth) from Sunday to Thursday, July 20-24. In all, seven monthly meetings within LEYM were represented: Ann Arbor, Athens, Birmingham, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Red Cedar.

LEYM Work Team Making Shoes Detroit 2014CCSS currently provides some 1 million meals per year. They also provide temporary housing for homeless men, women, children, and individuals with HIV/Aids. They provide activities for developmentally disabled adults that include employing some of them to sort paper in a shredding operation, with the resulting bales of shredded paper sold for recycling. There are also several other CCSS green industries which employ formerly homeless men and manufacture doormats and sandals from discarded tires, and coasters from repurposed wood and glass.

CCSS welcomes thousands of volunteers each year who work under the direction of their staff. The LEYM teens spent Saturday shredding paper in the morning and assisting in the kitchen to cook for CCSS clients in the afternoon. The intergenerational group worked three days and helped to make sandals and doormats, sorted and shredded paper, cooked a meal, played and talked with developmentally disabled adults, and helped to clean up an amazingly overgrown yard of a derelict building directly across the street from the CCSS campus in order to provide a safer environment for clients.

2013 Workday

Habitat for Humanity and Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen in Lima, Ohio
Noon, July 24 until 3pm, July 25

2013workcamp

In our initial year for this type of program, we selected Lima, Ohio, as the venue for a 24 hour period of volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity and Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen. The work was on the Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning immediately preceding Yearly Meeting.

Lima Re-Store Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen

LEYM Contact Information

16 May 2013

Officers
Newsletter Editors
Digital Communications Facilitator
Database Manager
Registrar for Annual Sessions
LEYM Bookstore Manager
Committee Clerks

For contact information on Meetings and Worship Groups, use the “Meetings & WGs” menu item

LEYM Mailing address:
Lake Erie Yearly Meeting
c/o Office Manager
Ann Arbor Friends Meeting
1420 Hill Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
LEYM Harassment Discernment Committee contacts

Replace “at” with “@” to use the e-mail addresses.


Officers

Clerk

Jack Smith
202 E. Riverside St.
Williamston, MI 48895		 jsmith at msu.edu 517 914-3927

Recording Clerk

Peggy Daub
1506 Arborview Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103		peggydaub at hotmail.com734 668-8063

Treasurer

Tom Kangas
3641 Weston Place
Columbus, OH 43214		LEYMtreasurer at gmail.com 

Other Workers

Newsletter Editor
(The Bulletin)

Christopher FarrandBulletinLEYM at gmail.com 

Annual Records Editor

Elise Yodereliseyoder at yahoo.com 

Digital Communications Facilitator

Bill WartersLEYMWorker at gmail.com

Database Manager

Susan Louckssusanloucks at gmail.com 

Registrar for Annual Sessions

Sally Weaver Sommer
118 S. Spring St.
Bluffton, OH 45817		LEYMregistrar at gmail.com419 358-0950

LEYM Bookstore Manager

Valerie Groszmannvalerie.groszmann at gmail.com 

Committee Clerks

Advancement & Outreach

Barbara LeSage and Susan Hartmanbarbaralesage at hotmail.com

susandhartman at gmail.com		 

Finance

Joann Neuroth and Ellen Barnesjneuroth at gmail.com517 525-1826

Ministry & Nurture

Flo Friender and Dennis Gregg flo at dougandflo.com

dennisgregg at gmail.com		 

Nominating

Clemence Ravacon-Mershon and Mary Igoe Meyers
andre14 at earthlink.net

migoemeyers at gmail.com		 

Peace & Justice

 Claire Cohen cmcmd80 at gmail.com 

Publications & Archives

Jeff Coopercooperdaub at hotmail.com 

Yearly Meeting Planning Committee Clerks

Adult & Family Program

Clemence Ravacon-Mershonandre14 at earthlink.net(814) 587-3479

Arrangements & Site

Carolyn Lejusteclejuste at gmail.com(517) 525-1827

Youth & Children’s Program

Diane Mott
mottfam45 at gmail.com 

Contact information for the LEYM Harassment Discernment Commitee is available here.

You will need to replace the “at” with @ to use the e-mail addresses.

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LEYM Queries & Advices

10 November 2012

Check out the LEYM Book of Advices and Queries

Annual Queries

Each year LEYM’s Ministry and Nurture Committee prepares a set of queries and readings for the consideration of meetings. The Ministry and Nurture Committee invites each meeting to consider the queries and to develop a written response that describes the insights arrived at during its consideration. Meetings are requested to send this to the clerk of the Ministry and Nurture Committee. The Ministry and Nurture Committee reviews meetings’ responses during committee time at Representative Meeting in the spring. If your Monthly Meeting has prepared a response to the query, please send it to the Ministry and Nurture Committee by March 1, via Flo Friender at flo@dougandflo.com

2024-2025 Query

How do I actively get to know my neighbors?

How do we as a Meeting seek opportunities to understand communities unlike ourselves?

Please send Meeting responses to Flo Friender at flo@dougandflo.com by March 1, 2025 at the latest.

2023 Query

As we came to consider the topic for this year’s Yearly Meeting Query, Ministry and Nurture Committee was also looking at feedback that we had received regarding the value of the queries that we send to meetings each year. After much additional feedback and discernment, it became clear that the Quaker practice of using queries would itself be subject of this year’s LEYM Query.

Lake Erie Yearly Meeting Query 2023 (get as pdf)

  • How can queries enrich the spiritual life of your meeting?
  • How does creating and using a query help you or your meeting to discern a way forward as you go about your personal life or the business and activities of your meeting?

Please send your responses to Flo Friender via flo@dougandflo.com by March 1, 2024.
Ministry and Nurture Committee, Lake Erie Yearly Meeting

2022 Query

  • In what ways has our Meeting been affected by the turmoil of the world around us?
  • How might I use my own gifts from Spirit in responding to these new realities?

Additional Suggested Quotes and Readings for 2022 (View as PDF)

From British Yearly Meeting, Faith and Practice (1995), 26.69

There is no easy optimism in the Quaker view of life. (George) Fox had no illusions about sin; but he asks us deal with it in a new way. . . We are to use the little we have to make it more. We are to attend the small Seed and to help it grow.”   Edgar B. Castle, 1961.

“Give over thine own willing, give over thy own running, give over thy desiring to know or be anything, and sink down to the seed which God sows in thee . . . .”   Isaac Pennington

Bible Passages:

  • John 14:1 – “Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God, trust in me.”
  • John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
  • John 16:33 – “I have told you these things, as that, in me, you may have peace. In this world, you will have troubles. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

From Faith and Practice, advices and queries 28, The book of Christian discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain:

Responding to divine guidance, try to discern the right time to undertake or relinquish responsibilities without undue pride or guilt. Attend to what love requires of you, which may not be great busyness.

Friends may also want to share Chapter 23 of Britain Faith & Practice for meetings /members to explore and ponder. See https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/23/

Finally, the book “A Call to Friends: Faithful Living in Desperate Times” by Marty Grundy is suggested to Friends and Meetings that wish to ‘go deeper’ on this topic. See short review in Friends Journal here: https://www.friendsjournal.org/book/a-call-to-friends-faithful-living-in-desperate-times/

2021 Query

The 2021 LEYM Query comes from a careful reading of last year’s State of the Meeting reports along with attentive listening to the interests and concerns of Friends in various gatherings within LEYM. There is a hunger for more connection to Spirit, to know one another on a deeper level, and to put faith into action.

Ministry and Nurture looks forward to receiving a report on your Worship Sharing or discussion on these two simple questions which are designed to respond first as an individual and second as a collective meeting.

  • 2021 LEYM Query:

    • In what ways do I experience a sense of spirit in my life?
    • What is the role of the meeting in nourishing depth of spirit among us?

Quotes to supplement the LEYM 2021 Query

“If you belong to the population of the Kingdom of God, you are a practitioner because you are producing understanding and love in your daily life. That makes the Kingdom of God continue to be the Kingdom of God. If the population of the Kingdom does not practice understanding and love, they lose the Kingdom in two seconds because the essence of the Kingdom is understanding and love.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh 31 December 2005, Lower Hamlet, Plum Village

“Do we live our lives in the awareness of the presence of God so that all things take their rightful place?”

— Pacific Yearly Meeting Quaker Faith and Spiritual Practice First query in the section on Simplicity

“We have seen that, in its early years, the Quaker movement was a utopian community that vigorously challenged the dominant norms and values of English society. A glimpse of heaven transformed their lives, and brought them into the vanguard of the Lamb’s War. They found themselves caught up in a spiritual struggle to establish heaven on earth.”

— Stuart Masters   From the article: The First Quaker Communities Friends Journal 06-07/2021

2020 Query

We didn’t write our own query this year. Instead we are asking that Friends use the queries that are included in the epistle that the Friends of Color of Friends General Conference sent out at the end of their pre-Gathering meeting this summer. The epistle may be found on the FGC website.
Near the end of the epistle are six queries that the FGC Friends of Color ask all Quakers to consider. Ministry and Nurture is asking that meetings and worship groups read the epistle before meeting to discuss the queries. You can approach the queries as you wish. Some may choose to concentrate on one or two of the questions; others may choose to discuss all of them.

See our Previous Annual Queries

LEYM Book of Advices & Queries

A set of advices and queries drawn up by an ad hoc committee was approved by the yearly meeting in session in July of 2012. It contains a total of 66 queries organized into 16 sections. It also has  information on the history and current uses of advices and queries, an overview of the process by which this set was arrived at, and considerations for revising the set in the future.

LEYM Book of Advices & Queries (pdf)

Friends may also want to share Chapter 23 of Britain Faith & Practice for meetings or members to explore and ponder. See https://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/23/
Finally, the book “A Call to Friends: Faithful Living in Desperate Times” by Marty Grundy is suggested to Friends and Meetings that wish to ‘go deeper’ on this topic. See short review in Friends Journal here: https://www.friendsjournal.org/book/a-call-to-friends-faithful-living-in-desperate-times/

Prior Years – Spiritual Formation Retreats

20 August 2012
2024-25Mystical Experience and Quakerism – Don McCormick
2023-24Letting Our Lives Speak: Using Words When Necessary – Marty Grundy
2022-23No Retreat – Individual Groups reviewed a book titled Imagination & Spirit: A Contemporary Quaker Reader
2020-21Going Deeper Together – Marcelle Martin
2019-20Meetings as Crucibles and Incubators – Joann Neuroth
2018-19A Spiritual Spa – Mathilda Navias, Kate Enger, Della Stanley-Green, Aran Reinhart
2017-18Forgiveness as a Spiritual Practice – Sue Regen
2016-17Spiritual Companions from the Past: John Woolman, Caroline Stephen, & Howard Thurman – Della Stanley-Green
2015-16Experiment with Light – Jo Ann Seaver
2014-15The Gospel of John: Stories of What God’s Love Looks Like – Eric Evans
2013-14Nurturing our Spiritual Life through the Practice of a Spiritual Discipline — Della Stanley-Green
2012-13The Spiritual Practice of Dialogue: Speaking our Truths and Hearing Where Words Come From — Merry Stanford
2011-12Healing in the Manner of Friends — Richard Lee
2010-11Companions Along the Way — Patricia Thomas
2009-10Spiritual Nurture — Michael Birkel
2008-09Grounding our Spirituality in Nature: Strengthening our Connections with the Source of Nourishment and Refreshment — Connie Lezenby
2007-08Going the Other Half: Submission and Discipline in Our Meetings — Kristina and Callid Keefe-Perry
2006-07A Year of Living Prayerfully — Phil Fitz and Beckey Phipps
2005-06Living in the Presence — Beckey Phipps
2004-05Discernment of Gifts — Susan Jeffers
2003-04The Blessed Community — Deborah Fisch & Elaine Emily

Return to Spiritual Formation Retreats

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