NYYM Meeting for Discernment

February 20, 2010, 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M.
Purchase Meetinghouse
Alternate date: Saturday, March 6, 2010 at same time & place
Hosted by Purchase Quarterly Meeting

Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.—Isaac Penington, 1667

The next gathering of the Meetings for Discernment will take place at the Purchase Friends meetinghouse on Saturday, February 20, from 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. This day-long meeting will provide an opportunity for Friends to hear what is vital in the Life of the meetings and worship groups that make up NYYM, to hold what we learn in our hearts, and to come to a deeper and fuller sense of the movements of the Spirit in our Yearly Meeting. It will be a time for Friends to prayerfully consider what we can learn of Love and Truth from that which arises in our gathered worship. All Friends are welcome.

While we remain open to what may arise, we see this Meeting for Discernment as being a time for us to consider, in particular, the nature of our meetings and worship groups as active faith communities.

Our faith unites the historic beliefs of its Christian foundation with the corporate and individual search for the experience of God for today. This faith draws us into a community that emphasizes the integration of worship and work, faith and practice, in which we strengthen and challenge each other. Through this fellowship God's love and power can work towards the healing of the world. —NYYM Faith and Practice, pp. 10–11

What do you cherish and what do you yearn for in your meeting as a faith community?

In a true community we will not choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. Instead, our companions will be given to us by grace. Often they will be persons who will upset our settled view of self and world. In fact, we might define true community as the place where the person you least want to live with always lives! —Parker J. Palmer, 1977

Do these words reflect your experience?
What is required from us in order for us to reach wholeness and vitality as a faith community?
What discipline? What action?

Your prompt registration will facilitate our planning. To register for day attendance, train pick-up, and for hospitality and/or childcare, please complete the registration form here and mail it before February 5 to Deb Wood, whose address is on the form. Do not mail it to the meetinghouse or to the Yearly Meeting office. A registration fee of $10 per person, to be paid on-site, will help defray the cost of childcare, a simple lunch, and other necessities. For information about the Meeting for Discernment and regarding financial assistance for travel, as well as information about nearby motels, contact Janet Hough, clerk of the Meetings for Discernment Steering Committee: janet.hough [at] verizon.net or 914-769-6885. To register by e-mail, fill out the registration form, save it, and e-mail it as an attachment to dnbwood [at] aol.com.

The Purchase Friends meetinghouse is at Purchase & Lake Streets in Purchase, N.Y. 10570. For directions, go to purchasemeeting.org.

Winter weather advisory: If the weather seems questionable, please check your e-mail and/or the Yearly Meeting Web site on Friday the 19th, or call the Purchase Friends meetinghouse: 914-946-0206.