Dear Friends,

The many state of the meeting reports coming in are a source of inspiration to me as I prepare for Spring Sessions. One meeting wrote, “We felt that the times were calling us to be more active and that it was important to stay grounded in deep spiritual connection during political activity and trying situations. We hoped that our Meetings for Business would reflect the leadings of God within us.” Another meeting said they sought “spirit-led, thoughtful ways forward in our changing political and cultural environment.” And over and over again, I read about the nourishment that we find in connections with wider Quaker groups.

We belong together, Friends, in our home meetings and in our wider work in the world -- and these are the same, in-breath and out-breath of the same Being.

Please come to Spring Sessions, when we will seek together the leadings of the Spirit as we do the business of New York Yearly Meeting. Check www.nyym.org for advance documents and for the agenda. We have good work to do. Among much else, we will hear of staffing changes, welcoming a new web administrator, saying good-bye to our Young Adult Field Secretary and welcoming her interim replacement, and beginning to prepare to say good-bye to our General Secretary. We will hear a report from him, from our Children and Youth Secretary, and from the Powell House Directors, among others. We’ll hear of the interim actions taken on behalf of the Yearly Meeting since Fall Sessions and of the work of our Outreach Working Group. And I anticipate time to spend in worship together, seeking ways, as another meeting said in its state of the meeting report, to “bear testimony to the radical teachings of Jesus under circumstances that we have never encountered.” I look forward to being together.

In peace,

Lucinda Antrim
Clerk, NYYM