Spring Sessions 2016

Spring Sessions 2016

April 1–3, 2016

First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens
Somerset, New Jersey
Rahway & Plainfield Meetinghouse
Plainfield, New Jersey

Welcome to the summary page for New York Yearly Meeting's 2016 Spring Sessions.

Hosts. Shrewsbury & Plainfield Half-yearly Meeting hosted Spring Sessions 2016, held April 1–3 in central New Jersey in the following locations:

Saturday, April 2: First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, Somerset, New Jersey. (This was the location planned for Fall Sessions 2012, but Hurricane Sandy made that impossible.)

Friday evening and Sunday morning, April 1 and 3: Plainfield Meetinghouse, Plainfield, New Jersey.

Minutes of the Spring Sessions

• Saturday & Sunday, April 2 & 3, 2016

Actions taken by the gathered body of the Yearly Meeting

• Changes to Faith and Practice—first readings:
  • The section on The Yearly Meeting, Part Two, section 1.G.
  • A new section on the Use of Technology in the Conduct of Business
  • Changes of our process for approving changes to Faith and Practice
• We laid down the Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Counsel.
• New ARCH publication. ARCH presented their new publication, Quaker Values and End of Life Decision Making. Contact the yearly meeting office for copies at a cost of $12.50, postage not included.
• New NYYM staff
  • We were introduced to Melinda Wenner Bradley, the yearly meeting's new Children and Youth Field Secretary
  • We were introduced to the new directors of Powell House, Regina and Dennis Haag
• Interim actions. We heard of interim actions on behalf of the yearly meeting by the clerk and general secretary of the yearly meeting: letters of condolence and solidatiry with Friends in France and Belgium following terrorist attacks in cities of those countries (see below).
• Pay-as-led at Summer Sessions. The yearly meeting is exploring a pay-as-led approach to attending Summer Sessions, modeled on the approach used by New England Yearly Meeting.
• Witness endorsement. We agreed to endorse as a yearly meeting the "The March for a Clean Energy Revolution".

Documents from the Sessions

• Agenda—Spring Sessions 2016
• Schedule—Spring Sessions 2016
• NYYM Trust Fund Redesignations—a proposal for changes.
• Meetings for Discernment report—Summer Sessions 2015.
• Travel minute for Don Badgley.
• Faith and Practice—Changes to the Yearly Meeting section and The Use of Technology in the Conduct of Business section (original advance document).
• Laying Down Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Counsel—the recommendation from Ministry Coordinating Committee.
• Outreach Working Group—an announcement and invitation.
• Letters to Friends in Europe—interim actions by the clerk and general secretary following terrorist attacks in France and Belgium.

Reports to Sessions

• General Secretary
• Attendance at Spring Sessions (from Sessions Committee)

Links to original Fall Sessions web pages:

• Original Spring Sessions 2016 portal page
• Advance Documents