About the Gathering - advices and queries

We will gather at the University of York from 25 July to 1 August 2009 for a week of worship, friendship, enjoyment, learning, celebration, Yearly Meeting business, spiritual growth and fun – and the connections between all of these.

The event will welcome all – anyone and everyone of all ages! Experienced Friends and new attenders and everyone in between – plus partners and family members.

This will be an integrated, inclusive and accessible event; an inspiring event which takes us into and out of ourselves, and also carries us back, strengthened and grounded, to our local meetings and daily lives.

In what ways do you support the Yearly Meeting when it gathers together to address its core concerns and build itself as a joyful and celebratory community of God’s purpose? How will we embrace the contribution of those for whom this may be their first encounter with Friends?

When we gather we have the opportunity to seek God’s will together. This collective dimension to our decision-making is unique and precious. Our business process rests on the belief that the gathered meeting is to be upheld by those who are not present, and that decisions taken reflect the discernment of the Society as a whole. Discernment is a spirit-led process, both a personal and a collective experience, for which we must be well-prepared both personally and collectively. The Yearly Meeting Gathering presents us with new opportunities to explore issues in a range of ways, corporately, together and individually.

Are we open to the Spirit at work in all of us gathered, regardless of experience? How are you led to contribute to new ways of working, of envisioning our future and present together, and of being a crucible in which we test and prove our collective discernment?

We have a vision of the Yearly Meeting Gathering 2009 as another step on our path to becoming a truly gathered community – a unified simple, radical and contemporary event which goes to the heart of who we are and what the world needs of us; an inspiring event which takes us into and out beyond ourselves, and also carries us back, strengthened grounded, and connected, to our local meetings and daily lives. To realise this vision we will work in partnership with you, different groups in the Yearly Meeting, and with Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre.

Are you and your meeting willing to spend twelve months in the spirit of Yearly Meeting, gathered as one body, meeting in gospel order, and seeking together the fruits of the spirit?

Yearly Meeting Gathering, York, 25 July to 1 August 2009. It won’t happen without you!