This will be a new kind of event with new opportunities and challenges. In some ways it will feel very familiar. We will be back on the campus at the University of York, where we held Yearly Meeting in 2005; there will be core Yearly Meeting business held in a gathered Meeting for Worship for Business; and there will be hundreds of under 19s as well as the celebratory and spiritual dimensions you always get at Quaker residential events.

So what makes this one different? This event is more than simply sticking together the elements traditionally associated with either a residential Yearly Meeting or a Summer Gathering or JYM and other under 19s provision. Friends around Britain, whether or not they can make it to York, can play a role in YMG in three distinct areas: community, discernment and connecting. We ask you to explore and reflect on what this event might mean to you, your Meetings and your families. We hope to see many non-Quakers at the event and that Friends will feel encouraged to bring their non-Quaker children and partners. This will be an event that seeks to make clear what we have to say about God at work among Friends and at the same time build and strengthen our community to enable us to encounter further the divine in all aspects of life.

Our vision asks of our community how it supports 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. On discernment, 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 conviction that the gathered Meeting can be upheld by those 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 prepared personally and collectively. YMG presents us with new opportunities to explore issues together and individually. As for connecting, we have a vision of YMG 2009 as another step along 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 that takes us into and beyond ourselves, then carries us back, strengthened, grounded and connected, to our Local Meetings and daily lives.

This event will be taking us in new directions and encouraging us to be open in new ways to the promptings of love and truth in our hearts. In Britain Yearly Meeting we are a learning, seeking community. YMG is an opportunity to engage with one another and with the Spirit. We hope there will be opportunities for preparation in Meetings too, such as with the Woodbrooke YMG learning materials, which are another way of being involved even if you can’t attend.

We encourage you, in preparation for YMG, to reflect on the three themes outlined above, individually and in Meeting. We ask everyone to engage with the learning materials and talk about the event with others. Look out for the publicity and booking forms. We are really looking forward to seeing your faces. Yearly Meeting Gathering 2009 – it won’t happen without you.

This article first appeared in the Friend; to discuss this visit the discussions section.

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