[Updated 25.6.10] NOTE from Fritz Weiss, Falmouth Quarter co-clerk: We will be hosting a “local cluster” at Portland Friends Meeting for the Meeting for Healing event described below. We will be zooming into the event together starting at 9:00AM.  Please let Heather Denkmire know if you plan to attend for all or part of this event by replying to this email. 

This event does coincide with Portland Pride – the parade will be starting around 1:00, so Friends may choose to come to the local cluster for the morning. For Falmouth Quarter. Love Fritz

Meeting for Listening: The Spiritual Life in Our Local Meetings, A full day, hybrid event, Saturday, June 21, 2025

Friends are most in the Spirit when they stand at the crossing point of the inward and outward life. And that is the intersection at which we find community. a place where the connections felt in the heart make themselves known in bonds between people, and where the tuggings and pullings of those bonds keep opening our hearts. (Parker Palmer, A Place Called Community, Pendle Hill Pamphlet #212, 1977)

Join us for a gathering of Friends in New England caring for the nurture of spiritual life and ministry in our local faith communities. Together, we will:

·       Dream together

·       Identify the resources meetings have to offer each other

·       Explore themes in State of Society reports and trends from statistical reports

·       Discover what’s possible now

Our Yearly Meeting’s primary purpose is to support monthly meetings, to be a vehicle to share resources and experiences among and between us in order to better understand our life in the Spirit and to be able to listen more closely to the Teacher. With that in mind, we began holding an annual “Meeting for Listening.”

Last year, there was a strong sense of deep sharing, of drawing together. We left the day having heard about our unique challenges. We also shared the many places we face common obstacles and celebrate common joys.

Our next “Meeting for Listening” is scheduled for June 21, 2025. It will be a full-day, hybrid gathering where Friends can gather in different ways: on site at Hartford (CT) Meeting, in self-organized local clusters connected via Zoom, or individually via Zoom.

We gather to share with each other—to reflect on where Spirit is alive in our local worshiping communities. These insights and reflections will both inform programmatic planning in the year ahead and our annual Funding Priorities.

This year, we will focus on how meetings across our region are leaning into community. Participants will have the opportunity to explore three themes related to this leaning in:

·       Renewal, including welcoming and integrating new attenders and new perspectives, religious education, and visibility in our local communities

·       Loss, including smaller numbers, leadership changes, aging membership, and the resulting need to rethink care for buildings, resources, and meeting functions

·       “These times,” including the spiritual condition of Friends in relation to the world, witness and engagement, discerning individual and corporate leadings, and the role of eldership.

Registration is now open. Whether you plan to participate via Zoom or gather with others, you can register for this free-of-charge event at neym.org/Meeting-for-Listening. If you plan to attend on site in Hartford, please register by June 12th if you can. This will help us comfortably accommodate everyone.

Are you led to host a local cluster in your area? If rather than traveling to Hartford, you are interested in inviting area Friends (for example, your Quarter) to gather at your meeting’s location in a regional cluster to participate in the gathering together, connected via a shared device or system, we would love to support you in doing so, as much as we are able. Contact us (mc-clerk@neym.org and Nia@neym.org) to begin a conversation.

Looking forward in faith, Carl Williams, Ministry and Counsel Clerk, Nia Thomas, Program Director