This Sunday, June 14, 2026, we will be having a Meeting-wide listening session focused on the controversy and conflict the Meeting community experienced around the time of the sale of the parsonage in 2021. Some members of the Meeting resigned after that sale. The issues raised also concern the role of Trustees. At the session, some members of the NEYM Meeting Accompaniment Group will be present.
Zoom will be provided for the Listening Session, please log in about 12 noon to participate.
Some Background:
The Parsonage was sold in September, 2021: see The minutes of the September 19, 2021 Business Meeting. There was a threshing session on the question of the parsonage in April, 2021. The Meeting approved sale of the parsonage at its July 18, 2021 Meeting.
From Our 2021 State of Society Report (Approved April, 2022): “We have fractures in our community, from tensions and challenges that arose at the end of 2021 and continued into the new year. Ministry and Counsel was tasked with assisting in the potential resolution of these tensions. We are prayerfully listening and seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit. Some of the fracturing is influenced by our lack of physical presence in meeting for worship and meeting for business. We continue to be challenged to be the people we wish to be and to resolve our differences with love and compassion.”
From the Minutes for June 26, 2022: “A member spoke to all those assembled expressing hurt and dismay regarding the alleged improper behavior of the Trustees and their decisions as an appointed and lawful instrument of the Meeting charged with the responsibility of caring for the Meetinghouse physical maintenance and improvements, upkeep of the grounds and also our cemeteries. The clerk responded with a request for silently and earnestly taking in the sentiments expressed. We acknowledge that we are in a tender period of time within our Meeting community and that healing our brokenness will not come quickly, but will require ongoing faithfulness, prayerful dialogue and open heartedness to walk alongside each other, bearing this together with God’s help and grace.”
