Category: 2012 AS Docs

The Experimentation and Implementation Subcommittee of M&O has made some recommendations that you will see reflected in this year’s schedule.  These are based on the 2011 evaluations plus the input from both Quarterly Meetings.  You will have a chance to experience the 2012 experiment and give feedback during this year’s evaluation cycle.  PLUS you are invited to come to an interest group during the Annual Session to participate in visioning future changes or experiments.  Here are some of the principles behind this year’s experiment:

Nurturing ‘Gathered’ or ‘Covered’ Meetings

The reorganization of plenary sessions is an effort to nurture our way of doing business so there are more opportunities for ‘gathered’ or ‘covered’ meetings. Finding Unity is a fragile process that requires adequate time for discernment.  By limiting the number of items on any one agenda, provided printed and on-line information in advance, asking Friends to be prepared when they come to plenary sessions, and providing time outside of the plenary sessions for seasoning, it is hoped that the Annual Session will be able to move more easily as the Spirit guides us.

Coordinating age related group activities

• Adult activities fall within the Children’s Program hours so that parents don’t have to choose between participating and parenting. As a result, Transformative Quakers and Bible Study sessions are moved into the Children’s Program hours.
• Activities the whole family can participate in are placed outside the Children’s Program hours.
• SYM (Senior Yearly Meeting) activities are grouped in the morning when JYM and YFs tend to be asleep.
• Some JYM and YF activities may therefore be grouped at night when SYM tends to be asleep.
• Inter-generational activities are planned for late morning, afternoon and early evening when everyone is awake and can participate.
• Activities are scheduled so that the Children’s Program can continue their practice of picking up and delivering children to parents at meal times.

Note: some in JYM are over 18 and legal adults. Most YFs are legal adults. To honor those adults still in JYM and YF, we have created a new designation, Senior Yearly Meeting (SYM) in lieu of ‘PYM’ or ‘the adults’. This also honors our most senior members.

 Inter-generational Activities

• All age groups have expressed an interest in increasing intergenerational activities, so we invite you to spend all meals as community time, and ask that you do not conduct business during meals.  Use them as a time to get to know people of different ages.
• There is an inter-generational slot after lunch each day, each slot to be led by a different group.
• There will be inter-generational worship-sharing, including those from JYM who wish to join SYM.

CALL TO THE 66^TH ANNUAL SESSION OF PACIFIC YEARLY MEETING
WALKER CREEK RANCH
1700 Marshall-Petaluma Road
Petaluma, CA 94952
August 13-18, 2012

Come, ye thankful people come.  Come to the 66^th Annual Session of Pacific Yearly Meeting for a week of Spirit led worship and activities.  We will meet at Walker Creek Ranch, www.walkercreekranch.org, from Monday, August 13 to Saturday, August 18, 2012.  The site has miles of hiking trails, a creek, a lake, pastures and trees.  Many of our small meetings will be outside.

 John Calvi will speak to us on the topic of ‘The Dance Between Hope and Fear Amidst Friends’.   While his healing current work is primarily in the context of trauma from torture, he has years of experience of helping people release physical and emotional pain in everyday living.  In addition to speaking to us in a plenary session, he will lead an interest group and have time with Young Friends and Junior Yearly Meeting.

We will also hear from people who attended the FWCC World Gathering of Friends in Kenya, from AFSC, FCNL and others.

At the beginning of the week, business for which we need to make decisions will be presented, seasoned and acted upon near the end of the week.  All reports will be here on the website, www.pacificyearlymeeting.org, by July 30^th for us to read in preparation for the week.  Look to the website for Registration materials or check with your meeting’s representative.  Please register even if you’re not certain that you’ll be able to attend.  It is easier to plan for the greatest possible number of attendees than to scramble to find accommodations for latecomers.

Come with open hearts and minds that in the Spirit, we may share our deepest selves with one another.

Yours in the Light,

Marilee Eusebio,

Presiding Clerk,

Pacific Yearly Meeting

 

 

PACIFIC  YEARLY  MEETING  ANNOUNCEMENT

It is with delight that I tell you that John Calvi has accepted our invitation to address us at the 66th Annual Session at Walker Creek Ranch, August 13-18, 2012.  He is a healer, has done extensive work on stopping torture, founding Quaker Initiative to End Torture (QUIT), and works from a position of humility, that is, he accepts whatever remuneration a group can provide.

 His writings include a pamphlet, The Dance Between Hope and Fear, an address that he gave to Southeastern Yearly Meeting in 1992.  It is also called the Annual Walton Lecture and was reprinted in 2001.

 He is a member of Putney Monthly Meeting in Vermont and lives with his partner of many years, Marshall Brewer.

For more information about Calvi’s ministry, see his website: https://www.johncalvi.com

Yours in the Light,

Marilee Eusebio,

Presiding Clerk, PYM