BUILDING BRIDGES TO SPIRITUAL WHOLENESS
Walking Each Other Home May 25-28, 2007

Please return your registration form with full payment to the registrar: Will Stites; 425 Bukolt Avenue, Stevens
Point, WI 54481; 715-345-7065; e-mail wstites@charter.net

We have chosen this theme for this summer’s Annual Session to be held at the Lion’s Camp in Rosholt Wisconsin. It arises as part of a progression that began when we sent two representatives to Friends General Conference “Beyond Diversity 101″ (BD 101) in January of 2003. Our representatives returned to us with leadings laid upon the yearly meeting: that we seek spiritual wholeness by learning to love, welcome, and move to our center, people different from our majority, particularly people of color, people who were not of the well-educated middle class, people with physical disabilities, and our own children and youth. In faithfulness to these leadings we have dedicated a regional meeting in fall of 2003 to the exploration of some of the roots of our homogeneity (overvaluing competition and getting stuck in victim or oppressor roles); put together a BD101 designed just for NYMers (winter 2004); and, through changing some of the structures of Annual Sessions, given space for themes centered on increasing our diversity: “Being Change, Being Changed” (2005) and “Living the Blessed Community” (under the ministry of the Buscemis in 2006).

Further, this year’s Sessions theme leads up to, and helps prepare our deeper exploration of, the theme of the 2007 Gathering hosted by NYM, “But,Who is My Neighbor?” which challenges us to love those we perceive as enemies in deed.

Here’s what the Sessions theme means to us. We can build bridges of spirit that connect and re-connect. Friends build these bridges by making “love the first motion”, to quote John Woolman. We love God, and that love reflects from there out in all directions. We love ourselves, which helps us to stop projecting our unacceptable insides outward, breaking down prejudices, judgments, and biases that separate us from others, making us more whole. We love others, helping to spread the web of peace and good will that is the basis for solving important problems.

Friends experience this web in messages of love and compassion found in the stories of our lives, the stories we share with and listen to in one another. Through this vehicle we come to know God, ourselves, and one another. At the Annual Session we intend to embrace stories, the telling and the deep listening, woven into intergenerational activities, worship and worship sharing, workshops, woven into the fabric of our community.

Come join us with your story, come add your song to the chorus that is the Northern Yearly Meeting Annual Session.

Keep your eyes on your mailbox for reminder cards and registration materials coming later this winter and spring. Contact our planning committee for more information.

In the spirit,

NYM Annual Session Planning Committee

  • Dave Minden, convener
  • Bonnie Berverstock, overall coordinator
  • George Owen
  • Bryce Black
  • La Verne Shelton
  • Ellen Brooks
  • Jennifer Roy