Creativity & Spirituality

In-Person at Powell House
March 15 - 17, 2024

If art leads you to a deeper spiritual journey or your spiritual journey leads you to be more creative or if you just want to explore the relationship between creativity and spirituality, this retreat is for you.

Through all forms of creativity we find opportunities for deepening our spiritual journey. In a creative community we will delve into the interrelationship between creativity and spirituality through a variety of art forms --possibilities include: quilting, weaving, sculpting with clay, painting with watercolors, knitting, crochet, cooking/baking, origami, music. The venues will be confirmed as we gather leaders for each. If you are interested in facilitating a specific modality, PLEASE LET REGINA KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! The weekend culminates with a whole group sharing of our creative processes and our creations.

Childcare available with 3 weeks notice (by February 25th). Check out our HEALTH POLICY for this season.

Friends Decision-Making and Clerking:
Participating in Meetings for Business With Joy & Confidence

Hybrid Event at powell house
February 2-4, 2024

This is a workshop for everyone who wants to deepen their understanding of Quaker decision-making; it’s for clerks, but not just for clerks. For clerks, it will be an opportunity to learn and sharpen skills. For others, it will be an opportunity to get better grounded in what Quaker decision-making is all about. It is expected that each person will leave the weekend with new energy and enthusiasm for participating in meetings for business, well grounded in both the theoretical and the practical. There will be handouts, exercises and opportunities for experience sharing. 

 Among other topics, we will consider:

• The fundamentals of a Quaker meeting for business  

• What is a “sense of the meeting,” and how is it different from consensus?

• What is the meaning of “unity?”

• Why “standing in the way” is no longer a useful concept.

• Techniques of “good” clerking.

• Dealing with difficult situations

Steve Mohlke is a longtime Friend and former clerk of Ithaca Monthly Meeting. He served as co-clerk for the 2017 Friends General Conference Gathering and currently serves as General Secretary of New York Yearly Meeting. Steve has facilitated Clerking programs many times in person as well as online. He often experiences working through differences in a meeting for business as spiritual connection.

Oh is a Friend and co-clerk of Racial Healing and Wholeness Committee at Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. They engage in Environmental Racial Justice work as a community activist in the Philadelphia area. They serve as Elder for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and have facilitated programming for Annual Sessions Spiritual Formation Retreat. ,O has also provided workshops with PYM Quaker Life Counsel, on Truth & Transformation exploring the transformative practice of deep listening to increase our capacity for healing by responding compassionately to incidents of racial wounding.

Dwelling Deep, a Contemplative Retreat

WITH JIM HERR
CO-SPONSORED BY THE SCHOOL OF THE SPIRIT MINISTRY

In-Person at powell house
January 12-15, 2024

During this extended weekend, Friends are invited to enter more fully into the silence and to experience the deeper rhythms in which we might live. This retreat will include the opportunity for solitude, individual and corporate worship, silent meals, and “active” silence. There will also be opportunities for individual and group spiritual reflection. Come and simply BE with God; listen and attend to the Divine stirrings of the soul.

Jim Herr has been a Quaker in Lancaster, PA, since 1987. He was part of the School of the Spirit’s ninth class of “On Being A Spiritual Nurturer” in 2012-14. Since then, Jim has participated in eight contemplative retreats, including Dwelling Deep in 2018, 2019, 2020, and earlier this year, 2023. During three of those eight retreats, Jim was mentored to be a retreat leader.

In 2017, he retired after spending 25 years selling advertising space for a farming trade paper. And immediately, he took the part-time job of administrator of the School of the Spirit, a position he held until January 29, 2021. Now he is fully retired—and loving it. He and his wife, Cindy, have joined a hiking group in the Lancaster, PA, area and spend several days a month walking in the woods. Jim has discovered he finds Spirit in the great outdoors as much as anywhere.

Jim has been a recording clerk for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting since about 2008. He’s clerk of Caln Quarter of PhYM, assistant clerk of Lancaster Meeting, convener of the Worship & Ministry Committee, and, since 1992, writes the monthly newsletter. Cindy Herr is a Quaker and has attended the Lancaster Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends since 1987.

Cindy Herr is a Quaker and has attended the Lancaster Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends since 1987. Cindy completed the School of the Spirit’s ninth class of “On Being a Spiritual Nurturer.” She was mentored to be a retreat leader of Dwelling Deep at Powell House.

Cindy retired from teaching elementary school and began to participate in trainings in spirituality, mindfulness, yoga and qigong. She is certified to teach Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, yoga and teaching yoga to people with chronic illness. She finds spiritual depth in these practices. Cindy has attended numerous Quaker silent retreats and Buddhist silent retreats.

Cindy enjoys hiking, kayaking and bicycling in the Lancaster area. The Susquehanna River provides endless pleasure, beauty and spirit in nature.

New Year’s Eve Celebration

IN-PERSON AT POWELL HOUSE
December 30, 2023 - January 1, 2024

At this annual event, we have activities for all ages – but what we plan is up to you. There are workshop slots for YOU to offer an activity, so give it some thought before you arrive. Previous years jave included cookie making, energy work, enneagrams, musical collaborations, tai chi, Pilates, a clay workshop, and a walk to Dorson’s Rock, among others. Right after our evening meal on the 31st, it’s Cabaret! Bring your instruments, a song, story, poem and/or skit to share with everyone on New Year’s Eve. Our cooks will have a "Quaker midnight" feast ready for us. We’ll conclude the celebration with a brunch on January 1st.  Contact Regina HERE to offer an activity.

In order to offer an enjoyable and safe we will assign rooms as we receive registrations, and close the event when all rooms are full! Hope to see you HERE for some fun times.

Fall Work-Weekend

IN-PERSON AT POWELL HOUSE
October 27-29, 2023

Enjoy learning new skills? Like to work among 57 acres of God’s creation in Columbia County, NY? Bring your favorite tools, old clothes and hearty appetites. Our cooks will have lots of good, nutritious & yummy food for us. We have plenty of work projects, both inside and outside our buildings. The Powell House directors and maintenance person will coordinate our work projects.

Crafting Sacred Connections:
The Art of Hybrid Worship

In-Person at Powell House
October 6-8, 2023

When we hold our meeting for worship in both our meetinghouse and on Zoom, it allows a whole new level of accessibility for people who can’t come to the meetinghouse for whatever reason. It’s God calling us to make space in new ways. We call it “hybrid” or “blended” worship, and we call the work of holding these spaces together “tech host,” or “Zoom host,” or something else that emphasizes the “tech”. But the work is really care of worship with attention to connection. The work is challenging, pushing us out of our comfort zone whether that comfort zone is the tech part or the worship part. It’s a burn-out job when there’s only one or two people doing it, and it takes a team of people who can support each other when it gets hard, teach each other the tips and tricks, and pray for each other to be faithful. This workshop is for tech teams (including teams of one who want to grow larger) to come together, teach each other about how to hold that connection, share what works and what doesn’t, and bring home new energy and inspiration for supporting hybrid worship.

David Coletta: As a teenager in the late 1970s, David came to Quakers through the New England Yearly Meeting Young Friends program, and volunteered as staff for another decade. Completing a first career in technology and yearning to focus on people rather than machines, he discovered that the pandemic created the ideal conditions for him to find that work. David’s leading is to serve Quaker meetings and organizations by exploring faithful use of technology that supports worship and community. David has served NEYM as the tech team lead for annual sessions for the past three years, and has a ministry under the care of Fresh Pond Monthly Meeting, Cambridge, Mass. David lives in Dorchester, Mass.

Opening to the Wisdom of Our Elders 

In-Person at Powell House
June 16-18, 2023

Who has been a spiritual mentor to you in your Quaker journey? Who nurtured, instructed, and encouraged you along the Way? Have you experienced transformative moments? What questions would you ask these guides today, whether they are still living or have passed on? Some you may know only through their writings; some may be, or have once been, intimate friends.

We are heirs and heiresses to a rich tradition, grounded in the reality of the Living Presence, passed down through our historic Quaker testimonies, stories, journals, and lived examples. These elders, nurturers of the life in the Spirit, serve as important guides and models of our Quaker faith and practice. During this retreat, we will gather in worship, naming those living and dead who have served as mentors to us, both personally and collectively. We will take time alone, in solitude, to imagine intimate conversations with them. In worship and in sharing, we will remember and give thanks, opening ourselves to their wisdom and guidance.  How might these teachers guide and support us as we listen and discern the call to deeper community and witness in the world in present times?

Note: This weekend is an expanded version of the Wisdom of Our Elders retreat, September 2022

LINDA CHIDSEY: A recorded minister in NYYM, Linda Chidsey has led retreats at Powell House and elsewhere for many years. She has served NYYM as clerk and has been active with the School of the Spirit Ministry in a variety of roles over the years. She carries a concern for the contemplative life lived out in the world.

MICHAEL WAJDA: Michael Wajda has traveled widely among Friends, leading retreats, speaking, and helping strengthen the spiritual life of meetings. He, and another Friend currently convene days of extended worship around NEYM. Michael is part of the group that has issued the “Urgent Call to the RSOF”. Nurtured by many Quaker elders in his lifetime, Michael is called to live into his own life of faithfulness and to support others on the spiritual journey along the way.

Hospitality

In-Person at Powell House
June 2-4, 2023

Our keynote speaker is Rhiannon Grant, who will be joining us online from the UK. Her remarks will be about moving, in our communal homes, beyond more chairs and a bigger table to a new menu: embracing deep hospitality and exploring our changing Quaker community as we welcome different forms of theological and social diversity.

Susan Wilson will join Windy as the co-leader for this retreat, exploring this message in embodied, curious ways. Expect this to be a time of discernment and exploration.

“Testimonies to Mercy” is a seven-part traveling series based on the lecture Better Than Good: Seven Testimonies for Quaker Caregiving, given at Pendle Hill in June of 2021 by Quaker practical theologian and public minister Windy Cooler.

Facilitators

Susan Wilson (she/her) is a former Co-Director of the Ben Lomond Quaker Center, and member of the Plainfield Monthly Meeting (Vermont), New England Yearly Meeting.

Rhiannon Grant (she/her) teaches for Woodbrooke as well as researching and writing about Quakers. Her recent books include Quakers Do What! Why? (Christian Alternative, 2020) and Hearing the Light: the core of Quaker theology (Christian Alternative, 2021). She also edited The Quaker World (Routledge, 2022) with Wess Daniels.

Peacekeeping and Conflict Transformation Circle Training

In-Person at Powell House
May 11-14, 2023

This comprehensive training will provide key teachings and foundations of peacekeeping and conflict transformation circles, incorporating tools from Nonviolent Communication, Alternatives to Violence and trauma-informed approaches. Circles invite us into a space of embodiment, presence, and openness, with an effort to flatten power as much as possible.

One of the most important contributions of Circles is the strengthened web of relationships among a group of people.  It may be in a classroom, neighborhood, workplace, family of faith group.  As people sit together, talk about values, share personal stories, and work through disagreements in an atmosphere of respect and caring, they weave strong cords of connection among themselves.  Those connections increase the community’s capacity to take care of all its members and to find solutions when problems arise.

Kay Pranis, The Little Book of Circle Processes: A New/Old Approach to Peacemaking.

Please dress comfortably as there may be an invitation for some gentle movement to balance many hours of sitting.

Leaf Seligman trained with Kay Pranis and continues to sit in circle with Kay (virtually) every two weeks. Long before that, Leaf intuitively taught college classes in circle, arranged prison workshops in circle, and engaged in circle conversations during her years in congregational ministry. Leaf has taught since 1985 and as she concludes her college teaching this spring, she will offer workshops on restorative teaching and continue her restorative practice in educational and community settings. An author, itinerant preacher, and daughter of trees, Leaf offers gratitude to all of her teachers in all their guises and welcomes the opportunity to deepen the learning with participants in this immersive experience.

Spring Work-Weekend

In-Person at Powell House
April 7-9, 2023

We’re back to the whole weekend this spring! While we are still asking folks to rapid test before they arrive, and adhering to a reduced capacity total (you will be roomed with your family/companions), this will be the traditional routine of indoor and outdoor work projects, with planned evening recreation/fellowship activities. Of course, you may still wear masks if you feel that is important for you!

We’ll begin with supper at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, and conclude with lunch on Sunday. Childcare will be provided for those 10 and under, with 2 weeks notice. There will be PLENTY of chores, food, and fun :) Come and join us!

Pastoral Care and Counseling in your Meeting

In-Person at Powell House
March 17-19, 2023

During our weekend together we will weave together time to focus on learning and/or refreshing concrete pastoral care skills with time for spiritual refreshment and deepening.

I will bring a pastoral care case study. If you have an example of sessions (individual, couples, family, or clearness committee) that prompted you to think, whether about what went well or what could have gone better, please bring that – we can think together!

For our times of refreshment and deepening, we will use Psalms and other readings to explore the ways times of trouble and difficult tasks provide openings for us to creatively answer God’s call. We will pay particular attention to the way unanswered or difficult questions are held in God’s infinite arms.

I look forward to our time together.

Lucinda Antrim is a practicing psychoanalyst with deep roots in Quakerism. She taught in the Pastoral Care and Counseling Program at Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute in Manhattan and still teaches there in the psychoanalytic program. She has served on Ministry and Counsel in her meeting, as well as serving in other roles, among them recording clerk and clerk of her meeting and clerk of NYYM.

Lament

Online
March 10-11, 2023

Lament can be described as an expression of the suffering, grief, and sorrow we feel at a soul level. It is a way to be honest with ourselves, the Divine, and one another about those deeply felt places of vulnerability that can bring us to our knees while also creating openings for spiritual depth during our faith walk. 

Schedule:

(Times listed for both west and east coast)

Friday: 4:00pm -5:30pm PST | 7:00pm - 8:30pm EST

Saturday: 12:00pm -1:30pm PST | 3:00pm - 4:30pm EST

Saturday: 3:00pm -4:30pm PST | 6:00-7:30pm EST

Lynette Davis (she/her) is a writer, spiritual companion, and mental health peer advocate. She believes stories can change the world and create meaning in life and enjoys holding sacred space for healing and spiritual deepening through the expressive arts, especially for queer creatives and changemakers. Additionally, Lynette partners with nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and private practice healers implementing their communications and digital outreach strategies and currently serves as the Outreach Coordinator for The School of the Spirit Ministry. 

Lynette is also the author of Success To Die For: Breaking Down Assumptions About Anxiety, Depression, & Suicide and Their Impact on Business Women and a contributing author of the Illuminate Bible study series by Barclay Press. 

She earned her MA in Theopoetics and Writing from Earlham School of Religion and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Rutgers University with a BA in Sociology. Lynette has been a convinced Friend since 2016 and is a member of Ujima Friends Meeting. Connect with Lynette at http://sacredpausetoday.com 

Water of Life Retreat: A Refreshing Dip Into Practices for Spiritual Renewal

In-Person at Powell House
February 17-19, 2023

This in‐person retreat includes Quaker and other time‐tested ways to deepen our spiritual lives. There will be times of prayer, of learning, of healing, and of silence. The daily rhythm also includes times of solitude for individual reflection, work (if each participant welcomes it), and rest. In creating a retreat environment, Shulamith builds an atmosphere of stillness, spaciousness, acceptance, prayer, healing, and love.

Elements that will be included:

• Lectio divina (“divine reading”). This is a way of slowly reading a very short text, which allows the meaning to illuminate us and penetrate deeply.

• Developing a Rule for Joy/Guide for Transformation. This has a monastic origin as “Rule of Life,” but I do it with a light touch and a Quaker orientation.

• Experiment With Light. This is the Quaker guided meditation format developed by Rex Ambler and based on historical Quaker practices.

Barbara Shulamith Clearbridge has taught workshops all her life. She has done so for monthly and quarterly Meetings in Vermont, Seattle, and the Philadelphia and Chicago areas, for New England Yearly Meeting, FGC, and for Quaker retreat and conference centers. Shulamith is an interfaith spiritual director. 

Truth

Online
February 10-11, 2023

Telling the truth can be hard. It sometimes makes us anxious. Wilmer Cooper contended that all Quaker testimonies, including truth, can be seen as originating from a concern with the testimony to integrity. How can we get in touch with our integrity when the truth scares us, feels complicated, or causes us to doubt something or someone we are invested in?

Martin Kelley (he/him) is an American Quaker, writer, blogger, workshop leader, and editor. Much of his focus is on outreach, renewal, and the Christian roots of Quakerism. Martin has been sharing the story of Quakers as senior editor of Friends Journal magazine since 2011. He has been blogging as the Quaker Ranter for even longer and is founder and admin of the QuakerQuaker discussion forum.

Friends Decision-Making & Clerking

In-person at powell house
February 3-5, 2023

This is a workshop for everyone who wants to deepen their understanding of Quaker decision-making; it’s for clerks, but not just for clerks. For clerks, it will be an opportunity to learn and sharpen skills. For others, it will be an opportunity to get better grounded in what Quaker decision-making is all about. It is expected that each person will leave the weekend with new energy and enthusiasm for participating in meetings for business, well grounded in both the theoretical and the practical. There will be handouts, exercises and opportunities for experience sharing. 

 Among other topics, we will consider:

• The fundamentals of a Quaker meeting for business  

• What is a “sense of the meeting,” and how is it different from consensus?

• What is the meaning of “unity?”

• Why “standing in the way” is no longer a useful concept.

• Techniques of “good” clerking.

• Dealing with difficult situations

Steve Mohlke is a longtime Friend and former clerk of Ithaca Monthly Meeting. He served as co-clerk for the 2017 Friends General Conference Gathering. He currently serves as General Secretary of New York Yearly Meeting.

Schedule

Friday

• 07:00 Supper

• 08:15 Session

• 09:15 Adjourn for the evening

Saturday

• 08:00 Breakfast

• 09:00 to noon Session with a break in the middle

• 12:15 Lunch

• 01:30 to 05:30 Session with about an hour break at around 3 pm

• 06:00 Supper

• 07:15 Session

• 09:00 Adjourn for the evening

Sunday

• 08:00 Breakfast

• 09:00 to 11:45 Session with a break

• 12:00 Lunch

Dwelling Deep, a Contemplative Retreat

with Jim Herr & Thais Carr
Co-sponsored by the School of the Spirit Ministry

In-Person at powell house
January 13-16, 2023

During this extended weekend, Friends are invited to enter more fully into the silence and to experience the deeper rhythms in which we might live. This retreat will include the opportunity for solitude, individual and corporate worship, silent meals, and “active” silence. There will also be opportunities for individual and group spiritual reflection. Come and simply BE with God; listen and attend to the Divine stirrings of the soul.

Equality

Online
January 6-7, 2023

Intersectionality is a way of looking at community experiences of oppression and empowerment as webs of relationship that impact freedom and equality. In this retreat we are going to take a deep dive into what it might mean to engage in freedom work for and with everyone.

Khalila Lomax (she/her) is Baltimore Yearly Meeting's STRIDE (Strengthening Transformative Relationships In Diverse Environments) Coordinator. STRIDE is dedicated to creating accessibility and inclusion in BYM's camps and other outdoor experiences. To get a sense of Khalila’s ministry work in Baltimore Yearly Meeting, please see the attached report from 2021.

Hope and Witness in Dangerous Times

by Brent Bill

We are living in dangerous times. Of course, the times have always been dangerous throughout human history. Famine, flood, fire, fighting, and more have threatened human existence for eons. While many North American people of faith today live in relatively little physical danger, we face other dangers. With the rise of political and public incivility and administrations promoting policies and legislation that go against foundational faith principles, what’s a person of faith to do? How do we keep the faith and find a the right balance of nurturing our souls, living a daily life that reflects our values, and be publicly active in support of those who are oppressed, downtrodden, and starving, literally and figuratively, for some good news?

In this workshop, we’ll explore the themes of Brent Bill’s book Hope and Witness in Dangerous Times: Lessons from the Quakers on Blending Faith, Daily Life, and Activism – from how the first testimonies (peace, equality, etc.) sprang from the daily life and faith of the early Friends to how to be a people of hope in dangerous times. We’ll look at Quaker hope and witness of Friends through the ages to today and how the lessons they learned (and continue to learn) inform our hope and witness today.

At this interactive workshop, participants will engage in:

• Developing an affirmation for cultivating a rich interior life.

• Learn ways of speaking spiritually about political/social issues, including sharing how they arrived at their personal or congregation stances on them.

• Understand how the world needs people of faith to be active in justice issues for God’s sake.

• Share tools for getting their meeting or church to discuss how they are to engaged in the world.

If you are looking for a fresh way of doing faith that involves the inner life and outer action, as opposed to just one or the other and want to experience a holistic faith that has inner and outer engagement, then this might be the workshop for you.

Brent Bill is a life-long Friend who is a recorded minister, writer, and retreat leader. In addition to Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker, Brent is also the author of Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality; Sacred Compass: the Way of Spiritual Discernment; and numerous other books. He's a graduate of Wilmington College and Earlham School of Religion. He lives in rural Indiana. Visit his website at www.brentbill.com

Emotional Separateness & Openness

Online
November 11-12, 2022

Boundaries are vital to real intimacy. When we are able to separate our needs from the needs of others we can see people for who they are, not who we want them to be -- or what we fear about ourselves. We can be more fully present, and offer our gifts more skillfully and wholeheartedly. In this retreat, we will explore how emotional separateness and openness, despite their apparent tension, work in unity for greater faithfulness and more deeply loving community life.

Kody Gabriel Hersh (he/they) is a queer, trans, Quaker youth worker with roots in traditional Timucua, Seminole, and Miccosukee territory (Florida, U.S.). Their public ministry among Friends has touched on building robust intergenerational community, nurturing the spiritual lives of young people, liberatory sexuality and sexual ethics, abuse prevention and response, solidarity with marginalized peoples, decolonization, and nurturing faithfulness in oneself and others. For a QuakerSpeak video in which Kody speaks about how Jesus affirms their queerness, please follow this link.

Time to Be Tender

Online
October 21-22, 2022

How does anyone have the time to really be present to the people in our communities? To ourselves? To the sacred? What might it mean for Friends to cultivate communities where spaciousness in our daily rhythms - time for ministry, for recreation, for our relationships with each other and with God - is part of our commitment to each other and to the Spirit?

Adria Gulizia (she/her) is a lawyer, mediator, teacher, and mother. For the last few years, she has carried a concern for how Friends’ traditional faith and practice translate into an increasingly unstable, atomized and uncertain world. In her ministry activities and in her daily life, Adria is passionate about inviting all into deeper relationship with the Spirit of Christ, which spoke so strongly to early Friends and continues to speak today. She is a member of Chatham-Summit Monthly Meeting (New York Yearly Meeting), the Friends of Jesus Fellowship, and the Board of Advisors of Earlham School of Religion, which she will serve as clerk starting in the autumn of 2022. She has facilitated workshops on a variety of topics, including spiritual gifts, listening as a practice of pastoral care, and Friends' traditional commitment to the Lamb's War. Adria’s writing has been published by Friends Journal, Pendle Hill and Illuminate, a Bible study curriculum written by and for Friends. Her blog, In the Shadow of Babylon, can be found at shadowofbabylon.com.

Fall Work-Weekend 2022

Enjoy learning new skills? Like to work among 57 acres of God’s creation in Columbia County, NY? Bring your favorite tools, old clothes and hearty appetites. Our cooks will have lots of good, nutritious & yummy food for us. We have plenty of work projects, both inside and outside our buildings. The Powell House directors and maintenance person will coordinate our work projects.

This will be similar to what we did in the Spring:

• Start on Saturday Morning and go to noon on Sunday

• Overnight Saturday available to a reduced number

• Sunday will be for finishing jobs started Saturday

• Meals start with a "Grab and Go" breakfast Saturday through breakfast Sunday,

• Childcare for those under 10 provided

Opening to the Wisdom of Our Elders 

Who has been a spiritual mentor to you in your Quaker journey?  Who is it that nurtured, instructed, and encouraged you along the Way?  Do you remember particular transformative moments? What would you like to ask these guides, whether they are still living or have passed on?  Maybe you have known them only through their writings.  Maybe they are or were an intimate friend.

We are heirs and heiresses to a rich tradition, grounded in the reality of the Living Presence, and passed down through our historic testimonies, stories, journals, and lived examples.  These elders, nurturers of the life in the Spirit, serve as important guides and models of our Quaker faith and practice.

During this retreat, we will gather in worship, naming those, living and dead, who have served as mentors to us, both personally and collectively.  We will take time to be alone and to imagine intimate conversations with them.  In worship, we will remember and give thanks as we open ourselves to their wisdom and guidance in these times.      

We see this time together as an opportunity to worship, reflect, and open ourselves to the guidance of those who have been spiritual teachers in our lives.  How might these teachers support us as we discern how we are called to be in community and to be witnesses in the world in this present time?

LINDA CHIDSEY: A recorded minister in NYYM, Linda Chidsey has led retreats at Powell House and elsewhere for many years. She has served NYYM as clerk and has been active with the School of the Spirit Ministry in a variety of roles over the years. She carries a concern for the contemplative life lived out in the world.

MICHAEL WAJDA: Michael Wajda has traveled widely among Friends, leading retreats, speaking, and helping strengthen the spiritual life of meetings. He, and another Friend currently convene days of extended worship around NEYM. Michael is part of the group that has issued the “Urgent Call to the RSOF”. Nurtured by many Quaker elders in his lifetime, Michael feels a call to seek their guidance during the challenging times in which we live.

Playing in the Light

Godly Play®/Faith & Play™ Training for Quakers
Hybrid: Online + In-person,
October 2022

This powerful way of being with children can transform your religious education program for children, and nurture your own spiritual life. Learn and practice skills to help children explore the existential limits of their lives through wonder, play, and core stories from the Bible and Quaker faith and practice. Discussions include:

• Exploring the spirituality of children

• Considering the “unspoken” lessons of the teaching space and classroom structure

• Supporting the circle of children and working with multiage groups and diverse needs; using stories in multigenerational settings

• Weaving Godly Play/Faith & Play stories into a children’s program with other religious education resources for Friends.

Sliding scale cost for accommodations and meals, October 28-30:
2 nights (Friday/Saturday) $220—$260—$300
OR Saturday only, $110—$130—$150

Facilitator: Melinda Wenner Bradley is a Godly Play US Trainer and the Director of Communications and Training for Faith & Play Stories, Inc. Melinda is co-author and editor of “Faith & Play: Quaker Stories for Friends Trained in the Godly Play Method” (QuakerPress). Since 2010, she has led more than forty core trainings for Quaker meetings and schools, and shared Godly Play and Faith & Play stories in children's religious education programs, multigenerational worship, school classrooms, teacher workshops, international gatherings of Friends in England, Kenya, and Peru. She currently serves Philadelphia Yearly Meeting on staff as the Director of Programs.

Playing in the Light: Hybrid Core Training Schedule

Please note: “hybrid” means all of these sessions, online AND in person, are the training. It is not a choice of online or in person.

Questions? Click below to reach out to the trainer:

Reading/Reflection

Completed before first online session.

Asynchronous reading assignment will be excerpts in the Faith & Play Stories publication and additional PDFs provided by the trainer.

Online Sessions: Sundays, 4-5:30 pm ET

Session 1 - October 2
Session 2 - October 16

In-person Sessions: hosted at Powell House October 28-30

Saturday, 9:30am-5:00pm
Optional: materials-making Sat. 7-9pm
Sunday, 9am-4pm

Final Session Online:

Date TBD, 90 minutes
(after in-person)

Education

In-Person at Ben Lomond
September 2-4, 2022

Friends of all ages are invited to a joyful and interactive weekend of listening “to what is alive in all of us through religious education, grounded in the now and in truth.” Participants will leave this weekend with an experience of hearing and being heard, as we practice creative listening skills while discerning together what Friends’ future can be as a multi-age, diverse and often widely dispersed community. All ages are encouraged and welcome.

J.T. Dorr-Bremme (he/his) is a convinced Friend with 10 years of varied Quaker experiences on both coasts of the United States and in Mexico City as well as with the FGC Gathering, FWCC Section of the Americas, and more. In 2018 and 2019, he participated in the first iteration of Marcelle Martin's Nurturing [Worship, Faith, and] Faithfulness program and as a teaching assistant and elder for Marcelle in her fall 2021 Exploring Spiritual Practices course. Beginning in 2020, JT has been an elder with his partner-minister Johanna Jackson in the ministry known as Forward in Faithfulness. A key component of this ministry is the Listening Project, a series of Spirit-led conversations with Friends from around the US from ages 14 to 79 about their experiences of Quaker culture, spirituality, and possible futures for the Religious Society of Friends. He carries a gift of deep listening and a concern for transformation that will help heal our ailing world.

In the famous story of John Woolman worshipping with the Delaware Indians, Chief Papunehang, said, in response to a prayer offered by Woolman in English, and not interpreted for the Delaware, “I love to feel where words come from.”  That is as good a description of vocal ministry as I know-seeking the place where the words come from.

Vocal Ministry- making ourselves available for the Divine to speak through us- is a key element of our distinctive form of worship. Yet many of us feel uncertain about this part of our practice, feeling our way by trial and error, with little, if any, feedback.  And many meetings name vocal ministry as a problem with which they want help; either there is too much, or too little, or it is often ungrounded.  Rarely have I heard a meeting say that their vocal ministry is just as they would hope for.  Some Friends have blurred, and even lost, the distinction between sharing our own thoughts and feelings and vocal ministry which comes from the Divine.

As vocal ministry led by the Divine almost always happens in the context of a gathered meeting, we will begin by creating a community of depth and trust, learning to open to that place where deep worship, discernment, and vocal ministry all originate.  From that place we will explore practices which make us more available to the promptings of the Divine for us to speak out of worship: listening with our whole being; opening our hearts to God and to the gathered body; learning to “read” the readiness of the room to receive vocal ministry; understanding vocal ministry as a process the whole gathered body supports; and learning how to better distinguish the voice of the Divine from our own reflections.

Our work will be immediate and experiential- long on experience and short on theory- and grounded in love and affirmation.

Christopher Sammond loves facilitating the creation of a safe space that invites all Friends to open in heart and spirit, to re-member their wholeness, to share in a sense of rich community, and to touch the Divine Source. He has led scores of interactive workshops and retreats for Friends over many years, including ones at Powell House, Woolman Hill, Pendle Hill, Earlham School of Religion, the Friends United Meeting Triennial, the Friends World Committee for Consultation World Gathering, and the Friends General Conference Gathering. Christopher brings years of experience working with meetings on their worship life when serving New York Yearly Meeting as their General Secretary. Over the past two years, Christopher has facilitated online retreats and workshops for both monthly meetings and gatherings of Friends. He lives in upstate NY with his wife Barbara, their dog and two cats.

Schedule:

Friday Evening: 7:00-9:00

Saturday Morning: 9:30-12:00
Saturday Afternoon: 2:00-4:30
Saturday Evening: 7:00-9:00 

Sunday Morning: 9:00-12:00

Our Second Thirds program will culminate with an IN PERSON retreat at Powell House! We’ll be in conversation about Quaker traditions and visioning for the future, with a large portion of celebration (!), as well as opportunities for informal social connections. Bonfire, delicious meals, and lots of smiles are included too :)