State of Society Queries – 2006

Friends,
At our November Meeting for Business we decided to consider the queries on January 28
after meeting for worship with a potluck lunch and worship sharing.

Below is the Queries. If you’d like to download these and print them, please click here.

Dear Friends,

Once again, it is time for the Coordinating Committee for Ministry and Counsel to ask you to consider the spiritual condition of your meeting. According to Faith and Practice, “the monthly meeting on ministry and counsel should appoint one or more of its members to prepare and present a report on the spiritual condition of the meeting. This should be reviewed in turn by ministry and counsel and by the meeting for business of the monthly meeting.”

We invite you to look back over the year 2006, focusing on your meeting community. These queries may help you in your deliberations.

• What is the state of your meeting or worship group? Are there places where your meeting feels stuck? Where do you see new life emerging?
• How do you attract newcomers and integrate them into the life of the meeting?

During yearly meeting sessions this year, Friends have labored with concerns about earth care, racism within the yearly meeting, conscientious objection to war taxes, GLBT ministry, and meeting the minimum needs of all.

• How do these concerns manifest themselves in your meeting?

Please include any other information that you feel would be useful for the yearly meeting to know about your activities, joys and concerns.

When the monthly meeting approves the State of the Meeting report, the clerk should forward it to the Yearly Meeting Office by February 14, 2007. If possible, send it both electronically and in hard copy.

If you would like assistance in writing the report, you may contact any member of NYYM Coordinating Committee for Ministry and Counsel or someone from your regional ministry and counsel.

Blessings,

Deborah Wood
for CCM&C