A Letter from the Clerk 

by Lucinda Antrim
Clerk of New York Yearly Meeting

I continue to be delighted and inspired by the community of Friends in New York Yearly Meeting.  When my energy flags I dip into the State of the Meeting reports that are arriving at the Yearly Meeting office, and am renewed; one concludes, “We seek to be centered, open-hearted, and clear-headed. And to be ready to discern and bear witness to Truth in our troubled world.” I am inspired by the energy in our committees and working groups, and grateful when an e-mail appears in my inbox that answers the question in the hymn “Is it I, Lord?” with a sometimes tentative but always deeply faithful, “Here I am, Lord,” going where led into service and action in the world. 

This summer, we gather for Summer Sessions to support one another in bringing the peaceable kingdom to a turbulent world. We welcome our plenary speaker, Nadine Hoover from Friends Peace Teams, who will speak on “Peace is Possible! Friends’ Testimony and Witness to Peace Today.” We will have many opportunities for worship and work. Our usual worship sharing groups will meet each morning, the highlight of the Summer Sessions experience for many. We will share time in nourishing extended worship during Meeting for Discernment. We will labor in worship in Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, listening deeply for God’s will for us as a gathered body, while the children and youth listen for the movement of the Spirit in their Junior Yearly Meeting groups.  And we will all have time for rejuvenating play, shared meals, singing on the Inn porch, the Junior Yearly Meeting bonfire, and so much more.  We particularly welcome newcomers to this experience!  I’ll be on the Inn porch when you arrive Sunday and will host a tea and bedtime snack Wednesday evening, open to all but especially for mid-week newcomers.

We have much to offer the world and to offer each other. I am blessed to be among you. When the world seems full of impenetrable prose, I am led by a State of the Meeting report to the words of a Quaker poet, Stan Searl, who came to read to their Meeting:

Love,

Oh love,

How it grows 

In the palm

Of the hand.

In peace and love, 

Lucinda Antrim

Clerk, NYYM