Summer Sessions 2013: Worship

Summer Sessions

July 21–27, 2013 • Silver Bay, New York

Worship at Summer Sessions

Quicklinks

• Schedule of Worship at Summer Sessions
• Opening Worship Sunday Evening
• Community Worship
• Meetings for Discernment
• The Ministry of the Facing Bench: Eldering
• Worship-Sharing Groups

Schedule of Worship at Summer Sessions

Community Worship

Opening Worship Sunday Evening

Worship begins at Summer Sessions on Sunday evening at 6:45 pm.

Community Worship

Everyone is encouraged and welcomed to community worship from 12:00 to 12:15 p.m. each day in the Auditorium. This is another opportunity for our community to come together to listen as we are drawn deeper into the Divine presence.

Each day at noon, members of Junior Yearly Meeting will join the gathering in the Auditorium for community worship. Our coming together can feel momentarily disruptive and sweetly joyful! If you are sitting in the Auditorium when the children and adults enter, please make space for them by making aisle seats available if possible, and by welcoming them with a smile. What a blessing to have as part of our meeting young Friends and those who feel a ministry to work with them, and to have a time of worship when we’re not segregated by age!

Meetings for Discernment

The Ministry of the Facing Bench: Eldering

When NYYM meets in the Auditorium at Silver Bay, a small row of chairs faces the body. The Friends sitting in these chairs are practicing a ministry of eldering that we call the ministry of the facing bench. Some describe this work as holding the body in prayer or holding Friends in the Light. Others speak of grounding our meetings for worship in the Spirit of Love and Truth, or in the presence of the Divine. Those at the clerks’ table and those in the body have found that having Friends sitting on these facing chairs serves as a touchstone of calm, a tangible reminder that our Yearly Meeting business sessions are meetings for worship. While some are led to hold and ground the meeting from the facing chairs, others practice this silent ministry of caring eldership from within the body gathered in worship.

Are you feeling call to serve in this way? The committee on Worship at Yearly Meeting Sessions is seeking Friends to sit on the facing chairs as we meet in Summer Sessions. To participate in this service, which is open to Friends of all ages, or if you have questions about the ministry of eldering, please contact Ann Davidson, Rima Segal, or Anna Obermayer. You can view assignments, sign up for this service, and address questions to us via the message board opposite the NYYM conference office in the Inn. If you are moved by Spirit to serve as elder during a meeting, do go ahead and follow that nudge, whether you have signed up or not.

Worship-Sharing Groups

Worship-sharing groups will meet Monday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm and Tuesday through Friday, 9:00–10:00 a.m. Worship-sharing group assignments and locations will be posted on the Inn porch. If you have any questions contact the worship-sharing coordinators, Kate Lawson and Claire Simon. If you didn't sign up for a group when you registered, feel free to add your name to a group for Monday morning.

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