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Dear Friends:
The Spring Gathering Planning Committee and Youth Committee are excited to share our plans for Spring Gathering 2020 with you. When we chose our theme at Winter Gathering in Rochester, none of us knew how relevant it would be in this time of pandemic and social distancing. Everything about our times makes Loving One Another and the Earth: Living into the Future as Friends daily more important. We were clear that the intersection of Earthcare and Inclusion is vital to our future: not just for Friends, but for a just global society and a renewed earth.
Holding Spring Gathering virtually allows us to invite Friends throughout New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM) to participate. It also presents us with challenges in reaching out to regional Friends for whom meeting by Zoom is not possible. We will provide material for Friends to read offline, queries to consider at home, and suggestions for safely reopening meetinghouses when that is possible. Shared lunches will provide opportunities for intervisitation. Teens and Young Adults will have opportunities to hang out together. Children grades 3-12 will be able to join virtual POHO youth activities on Saturday and Sunday. The Youth Committee will be offering suggestions for online and offline family-friendly activities.
In the Spirit of transformation that we are being called into, we are offering a Meeting for Healing in which Friends will be guided into their dreams, into the sacred Light that transforms and heals, teaching us how to be vessels of light and unconditional love for the world.
We want to thank the many Friends who have helped in planning and who will participate as speakers and presenters, including Friends from as far away as New Orleans, New York city, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Canada. Friends from Buffalo and NYYM have offered us Zoom accounts to support the Saturday afternoon concurrent workshops and interest groups; and NYYM Interim Young Adult Field Secretary Marissa Badgley has offered her Zoom expertise as well as programming for Young Adult Friends.
Spring Gathering has been pay-as-led for the last several years. This year, acknowledging the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on communities of color, we encourage Friends instead to make a donation to Friends Center for Racial Justice (FCRJ). There is no registration fee for Spring Gathering, but registration is required. Friends can register online or by filling out a pdf version and sending it by mail. Friends who register will receive links to and call-in information for all Zoom sessions; advance readings; and queries to consider.
We ask monthly meeting clerks to spread the word to all meeting members and attenders, and to help us reach out to those for whom meeting online will not be possible.
For the Spring Gathering Planning Committee:
Lu Harper & Suzanne Blackburn