YIELDING TO THE POWER OF THE LIVING SEED

An Invitation To
A DAY OF EXTENDED WORSHIP
Saturday January 3, 2025, 9am-2:30pm

and an optional
Friday Evening Program with Noah Bishop Merrill
DEEP CALLS TO DEEP: 
OPENING OUR HEARTS TO THE LIVING SPRING
Friday January 2, 7:00-9:00pm

SCHEDULE
OVERVIEW
PROGRAM (FRIDAY EVE)
CONVENORS
LOGISTICS
REGISTRATION
(NOTE: Registration if required if you plan to stay overnight.
Registration by all participants is appreciated.)

SCHEDULE

(OPTIONAL) FRIDAY SCHEDULE
5:30-7:00 p.m.    Light supper of soup and sandwiches
7:00-9:00 p.m.    Program: Deep Calls to Deep (see description below)

SATURDAY SCHEDULE
7:30 a.m.     Breakfast for those staying over Friday night
9:00             Tea, coffee, and light snacks will be available with an opportunity for
                    conversation in the main building (Conference Center)
9:30             Meeting for Worship (in Meeting House)
12:30           Brown Bag Lunch and time for a walk, relaxation, conversation, etc.
                   (Beverages will be provided.)
1:15             Reflections on the morning experience of extended worship
2:30 p.m.     Closing

OVERVIEW

In earlier times Friends would often worship for hours fully expectant and deeply patient for the Living Presence to do its work in the gathered body of Friends. These gathered experiences were core to Quaker convincement, personal transformation, and prophetic challenges to the cultural behaviors in the places where Quakers lived.

Modeled on a twenty-five-years of practice in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, we have been offering these opportunities for New England Yearly Meeting Friends to experience a full day of Quaker worship. In January we will be holding another meeting, once again at Woolman Hill, with an option to stay over on Friday night. We hope you will join us.

For the all-day worship, we will gather in the Woolman Hill Meetinghouse at 9:30 a.m. for three hours or so of expectant waiting worship. Three hours may sound like a long time, but Friends who have been practicing this kind of extended worship have often been surprised how quickly it seems to go by.  Friends are free to get up and move around, to lie down on the benches, to use the bathroom, even to take a walk outside and rejoin the worship as led.  Following the worship, we each eat our own brown bag lunch (beverages provided). After lunch, we either will return to worship or gather for some worship-sharing about our experiences of the morning.  We will close by 2:30 p.m.  Friends are welcome to come for the morning only, to stay for lunch, or to stay for the whole day.

Transformative experiences can happen when the Living Presence has adequate time to remove the spiritual cobwebs and to shine a Light on the deep calls that are beckoning us to change and to make the world a better place. It is God’s work to awaken people to God‘s wisdom, guidance, and love. These extended meetings for worship can provide a seedbed for God to do that awakening.  You can also read Marcelle Martin’s Pendle Hill Pamphlet, An Invitation to a Deeper Communion, which describes the beginnings of these extended worship experiences in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

---

FRIDAY EVENING PROGRAM (7:00-9:00pm)
PREPARING for WORSHIP

DEEP CALLS TO DEEP:
Opening Our Hearts to the Living Spring
with Noah Bishop Merrill

Noah will offer a reflection and then invite Friends to share in small groups.

---

CONVENORS

Jean Rosenberg, Middlebury Meeting, and Michael Wajda, Bennington Meeting, started these full-day extended meetings in May 2022 and are committed to moving them around the yearly meeting every 2-4 months as possible.

For questions about the extended worship portion, please contact Michael Wajda (mfwajda[at]gmail.com, 484-639-3356) or Jean Rosenberg (jrosenbe[at]middlebury.edu, 802-388-6453).

If your meeting would like to host one of these extended worship days in the future, please let one of the convenors know and one of them will be in touch with you.

Our vision is to strengthen Friends’ corporate yielding to
the Living Presence in all our meetings for worship and business
so that the Inward Teacher can fully do its work of abundant love and guidance.

We look forward to being with you in That Which Is Eternal. 

---

LOGISTICS

Saturday Worship

• If you plan to come just for Saturday, it would be helpful to let us know, in case we need to make changes due to weather. Please come for worship whether you let us know or not!
  
• Please remember to bring your own lunch if you plan to stay beyond the Saturday morning worship.

Friday Program and Overnight Accommodations

• • Please register if you plan to attend the Friday evening program and/or stay overnight, so that we can plan appropriately.
    
  • Friday evening program We will provide a simple soup and sandwich supper. Noah Bishop Merrill will offer a 2-hour program on opening our hearts to the Living Spring (see details above).
  • Overnight Accommodations There will be overnight housing available. If you would like to stay at Woolman Hill for Friday and/or Saturday nights, please register at the link below.

---

COST & REGISTRATION

Friday Program and Saturday Worship:
There is no set fee for the evening program or the extended worship itself. We welcome donations. We appreciate registrations to help in our planning; you may come to the program and/or worship whether or not you have registered.

Friday and/or Saturday Overnight:
Standard rate $70/night (sliding scale $40-100) includes lodging and simple foods available for dinner and breakfast. Registration is required for overnight accommodations.

A non-refundable deposit of half the anticipated cost is required to hold an overnight space for the event unless otherwise arranged. If you need to cancel, the deposit can be applied to a future workshop within 18 months. The balance is due at the beginning of the event.

We are committed to financial accessibility: please pay what fits in your personal budget (at whatever amount), encourage your faith community to financially support your participation if that is appropriate, and let us know if you have additional questions related to fees.

REGISTER HERE

---

ARRIVAL & DEPARTURE

Friday, January 2: Plan to arrive after 4:00pm; dinner will start at 5:30pm.
Saturday, January 3: Fellowship before worship will begin at 9am; sharing will end by 2:30pm
Sunday, January 4: Anyone staying an additional night will depart by noon.

We are centrally located in western Massachusetts, close to both I-91 and Route 2. For those arriving by car, we will send directions prior to the event. Please let us know if you’d be interested in car-pooling.

The nearest Amtrak train station is in Greenfield (MA), ten minutes’ drive away. Vermont Transit and Peter Pan bus lines also stop in Greenfield. Please contact us in advance to see if we can arrange a ride from these stations.

ROOM & BOARD
Our 19^th-century farmhouse has hand-hewn beams and wide pine floors, with simple lodging (typically double occupancy) with shared bathrooms. The meetinghouse and the first floor of the main building are wheelchair accessible. Our rustic cabins have electricity, woodstoves and outhouses.

We serve nourishing, home-cooked meals and always offer vegetarian options. Please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions. Part of the community building at each retreat includes the joyful sharing of meal chores and final clean-up.

Note for those staying Saturday night: Simple foods and kitchen access provided.

---

WHAT TO BRING

• Brown bag lunch for Saturday
• If staying overnight: Toiletries, towel, and bedding (sleeping bag, blankets or comforter, sheets and pillow case). Pillows are provided.
• Outdoor footwear for walking between buildings
• Indoor slippers or comfortable shoes

You might also like to bring:

• Flashlight or headlamp
• Journal or writing materials
• Art supplies
• Book or devotional reading material (there are also some on site)

Please do NOT bring:

• Pets or candles

We look forward to welcoming you to the hill!