YIELDING TO THE POWER OF THE LIVING SEED
An Invitation To
A DAY OF EXTENDED WORSHIP
SATURDAY MAY 14, 2022, 9am-3pm
“God alone is able to strengthen us to dig deep,
to remove all which lies between us and the safe foundation…”
John Woolman
SCHEDULE
OVERVIEW
CONVENORS
LOGISTICS
SCHEDULE
| 9:00-9:30 | Tea and coffee will be available in the foyer with an opportunity for quiet conversation outside. (Some may have already gathered for worship) |
| 9:30-12:30 | Meeting for Worship (see fuller description below) |
| 12:30-1:45 | Brown Bag Lunch and time for a walk, relaxation, conversation, etc. |
| 1:45-3:00 | Reflections on the morning experience of extended worship or simply returning to worship. (To be decided by the group during lunch) |
OVERVIEW
God, by its many names, is a Living Reality which guides us, heals us, and loves all beings everywhere. We know this reality in our individual spiritual practices and in our regular corporate practices too. What can we do to deepen and strengthen our commitment to this Reality? By yielding to it together in worship, we all are strengthened, and we will be led.
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.
Building on twenty-five-years of practice in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, we would like to invite you to experience a full day of Quaker worship at Woolman Hill. The day is being convened by Michael Wajda, one of the Friends who was among the founding group in PYM in 1996.
We will gather in the Woolman Hill meeting house 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 3:00 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.
CONVENORS
Michael Wajda is under a deep call to invite Friends to attend to the Living Presence in our meetings for worship, meetings for business, and our daily lives. He and his family live in Bennington, VT. Bennington Meeting has taken Michael’s ministry under its care. Michael will be joined by co-convenor Jean Rosenberg, Middlebury Meeting, who is part of a small online extended worship group with Michael and ten other NEYM Friends that has been meeting now for almost two years.
LOGISTICS
Worship Arrangements
Please remember to bring your own lunch if you plan to stay beyond the morning worship. While there is no specific charge for coming to this extended worship, good will donations to Woolman Hill will be welcomed with gratitude for providing us the use of their space. If you have questions about the day, please contact Michael Wajda by email (mfwajda at gmail.com) or phone (mobile: 484- 639-3356).
Overnight Accommodations
If Friends coming from a distance would like to make arrangements for overnight housing at Woolman Hill, please contact the Woolman Hill office: 413-774-3431 or info@woolmanhill.org. There is limited space available that weekend.
COVID PROTOCOLS
You can read Woolman Hill’s general Covid guidelines here. NOTE THAT FOR THIS EVENT masks will not be required; the convenors have requested that all participants are fully vaccinated. If you have questions, please contact Michael Wajda (see contact information above).
We look forward to welcoming you to the hill!