Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Meeting on Worship and Ministry of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

Second Month 24. 2002

Dear Philadelphia Yearly Meeting,

This epistle from the Meeting on Worship and Ministry springs from our recent retreat in which we found transformation and new life arising from both an infusion of new members and renewal by the Eternal. We want to share this newness with you that has come from bathing in the ever-flowing springs of love.

We, like other committees and working groups within our Yearly Meeting, have had difficulty in finding our place and voice in the new Yearly Meeting structure. At our retreat we sought an understanding of our place and call to service within our Yearly Meeting. We believe that we have found both.

Our focus has always been to discern the will of God and to be faithful to those leadings. At the retreat we came to realize how deeply we are loved by God and how strongly we are called to love our Yearly Meeting. We recalled how our new Yearly Meeting structure was carefully discerned through several years of development and then approved by us as a gathered worshipping community. We affirm this process and now let go of our resistance to accepting the results. As an evaluation of the new structure proceeds, we pray that wisdom and faith will continue to guide Yearly Meeting.

In listening to our call to love our Yearly Meeting, we are led to offer spiritual support to all of its many facets-annual sessions, the spiritual life of its monthly and quarterly meetings, the clerks, staff, and various components of the new structure, including the five standing committees, Financial Stewardship Group, Nominating Committee, and Interim Meeting. God calls to pray for all these dimensions of our Yearly Meeting. We plan to be in touch with each of them offering to explore how we might serve in specific ways.

All aspects of Yearly Meeting and all individual Friends carry a fundamental charge to discern and serve the will of God. We of the Meeting on Worship and Ministry have had the joy of listening to prophetic voices and corporate journeys of faith in many monthly meetings. We believe our best work has been in service to these Friends, and we believe we are called to serve in like manner the other forms of our Yearly Meeting. The particular details of this service will vary, but its essence is the simple, wonderful renewal of God's love for us, and our love for God and one another, rooted in the Quiet reaches of worship.

On behalf of the Meeting on Worship and Ministry,

Michael Wajda, clerk