Calls to Annual Sessions

Intermountain Yearly Meeting Annual

Gathering, June 11 to 15, 2025 at Fort Lewis

College in Durango, Colorado.

Dear Friends,

I invite you to the 51st Annual Session of Intermountain Yearly Meeting of Friends held in hybrid at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado from June 11 to 15, 2025. At this event you can meet with other Friends on a deep level, perhaps more deeply than you have anywhere else. Community is a great antidote to the tumult we are experiencing in our world right now. Come with the intention to connect.

Our theme this year is Beloved Community: Gathered in Courage and Care. We are a community with much in common: believing that every person can connect with God directly and is of ultimate value, we each have a unique Spiritual journey, and the Light can lead us to service and social action.

I encourage you to join us in courage as we open ourselves, share from our depths and receive with care the vulnerability and strength of others in our exploration of Beloved Community. In doing this, we will come to love each other in that which is eternal.

Our program includes events for our whole community, such as a very special storytelling experience with Children’s Yearly Meeting. We will also have worship sharing, interest groups, Friendly Circles, evening events like dancing, and more. For more details, please go to IMYM.org.

Please join us.

In the Spirit,

Bruce Thron-Weber

Presiding Clerk

North Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Gathering, July 9 to 13, 2025 in Missoula, Montana.

To Friends of North Pacific Yearly Meeting and to Friends Everywhere:

In these days when all the world seems to tremble, we gather as Friends and we tremble, too. We do not tremble in fear or despair. Our trembling is the quaking that comes the moment before we break the silence of worship and speak. Our trembling is the Spirit stirring us to speak and act. We are called to let the Inward Voice ring through us with such clear conviction that we rise in courage and sing.

The 2025 Annual Session of North Pacific Yearly Meeting will be held in Missoula, Montana, from July 9 to 13, with an online business-only plenary held beforehand. Our Friends in Residence, Keith Runyan and Nora Lissette and their one-year-old child Juniper, along with your NPYM clerks, invite you to explore what it means to live the theme of this Annual Session: Sing Loud.

We are called to live in the brave faith that our prophetic voice is the most powerful force available to us in our times. As Keith wrote in his call to the 2024 Spring Gathering of Quaker Earthcare Witness, “It is the voice of King, of Gandhi, of Fox, Fell, and Woolman, of Rumi, of Peace Pilgrim, of Christ, and Dorothy Day. It is this voice that began Quakerism. It is this force that brought Cromwell to the table and the British empire to its knees.” So how can we let our lives speak? How can we let our lives sing? What habits are we being asked to break? What is the song the world is waiting for? Hoping for? Hungry for?

And the Spirit will say, “The silence of your worship is holy so that breaking it is more holy still. And now is the time. Break the silence. This is a new song, given to you in this moment, for this moment. Lift your voices and Sing Loud.”

Sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. Sing till Earth and Heaven ring. Sing the Spirit’s new song as its words are written in on our hearts. Sing well or sing badly. Sing as you are.

Sing the new song loud enough to cut through the noise of the chaos of the world. Sing the new song loud enough that those suffering can hear us and take heart. Sing loud, even if we do not know what verse comes next. Sing loud, for we have something worth singing about. Sing loud to remind the world what Love has done and what Love will do.

Pacific Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions, July 11-16, 2025 at Whittier College in Southern California.

Find Your Balance, Heart Reaching Forward

Last year my life got difficult ― fractiousness at Meeting, family drama, health concerns, and other heavy loads. One night while participating in a pre-recorded yoga class, I toppled over. Sitting there, I thought, “I can’t do this.” Just then the teacher’s voice said, “Find your balance, heart reaching forward.” That invitation/prayer resonated with me immediately and sustained me through the following months of rapprochement at my meeting, healing of my body and soul, and renewal within my family.

With daily political and social blows, with outrage, fear, and anger leading the headlines, our society has become self-righteously polarized and isolated. How can we maintain our equanimity and reach out with generosity? How can we say to Friends and our neighbors, “You are my beloved community; you are safe here,” and make it so?

We can find balance by standing up carefully, planting our feet firmly, maintaining flexibility and responsiveness, and reaching out for a railing, wall, cane, or a friend’s arm. Can we help each other balance? We can reach forward with our hearts by returning again and again to the seed of our faith, in worship, prayer, devotion, and trust in the divine and each other. Can we be trustworthy?

Our plenary speakers, “common folk” and “devoted,” will share their experiences and discoveries in finding balance and moving forward: John Pixley, Claremont; Aaron Terry, Honolulu; Amy Cooke, Grass Valley.

Please join us for Annual Sessions, July 11-16, at Whittier College, for worship, fellowship, work, and play. Registration opens in May.

Love and blessings,

Robin DuRant,

Clerk, Pacific Yearly Meeting