I have been thinking about the relationship between BYM and monthly meetings, especially at the personal level. What do we get for our annual monetary contribution? What does BYM offer Monthly Meeting Friends? Why go to annual sessions? Why serve on BYM committees? I took these questions with me to annual sessions this year, and I bring you some preliminary answers.

Budget wise, the largest beneficiaries of BYM programs are our children and youth. They are served through:

1. BYM’s outstanding camping program (by far the largest budget item),
2. the extensive and well-attended children and youth programs at the annual sessions (infants through high school), and
3. the popular conferences throughput the year for JYFs (Junior Young Friends—middle school) and YFs (Young Friends—high school).

These programs are considered religious education because our youth learn Quaker values and Quaker process. For many meetings, these programs provide the main Quaker influence for their youth.

For example, my son’s only connection with Quaker teens is through the YFs program. He looks forward to the week at annual sessions and the 5 weekend conferences held during the year. Young Friends have provided him with a Quaker identity plus experience with Quaker process. YF’s govern themselves by using Meetings for Business. He has made friends whom he visits throughout the year.

As far as I’m concerned, if the youth and children’s programs were all BYM did, it would be enough. However, BYM touches adults as well as youth. I will focus only on the annual sessions, though BYM’s effect goes beyond. Attending the annual sessions offers me renewal, growth and connection. Renewal: The opening retreat provides a transition from my busy daily life to a more reflective, though also busy, week. Meetings for Business begin with and are punctuated by periods of deep worship. Morning worship sharing groups focus on queries based on the year’s theme, Living in Harmony With All Creation. The annual sessions end with a Meeting for Worship.

Growth: A selection of workshops are offered on three afternoons. This year I attended: Gardening with Native Plants, which reminded me not to plant invasives, and Life Coaching, where we coached each other on next steps in our personal search for harmony. I co-led a workshop called Are You a Closet Nontheist? 17 Friends shared in pairs and small groups on the questions of what the inner light means to them, and can one be a member of the Society of Friends without a belief in God? The evening lectures challenged me mentally and spiritually. A well-stocked bookstore proved too tempting to resist. Interest groups and committees meet at various times. I attended interest groups on clerking yearly meeting committees and on being recording clerk. I am told that service on yearly meeting committees is both a chore and a joy. I will say more about that next year as I have agreed to serve on a committee.

Connection: Mealtime is a favorite opportunity for connecting with old and new Friends, though sometimes I find an out-of-the-way table and enjoy the solitude. The All Age Celebration is an opportunity for lighthearted fun, with crafts, dancing, games, ice cream and cake. The Saturday night Coffee House, organized and run by YFs, is a laugh-out-loud occasion, with a few tears now and then. Friends of all ages and talents sing, play instruments, recite, read, act silly, and otherwise entertain us. Not for the faint of heart, it was going strong when I left at midnight. The words of songwriter Chris Williamson express my BYM annual session experience:

When you open up your life to the living, all things come spilling in on you.
And you’re flowing like a river, the Changer and the Changed
You got to spill some over, spill some over, spill some over, over all.
Filling up and spilling over, it’s an endless waterfall
Filling up and spilling over, over all.

My hope is that some of the love and energy that filled me at Yearly Meeting will spill over into my Monthly Meeting.

Submitted by Anita Bower