INTERMOUNTAIN YEARLY MEETINGUnprogrammed Quakers in the Rocky Mountain West |
2024 Program Information
IMYM will be experimenting with ways to build community as we reinvent our Yearly Meeting
and weave our past, present, and future into a space where everyone is fulfilled spiritually.
Our theme, Weaving Space for Becoming, emerged out of several worship sessions.
These words evoked powerful images for us.
We imagined Friends traveling from many separate places, coming together for our annual gathering, weaving among each other.
The strands that represent who we are – our experiences, our relationships, our joys and sorrows, the many ways each of us
contributes to our blessed community – interconnected to form a vessel, a basket in which we hold a space for Spirit,
for possibility, for transformation.
Reinventing Our Yearly Meeting
You told us the schedule felt too hectic and that you wanted more time for worship, fellowship, and in particular, time for Friends of all generations to be together in community. We listened and have done our best to put together a schedule that honors this feedback:
We kept the universally loved practice of small group worship sharing every morning and have added daily corporate worship.
We expanded transition times between scheduled activities to give ourselves space to breathe, enjoy a lingering conversation with an old friend, take a short walk, or take care of personal needs.
Recognizing that 9:00-5:00 is a long time for young kids to be in programmed sessions, we set aside 3:30-5:00 every day as a time for intergenerational fellowship and community-building, with a variety of Spaces to engage in creative expression, worship, movement and play.
We expanded the Friendly Circles concept introduced last year so that you can meet with others around topics of common interest. Sign up for a Friendly Circle to present your interest group or simply to get together with some folks to play guitar under a tree.
Recognizing that we face an important charge this year, namely to discern our future course as a yearly meeting based on the year-long journey of the
Way Forward Working Group, we’ve devoted ample time to listen, ask questions, and worship together with concern and tenderness for this process of redefining what our yearly meeting will do and how it will function.
What happened to interest groups?
If Interest Groups are important to you, you can lead or attend Friendly Circles, and you can get involved in planning our annual gathering in future years.
Friendly Circles “Friendly Circles” are self-organizing, community-supported gatherings, opportunities to meet, share perspectives, resources or leadings. They can be small groups or large, planned months in advance or minutes ahead based on a chance encounter. They can be only virtual or just in-person. They can be hybrid (though these spaces are very limited and will be offered to Friendly Circles with demonstrated need (while openings are available). The Annual Gathering supports Friendly Circles by providing a virtual “meeting room” and by placing them on the community calendar for everyone to find. |
Spaces New this year, will be “Spaces” for things like the fiber arts, visual arts, physical movement, intergenerational creativity, and play. In honor of our 2024 theme "Weaving Spaces for Becoming", the idea of holding space also resonated with us in a tangible sense, as we imagined Spaces around the campus and online where Friends of all ages could encounter each other and explore various ways of engaging with one another. We imagined these Spaces to be places where you can come as you are, wander in and out as you please, with no expectation other than to enjoy being present with one another. We imagined inviting volunteers to serve as hosts to these Spaces, perhaps teaching a craft or leading an activity, but most importantly to be present so that no matter which space one chooses to enter they will not find it empty. These Spaces will be active daily from 3:30-5:00, after Children’s Yearly Meeting ends for the day, so that children, families, and individuals alike can participate. | Special Events
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Welcome Barry Crossno Barry Crossno, General Secretary of Friends General Conference (FGC), is an inspiring speaker and will join us on Zoom as a resource person for our community. He will observe some of our discernment about our yearly meeting’s Way Forward, share his experiences with other yearly meetings who are addressing similar issues, and offer reflections on faith, courage and change. | Welcome Suriel López We look forward to welcoming a Herberto Sein Visitor from Mexico City Monthly Meeting for the first time in a number of years. Suriel López will represent Mexico City Monthly Meeting at our Annual Gathering and hopefully make a couple of local visits. Andrew, Mexico City Monthly Meeting’s Administrative Coordinator, says that Suriel lives in the southern state of Oaxaca and has been an “assiduous” attender at Meeting for Worship and participated actively in Meetings for Business via Zoom. | Accessibility Friends who may have stayed away from the IMYM Annual Gathering because of the accessibility challenges posed by the Ghost Ranch venue will find Fort Lewis College a truly accessible venue. Just as important,we “seek to create an inclusive environment that encourages full participation of all in the life of our Yearly Meeting. We seek guidance and recommendations from those who have experience with various accessibility needs and experience with creating universally accessible built environments and programs (MINUTE 20190614(b)).” Join us in Durango to enjoy the mountains, participate in our programs and activities, and help us seek the guidance of Spirit to make IMYM a truly inclusive, welcoming experience. |