Letter to IMYM Executive Committee, August 24, 2006

From:   Spiritual Formation Program, Ad Hoc Committee of IMYM

Date:    August 24, 2006 

Since its appointment at the Yearly Meeting of IMYM at Ghost Ranch in June of 2006, the Spiritual Formation (SF) committee has made good progress in addressing the spirit and letter of our charge to develop a two-year pilot project to address Friends/spiritual hunger by fostering Spiritual Formation programs in our region.  Our six members have held monthly teleconferences, initiated contacts with program-knowledge Friends in Baltimore Yearly Meeting/BYM and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting/PYM, traveled to PYM to meet with program-experienced Friends (A.B., R.M.), met with Friends from Boulder Monthly Meeting to plan the first IMYM regional program, to be held October to June, 2006-2007, coordinated plans for collaborative program development and opening retreat leadership with PYM, initiated plans for further involvement of interested Friends/meetings at the 2007 IMYM Yearly Meeting, and recently held a weekend retreat to deepen our connectedness and advance our planning. 

We have reached unity on the following plans: 

1)  We will offer the first IMYM SF program this fall, to be held in the Front Range/northern Colorado, open to meetings and worship groups in the area, with an introductory experience offered Sept 17 and an opening retreat Oct. 13-15.  Boulder Monthly Meeting is sponsoring the program and is providing $3000 to cover basic expenses, with participants covering costs for reading materials and food.  We are contacting local meetings and worship groups with information. 

2)  We will provide a program for Yearly Meeting’s early days, 2007, for Friends and meetings wanting to develop SF programs in their regions during 2007-2008.  We will include training for Friends to conduct an Introductory Experience for their meetings and worship groups to generate interest and participation in locally-held SF programs in 2007-2008 and provide support in planning and conducting programs. 

3)  Members of the ad hoc committee will serve initially as leaders/facilitators of SF programs, co-facilitating with program-experienced facilitators from PYM or BYM whenever possible for mutual enrichment, and adding local IMYM program leaders/facilitators to our working group after they have themselves experienced a SF program or as way opens.  This working group will provide support in the form of program development and facilitators/leaders to interested Friends throughout the Yearly Meeting wherever possible and within the limits of our collective resources. 

If a meeting is strongly motivated to initiate an additional SF program during this first pilot year, we will provide what information and support we can to their efforts, as we do not want to stand in the way of others’ leadings. 

We request the Executive Committee’s help in disseminating this statement within IMYM.  Please note that we also request a list of names, addresses, and contact information for all meetings and worship groups within IMYM. 

Submitted by the ad hoc Spiritual Formation program committee:  Peter Anderson, IMYM, Andy Bardwell, Mountain View, Wyn Lewis (505-982-4588), Santa Fe, Ruth Montague (303-399-1277), Mountain View, Kitty Ufford-Chase, Pima, and Bruce Thron-Weber, Mountain View.