In May 2009, the Yearly Meeting Gathering Planning Committee minuted:

YMGPC/2009 05/1. The life of this committee

We have spent some time in a process to deepen our understanding of what we need, as a committee, to get through Yearly Meeting Gathering.  There is much wisdom, humour and compassion in this committee, and what have emerged are ways for us to live together in community.  We will take many of the practical ideas forward.

We have reminded ourselves of the words of Isaac Penington:

“Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand”.

Dealing tenderly with one another is to trust each other, to listen first, is to return to the centring place offered by silence, and to know at all times that it is through working together that way will open.

In the Yearly Meeting Gathering, and our work together as a committee, we are grounded in our worship as a community.  Making time for stillness amid the busyness lays the foundation on which all else may be built.

Collectively, we have been called to serve, and serve willingly.  Between us, we have all the gifts this task requires.  Humility is asked of us, so that we can do that which we are asked to do, and so that we do not do that which we are not asked to do.

The several needs and gifts of individuals can form part of our life together when we uphold one another, speaking and hearing these needs and gifts openly and honestly.

As a spiritual community, we know that learning is a path, not a possession.  For us, this event is a step along our pathway, living and learning together in, and from, this rich community.

This weekend we are weaving the threads of the Yearly Meeting Gathering together with humour, felicity and grace.  We look forward to times of laughter, lightness and relaxation as, together, we face the challenges of the event itself.

And now the challenge is upon us!