Strategic Direction 1 – Connecting
PYM IS THE INTERCONNECTION OF FRIENDS, MEETINGS AND THE MINISTRIES THEY CARRY
Connect Friends and meetings to one another so that we may experience vibrant, Spirit-led faith community. Connect through effective communications and technology.
We will share among us the wisdom, creativity, and resources of our meetings and Friends, so they may resonate throughout the whole community and allow us to thrive in relationship with the Divine. Individuals and meetings will give time, gifts and experience in service, and in turn receive new insight, grounding and friendships, directly and indirectly enriching their meetings and their own spiritual lives.
We will connect Friends across the geography of PYM and with Friends from the wider world, in order to carry our concerns together. We will do this in a manner that allows everyone to participate in the life of the community.
Strategic Direction 2 – Belonging
PYM IS AN EXTENDED FAMILY OF FRIENDS
Broaden engagement and deepen relationship in our yearly meeting while ensuring all aspects of our community are welcoming and safe for all people.
Because we are all interconnected, we seek to increase a sense of belonging to an extended family of Friends. To be effective and whole, we need each other. Our personal experience of being a Friend is deepened by worshipping, discerning business, and sharing community beyond our home meetings. Friends of all ages, locations, and interests will have ways of entering the community and will feel glad they’ve participated.
We will look courageously into the roots of inequity in our culture, be willing to see and feel the pain it can cause and choose to do whatever is necessary to take risks and to change. We will dismantle imposed barriers in our yearly and monthly meeting structures and activities, which impede our experience of God within our communities and within ourselves. We seek to make the congregations inside of
our meetinghouses reflect the beauty and diversity of the world outside of them.
Strategic Direction 3 – Witnessing
ADDRESS RACISM & ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE
Facilitate PYM-wide corporate witness and social action.
As seekers of Truth, we expect to be called to action. Together, as a PYM community, we will witness to the Light, contributing to transformational work in the world. We will encourage and support one another in taking risks together, as we make an impact on our society. We will enhance our effectiveness by focusing our corporate action on fewer, clearer goals.
Strategic Direction 4 – Communication
SAY WHO WE ARE
Develop and widely communicate clear messages about Quakers and PYM
We will send boldly into the world the message of our distinctive Quaker faith and practice, so that we are known not only for our historic witness but also for our present action, encouraging others to join us, and so that all may be inspired.
Strategic Direction 5 – Functioning
HEALTHY STRUCTURE & PROCESS
Simplify Governance & Administration
We will use our finite resources of volunteer time and energy to focus primarily on God’s work and to sustain our extended community. This process will simplify our structure and processes, clarify roles, responsibilities, authority, and accountability, and reduce the number of things we do. Thus, we will create new opportunities for access and participation, open to anyone with the skills, experience, and will serve, regardless of time and travel limitations.
