Join YAFS Thursdays at 7 pm for Community Worship!
At our 6th gathering, zoom windows begin to pop up, some zoom people are totally new, some you can recognize from other gatherings, some have individuals and some have groups of housemates. People greet each other and center in. This piece of technology is now the familiar door to our meeting house. Our facilitator this week, Zenaida, welcomes us into a worshipful community:
“The goal today is connection to the body & to spirit and to the medicine we need which are all synonyms. If you receive a message of what medicine is for you whether it be to turn off the sound, get some water, take a nap you are encouraged to. Learning to listen to where we are being led is such a vital skill always but especially now. Please know you are not alone and we will be with you regardless of how you use this time. You can cry or scream here, you can laugh and play here. If you are happy and well I celebrate that with you if you are struggling and sad I am in solidarity with you if you are angry my heart is holding the hand of yours.”
Like at any YAF event, each gathering is both an entirely new community unique to the people who show up at this particular time and place, and an extension of our ever-present community identity of Young Adult Friends. Our weekly community worship combines facilitated programs with centering silence, queries that guide us with space to reflect in a journal or among friends. Over 6 weeks, 50 young adult friends have called in from Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs as well as, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Portland, Minneapolis, Maryland, Canada, Ohio, Indiana, Boston, and New York. One Friend remarks that “this is the most regularly I’ve ever seen other young adult Quakers.” Another Friend has reflected that “in one day my space transforms from a bedroom, to an office to a meeting house.”
Join our May 15th worship and our Young Adult Friends at-home weekend retreat, or come to our one-hour Thursday worships on May 7 and May 21st.
So what can you expect at YAF Community Worship?
We have about 15 people per call, always both first time and past attendees. The program depends on the facilitator. We recommend checking the calendar on the PYM website for specific descriptions but the schedule is often:
7 pm- Gathering
7:05 – Intros (name, pronouns, where you are calling from)
7:10 – Facilitator takes the lead, often a guided meditation or a reading that leads to queries and reflection
8:00 pm- Who are we holding in the light this week?
15 minutes of optional fellowship
Queries we have worked with:
- What is possible now?
- How is god working their way through me?
- What story are you telling me?
- What is the medicine I need right now?
- What is Friendship to you? What is friendship to you? How are they different?
- How is the moment of COVID-19 showing us the power of Friendship?
- What is a dream or something you hope for? How will you get there?
- To whom or what do we feel accountable now?
If you have questions about YAF programs or would like a list of resources we’ve used during our gatherings, please reach out to Young Adult Friends Coordinator Meg Rose at mrose@pym.org.
Funding for portions of this weekly worship programming has been generous supplied by the D’Olier Foundation
