10:00 Gather: Name re-introductions: Mill, doing the following with everyone in the room:
a. Shake hands, make eye contact and say “Hello! I am (name), and I am magnificent!
b. Other responds: You are (name)! And you are magnificent!
c. Repeat exchanging roles.
d. Bow a thank you and move to next person…
10:15— Agenda review with goals:
1) To enable folks from the wider group to connect with regard to the story of their spiritual journey as it is unfolding with the support of the program.
2) Mid-course correction: to enable the participants to discuss how their experience of the program (especially the functioning of their friendship/accountability and reading groups) could be improved. What is going well? What needs to be changed? What can we (all of us) do to improve the experience?
3) Offer some program input regarding what will deepen the functioning of friendship/accountability groups: Evoking Questions.
4) The mid-year retreat has allowed the Working Group to reconnect and listen to the participants, their groups and the experience they are having. In enables us to be more available to them as a resource for the remainder of the year.
10:25: Catching up with one another re our Spiritual Formation experience
Goal: To enable folks from the wider group to connect with others with regard to the story of their spiritual journey as it is unfolding with the support of the program.
Reflection/journaling with the topics listed on newsprint
i. Remember me before I became active (as an adult) in a Quaker Meeting…
ii. Me as a Quaker before the Spiritual Formation Program experience: who I was, what I did, what I cared about…
iii. Me when I heard about the SF program: longings, hopes, needs?
iv. Me at and just after the Opening Retreat: thoughts, feelings, hopes, needs…
v. Me and the experience thus far in SF program: New clarity? Questions? Growing edges? Excitement? Spiritual practice(s)? Problems? Relationships to others? A laboratory of what?
b. 10:40 —Sharing in threes (mixed-group, from different regional groups (15 minutes each)
11:30: Break
11:40 Evoking Questions presentation: one tool for perhaps going deeper
12:15 Lunch
1:15: Friendship/Accountability Group practice
Query: to be written…something like: What seems to be ahead for you in your spiritual practice/journey/awareness/life? What is calling or nudging you? What do you long for?
In large group: 10 minutes of reflection/journaling time
In f/a groups: choose one person who will be the presenter. (5 minutes)
Choose a facilitator who will watch the clock and manage the space and clerk the evaluation.
• Worship (5 minutes?)
• Presenter speaks out of the silence (5 minutes)
• Support from group: Evoking Questions practice (30 minutes)
• Evaluation: how was that for us? What were our questions, and how useful were they to the presenter? (15 Minutes)
2:30 Break
2:45: Mid course evaluation and correction (designate someone who will be recorder)
a. Brainstorm: What has worked in our f/a groups, what has gone well? Some discussion for clarification…
b. Brainstorm: What changes do we want to consider? How can we improve our functioning to help us meet our needs?
c. What has worked in our reading group, what has gone well? Some discussion for clarification…
d. Brainstorm: What changes do we want to consider? How can we improve our functioning to help us meet our needs?
4:00 Closing worship
