There will be a called meeting for worship with attention to business on Sunday, December 12 at 1 p.m, to hold worshipful discussion and discernment around a path forward for indoor, in-person worship. This meeting will be held in the meeting room, capacity of 70, with simultaneous Zoom access. COVID guidance for building use will be observed.
Friends are asked to read the attached Queries and Agenda, and sit with these queries in your prayer, contemplative or mediation practice. Please come with prepared hearts and minds to worship and discern our way forward, living into our Equality testimony.
Permission to record this meeting digitally will be requested, and a recording clerk for this meeting is needed to assist Amy Lytle, Recording Clerk, who is unable to be present. Feel welcome to contact Karen Garraputa, Clerk of the Meeting on Ministry and Counsel, with any questions. Queries and Agenda for Called Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business To discuss and discern about moving to indoor, in-person worship
Sunday, December 12, 2021 1 p.m.
Meeting Room (70 person limit) and by Zoom (see email link to join Zoom meeting.)
The purposes of this called meeting is to;
- Renew our commitment to inclusiveness and to safety – live our Equality Testimony through this commitment
- Describe the 2 proposed plans and their rationale
- Determine whether there are additional plans we should consider
- Consider the queries, below, to guide discernment
- Arrive at the sense of the Meeting as to which plan is preferable
- Enlist everyone’s participation in implementing the chosen plan effectively
Two proposals to consider:
- Live service with programmed speakers Zooming in, attenders sharing personal devices to view prepared message. Prepared message broadcast from Margaret’s office. Attenders seated in and sharing waiting worship in person together in various spaces around the meeting house.
- Live service with attenders alternating between the meeting room and Friendship hall on alternate weeks. Prepared
message held in the meeting room; Zoomed/broadcast in Friendship hall. For either proposal, congregational singing could occur after the rise of meeting, outdoors, masked. Both meet current guidance recommended by COVID advisors: ie, everyone masked and socially distanced indoors, not exceeding each room’s capacity.
Queries:
- Is one plan potentially more or less inclusive than the other(s)?
- What is each Friend attending willing to do or not do to ensure that all attending are included in a safe way?
- What is essential to you to feel safe to attend a Meeting for Worship in person? What would make you feel unsafe? How would you make Meeting for Worship a safe experience for others?
- Is one plan more or less likely to meet the spiritual needs of New Gardeners than the other(s)?
- What are the logistical and technical requirements of each plan? Is one plan more or less feasible than the other(s)?
- Who will take responsibility for implementing each component?
Agenda
Gathering centering silence
Reading by Clerk of Ministry and Counsel
Presentation of proposals, questions, discussion
Move into centering silence
Queries considered, each with centering silence following to allow for vocal ministry Sense of the meeting considered
Path forward discerned