Sharing our Vision: CYM Annual Gathering

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A threshing session provides an opportunity, guided by the Spirit, to ask questions, as well as to state a position or express a point of view.

It is an opportunity to explore all our options deeply and thoughtfully. It is a process through which Friends are invited to speak plainly and truthfully about their questions and concerns. No decisions are made at threshing session(s). The threshing session(s) will help prepare us for decision-making when the Meeting is ready for that phase.

The Canadian Meeting Yearly Clerks and Program Committee call you to engage with the threshing process as the Yearly Meeting discerns the future direction for our annual gatherings. Plans are well underway for the 2024 gathering.  These threshing sessions are concerned with the following years.

All ways forward require that we make choices.

We have in recent past experienced our annual gathering in many different ways: fallow, where we did not meet at all (2017); traditionally in-person (2018, 2019); online, both in a very simple version (2020) and in increasingly sophisticated versions (2021, 2022); and blended, with in-person and online components (2023).

What do we seek now from our practice of coming together each year? How shall we gather in ways that harbour loving consideration for our Meeting, community, and shared home on earth? 

The Threshing Sessions are a collaboration of the CYM Clerks, Program Committee, and the Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel. A member of the Continuing Meeting of Ministry and Counsel will facilitate the sessions. These sessions were originally planned for Autumn 2023, though timing considerations put them in January 2024.

Please mark the dates and plan to attend. Zoom links will follow closer to the time.

Two sessions are scheduled to allow Friends a choice between a weekend afternoon or a weekday evening:

Saturday January 20

  • 2:30-4:30pm Newfoundland and Labrador
  • 2:00-4:00pm Atlantic
  • 1:00-3:00pm Eastern
  • 12:00-2:00pm Central
  • 11:00am-1:00ppm Mountain
  • 10:00am-12:00pm Pacific

Monday January 22

  • 9:30-11:30 pm Newfoundland and Labrador
  • 9:00-11:00 pm Atlantic
  • 8:00-10:00 pm Eastern
  • 7:00-9:00 pm Central
  • 6:00 pm-8:00 pm Mountain
  • 5:00 pm-7:00 pm Pacific