Author: Tom Vosburg

Dear Friends and beloved community,

The only thing that is certain is uncertainty…and that has been particularly true over the last two years. As you may have already heard numerous times, we stand with both the hope that we will be able to gather in person, and the possibility that we may have to pivot to a fully virtual platform.

The Program Working Group and Arrangements Committee continue to make plans for our time together, on a dual track. If we are able to gather in person, there will be some virtual elements; we want to make our community as comfortable, safe, and inclusive as we possibly can. Stay tuned, and watch the IMYM website for more information! Please continue to hold all of us in the Light as we move toward our gathering.

Like much of the land on which IMYM Friends live, the area around Durango has a rich and sometimes difficult history, as well as a forward-looking mindset. There are activities in the area and on campus that encourage empowerment and hands-on experience for farmers and future farmers, and a vision of how the future can be sustainable, based in part on the methods that have been used for centuries by the local indigenous people.

Fort Lewis College’s website has a lot of information about things to do. In preparation, we are providing a few links that will help Friends familiarize themselves with the area and the history of both the land and the peoples.

History of Fort Lewis College and Land Acknowledgment

Up from the Sagebrush – Old Fort at Hesperus

This short film (15 minutes) covers the 20th and 21st centuries as 6,279 acres on the La Plata River served as a military fort, Native American boarding school, high school, two-year college, and a Colorado State University Agricultural Experiment Station (San Juan Basin Research Center).

Colorado Voices: An Indian Boarding School

Check out this short PBS documentary on Indian Boarding Schools (27 minutes)

History of the college and reconciliation projects, including sustainable farming

A talk by Dr. Majel Boxer and a short documentary about the Clocktower Panel Removal Ceremony by Rocky Mountain PBS provide more information about the difficult legacy of the boarding school and how Fort Lewis is handling it today. You can also read more about how the Farmer Training Program acknowledges this history in a blog post by Rocky Mountain PBS.

Reminder of deadlines:

We don’t have definite dates for registration to open or close. Please watch our website to stay up to date!

DOCUMENTS IN ADVANCE (requests to monthly meetings and IMYM committees)

• State of the Meeting reports from each monthly meeting
• Memorial minutes
• Committee reports and proposed minutes
• Direct reports from Quaker organizations
• Reports from our delegates to Quaker organizations
• Epistles from other yearly meetings
• Clear statements of any concerns for consideration by the business meeting (most commonly, these will come through our committees)

Special Request to Monthly and Regional Meetings

Please keep the Presiding Clerks and Nominating Committee Clerk informed of the terms and contact information of the monthly meeting and regional meeting presiding clerks and nominating committee clerks. Also send the terms and contact information for any Friend who agreed to serve the yearly meeting as a member of an IMYM committee or as a delegate to a Quaker organization.

We sincerely hope we will see each other in person in June, with safety measures that may be appropriate at that time.

This year in Durango!

Peace,

Gale Toko-Ross and Valerie Ireland

Presiding Co-Clerks, Intermountain Yearly Meeting

Clerk@IMYM.org or IMYMClerk@gmail.com

Celebrating the Divine in All of Us
June 13-19, 2022
(Early Days June 13 to 15; regular sessions June 15-19)
Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado
Including some virtual options

Dear Friends

BE BOLD!!!

Once again, we find ourselves in pandemic limbo, with a two-track planning process for our annual gathering in June. We have every hope that COVID will allow us to gather in person, and are seeking ways that Friends will be able to safely and confidently gather together. Meeting in person will be complemented by equitable and reasonable access to meaningful programming on a virtual platform.

We look forward to creating an inclusive Spirit-led time for all Friends and others who join us, whether in person or virtually. Many of us have a deep yearning and need to see each other “live”, to hug each other (COVID permitting), and to renew our emotional and spiritual connections with each other. Others find that the safety and convenience of the virtual platform can serve the same functions (even if the hugs are only cyber-hugs).

Our planning this year seeks to center our youth and their ideas and desires. We will do all that we can to make our time together work for all Friends, young and old. Many Friends, both young and old, have expressed a need for face-to-face time, to build and strengthen our community and relationships.

Regardless of whether we attend in person or purely online, we will schedule fewer events at the same time, with less overlap between interest sessions and other activities. This allows for more socializing and re-connecting in spontaneous unstructured ways.

Keynote Speaker and Theme

Our keynote speaker this year will be Ernest House, Jr. — a senior policy director at The Keystone Center, a 2018 Gates Harvard Kennedy School Fellow, and an enrolled member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

Our theme, Celebrating the Divine in All of Us, was suggested by the Children’s Yearly Meeting coordinators. They feel that this will easily lend itself to children’s programming and understanding. In addition to our usual keynote address and Q&A session, we will ask our speaker to meet with Senior Young Friends (SYFs), Junior Young Friends (JYFs), and possibly our Children’s Yearly Meeting (CYM).

Registration Info

We expect registration to open in March and to close earlier and more firmly than it has in the past. Fort Lewis College has a fixed deadline for our headcount. Please watch the IMYM website for registration info.

Meeting location/activities

We hope you will join us to experience worship, fellowship, and deep learning, and that you will participate in business meetings to help with discernment on a variety of issues. Whether virtual or in-person, we expect to welcome Friends of all ages from Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, West Texas, Wyoming and nearby states, Mexico City and more distant locations.

The Durango area has a rich and vital Native American community, as well as a number of sites and activities in the Durango area that could be of interest. There is also a variety of recreational activities. In addition, we intend to have several “drop-in rooms”, for conversation and/or support.

COVID-19 concerns

We have not yet determined what requests we may make of Friends. At this time, it seems that awareness of how each of us can protect ourselves and each other will be key. It is our intention to have a process that includes all Friends who wish to join us, while making sure that all Friends feel safe, and are able to remain in community, in confidence and joy. This year calls for special discernment on issues of safety and inclusion in our beloved community.

Possible pandemic pivoting

We acknowledge and recognize the possibility that we may have to pivot to fully virtual sessions. We also acknowledge that an inability to gather in person for a third year would weigh heavily on all our hearts, particularly the hearts of our younger Friends, for whom the in-person experience is particularly important. We deeply hope that we will be able to gather together in fellowship for close interactions, including “live” hugs, in safety, joy and confidence.

Future news

Arrangements Committee met virtually in January, and continues to work on a specific schedule and other details for our Gathering. We anticipate a rich program of activities, fellowship, learning, spiritual growth, and IMYM (and Quaker) business. A schedule of sessions and activities will appear in the registration materials, which will be posted to our website at IMYM.org in the near future.

We look forward to fellowship with Friends this summer, and to deepening our spiritual connections with each other and with the Divine.

Peace,

Gale Toko-Ross and Valerie Ireland

Presiding Co-Clerks, IMYM

Clerk@IMYM.org or IMYMClerk@gmail.com

Greetings to Friends and Meetings in our beloved Intermountain Yearly Meeting community! Here is some important information about the upcoming year in IMYM…and note that this year’s queries are set out in full on the final pages of this Newsletter.

SAVE THE DATES: Please hold the week of June 12-19, 2022 open for our annual gathering. The Clerks and Arrangements Committee are working on a dual-track planning model. It is our strong hope that we will be able to gather safely and confidently in person; we aim to have at least some of the sessions available virtually, to accommodate those who can’t or choose not to participate in person. When we gathered in normal years, we held Early Days from Sunday to Wednesday, and the main sessions from Wednesday evening through the final Sunday. God willing, Friends will be able to gather safely in Durango next June! If that seems too risky, we may gather via Zoom again.

IMYM Queries are on the final page of this Newsletter. We ask that Friends consider these queries in light of how our perceptions have changed over the last two years, seeking a future vision for our yearly meeting; we hope this process will serve as the basis for ongoing discussions. Please submit your responses by February 5, 2022, so there is time to summarize responses for further discussion and discernment. To spark your discussions, Friends might also consider this video from QuakerSpeak.com – a brief discussion about Envisioning a Strong Future for Quakerism.

New information continues to be posted on our website at IMYM.org. One of the more recent is an IMYM Census form, to ensure we have current information on your monthly meeting (please respond to that piece by January 30, 2022, or earlier if you need to update email addresses). Watch the website for other new information as we approach our winter meetings of the Arrangements and Representatives committees.

Your IMYM Representatives Committee members are asked to hold the dates of Presidents Day weekend, 2/21/22; if you don’t have anyone currently in that position, consider who might be willing to act as your Rep, to keep communications open. Arrangements Committee will meet the weekend of Martin Luther King Day, 1/17/22. Both meetings are likely to be held virtually…more info will follow. Remember to watch the IMYM website for updates.

We continue to hold each of you in the Light, with the hope that we will be able to gather in person, in joy and confidence, next year.

Gale Toko-Ross           Valerie Ireland
she/ella/hän             she/her/hers
IMYM co-clerk            IMYM co-clerk
IMYMClerk@gmail.com      IMYMClerk@gmail.com
(303) 859-1681           (720) 472-1386

IMYM – 2021-2022 Queries

How do we define our community?

Referring again to Faith & Practice, it says on p. 53: “Community is shelter, a safe place to grow, an arena for action, caring, and love—powered by and united in the Light.” A few paragraphs earlier, it says: “It is not possible to be a human being without being part of a community. We are born into a community, even if it is only ourselves and our mother. We grow up in a community, learning language, assimilating culture, and discovering the Spirit. As Friends, we know that the Spirit comes to us not only as individuals, not only as members of a community, but as the very foundation of community, moving a meeting at times as one person. The Spirit guides us when we worship in community and when we do business in community.”

Queries on Community

How do you describe your worship community? Who does it include?

Where does your community end? Who do you exclude? Are your boundaries porous enough for people wanting in or out?

How, if at all, has your sense of Monthly Meeting or worship group community enlivened or challenged you in the last 18 months?

What is the meaning of membership?

In the IMYM Faith & Practice, beginning on p. 77, membership is described as a two-way street. “As members have responsibility toward the meeting, so has the meeting responsibility toward its members. Members are the immediate family of the Society, and although all those associated with the meeting fall under its loving care, it is for the membership that the meeting carries primary responsibility. …  Membership involves a willingness to attend meetings regularly, both those for worship and those for business; to give service through committees and otherwise as the way opens; and to share in financial responsibilities. Responsibility for the meeting and its decisions resides with and is ultimately retained by the members of the meeting.”

Queries on Membership

How does that description, published in 2009, compare with your experience in your meeting today?

What distinctions do you see being made today between members and attenders?

What purpose, if any, do you think membership serves in Monthly Meetings?

Your responses to Clerks are requested by February 5, 2022, to allow time for summarization. Thank you