Call to the 2026 Annual Session of Pacific Yearly Meeting
Experiment!
Dear Friends,
The past year has thrown a lot at us—social and political violence, moral and value-based challenges, use and abuse of natural, financial and personal resources—to name a very few. When our outward social and political structures fail, we need to turn to our spiritual communities and inward light, seed, oneness–the source of our solace and strength.
Many of our Monthly Meetings are experiencing shrinking pains or growing pains. Many of our committees—including nominating committees—are limping along with not enough members to do their work. Our financial resources don’t match the financial costs we have in conducting our business (which is a form of worship). And finally, how do we share news, important information, requests for help, or successful ideas with each other?
So, I suggest experimenting. We’ve been talking at annual sessions for at least six years about the challenges we face. Let’s try some new things, move off center, take some risks. But not without acknowledging that experimentation has a process.
My first experiment is an idea map as the call to Annual Session: I invite you to interact with these ideas and bring your own.
Lisa Graustein, a member of New England Yearly Meeting, who has traveled widely among Friends in the US and globally, carries a ministry focused on addressing the underlying dynamics of white supremacy, colonization, and climate change. She will be speaking to us about how our faith and practice inform each other.
I look forward to seeing you July 17-22, 2026, at CSU Monterey Bay in Seaside, California, or online via Zoom.
Earthquake, Wind, or Fire: Attending to the Still Small Voice
Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and Thy balm; Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, O still, small voice of calm!
(John Greenleaf Whittier, The Brewing of Soma)
“The poem references 1 Kings 19:11-12, in which the prophet Elijah is confronted by God in the wilderness. Elijah faced tumultuous times in his prophetic task of speaking truth to power. Whittier, a Quaker abolitionist, similarly dealt with seismic issues in his commitment to the cause of anti-slavery and social reform.”
(Max Carter: Stephen G. Cary Memorial lecture, Pendle Hill 2025)
For some of us, this retreat comes after literal fires, winds, and rains. Surely, we have all experienced political and social storms. We have grief; we have confusion, bewilderment, anger and overwhelm. We long for peace in the chaos, despite the external turmoil.
What if we bring our fear, discouragement, anger and grief, and lay them at the foot of the mountain? What might we hear if we surrender our desires and the limitations of our mind and body and sit and listen to the Still Small Voice? Maybe strength and new purpose, maybe permission to change direction. Maybe a perspective on what part of Spirit’s work is ours and what is for others.
The silent retreat offers a sanctuary for us to listen deeply, whether walking the beautiful grounds, participating in optional activities or sitting quietly in our rooms.
Registration Information
COVID PROTOCOLS: Masks will be optional. We kindly ask participants not to come if they are having any symptoms.
REGISTRATION: The retreat is open to members of Friends’ Meetings and to attenders of at least three months. Please register by clicking here:
Registration by February 20th: Double room, $325 per person Private room, $350 per person Financial Aid is available**
Late registration until February 27th: Double room, $350 per person Private room, $375 per person Financial Aid is available**
The Abbey has raised their fees and we had to raise ours accordingly. Our actual per-person costs are about $350. Those who are able to pay more than $350 will help subsidize others who need financial aid. Fees include program, lodging, and six meals. We can’t accept registrations submitted after Friday, February 27th. Cancellations received by Friday, February 20th will receive a full refund. After that date, a $30 cancellation fee will be deducted.
**FINANCIAL AID: No one is turned away because of lack of funds. We have financial aid available and many meetings offer scholarship grants. Please contact our registrar, Judy Leshefka, for details about financial support options (judyleshefka@gmail.com).
Venmo or Zelle: Make your payment to Sarah Crompton, Treasurer for the Silent Retreat: cromptonclark@gmail.com (310) 963-6319.
Check:
Make a check out to our treasurer Sarah Crompton and put Silent Retreat in the memo line.
Mail your check to: 440 N. Broadmoor Blvd. Springfield, Ohio 45504.
After registration, you will receive a confirmation letter with more information about the retreat and directions to the Abbey. If you will be using public transportation (bus, train) and need a ride to the Abbey, contact Judy Leshefka by Monday, March 9th.
ARRANGEMENTS: Please plan to arrive between 3 pm and 5:30 pm on Friday, March 13th to check-in and get your room key. Dinner will be at 6 pm. We’ll gather at 7 pm for a brief tour of the grounds, followed by an orientation and preparing to enter into the silence, which will last until late Sunday morning. The retreat will end after lunch on Sunday. Please plan to be present for the entire retreat. The spiritual richness of our gathering is enhanced by each participant, and it can be disruptive to have people arriving or leaving at odd times.
(Questions or concerns: contact Judy Leshefka at 858 652-1406 or email: judyleshefka@gmail.com
EXTENDED RETREAT DAY OPPORTUNITY
March 15-16, 2026
Participants may choose this opportunity to stay an extra day for deeper reflection. They can continue their silence during Sunday lunch and throughout the afternoon or join in conversations.
At 3:45 PM, we will meet for a brief worship and set our intentions for the remainder of the retreat. We will then re-enter into silence. On Monday morning, a writing exercise will be offered as an optional activity. We will all meet at 10:30 AM for worship and worship-sharing. The retreat will end after lunch.
If you wish to stay over, please indicate your intention on the registration form. We must know by February 27th so we can inform the Abbey. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer any scholarships for this opportunity. The cost will be $150, the Abbey’s
Annual Session will be held at Whittier College and online July 11-16th. This year’s theme is “Find Your Balance, Heart Reaching Forward.”
Click on the button below to register or to find more information about the schedule, program activities, fees, and financial assistance. All are welcome!
Common folk, not statesmen, nor generals, nor great men of affairs, but just simple men and women, if they devote themselves . . . can do something to build a better peaceful world.
Henry Cadbury 1947 Pacific Yearly Meeting, Faith & Practice 2001
Find Your Balance, Heart Reaching Forward
Call to the Pacific Yearly Meeting 2025 Annual Session
Last year my life got difficult–fractiousness at Meeting, family drama, health concerns, and other heavy loads. One night while participating in a pre-recorded yoga class, I toppled over. Sitting there, I thought, “I can’t do this.” Just then the teacher’s voice said, “Find your balance, heart reaching forward.” That invitation/prayer resonated with
me immediately and sustained me through the following months of rapprochement at my meeting, healing of my body and soul, and renewal within my family.
With daily political and social blows, with outrage, fear, and anger leading the headlines, our society has become self-righteously polarized and isolated. How can we maintain our equanimity and reach out with generosity? How can we say to Friends and our neighbors, “You are my beloved community; you are safe here,” and make it so?
We can find balance by standing up carefully, planting our feet firmly, maintaining flexibility and responsiveness, and reaching out for a railing, wall, cane, or a friend’s arm. Can we help each other balance? We can reach forward with our hearts by returning again and again to the seed of our faith, in worship, prayer, devotion, and trust in the divine and each other. Can we be trustworthy?
Our plenary speakers, “common folk” and “devoted” will share their experiences and discoveries in finding balance and moving forward: John Pixley (Claremont), Aaron Terry (Honolulu), Amy Cooke (Grass Valley).
Please join us for Annual Session onsite or online, July 11-16 at Whittier College, California, for worship, fellowship, work, and play. Registration opens in May.
Love and blessings, Robin DuRant, Clerk, Pacific Yearly Meeting
Additional Encouragement from Faith & Practice 2001
If but one man or woman were raised up by His power to stand and live in the same spirit that the Apostles and Prophets were in, who gave forth the Scriptures, that man or woman should shake all the country in their profession for ten miles round.
George Fox
One of my final observations. … has to be about the extraordinary ordinariness of many of these women. They wanted their mundane daily lives to be impregnated with the experience of the Spirit and its fruits of love and peace and harmony. They went out into the streets, faced physical abuse and cried their message over paying opposition, then they went home to check the household accounts and feed and comfort their children. They foresaw the millennium, wrote letters to the King and served beef and beer at supper.
Christine Trevett Women’s Speaking Justified: And Other Seventeenth Century Quaker Writings About Women (1991)
Registration for the Southern Quarterly Meeting’s Spring Gathering is now open!
Where: Santa Barbara Friends Meetinghouse, 2012 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara When: Saturday, April 26, 9AM-3:15 PM What: Friends from across Southern California will share State of the Meeting reflections and other information. Lunch will be provided Transportation: Spring Gathering is a two-and-a-half hour journey by car under good conditions, and the Santa Barbara Amtrak station is a seven-minute taxi ride from the Meetinghouse.
28th Annual Friends’ Silent Retreat Friday, March 14-Sunday, March 16, 2025 Optional Extended Retreat, Monday March 17 Prince of Peace Abbey, Oceanside, CA 92608
Oh Lord, My God, when I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds thy hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. When through the woods and forest glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul…How Great Thou Art!!
Stuart Hine, 1953
If there is an antidote to the ills of the world, the rat race, and the chaos around us, then it is in the wonder of creation. It allows us to be insignificant and magnificent at the same time. Wonder is available to us anywhere. If we peer closely. If we stand back quietly and observe. If we look through telescopes or microscopes. If we close our eyes and listen. If we shut down our bodily senses and sink into our souls. From observing the vastest reaches of the universe and the smallest particles in accelerators.
Britain Yearly Meeting advises, “Be aware of the spirit of God at work in the ordinary activities and experience of your daily life. Spiritual learning continues throughout life, and often in unexpected ways. There is inspiration to be found all around us, in the natural world, in the sciences and arts, in our work and friendships, in our sorrows and in our joys. Are you open to new light from whatever source it may come? Do you approach new ideas with discernment?”
We invite you to join us in wonder at the miracles and mysteries of life.
Call to SCQM Fall Fellowship November 1-3, 2024 at Temescal Canyon & on Zoom
Friends, we are called to gather again in fellowship at our traditional place, Temescal Canyon. We have a long history with that spot, and if you’ve never been, we encourage you to make the effort to come in person. We plan to have a hybrid gathering, so the option of remote participation will be available, but if it’s at all possible, being in the beautiful place with fellow Quakers from around the Quarter is a wonderful experience.
The Ministry and Counsel Committee has chosen to consider “Faith and Prayer in Action” as the theme for the gathering, and speakers who will lead us to consider this theme are being invited. With the rich variety of people in our Meetings, we hope this topic will stimulate broad discussion. On a very basic level, many of us consider the “Ministry of Small Things” to be prayer – the prayer while washing dishes, preparing food, or arranging the logistics for Fall Fellowship. At the same time, many of us have been appalled by uncaring response from politicians to, for example, mass shootings, with the hypocritical “thoughts and prayers”. This is why Ministry and Counsel has deliberately chosen the phrase “Faith and Prayer in Action”. Come and engage in this worship and learning.
In addition to our keynote presentations and worship sharing on Saturday and Sunday mornings we will have interest and affinity groups, time for fellowship, hiking, plenaries, community night, and worship.
We will be offering a rich children’s program for all ages during plenary and interest group sessions. Fall fellowship is an opportunity for kids to get to know one another in our geographic region and spend some time in nature. Attendance fees are automatically waived for babies, toddlers, children, and teens.
Please join us for SCQM’s Fall Fellowship on the beautiful grounds of Temescal Gateway Park in the Pacific Palisades, just north of Santa Monica, or via Zoom. See below for details.
Southern California Quarterly Meeting Fall Fellowship November 1-3, 2024 at Temescal Canyon State Park
On the first weekend of November (1-3), join Quakers from around southern California at Temescal Canyon. It’s a beautiful location a couple of miles inland from Will Rogers State Beach. We’ll sleep in cabins, share meals in the dining hall, and enjoy discussions, speakers, meeting new people and old friends, and have fun. There will be programs for children and teens. There’s some very fine hiking as well. More information arriving shortly, so keep an eye on your mailbox (of the electronic sort).
Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Annual Session will be held in person July 19-24, 2024 at Whittier College in Whittier, CA. It will also be possible to attend remotely via Zoom. This year’s theme will be Transformation. Registration for in-person attendance closes July 1st, and registration for online attendance closes July 15th.
Click here for more information, including the Clerk’s Call, the schedule, fees, and a link to registration.
2024 Spring Gathering of the Southern California Quarterly Meeting at Orange Grove Friends Meeting April 26-27th, 2024
Please join Friends from throughout SCQM, in person and via zoom, to hear about the Spiritual State of the Monthly Meetings and Worship Groups in our Quarter.
We will gather at Orange Grove Friends Meeting, 520 E. Orange Grove Blvd in Pasadena. Please see the OGMM website for maps and maps and detailed directions if needed.
Snacks, coffee/tea, and lunch will be provided for a donation, and there will be activities for children.
We will provide a zoom link for all sessions.
Please register below by midnight, Tuesday April 23rd, 2023.
Friday, April 26 at 6:30 PM Pacific (via Zoom) Interest Group: Healing from Abuse in Quaker Communities. Speaker: Windy Cooler
Recognizing and healing from abuse is paramount for a healthy mindset, relationships and community, but within the Society of Friends, where acknowledging this may disrupt our idealized Quaker ‘comfort zone’ because of our peace testimony and our public commitments to pacifism, working on remedying these circumstances, not only applies to interpersonal relationships but also to our other blind spots such as classism and racism. (For more information on Quaker discernment on abuse, see this website).
Saturday, April 27:
9:30 – 11:45 am Worship, Plenary 1, State of Society Reports Part 1
11:45 – 1:00 Lunch Break – optional fellowship
1:00 – 2:45 pm Plenary 2, State of Society Reports Part 2,
