The Life Cycle of Meetings
Like all living things, our local Quaker meetings have a natural life cycle. Each season or phase of a meeting's life brings special gifts and unique challenges to its members. Understanding this life cycle, from birth to death and the rich stretches in between, is part of how we can best pay attention to and live in alignment with the way that God is already at work in our worshipping communities.
Scroll down to the resource section below for downloadable PDFs on this topic.
Want to know more?
Looking to continue the conversation? Seeking support during a life cycle transition? Contact our Meeting Accompaniment Group to invite others to walk with your meeting as you discern how you are led.
File Downloads
This sixteen-page booklet is the September 2022 issue of New York Yearly Meeting's newsletter SPARK. Articles include discussion of starting and growing meetings, taking stock of where a meeting is in the life cycle, transitions, grief, and laying down a meeting. Edited by Emily Provance.
This thirty-six page booklet, edited by Dorothy Grannell (Portland, ME) and Emily Provance (New York Yearly Meeting), offers guidance on the topic of transitions and endings for Quaker meetings and churches near the end of the life cycle.