2024 Annual Sessions Information
We look forward to seeing you at Sessions 2024!
This page contains links you need for Sessions including registration for attendance at Vermont State University (Castleton) or on Zoom in the tiles at the bottom of the page. Our theme for this year’s Sessions is Let us faithfully tend the seed. Rich with imagery, our theme both calls us to act in the world in ways that give voice to the Inner Light and also to let go of our individual truth and listen for the voice of God in others.
This Year's Sessions at a Glance:
Dates: Friday, August 2 through Wednesday, August 7
Location: Vermont State University (formerly Castleton University) in Castleton, VT
Sunday Plenary: Lloyd Lee Wilson, Friendship Friends Meeting, North Carolina (Conservative)
Bible Half Hours: Genna Ulrich, Portland Friends Meeting (ME)
Monday Night Plenary: Toussaint the Liberator, Stone of Hope Drumming (MA)
You can read more about each of these speakers below.
From the Presiding Clerk and the Clerk of Sessions Planning
We will once again be able to joyfully gather together in person and on Zoom, at Castleton University for the 364th Annual Sessions of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, August 2–7. All of us are looking forward to welcoming Friends, new-comers and oft-comers, adults, children, youth, and their families.
Our theme for this year’s Sessions is “Let us faithfully tend the seed.” Rich with imagery, our theme both calls us to act in the world in ways that give voice to the Inner Light and also to let go of our individual truth and listen for the voice of God in others.
Lloyd Lee Wilson will be our Sunday afternoon plenary speaker. Lloyd Lee has been active in the public ministry since his youth on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, becoming a Methodist Certified Lay Speaker at age 14. He has been a recorded minister of the Gospel in four different monthly meetings and has written a great deal on Quaker faith and practice. He and his wife Susan presently live near Greensboro, North Carolina.
Genna Ulrich will present the Bible half hours. Genna (they/them), a member of Portland Friends Meeting, has a complicated relationship to the Bible. For a long time they didn't touch it, but then they got curious about being in conversation with other people witnessing to God, including far back in time. Genna has found stories in the Bible which challenge and inspire them, stories which speak to Genna's own condition and to our collective condition today.
Toussaint Liberator will lead an all-ages drumming circle event on Monday night filled with performances, audience participation, and dancing.
We are grateful to the many Friends who do the work of planning for the several-day event in-person and on Zoom. Together we are moving forward thanks to the efforts of these many dedicated Friends. There's more news to come—stay tuned!
Rebecca Leuchak, Presiding Clerk, [email protected]
Phillip Veatch, Clerk of Sessions Planning, [email protected]
For Those New to Sessions
Below in the "Downloads" section is information for first-time attenders and details about our practice of "Pay-as-Led."