“Gather Our Fragments Into Wholeness”
Wednesday, June 11 through Sunday, June 15, 2025
Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio
Youth Staff Needed
Youth Services Committee is seeking applicants to lead teens in fun activities that promote development of their Quaker identity.
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“Gather Our Fragments Into Wholeness”
Wednesday, June 11 through Sunday, June 15, 2025
Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio
Come join Friends from near and far at Wilmington College for the 205th annual sessions of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting. The theme, “Gather Our Fragments Into Wholeness,” is first a prayer acknowledging Spirit’s role in the restoration of wholeness. But we, too, can be active participants. The first step to a kintsugi bowl repair is to gather all the pieces. Only then can we begin the mysterious process of bringing the pieces back together into wholeness. Be a part of our mending by gathering with us!
Continue exploring the website to learn more about plenaries, workshops, and other activities for all ages. If you will be staying on campus, please take note of the descriptions of the two lodging options. And don’t forget to review the list of things to bring.
Registration
Registration is now open for in-person and virtual attenders.
NOTE: The deadline for in-person registration is May 27th. Our meal and lodging numbers need to be firm by the deadline, so PLEASE register now!
Reports in Advance
Plenary Sessions
7:00 pm, McCoy Room, Kelly Center
Paul Buckley
Thursday June 12th
To Be Gathered Still
Paul Buckley is one of our own and has graciously agreed to step into the plenary spot vacated by Sa’ed Atshan. We are so lucky to have him in our midst.
As we went, I spied a great high hill called Pendle Hill, and I went on the top of it with much ado, it was so steep; but I was moved of the Lord to go atop of it; and when I came atop of it I saw Lancashire Sea; and there atop of the hill I was moved to sound the day of the Lord (Joel 2:1-2); and the Lord let me see atop of the hill in what places he had a great people to be gathered …
Sound the trumpet in Zion; raise the alarm on my holy hill! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is near – a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick blackness!
We are again living in a time of darkness and gloom and a great people still waits to be gathered, but we are not ready. Our Religious Society is fractured and fragmented. Our greatest strengths become weaknesses: We have no Creed, and fight each other about what it does not say. We claim to act only in unity – with each other and the Holy Spirit – and lack the patience to resolve our separateness.
We can become people of love, humility, and faithfulness. Then we will be ready to welcome the great people still to be gathered to us.
Paul Buckley is a member of Clear Creek Monthly Meeting in Richmond, Indiana. He came to Friends in 1977 and has been active in OVYM since 1998. He began traveling among Friends in the 1980s to visit, to give talks, workshops, and retreats, and to encourage spiritual revival. Paul has taught, spoken, and written extensively about Quaker history, faith, and practice.
Marcelle Martin
Friday June 13th
Gathered Into Wholeness
Western culture conditions us to become fragmented both within ourselves and in relation to others and the world. In the face of these fragmenting influences, our faith and numerous Quaker practices help to restore wholeness, especially when we engage whole-heartedly. Marcelle will share stories about what happens during a gathered meeting for worship and tell how deep listening and asking each other certain kinds of questions can support us in accessing the guidance and power of the Spirit. Spiritual friendships, clearness committees, discernment trios, faithfulness groups, and holding one another in the Light are relational Quaker practices that can restore lost abilities, awareness, and authenticity. We can help each other hear the leadings of the Spirit and respond with courageous faithfulness. Collectively, Friends have had a transforming effect in other generations. In the face of the difficulties of our time, we, too, are called to play a healing role in the world.
Marcelle Martin is a Quaker writer, teacher, workshop leader and spiritual director. She is the author of a number of Quaker books and pamphlets including Our Life is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey and A Guide to Faithfulness Groups. Swarthmore (PA) Meeting has recognized her gift of spiritual nurture among
Friends. Her blog can be found here: https://awholeheart.com/
Thursday Living Witness: Paul Ricketts
Paul Ricketts has been affiliated with Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting since 1980 as a member of the former Maple Grove Friends Meeting in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
For the past couple years Paul has been on a respite and sabbatical from Friends and has recently returned among us attending his home meeting, Fort Wayne Friends Meeting. He is a retired educator, and recent graduate of Education for Ministry, a four-year program of theological education offered by Sewanee: The University of the South- School of Theology. This program encourages participants to deepen their faith through theological reflection, group study, and spiritual growth, preparing them for (non- ordained) ministry and service. Paul first attended Quaker Meeting as a teenager at Duneland Worship Group under the care of 57th Street Meeting, Illinois Yearly Meeting. He currently serves on the board of directors of Martin Luther King Montessori School in Fort Wayne.
Arriving on Campus
Here is a map explaining where Friends can plan to arrive to register. For registration, you may wish to park near the Kelly Center in the College Street parking lot (blue circle). Registration is right inside the front doors of the Kelly Center. Do not unload your car here! You will register at Eric Wolff’s table and then get your room key. Then you will drive around to the other side of campus, taking Quaker Way to the parking lot near the dorms and apartments.
What to Bring to OVYM
When you come to Wilmington College, whether you stay in the dorms or commute from your home, you can bring several things for comfort and reducing waste:
- Warm layers! This is your annual reminder that most of us will feel cold.
- Reusable cup for coffee or tea and a water bottle
- Cloth napkin
- Musical instrument or props to share your gifts(?) at Saturday’s variety show
Friends staying in the dorms, should be sure to pack anything needed to be comfortable in a bare room:
- Extra long sheets, blankets or a sleeping bag, and a pillow
- Towels and soap
- Chargers for your devices
Optional items for comfort include a mattress pad (reduces noise from the plastic coating on the mattress); bedside lamp; bath mat; trash bag or wastebasket.
We have access to the kitchens, but please label any food items you bring. If you expect to prepare your own meals, bring everything you need beyond a sink, stove, refrigerator, and countertop: pots and pans, knives, cutting board, and cooking utensils; cooking oil, salt, and all ingredients; cleaning supplies including soap, dishcloth, and dishtowel.
Printed Copies of Publications
If you want printed copies of Reports in Advance, OVYM Directory, or the Minutes from 2025 OVYM Annual Sessions, let our Administrative Assistant Susan Lee Barton know by filling out this form.
Susan Lee will bring these printed copies to annual sessions for pick up. If you need Advance mailed to you before sessions, request this sooner rather than later!
Schedule
Click here to see the main schedule.
Children's and Youth Program Schedules
Young Adult Friends Program
Young adult Friends, ages 18-35, get excited for OVYM! The schedule still has opportunity for your input. This is your group, so let’s make it the best we can together! Remember, young adults always get 50% off. If you have concerns about transportation or finances, we can work to solve the problems holding you back. Coming part time is always an option as well.
If you have a question or want to give any input my email is u-brewington@hotmail.com. I’m all ears! I hope to see you there 🌈!!!!
Clerk of Young Adult Friends, Uta Brewington
Wednesday Afternoon Options
COME EARLY for a Pre-Session “Social Action Social”
Wednesday June 11th 1:15 – 2:45 pm in Kelly Rm 2
Gathering the Fragments of Social Action in OVYM
Join new Social Action Coordinator Sandy Felt in a social action roundtable! Everyone is welcome. We’ll talk about what social action means to us, noting that it can include many disparate fragments, from marching in protest to reading an antiracism book in a book club. Let’s share our social action knowledge and brainstorm ideas for better social action communication between OVYM meetings moving forward. How can we communicate more deeply and more often on rising issues and be better prepared for urgent responses? How can we reach a position on a complex issue through our Quaker values and then organize around it? How can we support one another and band together so that we become stronger in our efforts? In this intense political climate of tension and upheaval, we all need each other more than ever before. Let’s strengthen our connections to build up our social action community. Please arrive early. Teens welcome!
Sandy Felt is a member of Dayton Friends Meeting. In the past she has been a frequent attender of Boulder Friends Meeting, Albuquerque Friends Meeting, and Friends Meeting of Washington (DC). A retired computer programmer, she is happy to put her tech skills to use in support of Quaker social action!
Sandy has three adult daughters. She plays the guitar for hospice patients, tutors school-age kids, is an experienced indoor skydiver, and loves singing and contra dancing. Her latest hobby is lucid dreaming.
Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Training
Wednesday June 11th 1:45 – 2:45 pm in the Library Classroom
Required for staff and encouraged for volunteers, this training is led by the Religious Nurture and Education Committee and should be repeated every five years.
Workshops
Friday
1:45-3:15 pm
Religious Nurture & Education Committee – Introduction to Faith and Play Stories for First Day School
Boyd 210
We will demonstrate and share resources on how to use Faith & Play storytelling to nurture children's spiritual lives and teach about Quaker faith, practice, and testimonies. Faith & Play is a Montessori-inspired experiential method to create a safe and welcoming space for children that is conducive to wonder and worship. This fits with the theme “Gathering our Fragments into Wholeness” in that many of our efforts to provide religious education to our children are fragmented, and the Faith and Play approach integrates children’s spiritual development into the life of the meeting and into our Quaker faith by acknowledging and respecting the spiritual lives of children.
Lisa Cayard is a member of Community Friends Meeting. Gini Emigh is a member of Bloomington Meeting. Both have worked professionally in early childhood education and have served their Meetings’ Religious Education Programs.
Earthcare Committee – The "Great Unraveling" and Climate Chaos: A Spiritually Deepening Path to Healing
Boyd 219
Presenters will briefly tell about the global biodiversity-climate crisis as a major moral challenge of our time. Then, experiential activities will hopefully open us to a humble, at times ecstatic sense of kinship with local nature, which can extend to all life. This can include nurturing our own yards and neighborhood landscapes as wild communities, grounding us for further action and activism.
Karen Atcheson, of Lafayette Meeting, helped start a 200 acre prairie/woodland conservation and education group. She and her husband have nurtured native areas on their own 2 acres. She works with a conservation burial ground called Warren Prairie Sanctuary.
Bill Cahalan has led natural awareness retreats and workshops since 1983. He and his wife work contemplatively with “rewilding” their home landscape. He works as well with the woods at Community Friends Meeting.
Michael Birkel and Andrew Garrison – Gathering Light
Library Classroom
There is a mystical tradition that sees the world as full of sparks of divinity, waiting to be released, as part of the process of redeeming and restoring the world. In this workshop we will gently consider that way of viewing human purpose. Wear comfortable shoes, as we are planning to walk cheerfully over the world, gathering and releasing light. Teens Welcome!
Andrew Garrison is a member of Oxford Meeting and a Student of Life. Michael Birkel is a member of Clear Creek Meeting and a Student of Andy Garrison.
Paul Buckley – Teach Us to Pray
Kelly Rm 2
In Luke 11:1, a disciple says, “Teach us to pray.” Jesus responds by giving an example of how to pray, but for nearly two thousand years, Christians have taken these words as if they were in reply to the request, “Teach us a prayer.” Not how to pray, but what words to say. This statement has been repeated word-for word countless times. It has been recited so often, that for many people it has become little more than a vocal ritual. In this workshop, we will use a simple technique to explore the Lord’s Prayer, searching for words that speak to us, and claiming it for ourselves.
Saturday
1:45-3:15 pm
Marcelle Martin – Evoking Wholeness and Clarity
Boyd 119
Are you seeking spiritual guidance and clarity? Is Spirit or your soul calling for your attention? In this workshop we will practice deep listening, speaking from the heart, and ways to pose evoking questions to help each other reconnect the fragmented parts of ourselves, hear divine guidance more clearly, and articulate the truth within us. The workshop will include some instruction and modeling by Marcelle, as well as mutual listening and discernment in pairs and trios. Each participant will have the opportunity to share about an issue for which they are seeking greater clarity.
Campus Friends Meeting – Ministry in Action: Friends and Community
Kelly 2
We will have an interactive discussion of initiatives as individuals, within the context of our Monthly Meeting, and how we ‘let our lives speak’ to the communities around us. The image of creating a quilt or mosaic composed of ‘ministry fragments’ and concerns comes to mind.
Patricia Thomas, a recorded Minister of the Gospel, a life-long Friend and graduate of ESR ’90, is currently serving as presiding clerk of Wilmington Yearly Meeting. Gary Huffenberger is a member of Campus Friends Meeting and a retired small-town reporter. Taylor Stuckert is a member of Campus Friends Meeting, Trustee at Wilmington College, and a descendant of the Hadley and Moore families who were early Quaker farmers who arrived in Clinton County, OH in the early 1800’s.
Elizabeth Terney – Pieces of Me: A Meditation for Discernment Using All the Fragments of Ourselves
Boyd 210
This will be a guided meditation looking at the parts of our self, our desires, and Spirit to get a holistic understanding of all our pieces in doing discernment. There will be an introduction to the parts of self and Spirit as a guide, followed by the guided meditation that brings those pieces together in a Quaker meeting setting to find sense of the Meeting. Participants will have time to journal about their experiences.
Elizabeth Terney is a graduate of Earlham School of Religion and member of Clear Creek Meeting. She is also the co-pastor of West Elkton Friends (of New Association of Friends).
Dan McGregor and Charles Watts – Framing Human Rights with Empathy
Library
One source of our lack of wholeness is the assault on our collective empathy for each other. Empathy is the soul of democracy and human rights. And empathy is under attack by autocrats. Human beings have brains where all attacks (cruelty) or collaborations (empathy) occur as neural pathways. Autocrats use the science of how the brain works to alter such pathways to reduce humanity’s capacity to care for each other’s rights and freedoms. Without empathy, democracy and human rights are unsustainable. This workshop will help you think about how you can centralize empathy and human rights in your public discourse, and how so doing can promote your wholeness and defend our democracy.
Attendees are invited to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (copies will be made available to participants at the workshop) and identify the enumerated human rights they are most passionate about.
Daniel McGregor has been an active Quaker in Dayton Friends since 2022. Charles (Chuck) Watts is a retired Episcopal minister living in Wilmington and is co-founder of Empathy Surplus.
Carol Simmons, Susan Lee Barton, and JP Lund – Gathering the Fragments of our Religious Society into Wholeness with FWCC
McCoy Room
Hear from Friends who attended the Friends World Committee for Consultation’s World Plenary Meeting last August in South Africa, with short video presentations from several parts of the world and time to examine together how we might transform our world.
Carol Simmons is a member of Yellow Springs Meeting and OVYM rep to FWCC and the 2024 World Plenary. Susan Lee Barton is a member of Clear Creek Meeting, OVYM administrative assistant and Friends General Conference representative to the FWCC 2024 World Plenary, and JP Lund is a member of Eastern Hills Meeting and a longtime FWCC representative with OVYM and Wilmington YM.
Worship Sharing Groups
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings 8:45 to 9:45. Please see registration desk to sign up for a group. Three groups will have room assignments. There will be a group that meets outside (as much as possible). Another group will be on Zoom for virtual attendees. To those who have attended Worship Sharing in previous years, let all your Friends know the rich depth of sharing during this time. Queries will be centered around our theme.
Healing Center
Friday and Saturday 4:30 – 5:30pm
Thomas Lounge, Pyle Center
Once again, the Healing Center will be back. This is a space to lay down our burdens and open to the healing Light. Whether you are new to Yearly Meeting or a longtime Friend, we invite you to come: sit or move or talk or write or listen – we’ll see what the offerings are this year. What would you like to offer?
We need healing practitioners, Friends who want to hold the space in prayer, and, of course, those who want to receive. Giving and receiving often blend together as we open ourselves to channel the Divine. Friends who serve the yearly meeting or their monthly meeting are especially welcome to partake.
Please contact Deborah Jordan ( djordan@fuse.net ) if you are interested in offering service with the Healing Center.
Interest Groups
Friends are invited to arrange interest groups or social activities of their choosing during the evening hours on Thursday and Friday nights after the Plenaries. If you have an interest group or activity idea you would like to do, ask the Planning Committee to find you a space. There will be sign up sheets at the registration table area. We can set up Zoom interest groups as well, please contact Ben Griffith. Let us know what you want to do
Meetings for Worship with Attention to Business
Attending to business is at the heart of almost every gathering of Friends, and it is one of the ways we get to know each other in and through the Spirit. But attendance is not mandatory. To join in our Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, come to the McCoy Room in Kelly Center (see schedule for meeting times), and there you will find copies of the Reports in Advance. Check the (tentative) agenda just inside the front cover. Zoom attenders will join us virtually with a hybrid set up so that we all see and hear each other. Your presence and your holding all in the Light is most welcome.
Working as a Volunteer with Children and Youth
OVYM welcomes volunteers! Please request a (or submit your recent) background check from our Administrative Assistant, Susan Lee Barton.
If possible, please attend the Wednesday afternoon Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Training, 1:45 to 2:45. We cannot offer childcare during this training, so please arrange for your partner or a friend to keep any children in their care.
Anyone who is unable to complete this training will not be allowed to be alone with any children who are not in their household.
