Weekly Announcements for July 24, 2026

Special Annual Session Edition

Since 1672, Friends in our region have gathered each year to conduct the business of Quakers in the southern Mid-Atlantic. Whether you call it yearly meeting, annual session, or just "sessions" - the Monthly Meetings of Baltimore Yearly Meeting gather in this way for a week of community, collaboration, and care. Annual Session knits us together into the Religious Society of Friends, connected to Yearly Meetings all over the world. BYM will gather for our 354th Annual Session starting on Monday - read on for highlights of the week to come! 

The Advance Documents and Annual Reports provide important information for Sessions, including minutes to be considered at business meeting, the proposed budget, annual reports from committees and working groups, and our Spiritual State of the Yearly Meeting report. Whether or not you plan to attend Annual Session, these reports provide important information on who we are, where we have been, and where we are going as a Yearly Meeting. 

All Together Meeting for Worship will take place on the last day of Annual Session, Sunday, August 2nd from 11:00am - 12:00pm. "All Together Meeting for Worship" is a new-to-BYM tradition of inviting all Friends and Meetings to worship together - from Annual Session, from home, or from your Meeting House! The Zoom Link to join can be found in our Zooms Links for Annual Session document. 

Nadine Hoover will lead our pre-session retreat, Monday and Tuesday, Jul 28-29, followed by our Opening Plenary from Evan Welkins at 7:30pm on Tuesday, Jul 29. Later in the week, we will welcome Valerie Brown as our 2026 Carey Memorial Lecturer on Saturday, Aug 1 at 7:30pm. Evan Welkin is a member of Olympia (Wash.) Meeting of North Pacific Yearly Meeting. While living in Italy, he joined the staff of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) and in 2024 was appointed executive secretary of the FWCC Section of the Americas. Valerie Brown is an author and Buddhist-Quaker Dharma teacher. A former lawyer and lobbyist, Valerie transformed her high-pressure, twenty-year career into serving leaders and nonprofits to create trustworthy, authentic, and compassionate workspaces. Valerie is the author of several books, including Hope Leans Forward (2022) and Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teaching on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation (2024). 

The pre-session retreat is in-person only. However, the Opening Plenary and Carey Lecture are both available on Zoom - check out the Zoom Links for Annual Session to join the plenaries! 

On Wednesday, July 29 from 2:00pm - 3:30pm, Friends will gather for our annual Memorial Meeting. During this time together, we gather in worship to reflect on the lives of those Friends in our Monthly Meetings who have died since we gathered last year. A listing of all deaths and memorial minutes will be available. In addition, we'll hear excerpts from the memorial minutes of Friends who were active in our Yearly Meeting. The Memorial Meeting is hybrid and you can join from home using the Zoom Links for Annual Session. 

Workshops are offered at Annual Session on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. At least two workshops options are available in a hybrid format and can be joined using the Zoom Links for Annual Session. Workshop topics include spirituality practices, clerking skills, arts/crafting, nature walks and field trips, anti-racism, Palestinian justice, and much much more!

We're trying something new this year! On Wednesday evening starting at 7pm we'll have a mini-film festival, showing three films that reflect on our theme, "Living in Harmony with the Earth and Each Other." Flight of the Butterflies chronicles the nearly 40-year quest of Canadian scientist Dr. Fred Urquhart to discover the monarch butterfly's secret overwintering hideaway in the mountains of central Mexico. 2040 is an optimistic documentary structured as a visual letter to the director's young daughter, exploring what the world could look like in the year 2040 if humanity collectively implements existing, readily available technologies to combat climate change. Israelism follows two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel who witness the brutality in Palestine and join a movement of young American Jews redefining the Jewish relationship to Israel. Movie Night films are licensed to BYM for in-person viewing only at Annual Session but may be available to you for home viewing on streaming platforms.  

Calling all Friends ages 35ish and younger for Young Adult Days at BYM Annual Session! Even if you're not registered, we can squeeze you in as a commuter (residential housing is full, sorry!) for Young Adult Days. On Friday evening we'll have our All Ages Celebration - featuring Contradancing, board games, and TWO bouncy castles! Complete a late registration request here. 

In commemoration of our nation's 250th anniversary, the BYM General Secretary and Friends Historical Library have collaborated to bring Friends a selection of historic Minutes from BYM Annual Sessions, going back to our nation's founding in 1776 (100 years after we started gathering!) The Minutes will be available at Annual Session and posted online soon. 

All BYM staff will be fully engaged for the next 10 days in either Annual Session or kicking off the final session of BYM Camps (or both!). Next week, staff are only able to respond to requests that require immediate attention for the good order of Annual Session or camp. All other requests will be answered starting Wednesday, August 5th. Throughout Annual Session, admin@bym-rsf.org and program@bym-rsf.org will be monitored - please do reach out with your Annual Session questions! 

To submit your items for the BYM Weekly Announcements,
please email Admin@bym-rsf.org. 

Baltimore Yearly Meeting
17100 Quaker Lane | Sandy Spring, MD | 20860 USA
www.bym-rsf.org

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17100 Quaker Lane | Sandy Spring, MD 20860 US