New Year’s Eve Celebration

In-Person at Powell House
December 30, 2024 - January 1, 2025

At this annual event, we have activities for all ages – but what we plan is up to you. There are workshop slots for YOU to offer an activity, so give it some thought before you arrive. Previous years have included cookie making, energy work, enneagrams, musical collaborations, tai chi, Pilates, a clay workshop, and a walk to Dorson’s Rock, among others. Right after our evening meal on the 31st, it’s Cabaret! Bring your instruments, a song, story, poem and/or skit to share with everyone on New Year’s Eve. Our cooks will have a "Quaker midnight" feast ready for us. We’ll conclude the celebration with a brunch on January 1st.

Registration will close on December 27th

In-Person at Powell House
January 17-20, 2025

CO-SPONSORED BY THE SCHOOL OF THE SPIRIT MINISTRY

During this extended weekend, Friends are invited to enter more fully into the silence and to experience the deeper rhythms in which we might live. This retreat will include the opportunity for solitude, individual and corporate worship, silent meals, and “active” silence. There will also be opportunities for individual and group spiritual reflection. Come and simply BE with God; listen and attend to the Divine stirrings of the soul.

Jim Herr has been a Quaker in Lancaster, PA, since 1987. He was part of the School of the Spirit’s ninth class of “On Being A Spiritual Nurturer” in 2012-14. Since then, Jim has participated in eight contemplative retreats, including Dwelling Deep in 2018, 2019, 2020, and earlier this year, 2023. During three of those eight retreats, Jim was mentored to be a retreat leader.

In 2017, he retired after spending 25 years selling advertising space for a farming trade paper. And immediately, he took the part-time job of administrator of the School of the Spirit, a position he held until January 29, 2021. Now he is fully retired—and loving it. He and his wife, Cindy, have joined a hiking group in the Lancaster, PA, area and spend several days a month walking in the woods. Jim has discovered he finds Spirit in the great outdoors as much as anywhere.

Jim has been a recording clerk for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting since about 2008. He’s clerk of Caln Quarter of PhYM, assistant clerk of Lancaster Meeting, convener of the Worship & Ministry Committee, and, since 1992, writes the monthly newsletter. Cindy Herr is a Quaker and has attended the Lancaster Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends since 1987.

Cindy Herr is a Quaker and has attended the Lancaster Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends since 1987. Cindy completed the School of the Spirit’s ninth class of “On Being a Spiritual Nurturer.” She was mentored to be a retreat leader of Dwelling Deep at Powell House.

Cindy retired from teaching elementary school and began to participate in trainings in spirituality, mindfulness, yoga and qigong. She is certified to teach Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, yoga and teaching yoga to people with chronic illness. She finds spiritual depth in these practices. Cindy has attended numerous Quaker silent retreats and Buddhist silent retreats.

Cindy enjoys hiking, kayaking and bicycling in the Lancaster area. The Susquehanna River provides endless pleasure, beauty and spirit in nature.

ONLINE & IN-PERSON AT POWELL HOUSE
January 31 - February 2, 2025

Members of the committee attend Powell House Committee meetings and serve on subcommittees such as Fiscal Management, Personnel, Program, Property, and Fundraising. They serve as channels of communication between Powell House and the Yearly Meeting and their own local and regional meetings.

Powell House supports a staff that includes the directors, office staff, facilities support (grounds and housekeeping), and cooks. Staff offices are presently in Pitt Hall.

Powell House was established by New York Yearly Meeting in 1960 as the result of a gift of residential property from Elsie K. Powell Sr. This property, with subsequent additions and improvements, now consists of Pitt Hall, the Anna Curtis Center, a director’s residence, a youth directors’ residence, and fifty-seven acres of land with a campground and two wildlife ponds.

Powell House is used primarily for religious conferences and similar gatherings of members and attenders of meetings belonging to New York Yearly Meeting. It is also used for meetings of Yearly Meeting committees or conferences sponsored by them. The programs include a wide variety of educational, inspirational, and organizational activities for youth and adults related to the religious, benevolent, and social concerns of the Religious Society of Friends. The facilities are available for use by affiliated Friends’ organizations and other religious or educational groups having interests compatible with those of Friends. Short-term sojourners may sometimes be accommodated.

Winter Wonderland

A Family Retreat

In-Person at Powell House
February 7 - 9, 2025

A conference for Families and those who like to be with Families. Come join us in the heart of winter for your favorite winter activities. We hope for snow and cold for sledding and ice skating. Regardless there will be hiking, a bonfire, star gazing, sipping warm drinks, stories by the fireplace, crafts and games galore. Good food, Good company, Good fun.

Those under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

Special family room rate $600.

In-Person at Powell House
February 14-16, 2025

Time after time, early Friends returned to meeting for worship because of their direct experiences of transformation and the loving support of their community. Their spiritual transformation led them to order their lives, listening to Spirit’s direction. 

As we listen together for Spirit’s guidance, we will practice building authentic community. We will build on our skills of supporting one another, addressing harm, and spiritually navigating conflict to hear our collective truth and leadings.

A living Quakerism includes the spirituality of our interdependence upon one another and upon the Earth. Through exploring care of community, we will weave how right relationship with all of Creation is a part of how we tend ourselves and our faithfulness.

Anne Pomeroy, member of New Paltz Monthly Meeting, is a seasoned retreat facilitator and elder. Anne is a spiritual director and mentor for many people. Anne supports individuals and communities in deep listening to Spirit to facilitate their faithfulness. Anne is deeply committed to continuing revelation as a key aspect of our faith. Anne travels widely among Friends, ministering to people in monthly meetings, yearly meetings and beyond.  Anne helped establish the NYYM mentorship program, serving as a mentor and as part of the Mentorship Advisory Committee since the program’s inception. Additionally Anne serves FGC as clerk of the Development Committee, and as a NYYM representative to the FGC Central Committee. Anne’s ministry focuses around living into a broadly welcoming and inclusive faith community which can be called ‘care of community’. Anne brings their passion and joy to this ministry.

Lu Harper (Rochester) has served NYYM as a recording clerk for Ministry and Witness Coordinating Committees, as well as the yearly meeting body in sessions.  She is called to spiritual accompaniment of individuals and groups, and has served as elder/co-facilitator of retreats within and outside of NYYM. She is currently drafting a book, Opening Eyes and Ears, Journeying out of Ancestral American Colonialism and Privilege, reflecting on the ways her ancestors contributed to colonial genocide, enslavement, and displacement of indigenous peoples as settlers moved westward, and how she is called to help repair the harm for generations to come.

IN-PERSON AT POWELL HOUSE
March 21-23, 2025

Join us as we embark on a journey of self-expression and a deeper exploration of how we understand both lament and joy in our lives.

Over the weekend, we will delve into the transformative power of expressive writing and the arts for creating openings for healing and spiritual depth. Together, we will navigate emotional highs and lows, discovering the “joy unspeakable joy” that can be found in even the most challenging moments.

We’ll engage in a communal lament practice as a vehicle for authenticity and vulnerability, allowing us to deepen our connection with ourselves, the Divine, and one another, leading to a newfound appreciation for the interplay of both in our faith walk.

Lynette Davis, SFCC, is an author, spiritual companion, and mental health advocate who believes stories can change the world and create meaning in life. She has been a convinced Friend since 2016 and is a member of Ujima Friends Meeting and an ecumenical Sister with The Sisters for Christian Community.

In-Person at Powell House
April 25-27, 2025

In this retreat we will explore our call today to live in ways that demonstrate justice, integrity, inclusion, equality and wholeness. We will deepen our understanding of individual and systemic barriers to faithfulness.

Prophetic messages call us individually and collectively to turn back to the Truth and move into new patterns of being. The prophetic experience of early Friends led to and committed them to building a new social order based in truth, equality, and justice. We will explore ways in which our faithfulness can be supported by our communities today.

Anne Pomeroy, member of New Paltz Monthly Meeting, is a seasoned retreat facilitator and elder. Anne is a spiritual director and mentor for many people. Anne supports individuals and communities in deep listening to Spirit to facilitate their faithfulness. Anne is deeply committed to continuing revelation as a key aspect of our faith. Anne travels widely among Friends, ministering to people in monthly meetings, yearly meetings and beyond.  Anne helped establish the NYYM mentorship program, serving as a mentor and as part of the Mentorship Advisory Committee since the program’s inception. Additionally Anne serves FGC as clerk of the Development Committee, and as a NYYM representative to the FGC Central Committee. Anne’s ministry focuses around living into a broadly welcoming and inclusive faith community which can be called ‘care of community’. Anne brings their passion and joy to this ministry.

Lu Harper (Rochester) has served NYYM as a recording clerk for Ministry and Witness Coordinating Committees, as well as the yearly meeting body in sessions.  She is called to spiritual accompaniment of individuals and groups, and has served as elder/co-facilitator of retreats within and outside of NYYM. She is currently drafting a book, Opening Eyes and Ears, Journeying out of Ancestral American Colonialism and Privilege, reflecting on the ways her ancestors contributed to colonial genocide, enslavement, and displacement of indigenous peoples as settlers moved westward, and how she is called to help repair the harm for generations to come.