Putney Friends Meeting House, 17 Bellows Falls Rd. Putney, VT 05346

Saturday, November 14, 2026, 9am-2:30pm

“God alone is able to strengthen us to dig deep, to remove all which lies between us and the safe foundation…” —John Woolman

Overview

In earlier times Friends would often worship for hours fully expectant and deeply patient for the Living Presence to do its work in the gathered body of Friends. These gathered experiences were core to Quaker convincement, personal transformation, and prophetic challenges to the cultural behaviors in the places where Quakers lived.

Modeled on a twenty-five-year practice in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, we have begun these opportunities for NEYM Friends to experience a full day of Quaker worship. In September we will be holding our next opportunity at Putney Friends Meeting. We hope you will join us.

We will gather in the Putney Friends Meetinghouse at 9:30 a.m. for three hours or so of expectant waiting worship. Three hours may sound like a long time, but Friends who have been practicing this kind of extended worship have often been surprised how quickly it seems to go by. Friends are free to get up and move around, to lie down on the benches, to use the bathroom, even to take a walk outside and rejoin the worship as led. Following the worship, we each eat our own brown bag lunch (beverages provided). After lunch, we will return to the meeting room for worship-sharing about our experiences of the morning. We will close by 2:30 p.m. Friends are welcome to come for the morning only, to stay for lunch, or to stay for the whole day.

Transformative experiences can happen when the Living Presence has adequate time to remove the spiritual cobwebs and to shine a Light on the deep calls that are beckoning us to change and to make the world a better place. It is God’s work to awaken people to God‘s wisdom, guidance, and love. These extended meetings for worship can provide a seedbed for God to do that awakening. You can also read Marcelle Martin’s Pendle Hill 2003 Pamphlet, An Invitation to a Deeper Communion, which describes the beginnings of these extended worship experiences in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Schedule

9:00 Tea, coffee, and light snacks will be available with an opportunity for quiet conversation outside of the meeting room.
9:30 Meeting for Worship
12:30 Brown Bag Lunch and time for a walk, relaxation, conversation, etc. Beverages will be provided.
1:15 Reflections on the morning experience of extended worship
2:30 Closing

Logistics

  • Please remember to bring your own lunch if you plan to stay beyond the morning worship.
  • Overnight Accommodations: There will be limited accommodations available for Friends coming from a distance. If you would like Friday night hospitality, it is necessary to contact Michelle Wright at
    vtpollyanna65@gmail.com or Michael Wajda at mfwajda@gmail.com (484) by November 1, 2026.
  • If you could offer carpooling, please let us know.
  • Parking: There should be plenty of parking in the meeting house lot.
  • Announcements: To allow us to hold the deep experiences of the longer worship, and the reflective time in the afternoon, we ask Friends not to plan to make announcements of other Quaker events at the end of
    either session of the extended meetings. The only announcements that we will make will concern the extended meetings themselves. If you want to share information about another upcoming Quaker event, we ask that you bring the information in printed form, which can be put on a table at the venue where we meet.

Conveners

Jean Rosenberg, Middlebury Meeting, and Michael Wajda, Putney Meeting, started these full-day extended meetings in May 2022 and are committed to moving them around the yearly meeting every 2-4 months as possible.

Our vision is to strengthen Friends corporate yielding to the Living Presence in all our meetings for worship and business so that the Inward Teacher can fully do its work of abundant guidance and love.

For questions about this ministry, please contact Michael Wajda (mfwajda@gmail.com) or Jean Rosenberg (jrosenbe@middlebury.edu)