This year the spirit of our Meeting for Worship continued to deepen and remains the center of our life together. There has been more vocal ministry than last year; perhaps because our sense of community has increased, and people feel welcome to speak. We have continued our practice of “Afterwords,” now giving the time a clearer definition. We are asked to speak out of the silence, sharing our joys, sorrows and reflections in a spirit-led way. We enjoy being together and welcome the silence of our Meeting.

We have focused on becoming more welcoming to newcomers and building our community. Nametags were instituted and symbolize that people have a place at the Meeting right away. Decorative stickers have added certain flair to the process. We have also started to have monthly breakfasts for newcomers and long time attenders in the cafeteria of Riverside Church, paid for by the Meeting; these provide an informal opportunity for us to get to know each other. Although we have no kitchen, we have still organized three after Meeting potlucks and a Christmas cookie exchange. Providing hospitality has been a point of entry for new attenders. We also come to each other’s events outside of Meeting. These activities have allowed us to connect with each other.

Many of our new attenders seem to be people in their thirties and forties who live in the neighborhood. Students from nearby colleges also visit from time to time. In the future we need to think about how we can address their needs and concerns.

Some newcomers are parents of young children. More children attended First Day School this year but not on a regular basis. We need to give more thought to our First Day School, and we need to increase adult participation with the children. Having two teenagers who grew up in the Meeting help with childcare has continued their connection with the Meeting and the younger children enjoy their company and care.

There are also members of Riverside Church who visit from time to time, and some of us participate in church services occasionally. We sponsored a showing of the film, “The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,” with Riverside. We welcome our connections with this vibrant and active religious community.

In our Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business, there is a sense of love and appreciation. We strive to practice our faith. Our clerk has instituted the practice of giving us a time frame for our work together, which has been helpful. Attendance at Meeting for Business has increased so that we don’t always have enough copies of reports, a welcome problem. The fact that many former clerks attend is helpful to our process as well.

Ministry & Counsel Committee continues to undertake the spiritual and pastoral care of the Meeting. It has organized after Meeting discussions, Quaker Quests. These have been informative and well attended but primarily by long-term members. Topics have included an account of a personal spiritual journey, a discussion of the relation between the Meeting and the schools, and the connection between our financial stewardship and our spiritual lives. We experimented with reading the queries during Meeting on alternate weeks to mixed reviews from the Meeting. Two spiritual nurture groups have continued for several years, adding new members from time to time, but we need to establish additional groups so that we can make more opportunities for people to worship and grow together. Under the care of Ministry & Council, we continue to offer support groups for many needs. Friends are encouraged to approach a member of M & C with their request. M & C sets up and oversees the committees. We have about a dozen such groups at this time. We have continued our practice of having a support committee for the clerk. The Spirit is working among us in our deep care for each other.

We continue to believe that outreach to other groups is important. This year our Peace and Social Concerns Committee decided that rather than make all our contributions at the end of the year, we would select several organizations to which contributions should sent on a schedule throughout the year. This allowed us to highlight the work of some of them. The committee also worked on guidelines for us to consider as we allocated our outreach to other groups. These proved to be helpful at our end of year discussions. In addition to outreach through Peace and Social Concerns and Friends in Unity with Nature, we contributed money towards the NY Yearly Meeting Youth Initiative and helped to support a young, Muslim woman, ineligible for scholarship, at Brooklyn College. We strive to maintain a personal connection to these groups through at least one member, who keeps informed of their work.

Members of the Meeting are active in many areas of concern beyond the Meeting. This year we forwarded our minute on torture to the New York Quarterly Meeting and the New York Yearly Meeting. We have been sending post cards to one of the prisoners at Guantanamo. More of our members are active at Yearly Meeting. Many are active in the NY Quarterly Meeting, Friends Fiduciary, FCNL, FLGBTQC, FGC, Pendle Hill, a trustee and a clerk of Yearly Meeting, and the Friends Seminary School Committee. Members of Morningside have been very involved in the effort to bridge the gap between the Meetings and the Quaker schools. We sponsor a Meeting for the QUNO Office, and some of us are involved in the Down Town Meeting that functions during the summer in Battery Park. Several members are active in organizations working for political and social justice. We work to support each other’s concerns, and the life of the Meeting is enriched with the participation of its members and attenders in these activities.

When we gathered to prepare our report, we defined several of our challenges for the coming year. We have discovered that it can be hard to replace certain positions. We may need to rotate them more frequently. The treasurer’s position has been filled, but we have not found a replacement for the editor of the newsletter. We realize that Ministry & Counsel has a short list of seasoned Friends who are used for clearness and support committees. Some of these people have had serious health issues, so we have seen how much we depend on them. We need to identify the gifts of all who attend Meeting and work on helping a broader range of people develop the skills and resources needed by the Meeting.

We strive to learn how the Spirit continues to work among us.

New members: 2

Transferred in: 2

Transferred out: 4

Total Membership: 60