FGC Quaker Friends General Conference

of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker))

FGConnections

The newsletter of Friends General Conference keeps you informed about FGC’s programs and services. Also, it creates a forum for FGC Friends to air their views on topics announced in advance. We welcome articles and visuals from individuals and meetings.

Reflections on the Western Gathering (Fall 06)


photograph by Mike Goren

By Angelina Conti: The 2006 Gathering at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington offered many milestones. It was the first Gathering on the West Coast and nearly half of the Friends who attended came from Western states. Registration numbers far exceeded expectations and nearly 1700 Friends gathered for fellowship, worship, nurture and play. Views of Mount Rainier, the clattering of musical bricks, the dedication of a Peace Tree, and the gathered witness of hundreds of Friends in the college gymnasium—too big a body for PLU’s largest auditorium!—are just a few memories that make this Gathering special.

In this issue of FGConnections we seek to share a range of experiences from the 2006 Gathering. We want to provide a window into the Gathering experience and to share stories of divine love and understanding that emerged during the week.

Angelina Conti is an attender at Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. She is the FGC Publications Intern and acting editor of FGConnections.

Expanding Circles
By Aimee Bucholz: “These circles where we came together felt open, inviting, inclusive, and always ready to expand for one more.”

Listen and Obey the Spirit
By Rubye Howard Braye: “This type of adventure is what many of us are invited to partake of at Gathering. When we go forth – leaving the shore and venturing out – we sing, dance, and play, binding the fear and freeing God-given courage to live.”

Touching others … others touching us
By John Helding: “It is in how we walk our walk, in how we model the peaceable kingdom, that we have the greatest hope of changing the world.”

Water Has Memory
A poem by Raelyn Joyce

Living Water Cards
A selection of writings by Friends shared during the Living Water and Peace Tree Witness.

Sailing to Gathering
By Linda Hill and John Scull: “Traveling to and from the Gathering by sailboat was spiritually enriching. The deep level of preparation and follow-up we experienced would be equally possible with other slow forms of travel – walking, rail, or cycling – but perhaps impossible with more hectic modes such as automobiles or airplanes.”

Web Exclusive: More Reflections from the Western Gathering


Young Friends (Winter 06)


Members of Youth Ministries Committee at work and play. Photographs by Emily Stewart.

Finding God in the Unfamiliar
By Geoffrey Black. “When I cam home from the World Gathering, I carried with me a vision. A vision of Friends of all kinds coming togeterh and mending the brokenness within the Society of Friends. Not giving up our differences or throwing away our diversity; simply choosing no longer to allow them to divide us as deeply as they have.”

Interview with Emily Stewart
As Friends General Conference initiates a new program on Youth ministries, Emily Stewart has been appointed on a one-year interim basis to serve as coordinator for this exciting new committee and work.

Being a Friend
By Aliyah Meena Shanti. “Since turning 18 last October, I have been pondering what it means to be a young Friend. I have only recently allowed myself to be identified as such, as for most of my childhood and teenage years I preferred to be known as simply “a Friend,” with no qualifications.”

My Experience at the Gathering
By Anna Lindo. First-time Gathering attender talks about being in Junior Gathering. “I didn’t known anyone there except my parents (of course), but in two days, I had made friends.”

Youth Ministries—FGC Program, then Movement?
By Karen Stewart. “If the hopes and dreams of the Youth Ministries Program come true, Quaker historians in 50 years will be looking back at this time and trying to understand the forces that changed the face of Quakerism. I hope they will see the convergence of several forces into a groundswell of enthusiasm that enlivened and enriched our faith community and enabled us to better reach out to serve the wider world.”

Clearness
By Tristan Wilson. During late October, I found myself struggling with a decision that would undoubtedly affect the rest of my life: draft registration. I had turned eighteen several months earlier and had been putting it off since then.

Wearing their sword as long as they could
By Jane Orion Smith. “I returned from Christmas vacation in January 2004 to find that Canada had its first refugee from the US military who was seeking sanctuary from being deployed to Iraq: Jeremy Hinzman, soldier in the elite 82nd Airborne unit.”


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For listings of these articles by author or topic, please see FGC’s Quaker Library.

The topic of the next issue is “Views from Quakers Worldwide.” Brief contributions, photographs and drawings will be accepted until April 21, 2006.

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