The Quaker Voluntary Service has opened a new branch in Philadelphia this year, and FGC will be hosting Maire Elizabeth Moriarty to work with our Ministry on Racism.

After three years of preparation and discernment, Quaker Voluntary Service launched its pilot house in 2012 with seven young adults in Atlanta, Georgia.  This year, two more houses have opened in Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon.  These young people are placed at community organizations for a year, living and worshiping communally.

Maire is a graduate of Ursinus College, where she majored in Social Justice Studies.  She comes to Philadelphia along with seven other volunteers.  Under the spiritual care of Germantown Monthly Meeting and Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, the volunteers will let their lives speak with their witness of a living Quaker faith.  Maire’s work with FGC is funded by a generous grant from the Shoemaker Foundation.

At FGC, Maire will support Vanessa Julye in our work on racial justice in the wider Quaker world.  She will help to coordinate the 2013 Gathering for Friends of Color and FGC’s delegation to the 2014 White Privilege Conference.  She will also assist with workshops for monthly meetings who wish to work on diversity challenges, community building, and racial healing. 

FGC looks forward to welcoming Maire and the rest of QVS to Philadelphia!