FGC Epistle on LGBTQ Friends

Twelfth Month 22, 2004

TO: Clerks of Yearly and Monthly Meetings Affiliated with FGC
Clerks of Yearly Meetings that Appoint Observers to FGC
Clerks of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns

Dear Friends,

The Central Committee of Friends General Conference met for its annual business sessions in Tenth Month of 2004 in New Windsor, Maryland. Over 150 Friends from more than sixteen yearly meetings and regional groups gathered to worship and attend to the work of FGC. During the evening session of 22 Tenth Month, we considered the following minute, which had been seasoned and brought forth to us from Executive Committee:

Our experience has been that spiritual gifts are not distributed with regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. Our experience has been that our Gatherings and Central Committee work have been immeasurably enriched over the years by the full participation and Spirit-guided leadership of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer Friends. We will never go back to silencing those voices or suppressing those gifts. Our experience confirms that we are all equal before God, as God made us, and we feel blessed to be engaged in the work of FGC together.

As we heard this minute, we sensed God at work in our midst. We felt that truth and love had met, and we in turn were embraced by both. Out of deep worship, Friends spoke movingly of how they were tendered, liberated, and uplifted by this message of affirmation. Like the apostles at Pentecost, we felt filled with the Holy Spirit and emboldened to proclaim the good news: God’s love is abundant; God’s sharing of spiritual gifts is unrestricted. We united in this minute with joy.

When there is an opening through which the Light touches us unexpectedly, showing us the way forward, we need to bear witness outwardly to the truth that we have experienced inwardly. Friends General Conference is not a denominational body. The Central Committee of FGC may speak to but not for its affiliated meetings. In this minute we have tried to describe our own experience of how God is working among us, as a corporate body gathered in worship. The precise wording of our minute grows out of our long association with the worship community known as Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns, a name carefully and prayerfully chosen by that community.

We invite Friends to consider and share back with us their own experience. We invite Friends to dwell deep, to “know one another in that which is eternal,” to consider the words of this minute and epistle, and to be open to the presence and guidance of the same Spirit who led us to this blessed experience.

In the Spirit,

Marian Beane
Presiding Clerk
FGC Central Committee

cc: FGC Central Committee Members and Observers