Vital Friends is FGC’s monthly eNewsletter that shares news, resources, and announcements with Friends. This is the December 2015 edition.

Vital Friends is FGC’s monthly eNewsletter that shares news, resources, and announcements with Friends. Below is the introductory text and table of contents.

View the complete eNewsletter online or as a PDF.

Dear Friend,

The 2016 Gathering Committee is thrilled to announce that prolific Quaker author Rex Ambler, known for making the wisdom of early Friends accessible to Friends today, will be speaking at Gathering 2016. Rex has been a teacher and political theologian, helped to establish the Gandhi Foundation in Britain, and been active in Britain Yearly Meeting. We are pleased he will share his insights and perspectives at the coming Gathering.

Joining Ambler on the roster of plenary presenters is Smithsonian Folkways Recording Artist, activist, community-builder and troubadour, Larry Long & Midewiwin, Native Life Ways Singer & Keeper of the Song, Waubanewquay Day. They will perform their American Roots Revue; works from the core of America’s richest musical traditions of First Nation, gospel, blues, and folk for audiences on Wednesday evening at the Gathering.

The Gathering 2016 will also welcome Dr. Nekima Levy-Pounds, an award-winning professor of law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and the founding Director of the Community Justice Project, a civil rights legal clinic.  Dr. Levy-Pounds is also the President of the NAACP Minneapolis Chapter, a civil rights attorney, legal scholar, media personality, blogger, and nationally recognized expert on issues at the intersections of race, public policy, economic justice, public education, juvenile justice, and the criminal justice system.

Rounding out a week of invigorating plenary events will be Peggy Senger Morrison. Peggy is a gifted preacher, counselor, and teacher and on Friday, July 8th, she will share from the humor and breadth of her experience drawing from her years as a blogger, a free-lance provocateur of grace, and a founding pastor of Freedom Friends Church. 

We hope you’ll join us at Gathering 2016 at College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota! Follow FGC on Facebook and Twitter to get fresh updates about next year’s festivities as they break.

In the Light,

The Staff of FGC

In this issue: 

-FGC Friends: Baltimore Yearly Meeting

-QuakerBooks Winter Reading List

-Meet FGC’s New Online Communications Fellow!

-QuakerCloud for the Holidays

-Program Spotlight: Friends Meeting House Fund