With program highlights, upcoming projects, and stories of Spirit-led journeys, the FGC 2017 annual report captures how small movements can grow into profound insights. In this report, Friends tell how FGC supported them in deepening faith, strengthening community, and addressing the currents of racism.

With program highlights, upcoming projects, and stories of Spirit-led journeys, the FGC 2017 annual report captures how small movements can grow into profound insights. In this report, Friends tell how FGC supported them in deepening faith, strengthening community, and addressing the currents of racism.

FGC is truly grateful for your support. Because of you, and a network of Friends, meetings, funds and foundations, FGC can offer spiritually transforming programs and services. We hope you’ll consider making a donation today!

Message from the Presiding Clerk

Dear Friends,

I am honored to share with you FGC’s 2017 Annual Report, Ripples start where Spirit moves.

Borrowed from the 2017 FGC Gathering, this annual report theme carries echoes of a speech delivered by Robert F. Kennedy at the University of Cape Town 52 years ago. Kennedy bridged the racial equality movements in South Africa and the United States when he said: “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”

As Friends, Spirit has called us to continue strengthening the ripples of hope that lead to equality for all people. In 2017, FGC embarked on our Institutional Assessment on structural racism. In the coming months, the FGC Assessment Taskforce will look at internal structures and policies, conduct surveys, and create recommendations to lift barriers that hinder full participation within FGC. When Central Committee meets in October 2018, we will have the opportunity to reflect on the recommendations and implement change.

Addressing structural racism within FGC is one ripple moving into the wider current of our Quaker faith. FGC lovingly holds the many faces and voices of Friends and meetings within this fluid tapestry. In the pages to follow, you’ll read stories from various Friends of how FGC has built connections and nurtured spiritual journeys. This annual report, like FGC, is for and about each of us.

I thank you for all the ways you contribute to FGC. Together we grow more deeply into our Quaker faith, and into being a community where the ripples of equality become not just a hope, but a reality.

Faithfully,

Frank Barch, Presiding Clerk