“FGC shows us the interior of Quakerism,” shares Anne Pomeroy of New Paltz Friends Meeting. “Hope for the world comes from the connectedness of leading a deeply spiritual life.”

As a member of both FGC’s Executive Committee (governing body) and Development Committee, Anne is frequently invited to run workshops to strengthen spiritual friendships and elder relationships. “I listen to the meeting’s needs, and bring who I am,” offers Anne. “Together we experience a deepening of community. We learn to interrupt the stories and patterns in our heads, and ground deeper.”

Anne helps meetings develop testimonies around earth care and domination systems. “The Institutional Assessment is among FGC’s most important work—to bear witness to culture change around racism. Witness is social action, and is deeply spiritual. It opens doors into seeing how culture shapes the expression of Quakerism.”

Anne sees trauma happening to the earth and our relationships. “Trauma reverberates through communities, just as love and healing does. Our actions affect personal, communal, and universal systems.”

“Look at the impact of busyness. How we order time. It reveals our values. It is counter-cultural to value relationships over work. Spirit lives, as one wise Friend shared, in God’s time.”

Pulling away from the demands of work and the world is one of the gifts of the FGC Gathering. This year in Grinnell, Iowa, Anne found herself enjoying “deep conversations with Friends, and hearing leadings emerge.”

Anne first attended the 2004 FGC Gathering in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was also the first Junior Gathering for her children. Anne realized then that while she would return to the Gathering for herself, she needed to return for her children.

“I witness real leadership development in FGC’s youth and high school programs, and Junior Gathering is a lifeline for teens. The relationships youth develop there will be with them long into the future—something I want my children to have for whatever the days ahead may hold.”

“FGC creates the space where the spiritual gifts for the kind of leadership needed in a world transforming can emerge and be developed from a Quaker perspective.”

When asked why Friends should support FGC, Anne replies without hesitation, “FGC develops inspired Quaker leadership, and saves the lives of some of our children.”