News

Joan Broadfield When we hear the word ‘racism,’ many people think of a perpetrator and a victim. The focus of the reaction seems most to acknowledge a black victim, a white perpetrator. In common parlance, the idea of broad effect is not immediately understood. Indeed, for us who are ‘white’ it is easy to avoid…

By Jacob Stewart Wednesday, March 10, 1999Dear Journal Me and my mom are on the road to go to South Carolina. I’m really sad cause my best friend Nick Mann decided to stay home with his dad instead of coming on this trip with me. I’m REALLY excited about being on an island. I’ve never…

Deborah Fisch In the last six months I have visited several meetings within Friends General Conference. There is a great desire among Friends to feel more spiritually connected, to know what issues other meetings are laboring with and how they go about discerning what they as Friends are called to do. Our foremothers and fathers…

Bert Skellie & Adelaide Solomon-Jordan Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association Atlanta Friends Meeting began a discussion group on the topic, “Our Role as Individuals in America’s (U.S.) Racial History,” in November 1997. Through discussions of readings, videos and other personal sharing, we have sought to understand our part in racial history and to support…

Interview with Anita Mendes-Lopes by Marsha Holliday My workshop will address racism from a different point of view. People of Color too often accept for ourselves the position that society has handed to us. We accept and swallow racism. I work with the swallowing part. So often People of Color see that if we speak…

Challenging Racism This resource is an article by Vanessa Julye Files Racism Hurts and Challenges EveryoneDownload…

Janet N. Riley MEMBER: CENTRAL PHILADELPHIA MONTHLY MEETINGATTENDER: ATASCADERO, CALIFORNIA WORSHIP GROUP In 1993 I lived in Novgorod, Russia, a charming town dotted with ancient Russian Orthodox churches on either side of the Volkov River. Working under the care of my meeting, I held English conversation classes with two groups of Russian youth in the…

by Bruce Birchard FGC is completing the process of hiring four new program directors. This unusually large number (we have the equivalent of 13.5 full time employees) is due both to expansion of our services to Friends and to the departure of two valued colleagues.Evelyn Whitbeck-Poorbaugh, our skilled FGC Bookstore manager, left FGC at the…

The title Worship in Song was revealed to the Hymnal Oversight Committee as it considered the purpose of this hymnal. For many Friends, music is an important component of individual and corporate worship. Here are some suggestions to make Worship in Song a valuable part of your spiritual life: We hope that Friends will find many opportunities for deepening…

In the context of worship and after a two year discernment process, FGC’s Central Committee (our “board of directors”) adopted the following “Minute of Purpose” and four major goals at its October, 1995, meeting. Minute of Purpose Friends General Conference is a Quaker organization in the unprogrammed tradition of the Religious Society of Friends which…

by Bruce Birchard Thousands of people are attending and joining unprogrammed Quaker meetings across North America, fueling growth in the number of meetings and worship groups. In 1956 the Friends World Committee for Consultation’s Directory listed approximately 400 unprogrammed meetings in North America (not including Conservative Friends’ meetings.) By 1996 that number had almost doubled…

by Vanesa Julye I have been a member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (CPMM) for three years. When I walked into the Race Street Meetinghouse after a 15 year absence from Quaker worship, I felt as if I were returning home. I was warmly received and immediately comfortable. I chose to serve on the First…