Workshops offer Gathering adults and high school participants the opportunity to be immersed in a topic with other interested Friends. Friends stay in the same workshop through multiple sessions, forming a small community within the Gathering. Most workshops include worship or worship sharing.

Are you planning to attend part-time? Some workshops require that you be registered for the full Gathering, but others are open to part-time attenders as well.

Workshops at the 2026 Gathering

For the all-ages Gathering held July 7-12, 2026 in Vermont, workshops will be held in-person each morning Wednesday – Saturday.
Each workshop meets from 9:00 to 11:45AM.

Frequently Asked Questions about workshops

In advance of the Gathering : follow the directions for modifying your registration

After the Gathering has begun: Change your workshop after you arrive at the Gathering by visiting the Info Desk.

Gathering workshops have capacity limits that are determined by the workshop leaders. Workshops will be marked as “FULL” on this page when they reach the maximum capacity. This page will be updated weekly. Workshop capacities are also listed on registration when you select a workshop.

Workshop proposals for the 2026 Gathering were due by the end of September, 2025.

Learn how to propose a workshop for a future Gathering.

(Short answer, No.)

All Friends registering during the month of April have an equal chance of getting into their first choice workshop. This is why even the person who registers on the morning registration opens is not guaranteed to get their first choice workshop, and is why we ask for a second choice as well. Friends registering the last day of April are as likely to get into a popular workshop as those registering on the first day. This practice helps relieve the pressure on the computer system caused by many people trying to be “first in line.” It also accommodates Friends who may not have access to a computer or time to register on the day registration opens.

Gathering staff almost always succeed in getting all early registrants into their first or second choice, when those choices are two different workshops. If your first and second choices are identical, you do not increase your chances of getting into that workshop.

Starting in May, workshops will be first-come first-served, and you will not choose a second choice workshop. What you register for then is the workshop you will be in. 

If you want to change your workshop, or check back later to see if you can switch into a workshop that was full, here are instructions for how to change your workshop after you are registered. We do not maintain waitlists for workshops. 


All Workshops


High School Only

Ministry with Children

High School Program participants join experienced Junior Gathering staff to create a fun, supportive, and Spirit-filled environment for our youngest Gathering participants. Increase your skill and experience, share the joy of working with children, and give back to our community! Early arrival Monday, 7/6 is mandatory.  Application with references required.

Workshop Number: 17
Leaders: Junior Gathering Staff

Anti-Racism

This workshop addresses anti-racism.

What We Carry, What We Build: Working Toward an Antiracist Quaker Community

Working Toward an Anti-Racist Quaker Community: Two Spaces, One Purpose This workshop brings together two intentional spaces, one for Friends of Color and one for White Friends, around a shared purpose: the deep, committed work of becoming an anti-racist Quaker community. How can we work towards becoming a community that sees Friends of Color as…

Workshop Number: 29
Leaders: Bertha Peña, alicia nance, Amy Rowland, Sandy Kewman

Art, Music, Dance

This workshop will include active engagement with art, movement, or music.

Photography and the Art of Seeing

One sees clearly only with the heart. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Discover how digital photography can help you see with fresh eyes, clarity, presence, and wonder. Learn how to receive and record images with heart-centered awareness, without judgment or analysis. Gain insight into how digital photography together with mindfulness and attention to breathing can enrich your…

Workshop Number: 20
Leaders: Peter West Nutting

Soulful Singing

Strong singers, shy singers, and even self-professed non-singers are all invited to help builda joyful, Friendly, singing community in this workshop, through a variety of genres, fromrounds, spirituals, and chants, to world music and songs of peace–all learned in the oraltradition. No singing experience or music reading is necessary to fully participate in thisworkshop, just…

Workshop Number: 25
Leaders: Ruth Fitz

Literature, Poetry, Sacred Text

This workshop centers around a pre-selected text.

LVM: Selected Poems, Gifts of Devotion

Quaker Poet LVM, LaVerne Shelton, leaves with us poems she was “given”. An abiding Faithfulness to Spirit guided her journey. Via Lectio Divina sharing by first reading aloud, contemplating, then re-rereading together, gaining a deeper understanding,love and appreciation of our Quaker Poet for ourselves and our Spiritual Community. LVM and I met 24 years ago,…

Workshop Number: 14
Leaders: Sharon Gunther

Mimesis: Mythology, Storytelling and Play for Insight and Growth

Mimesis is a unique method derived from depth psychology and myth studies that allows for the exploration of an archetypal story in a supportive environment. The DiMinos invite participants to enter a story in stages to appreciate its depth and meanings: Listening as the story is told; guided meditation; sharing; role play; and finally, discussion…

Workshop Number: 16
Leaders: John DiMino and Liza O'Hanlon DiMino

Reading & Recitation: Storytelling & Prophecy

We will explore the traditional of oral recitation and quranic lens to the role of prophecy in one’s own journey. We will read a novel and use the story to reflect on our spiritual pathways and leadings. In this workshop friends will explore how recitation and storytelling inform a spirit-led life and personal understanding of…

Workshop Number: 23
Leaders: Daniela Salazar, Chase Baldwin

Personal Growth/Spirituality

Connecting to the Source – And Mostly Staying There

We are in perilous times, in which it’s harder to stay connected to that Source of Life and Power where deep worship, discernment, and Spirit-led action all originate.  We will explore, in experiential and immediate ways, how to better live into and sustain connection to that Source. These are incredibly hard times to sustain our…

Workshop Number: 06
Leaders: Christopher Sammond

Daily Extended Meeting for Worship

We extend the time we regularly employ for worship in our meetings. Thus, we make ourselves more available to the loving and transforming influence of God Spirit in our lives, hearts and minds. Expectations, hopes: Create a space for Friends seeking the deeper levels of spiritual intimacy that prolonged worship offers. Areas or topics: Worship…

Workshop Number: 07
Leaders: Jorge Arauz

Forgiveness as a Spiritual Practice

Anger, fear, grief, and pain hinder us from feeling connected with the Spirit and our own healing energies. Through the windows and doors of forgiveness we can open ourselves to a more peaceful way of being. This is especially important in times of uncertainty. Workshop focuses on tools and techniques for doing forgiveness work, not…

Workshop Number: 10
Leaders: Sue Regen, facilitator; Lu & Kenn Harper, elders

Friends Couple Enrichment

In Friends’ Couple Enrichment, partners in committed relationships deepen their intimacy, spirituality, connection, communication, love and humor. Couples of all backgrounds explore vulnerability and connection within a supportive community, grounded in Spirit. The advanced communication skills we practice are built on Friends’ testimonies and practices. Daily Schedule : Wednesday to Saturday          Each day begins with…

Workshop Number: 11
Leaders: Gene Sonn, Jess Walcott

Living In The Divine Flow – Resistance and Obedience to God

We seek to help Friends delve deeply into understanding the flow of Divine Presence in our daily lives, including looking at our prayer lives (“Hello, hello? Is anybody there?”), perceiving guidance (“Am I making this up?”), self-worth (“Who, me?”), mystical experiences, and our fears about opening ourselves to the Divine (“Who, me??!!”). Our hope is…

Workshop Number: 13
Leaders: Shulamith Clearbridge, Joel Cook

Men Talking to Men: Navigating the Inward Passages

Men need time with other men to share our experience, strength, and hope in a patriarchal society. Through a mixture of experiential exercises, open discussions, and shared worship we will celebrate positive masculinity and mourn our broken hearts when men hurt others. This workshop is intended to be a deep sharing amongst men so that…

Workshop Number: 15
Leaders: John Scardina

Nontheism Among Friends

Our workshop is a safe, loving, and inspiring space for exploring the life of nontheist Friends. (Some may prefer terms such as atheist, agnostic, skeptic, secular humanist, pantheist, panentheist, or other.) All seekers, nontheist or otherwise, are welcome, as long as they are interested in providing a safe space for everyone to share their experiences…

Workshop Number: 19
Leaders: Robin Alpern, tom kunesh

Reimagining the Divine: God in Process

Religious language is obliged to speak in metaphors, which are “a door and window” into our experience of the divine. We will explore some biblical metaphors, alternatives favored by early Friends, and end with those rooted in contemporary process-relational theology, like “the world as God’s body.” We begin with the insight that when it comes…

Workshop Number: 24
Leaders: Tom Gates

What Matters in the End? Accompaniment to Death

It is a great gift to be able to approach our own death or that of another from a place of conscious preparation, knowing one’s own gifts, hopes and fears and those of our caregivers. Through sharing each other’s experiences we will each deepen and grow our awareness.  We will explore our readiness to die,…

Workshop Number: 28
Leaders: Mico Sorrel, Dinah Bachrach

Bible

Would That All the Lord’s People Were Prophets

In this workshop, we’ll look at Biblical stories of the prophets—how they perceived (and sometimes struggled against) their leadings from God, and how they found the courage to share uncomfortable truths about their societies and point to the possibility of a more loving world. Reflecting on their experiences, we’ll consider how we might be called…

Workshop Number: 30
Leaders: Ron Hogan

Quaker History/Early Friends

Black Freedom & Quaker Anti-Slavery: 1770s & Now

Centering lives of Quaker-adjacent Black freedom seekers and fighters—Pompey in North Carolina, Dinah Nevil, Titus Cornelius, William Boen, young Paul Cuffe and others—this workshop opens a window into revolutionary change in the 1770s. Guided by their call to “Do Justice Without Delay,” we open doors to continuing freedom work today. Friends are invited into the…

Workshop Number: 02
Leaders: Jim Fussell, Trayce Peterson

Social Justice/Peace/Ecology

Coming to Moral Clarity on Israel/Palestine

For decades, Friends around the world have focused on discerning a moral and faithful way forward in applying our testimonies of peace, justice, and equality for all to the people of Israel/Palestine. The unprecedented scale of mass violence that has erupted in Israel/Palestine since October 7, 2023, has only sparked an even wider soul searching…

Workshop Number: 04
Leaders: Steve Chase

Spirit-Led Community Building: A Microcosm for Social Change

Build intergenerational spiritual community with Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS)! In this workshop we will offer frameworks and tools to shape your individual and collective experience and that you can bring to spiritual communities you belong to elsewhere. The workshop is modeled after the QVS Fellowship year and will include activities and concepts that guide the QVS…

Workshop Number: 05
Leaders: Greg Stefanski, Ruth Cutcher

Community Building through Service and Activism

Join Quaker Voluntary Service staff & alumni for an experimental workshop modeled after the QVS fellowship year. Come build intergenerational spiritual community with us. We’ll offer frameworks and tools to shape your individual and collective experience in the workshop that you can bring to spiritual communities you belong to elsewhere. Workshop Objectives: Workshop Topics: Community…

Workshop Number: 05
Leaders: Ruth Cutcher, Greg Stefanski

Despair & Hope During End Stage Capitalism

This has been a very HARD year and half for all of us!  We have been watching democracy crumble, fascism rise and with it the whole sale extraction and destruction of civil liberties and the environment which were already on shaky ground.  All kinds of systems from health care, to education, to even government are…

Workshop Number: 08
Leaders: Lynn Fitz-Hugh

Embodying Quaker Testimonies in our Money Relation

Let’s explore how we can embody Quaker testimonies in our money decisions. Examine how earning, saving, spending, giving and investing can help create beloved community and care for the planet. Through interactive exercises, creative activities, and spiritual inquiry, we’ll examine money stories, question assumptions, and tap into creative solutions. The workshop Embodying Quaker Testimonies in…

Workshop Number: 09
Leaders: Diana Yañez

Money, Self, and Community

Money is often taboo – something worldly and uncomfortable to talk about. Yet money profoundly shapes our lives, our relationships, and our communities. We’ll explore our personal and ancestral histories with money, how this shows up in our relationships, and choices we can make as we let our lives speak. “We need to have a…

Workshop Number: 18
Leaders: Nathan Kleban and Emily Scott

Power of Enough

How can I balance my use of time, energy, money, and “things,” to free myself to meaningful work (God’s work) and contribute to right order in our world? Through queries and experiential exercises we reflect on our lives and our choices, and how they ripple forward to others. Do you: Have faith that there is…

Workshop Number: 21
Leaders: Traci Hjelt Sullivan

Spirit Led Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning

People powered campaigns for change have been a tool to move the pillars of power supporting injustice throughout history. Join this workshop for experiential exercises, worship, reflection, and discussion to build skills in designing strategic peoplepowered campaigns. Expectations for the week are for participants to dive into a very experiential program exploring core tenets of…

Workshop Number: 26
Leaders: Lina Blount

Movement and Embodiment

Abandon All Weariness

We’ll gather in silence. I’ll teach a meditation or a simple clothes on massage or simple laying on of hands energy work. We’ll have a practice time and then gather back in the circle to share experience. The focus is on deep rest, learning tools for healing, and staying strong and balanced in crisis.

Workshop Number: 01
Leaders: John Calvi

Body and Mind: Sharing the Pieces

In a world filled with so many things to focus on, using both mind and body, we will work on how to increase self-awareness and enhance ability to handle stress effectively. No one is an island. In order to follow the leadings of the Spirit and to acknowledge and support that of God in one…

Workshop Number: 03
Leaders: Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch, Keith Barch

Quaker Practices

Friends Decision-Making and Clerking with Joy

This workshop will focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of Friends decision-making including being a presiding clerk of a Friends meeting or committee. We will cover topics such as: There will be opportunities for experience sharing, mostly in a large group setting. There will be handouts. There is a suggested $10 materials charge. I/We…

Workshop Number: 12
Leaders: Steve Mohlke

Quaker Process: Spiritual Roots & Current Practice

We will begin with the spiritual roots and history of Quaker processes and discuss how we do things today. We’ll cover Quaker process in many of its aspects, including business meeting, how things get done, clearness, community, and working through conflict. You will learn about the spiritual and historical roots of current practices and may…

Workshop Number: 22
Leaders: Mathilda Navias

The Way Opens: Stories of Call and Community

Every Friend carries gifts of ministry, though many of us hesitate to name or share them. This interactive workshop invites participants to explore storytelling as a spiritual practice for discerning and strengthening ministry, including forms of public ministry that speak beyond the meeting. Through worship, reflection, and guided storytelling exercises, Friends will practice sharing their…

Workshop Number: 27
Leaders: Windy Cooler, Layla Cuthrell

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