Life has been crazy-busy for me, in between the trips I am taking. So, in preparation for FGC's Gathering and before my last few minutes of free time are taken up by some other silly thing I remember needs doing, I thought I'd share this with you:
Fellow Quaker bloggers Robin and Martin and I have plans to convene an interest group on Monday night at the Gathering. Thanks to Beppe for his early input and support for this idea.
Here's the interest group's title and description. I believe a list of interest groups will be included in the registration packet that Friends receive on-site.
On Fire! Renewing Quakerism through a Convergence of FriendsPerhaps we'll see some of you there... if not on Monday night, then other times during the week.
Excited by the renewal of classic Quakerism? Want to reclaim traditional disciplines and language that seem on the brink of being lost? Interested in new forms for a living faith? We'll share how we are communicating across Quaker schisms and addressing our spiritual hunger as Friends. Hosted by Friends from QuakerQuaker.org.
Blessings,
Liz
UPDATE, Sixth Month 2006: Martin has asked me to "tag" this post so it will become part of what I think of as an online archive about the 2006 Gathering. So here 'goes: fgcgathering06.
UPDATE, Seventh Month 2006: To read some of what happened during the interest group, take a look at this post-Gathering entry.
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12 comments:
I'll be very interested to hear thy report of this group's discussions!
Wish there were time and energy for thee to come to NCYM-C and report in person...
--llw
Can I assume that you will report on all the meeting highs
and lows, after the dust settles? I am not able to make
FGC, but every Quaker there is in my prayers.
Peace
LLW and GMC -
The best I can hope for when I return from all my adventures out west, is that I will be rested enough to write and refreshed enough that I will remember what the experience of Gathering was like!
I do hope to return to more active blog-writing--and blog reading!--later this summer. I find that there is an energy, a synergy that exists within the Quaker blogosphere that feeds me when I am able to maintain a certain level of reading, commenting, and writing.
Blessings,
Liz
I wish I could be at that interest group. I'm co-leading the Youth Ministries interest group, so I guess that's a no. I clearly have too many interests! Really, how does anyone pick just one?
But I hope we'll find some time to connect at other points during the Gathering.
Hi all, there will be many more opportunities like this at the Gathering. A lot of the afternoon sessions sponsored by the Advancement & Outreach committee might be of interest. The wording's being finalized now, as soon as it's good to go I'll post it on my site. I hope we can put together a list of "Convergent Opportunities" posted somewhere.
Kody: yea, I'm so bummed you won't be able to attend. I'm not at all happy with a Youth Ministries group being put into the Interest Group time slot. One of the great concerns I and others have long held as the youth ministries program came together is that it might further segregate young Friends from the rest of Gathering and the rest of FGC programs. Here now we see an example of that in action. No one under 30 will be in any of the other interest groups. Age segegation is a huge issue at Gathering and only seems to be getting worse. It was really weird to see that no over-college YAFs signed up for last year's workshop that Zac Moon and I hosted. I've all but given up on Gathering being a place where I can work on this concern...
I hear you, Martin. It's such an important concern, and it keeps coming up in our work when we try to integrate conversations about Youth Ministries into larger Q conferences. How do we set aside time to talk about youth ministries and intergenerational community without taking away that time from actually DOING IT?
At the same time, I don't think our interest group will really suck all the YF & AYF participation from other groups. At last year's interest group, at least, we seemed to have a broad mix of ages turn up. I wouldn't assume that all the young people are going to come to our group just because it has the word "youth" in it.
I hope we get a chance to sit down and talk at Gathering. If you have ideas for how we could be doing this better, I can pass them on to Youth Ministries committee- it's a good group of folks, and open to that kind of feedback, I think.
I'm sorry to be missing it! I wish I could somehow have you all at NEYM, which will be my "Quaker Week" this year.
Martin and Kody -
I was at an intergenerational interest group at last year's Gathering (2005 Blacksburg, Virginia), and I thought it was a great experience.
Compared to even six years ago when I first started serving on FGC's Central Committee, it seems to me there is more attention and intention being given to integrate young adult Friends, in a number of ways, into the life of FGC. That's not to say we're there yet... and I still have a lot of my own personal work to do around forming one-on-one relationships with young people, and then sustaining those relationships over time.
Ironically, the blog world has helped me do that.
Amanda -
Sorry you'll miss some of us in Tacoma. Sorry I'll miss you in NEYM!
Blessings,
Liz
Thanks Liz for raising up our interest group - I hope it turns out well. I've never been to FGC before, but I'm looking forward to it. I wrote my own post about the interest group and a variety of other opportunities this summer for convergent conversations. Another one that I won't be at will be my Friend Carl Magruder speaking at Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative).
Sounds really interesting! FGC will be my first major Quaker gathering since I became a Friend, and I'm looking forward to it; especially to the opportunity, represented by this interest group (and I'm sure other meetings), of connecting with Quakers interested in reviving "classic" Quakerism.
Robin - Thanks for the heads-up about Carl Magruder at Iowa Conservative sessions. I will look for him!
Dave - Thanks for stopping by. Perhaps I will see you in just a few days at teh Gathering!
Blessings,
Liz
Like Amanda, my Quaker week (or weekend really) will be at New England Yearly Meeting this year. I'm SO sorry to miss all you folks. Now I'm wishing I had pulled out the stops to get there. Anyway, prayers and safe travels to you all. Take care, Rob
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