The program for this year’s FGC Gathering of Friends went online at midnight yesterday – I stayed up late to flip the switches to make it live right as Third Month started – right on schedule. By 12:10am EST four visitors had already come to the site! There’s a lot of interest in the Gathering, the first one on the West Coast.
Students of late-20th Century Quaker history can see the progression of Friends General Conference from a very Philadelphia-centric, provincial body that had its annual gathering at a South Jersey beach town to one that really does try to serve Friends across the country. There’s losses in the changes (alumni of the Cape May Gatherings all speak of them with misty eyes) but overall it’s been a needed shift in focus. In recent years, a disproportionate number of Gathering workshop leaders have come from the “independent” unaffiliated yearly meetings of the West. It’s nice.
Joe G has been sending me emails about his selection process (it’s almost real-time as he weighs each one!). It’s helpful as it saves me the trouble of sorting through them. It’s usually tough to find a workshop I want to take. A lot of Friends I really respect have told me they’ve stopped going to the Gathering after awhile because it just doesn’t feed them.
It’s a shame when these Friends stop coming. The Gathering is one of the most exciting annual coming-together of Quakers in North America. It’s very important for new and/or isolated Friends and it helps pull all its attenders into a wider Fellowship. Intervisitation has always been one of the most important tools for knitting together Friends and the Gathering has been filling much of that need for liberal Friends for the last hundred years.
I’ve been having this sense that Gathering needs something more. I don’t know what that something is, only that I long to connect more with other Friends. My best conversations have invariably taken place when I stopped to talk with someone while running across campus late to some event. These Opportunities have been precious but they’re always so frantic. The Traveling Ministries Program often has a wonderful evening interest group but by the time we’ve gone around sharing our names, stories and conditions, it’s time to break. I’m not looking for a new program (don’t worry Liz P!, wait it’s not you who has to worry!), just a way to have more conversations with the QuakerQuaker Convergent Friends – which in this context I think boils down to those with something of a call to ministry and an interest in Quaker vision & renewal. Let’s all find a way of connecting more this year, yes?
For those interested I’ve signed up for these workshops: Blessed Community in James’ Epistle (led by Max Hansen of Berkeley Friends Church, Deepening the Silence, Inviting Vital Ministry (20), and Finding Ourselves in the Bible).
Ah, the Gathering.
It’s true that the Gathering certainly brought me to a new understanding of Quakerism… despite the fact that the workshop I took was about relationships between men and women, having nothing to do with Quaker practice, theology, or history.
Is putting any ol’ topic into a Quaker setting “enough”? Is it alright that Friends “gain entry” into a new understanding of their faith through a weeklong “hothouse” of living, worshiping, eating, dancing, learning, and singing with 1,200+ Friends from across Canada and the U.S.?
As I change, I want the Gathering to change with me, so I can still feel like it is “new.” Oh, if only the Gathering were All About Me, my problems would be solved. smile
The fact is, the newness has worn off for me, and it is harder to find a workshop that is a good fit for me, without personally knowing the dozens of presenters ahead of time.
But:
The opportunities for Spirit to lead me to unexpected groups, places, experiences, and individuals is probably what keeps pulling me back. That and 4:30 worship each day, and some of the singing, and some of the plenaries, and…
I will say that one of the most eye-opening webpages I found on FGC’s website about the history of the Gathering is the one that has a collection of posters from Gatherings past.
Well, I’ll leave this comment short, and perhaps post more of my thoughts on The Good Raised Up.
Blessings,
Liz, The Good Raised Up
Dear Martin, I’m coming, I’m coming. Well, WE’re coming. It’s still quite a haul for the four of us, even if it does seem close between California and Washington to you New Jersey-centric folks. And I haven’t made up my mind yet on what workshop to take.
But this business of folks who stop coming because it doesn’t feed them: this is what pushes my buttons at the meeting for worship level, and on up. The answer is not to stop coming but to come deeper, harder, (I have to change metaphors, this will sound obscene.) But to demand more work, not less, this is the answer for me.
However, at our latest quarterly meeting, the best conversation was one Chris and I had on the sidewalk. What is the right balance between the carefully organized and facility-ated program and just hoping that way will open for the right connections to be made? Good question. I’ve never been to FGC before, so I don’t know how quite how overpacked the schedule is, or how wiped out my children (and I) will be by 7:00 p.m. but I’m hoping that you more experienced folks will pull something together and that I’ll make it there. Liz and Joe were just commenting today on how to organize an interest group. I do believe something good will come of all of this.
Hi Liz, Hi Robin,
I started a list of caveats on the post but didn’t include them. First and foremost is that I’m a Gathering old-timer by now; a certain jadedness is perhaps inevitable as the campuses all blur together in one’s memory. I’ve also been a staffperson for all but my first Gathering, which means I can never fully participate as an attender.
I’m not looking to drop out, I just long to find/help create more opportunities for Opportunities – for sharing experiences of divine visitation and insights on ministry and service.
Wait a minute, you mean I can sign up for more than one workshop? I will have to go back and read the program description more carefully!
Hey Martin
Thanks so much for the updates.
How do we propose a Special Interest Group meeting?
Oregon Friends are eager to meet you folks… (and speaking personally, this will be my first FGC gathering)
Ciao,
Mitch
Boy, I’m really torn … Gathering will certainly never be this close again, and there are people I’d love to see face to face with whom I have occasionally exchanged emails, and some part of me knows that getting together with the QuakerQuaker people would be a tremendous and probably necessary experience.
But there’s that other part of me – the part that hates crowds of people, and the enforced jollity of conferences, and being right up on top of the stuff that drives me crazy about my beloved denomination – and is particularly painful right now, as we work through a horrible generational conflict which may split our Tiny Little Monthly Meeting into Even Tinier Monthly Meeting and Almost Infinitesimal Worship Group.
Yeah, I’ll be praying about this.
Melynda