www.FGCquaker.org/gathering

Some pseudo-convergent outreach events at Gathering

Martin Kelley — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:58:03 +0000

Those Quaker Ranters readers who are coming to the “FGC Gathering”:www.FGCquaker.org/gathering but haven’t lost internet access yet might be interested in some of the events the Advancement & Outreach committee is sponsoring over the week. There will be a flyer in the registration packets (all these events will take place in Admin 203). For those not coming, I suspect I’ll have some sort of Gathering round-up post at some point after it’s all done. I’m also co-hosting a Monday night interest group with LizOpp and Robin: “On Fire! Renewing Quakerism through a Convergence of Friends.” For details, see “Liz’s post”:http://thegoodraisedup.blogspot.com/2006/06/interest-group-at-gathering.html or “Robin’s post”:http://robinmsf.blogspot.com/2006/06/convergent-travels.html.

bq.. The FGC Advancement and Outreach committee is sponsoring afternoon events during four days of Gathering. Come share your outreach ideas, learn about FGC and support the growth of Quakerism!
*All Friends Welcome, 1:30–3:00*
Monday: “What Do Quakers Believe?” Come talk about the range of Quaker beliefs, from Robert Barclay to the present day, and explore what binds us together as Friends. Convened by Deborah Haines.
Wednesday: A special welcome to Friends from Pacific, North Pacific and Intermountain Yearly Meetings. Come talk about the spirit, concerns, and Quaker ways of these three independent yearly meetings.
Thursday: Visitors from Freedom Friends Church will join us to talk about the witness of this unique independent evangelical Friends Church.
*Outreach Hours, 3:15–4:15*
Sunday: Visibility. Interested in publicizing your meeting and getting the Quaker message out into your community? Friends are invited to come share their stories and questions and pick up a free copy of our “Inreach-Outreach Packet for Small Meetings.” Jane Berger will host.
Monday: Isolated Friends & New Worship Groups. Learn about FGC’s new service for Friends and seekers who live far from any meeting or worship group. Are you interested in helping to nurture new worship groups? Come find out what resources are available from the FGC Advancement Committee, and share your stories and ideas.
Wednesday: Friends interested in affiliation. FGC is an association of 14 yearly meetings and regional groups and 9 directly affiliated monthly meetings. A&O clerk Deborah Haines will talk about the work of FGC and the benefits of affiliation.
Thursday: Spiritual Hospitality. It’s easy to feel isolated even within a local meeting. A&O coordinator Martin Kelley will talk about some strategies to overcome the isolations of age, theology, race, lifestyle, etc. What can meetings do to help these Friends not feel isolated?

Sharing our Quaker event photos

Martin Kelley — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 09:02:39 +0000

Over on the photo sharing service Flickr, I’m noticing a bunch of photos from this week’s Britain Yearly Meeting session. One contributor has tagged (labelled) all her photos with “britainyearlymeeting06” which means they’re all available on one page. Cool, but what would be even cooler is if every Flickr user at the event used the same tag. We’d then have a nearly real-time group photo essay of the yearly meeting sessions.

So this year I’m going to tag all my personal photos from next month’s Friends General Conference Gathering of Friends as “FGCgathering06″. I invite any other Flickr-using attenders to do the same. While I do work at FGC, please note this is not any sort of official FGC decision, it’s just my own idea to share photos and to see how we can use these online networks to share and promote Quakerism. In a few weeks you’ll start seeing entries via flickr and technorati. I’ll probably start with a few pictures of the bookstore truck being loaded for its cross-country trek. Update: one embedded below.
Blog posts:
If your blogging system doesn’t support the use of tags, then simply add this line in the bottom of each of your Gathering-related posts:

FGCgathering06

Update: here’s one:

On the Web: Transmitting Quakerism and Being There for God

Martin Kelley — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 10:16:36 +0000

Liz Oppenheimer has posted an extraordinary account of how “Friends transmitted Quakerism to her over time”:http://thegoodraisedup.blogspot.com/2005/03/Quakerism-from-generation-to.html. I find myself at a loss of words to sum it up–you have to read it for yourself and I strongly recommend you do. Here’s just the merest snippet:
bq. It took me years to understand that there was much, much more to Quakerism than just meeting for worship… I had yet to understand the concepts of corporate discernment or Gospel Order or waiting on the Spirit for guidance. None of my peers or spiritual friends at the time were talking with me about this stuff; and I have no recollection of anyone making the Quaker decision-making process more explicit at the time.
Liz will be offering a workshop at this year’s “FGC Gathering”:www.FGCQuaker.org/gathering. The description sounded great but if this post is anything like the sharing that will go on in that workshop, then you’ll want to be there.
In a similar vein, the Contrarian Quaker explains “I’m not here to be seen by men. I’m here to worship God”:http://Quakerman.blogspot.com/2005/03/i‑go-along.html; “New people, as they walk in, are met with smiles and introductions but by their second or third visit they end up standing in the midst of a gabbing throng completely ignored after meeting for worship… I simply decided that I was here to worship God.”