Friends General Conference Annual Report 2011
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March 6, 2011

Friends General Conference - Nurturing Vital Quakerism since 1900

I find it hard to believe so few in this meeting are aware of Friends General Conference - It does so much for us with so little.

Pat and I are BYM reps to FGC Central Committee. We both got more involved after we started going to the Gathering, which is part conference, part family camp. The Gathering is far away this year, but I can't stress enough what a fabulous week it is - for deepening, for meeting Friends, to sing and dance and play. The children's program is excellent. The food varies depending on the location (which is always a university campus)- but the field trips are another incentive. I have rarely missed a Gathering in the past 30 years. Go to www.fgcquaker.org/gathering to see.

Founded in 1900, FGC began as the union of four separate Quaker conferences (I believe, including Baltimore Yearly Meeting); today it is a vibrant family of fifteen affiliated yearly meetings and 11 directly affiliated monthly meetings. It's major goals are:

  1. Nurture meetings and worship groups.
  2. Provide resources and opportunities for meetings, Friends, and seekers to experience the Light, the living presence of God.
  3. Help meetings guide Friends to discern the leadings of the Inward Teacher and to grow into ministry.
  4. Transform our awareness so that our corporate and individual attitudes and actions fully value and encompass the blessed diversity of our human family.
  5. Work to grow and sustain a vital, diverse, and loving community of Friends based on a shared search for unity in the Spirit.
  6. Articulate, communicate, and exemplify Friends' practices, core experiences, and the call to live and witness to our faith.
  7. Promote dialogue with others, sharing with them our corporate experience of Divine Truth and listening to and learning from their experience of the same. (adopted by Central Committee, October 2009)
These goals may sound vague, but as Pat and I know, there are hundreds of volunteer Friends and a hardworking paid staff of 20 FTE, who put together workshops, create materials, develop website materials (like Quakerfinder) and publish and promote books (like Fit For Freedom Not for Friendship and Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices) while maintaining a bookstore and mail order business, QuakerBooks.org - and representing us at the World Council of Churches and other interfaith opportunities. That was a long, breathless sentence, but FGC does so much and most Friends have so little idea. And then, of course, there is the FGC Gathering, 'summer camp' for Quakers and their families, a yearly opportunity to spend time with 2000 Friends, more or less, from all over the country and the world.

FGC's earliest activities included providing religious education materials for meetings (including the hymn book) and an annual gathering of Friends (This year at Grinnell College in Iowa, but next year in Rhode Island). Recent programs include Quaker Quest - a dynamic outreach (and in-reach) program for meetings, and youth ministries - a Spirit-led program to attract our youth and support leadership for young adult Friends. We told you about them last year - This year we are excited to announce a number of exciting changes:

First, there is new General Secretary, Barry Crossno, starting in mid-July. Barry is a youngish Friend from Dallas Friends Meeting, most recently working at Pendle Hill - along with a number of other Friends organizations this year, we look forward to getting to know our new leader.

Second, recognizing the need to keep our own technology up-to-date and also to help meetings with their own websites, with a special grant for the purpose, FGC is developing a strategic plan to rebuild its website so it can serve better both Friends and seekers. Some of us older Friends do not really 'get' how crucial this is, but if we want to keep our younger Friends and continue to grow, we have to do a better job of creating not just an attractive website, but an interactive one that meets the need of Friends, seekers and inquirers.

Third, at a time many independent publishers are pulling back or closing up, FGC has decided to expand with QuakerBridge. It is designed to increase titles, dialogues and ideas by sharing responsibility and using new forms of publishing. Pat is on this committee, so talk with her if you want to know more.

Finally, all the programs of FGC are being reorganized to promote more cross-fertilization reduce expenses (like all Quaker organizations, the recession caused a cutback in program and staff.) and lessen our carbon footprint (with fewer in-person committee meetings). The Finance Committee works hard to create balanced budgets in the face of a capital campaign, 'Stroking the Fire of Quakerism,' that has fallen more than 2 million dollars short. Financial challenge is always both a stress and an opportunity. As seen above, FGC continues to put a priority on addressing the current and future needs of Friends, meetings, and seekers. Consider Rhode Island next summer.

Gail Thomas and Pat Fox

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