This semiannual feature highlights the recent works of Quaker organizations* in the following categories:
- Advocacy
- Consultation, Support, and Resources
- Development
- Education
- Environmental and Ecojustice
- Investment Management
- Retreat, Conference, and Study Centers
- Service and Peace Work
*Editors’ note: We invite all explicitly Quaker-founded and/or Quaker-run groups and organizations to submit to the Quaker Works column. Most, but not all, are 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. The content is supplied by staff members of the organizations and edited to fit the style of Friends Journal. More details can be found on the Quaker Works submissions page.
Advocacy
Friends World Committee for Consultation (World Office)
FWCC continues to prepare for the World Plenary Meeting in South Africa and online, August 5–12, 2024. Registration has closed for onsite attendance while the online registration is still open. FWCC has finalized a study guide that will be available in various languages.
Friends around the world observed World Quaker Day on October 1, 2023, under the theme “Living the Spirit of Ubuntu: Responding with Hope to God’s Call to Cherish Creation and One Another.” Quakers gathered to explore the word ubuntu, sing songs from the World Quaker Songbook, and hold climate justice vigils.
Friends in FWCC’s four regional sections have gathered recently.
Friends in the Asia–West Pacific Section gathered last October on Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong, for worship, fellowship, and discernment. The FWCC Asia–West Pacific Climate Action Network discussed their work around the climate emergency.
Friends from Eastern and Southern Africa also gathered in October in Bujumbura, Burundi, for Africa’s Quaker Peace Network conference. They shared how they are using various peacebuilding approaches, including the Alternatives to Violence Project and trauma healing and reconciliation, in communities, prisons, and schools. They’re also working toward sociopolitical changes through civic education, election monitoring, and observation.
The Section of the Americas gathered online for a one-day event on March 16.
The Europe and Middle East Section has scheduled its annual meeting for April 26–28 to take place virtually.
Friends Services Alliance
Friends Services Alliance (FSA) offers continuing education programs that cover a wide range of topics for professionals who serve seniors. Topics discussed at FSA’s winter and spring workshops included transitioning from staff member to supervisor, Quakerism basics, leading from within, and navigating challenging situations.
FSA is preparing for the fourteenth year of its internship program partnership with Friends Foundation for the Aging. This year, interns will work in eight placements at aging services organizations nationwide. Students will gain experience in marketing, finance, healthcare, technology, and more. Since the program’s inception, more than 55 interns have participated; at least 10 percent of them currently work in the industry.
The organization rebranded its Compliance and Risk Management Program as the FSA Compliance Collaborative to reflect the spirit of partnership between FSA and its clients. Three new organizations have joined this year.
FSA’s annual meeting took place in March in Gwynedd, Pa. The theme was “Generating Pathways and Strategies.” Discussion topics included resilience in the workplace, strategic foresight for senior living, and navigating present and future challenges.
Consultation, Support, and Resources
Friends Couple Enrichment
Friends Couple Enrichment (FCE) is a ministry to couples who desire deeper intimacy and become beacons of love and intention in the world. Online and in-person workshops and retreats introduce the spiritual practice of “Couple Dialogue,” an experience grounded in the Quaker testimonies of equality, community, integrity, and peace-making. FCE events have supported hundreds of couples over 50-plus years and are open to any committed couple, regardless of marital status, gender identity, or religious affiliation.
Last fall, FCE held its first online growth group in Spanish: Nos-Otros (Us and Others). Started by FCE leaders José M. Gonzalez and Maria Gomez, the monthly gathering draws couples from Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Colombia.
In October 2023, FCE offered an online workshop in which nine couples participated. During the fall, ten couples attended in-person workshops in Durham, N.C. In January, South Seattle (Wash.) Meeting hosted an in-person workshop for seven couples.
FCE continues to offer monthly online drop-in dialogues as well as short, online sessions—known as “Tasters”—four times per year.
In March, FCE leader couples gathered in Pennsylvania for their annual session. The educational focus of this event was discernment of how leader couples view their work in FCE as a ministry.
Tract Association of Friends
The 2023 Friends’ Calendar, with the months and days numbered in accordance with the Holy Scriptures and consistent Quaker practice, will be available on October 15. An order form can be found on the website.
The Tract Association of Friends was founded in 1816 and has been publishing calendars since 1885.
Also available on the website is “Inner Peace and the Right Use of Media: Reflections on Thomas Shillitoe’s Advice,” an essay by Brian Drayton.
Quakers Uniting in Publications
Quakers Uniting in Publications (QUIP) began informally in 1983 among a group of Friends with a concern for the ministry of the written word. Consisting originally of Quaker publishers and booksellers, QUIP membership now includes authors, editors, publishers—creators of books, articles, and other media—from all over the world.
Over three days in May, nearly 50 Friends from Africa, Belgium, Canada, Russia, the UK, and the United States met online for the QUIP conference, “Celebrating Quaker Writing.” Panels and workshops covered topics including the place and purpose of book reviews, writing for children, book promotion, blogging, and manuscript editing. The virtual gathering also offered author readings from new work, QUIP business (including approval of funds to assist Quaker authors and publishers in countries less affluent than those in which most QUIP members live), and epilogues. All sessions were recorded and are available at QUIP’s website.
QUIP’s mid-year meeting is scheduled for October 22 and will include strategic planning for the future.
Learn more: Quakers Uniting in Publishing
Friends World Committee for Consultation (World Office)
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February, Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) has fundraised for Quaker work supporting refugees in eastern Europe; published church anti-war statements in English, Ukrainian, and Russian for use by the Christian anti-war movement; and joined with more than 140 others in cowriting an interfaith statement against nuclear arms, which was read at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna, Austria, in June.
The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) has spoken in the name of FWCC at the UN, including calling for an end to the use of explosives in populated areas, for guns to be kept out of the hands of children, and for global investment in peacebuilding financed by an overall reduction in military spending.
There have also been more than 60 Quaker interventions during intergovernmental climate negotiations this year, helping ensure legally significant texts reflect important findings on the environment, climate justice, and human rights.
Dates have been set for the next World Plenary Meeting: August 5–13, 2024, in South Africa and online (FWCC’s first global hybrid event of this scale). Preceding this, celebrations are being planned in many countries for George Fox’s 400th birthday in July 2024.
World Quaker Day 2022 falls on October 2, and is supporting mass online intervisitation with Friends in other countries.
Learn more: Friends World Committee for Consultation (World Office)
Friends World Committee for Consultation (Section of the Americas)
World Quaker Day this year takes place on Sunday, October 2, and Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) took a new approach by asking Quakers to take a personal step toward connecting Friends and crossing cultures by visiting another Quaker meeting or church. It’s easier now to take advantage of the growing number of hybrid options by either visiting in-person or online.
A team of Quaker pastors and leaders in Kenya offers Friends this Bible quote for World Quaker Day celebrations: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14).
“Becoming the Quakers the World Needs” is the theme for both World Quaker Day 2022 and the 2023 Section Meeting.
FWCC Section of the Americas is currently working on two projects to create interactive online tools. The map project will allow Friends to find a Quaker meeting or church anywhere in the world using a smartphone or computer. The Quaker Glossary project will translate Quaker words into many languages and be available to facilitate better communication among Friends via an app.
FWCC is the global fellowship association of the Religious Society of Friends. In the Americas, the Quaker community extends from the Arctic to the Andes, spanning a rich diversity of regional cultures, beliefs, and styles of worship.
Learn more: FWCC (Section of the Americas)
Friends World Committee for Consultation (Asia–West Pacific Section)
The Asia–Pacific region hosts about half the world’s population and a rich diversity of culture. The entire region faces challenges from climate disaster and biodiversity loss; superpower tensions fueled by arms traders, with militarized borders and nuclear overtones; overexploitation of resources; and the after-effects of sudden unemployment, loneliness, and jittery global supply chains due to COVID-19 and the Russo-Ukrainian War. Add urban–rural divide; pressure on human rights, especially for Indigenous groups; and the challenges of poverty and injustice, and there is much to motivate Friends.
In March, FWCC Asia–West Pacific Section (AWPS) brought together several Quaker agencies to discuss the challenges of the twenty-first century, including Quaker United Nations Office, Quaker Service Australia, Quaker Peace and Service Aotearoa New Zealand, Friends Peace Teams Asia–West Pacific (FPT AWP), and American Friends Service Committee.
Friends in Bohol, Philippines, cleaned up after Super Typhoon Odette (called Rai internationally), which made landfall in December 2021. Marj Angalot, assistant secretary of AWPS, and Kins Aparece, coordinator for FPT AWP, facilitated community workshops.
AWPS’s Climate Action Emerging Network meets every two months: in September, the focus was on disaster resiliency in a warming world, and in November, on the Third Pole.
Current fundraising goals include establishing programs to reach young people, supporting travel in ministry, and purchasing office equipment.
The Weekly Round enewsletter provides updates on AWPS work and webinar opportunities.
Friends Services Alliance
Friends Services Alliance (FSA) has added a number of diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings to its educational offerings. Topics include unconscious bias, brave conversations, cultural dynamics, and shifting perspectives. A complete list is available at the FSA website.
Other fall and winter workshops include collaborative decision making, mindfulness for high performance, Quakerism basics, inclusive leadership, and delegation skills.
A Director of Nursing mentorship program was initiated in early summer. Participants from FSA’s aging services industry clientele can receive guidance as they acclimate to the responsibilities that come with this role, including upholding policies and federal and state regulations, staff coaching, and more.
FSA’s ninth annual Compliance and Risk Management Conference was held in-person in King of Prussia, Pa., in early October and focused on getting “Back to Basics.” The aging services sector is regularly faced with challenges related to our changing world. This sometimes means that the simple but critical basics can fall by the wayside, leaving organizations vulnerable to hazards and violations. Conference topics ranged from board oversight and cybersecurity to staffing and clinical issues.
Learn more: Friends Service Alliance
Friends General Conference
Friends General Conference (FGC) presented two separate events in July.
Virtual Gathering 2022, attended by 484 Friends, was held July 3–9 and carried the theme “. . . and follow me.” The event featured keynote addresses from Jackie Stillwell, whose topic was “A Journey of Resistance and Obedience”; Yolanda Webb, who spoke on the theme “. . . and follow me: On Being Human and Becoming Divine”; and Margaret Jacobs and Sa’ed Atshan, in a plenary conversation around the theme “Invoking Unsettling.” Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC) sponsored a virtual dance party with DJ OHLA. Bible Half-Hour was facilitated by Leslie Manning of Durham (Maine) Meeting. Workshops were held throughout the week on various topics, including anti-racism, non-theism, writing, movement, and Quaker history.
During the same week, FGC also launched a smaller in-person event called YAY, a gathering for young adults, youth, and their families. This event, held July 6–10 on the campus of Radford University in Radford, Va., included intergenerational worship, recreation, workshops, and local excursions.
An in-person Gathering will return in July 2023 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Ore. The theme will be “Listen So That We May Live.”
Learn more: Friends General Conference
Friends Couple Enrichment
Friends Couple Enrichment (FCE) is a ministry to couples who wish to deepen intimacy and be beacons of love and intention in the world. Online and in-person workshops and retreats introduce the spiritual practice of “Couple Dialogue,” a practice grounded in the Quaker testimonies of equality, community, integrity, and peace-making. Events have supported hundreds of couples over 50-plus years and are open to any committed couple, regardless of marital states, gender identity, or religious affiliation.
FCE continues offering online events for busy schedules, such as free 90-minute introduction sessions (called “Tasters”), monthly drop-in dialogue opportunities, and multi-session retreats.
FCE has recreated its website to be mobile-friendly and more visible to online searches. It also received a Google Ads Grant for search-related advertisements.
FCE reaffirms an intention to be more present at Quaker centers, such as Pendle Hill in Wallingford, Pa., and Ben Lomond in Santa Cruz County, Calif., and more available to bring workshops to yearly and monthly meetings as a tangible way for Quakers to support relationships under their care.
In May, FCE welcomed Rick and Carol Holmgren as a new leader couple. They are the first to complete the online, self-paced training program launched in 2020 for couples called to facilitate FCE events. Two more couples will complete the training this fall, bringing the current number of leader couples to 17.
Learn More: Friends Couple Enrichment
Development
Right Sharing of World Resources
Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR) builds global equity by offering educational opportunities focused on sustainable and just life choices and by partnering with womens’ groups in Guatemala, India, Kenya, and Sierra Leone to support group members’ micro-enterprises.
Key in the administration of RSWR is the work of the country coordinators who support the women’s groups in naming and defining their own goals. RSWR partners often emphasize the goal of sharing and building a stronger community for all.
The RSWR grant program is evolving due to shifting needs in partner communities. To better respond to the changes, RSWR country coordinators will spend more time training individual groups prior to applying for funding and will provide more technical support after women have started their businesses.
RSWR’s new program in Guatemala, started in 2023, trained four groups on group dynamics and self-esteem, as well as financial concepts such as savings, interest, and loans. They will receive intensive training from COOSAJO—a credit union and RSWR’s partner in Guatemala—that will go in depth on how to run a business.
Right Sharing of World Resources
Right Sharing of World Resources (RWSR) offers microgrants to women’s groups in Sierra Leone; Kenya; and Tamil Nadu, India. The women’s groups offer training on small businesses before each woman receives a loan. As the women pay back their loans, with a low rate of interest, the money is kept by the group to loan out to other women.
Following discernment, RSWR has decided to expand into Guatemala as a new partner country. According to the World Bank, the level of poverty in Guatemala is great, at 59.3 percent. There is a strong Quaker presence in Guatemala with some 20,000 Friends. The three yearly meetings and the FWCC coordinator for Latin America (Karen Gregoria) are centered in Chiquimula. Local Quaker women are forming women’s groups and wanting to organize for social action much in the same way when RSWR began partnering with women in Kenya.
General Secretary Jackie Stillwell has been visiting with yearly meetings both in person and online. This summer she gave the plenary online at the Friends General Conference Gathering and attended Ireland Yearly Meeting in person. This fall she will lead “The Power of Enough” workshop online. This workshop asks: How is my use of time, energy, and things in right balance to free me to do God’s work and to contribute to right relationships in our world?
Learn more: Right Sharing of World Resources
Quaker Service Australia
Quaker Service Australia (QSA) works with the Department of Women’s Affairs in Pursat province, Cambodia, to enhance women’s economic and social empowerment and address the impact of climate change through permaculture agriculture. Training enables poor rural women to establish home fruit and vegetable gardens for year-round food security, and education increases awareness of human rights, equity and inclusiveness, and environmental and child protection.
QSA conducted an evaluation to see if the program had changed these women’s lives by assessing the following indicators: their economic power/independence, family health, involvement in family decision-making, community participation, and domestic violence incidents. The results revealed significant impacts. Evidence gathered in focus groups shows women feel more confident, have more skills, feel they are contributing, and feel more valued.
Quotes from project participants show the benefits of participation: “It changed as after this training, men started to take care of women and the household. Women are now more involved in decision-making and are braver in terms of their rights.” “I am satisfied with life now as people in my family have the same equal rights, so they all get on better now—expect life to be better and better in the future.”
Learn more: Quaker Service Australia
Progresa: Guatemala Friends Scholarship Program
Progresa’s mission is to provide access to in-country educational and community development opportunities in order to bring choice into the lives of poor Guatemalans and enable them to participate in their country’s growth and development. Although Guatemala has the highest GDP in Central America, it also has the highest rate of poverty in Central America.
This year, Progresa is providing scholarships to 90 university students, 76 of whom speak one of Guatemala’s 22 indigenous Mayan languages. There is one secondary student as well. This year, 67 recipients are women. Mayan-language-speaking students graduate in careers such as law, medicine, nursing, engineering, agronomy, and education, and work in their respective communities. They empower not only themselves and their families, but the community and the country as well.
Over the 49 years Progresa has been active, many networks of cooperation and access to opportunity have formed. Progresa encourages the students by providing emotional, social, and material support. The community service portion of the scholarships helps each student build an impressive resume. Progresa students have many leadership opportunities in which they share their expertise with the Progresa community and in their communities at large. Scholarship recipients are able to build a future for themselves and their families within their communities, and avoid the dangers of emigration.
Education
Progresa: Guatemala Friends Scholarship Program
Since 1973, Progresa has provided indigenous Guatemalans scholarships to study in Guatemalan universities.
In December 2023, more than 100 past and present scholarship recipients gathered in Guatemala City to celebrate 50 years of the program. Guests from two other Quaker programs in Guatemala also attended: Karen Gregorio de CalderĂłn of FWCC Section of the Americas; and Jackie Stillwell of Right Sharing of World Resources.
This year, 17 students supported by Progresa have graduated from universities in Guatemala, 14 women and 3 men. These graduates earned degrees in social work, medicine, law, psychology, nursing, psychopedagogy, physical therapy, agronomy, sociolinguistics, law, and art. Among the graduates, 7 of the 22 indigenous Mayan languages are represented.
Progresa’s scholarship program requires recipients to perform community service to benefit their respective indigenous Mayan communities and build their resumes. One of the social work majors arranged for people from her community to learn how to install solar panels at a Barefoot College in India. After their training they returned to Guatemala and installed solar panels.
Quaker Religious Education Collaborative
Quaker Religious Education Collaborative (QREC) held its hybrid annual conference at Winchester (Ind.) Meeting in early November 2023. Around 100 Friends participated from across the United States, Africa, Latin America, Britain, Belgium, and Sweden. QREC provided Spanish language interpretation and tech stipends. Presenters included: Melinda Wenner Bradley, of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, on patterns and examples in answering new questions with Faith & Play Stories; Laura MacNorlin, of Atlanta (Ga.) Meeting and Friends School of Atlanta, on ways to use the arts in practice and programming; and Beth Henricks, of Indianapolis First Friends Meeting in Indiana, on the Quaker affirmation curriculum for adults.
Since last September, online Conversation Circles gathered around these topics: outreach to families, support for parenting in community, radical acceptance of children and youth in Quaker meetings, and Sparkling Still (a core Quaker religious education curriculum for ages 3–8).
In October, QREC responded to requests from African and Latin American Friends and offered two online trainings on lesson writing for elementary and middle school-aged groups, in both Spanish and English, facilitated by Elizabeth Wintermute and Andrew Wright, both of Durham (N.C.) Meeting. Nadine Hoover, of Buffalo (N.Y.) Meeting, hosted online practice and discussion groups on the QREC publication Walking in the World as a Friend.
QREC turns ten years old this April.
Faith & Play Stories
Faith & Play Stories provides a unique resource for Friends meetings and Friends schools to help nurture the spiritual lives of all ages through stories of Quaker faith, practice, and witness.
Last fall, Faith & Play offered three teacher training workshops in the United States. “Playing in the Light” training (Faith & Play and Godly Play for Friends) was hosted in September at West Hills Friends Church in Portland, Ore., bringing together Friends from Oregon, Washington, and California. In November, Albuquerque (N.M.) Meeting hosted this training for Friends in the West and Mennonite guests. Three Friends schools in the Philadelphia, Pa. region sent teachers to participate in “Learning in the Light,” the Faith & Play training created to support educators and Quaker life in schools.
Introductory programs for Friends meetings in both the United Kingdom and the United States were also hosted online.
In February, the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative invited Faith & Play’s director of communications and training to present at two online Conversation Circles exploring stories as a vehicle for learning about Quaker faith and practice and our identity as Friends.
Work continues on development of new stories and providing story kits for purchase at QuakerBooks of Friends General Conference.
Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust
Arch Street Meeting House (ASMH), an 1804 Quaker meetinghouse in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pa., saw a significant increase in visitors in 2023, with over 52,000 individuals touring the historic site. This marks an 18,000 visitor increase from 2022, its previous best year.
In late February, ASMH reopened for museum visitation after a winter hiatus, and has since welcomed hundreds of Friends, tourists, and seekers. In March, ASMH partnered with the Betsy Ross House for “Abolition Women: The Sisters Who Turned the World Upside Down,” a first-person interpretive program about nineteenth-century Quakers Sarah and Angelina Grimké.
Funding provided by Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s Healing the Planet Grant Program (which is funded by the Giant Company) supported the installation of a new community fridge and food pantry on ASMH’s historic grounds, in an effort to address food insecurity. Launched in late fall 2023, Friends Pantry is a collaborative project between Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust (ASMHPT) and the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia.
ASMH staff, trustees, and volunteers are preparing to launch a capital campaign in the coming months. ASMH will employ engineers, architects, historians, and preservationists from around the region to complete the meetinghouse’s capital improvements.
Environmental and Ecojustice
Quaker Earthcare Witness
Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) works to nurture a spiritual transformation in people’s relationship with the living world. QEW responds to critical issues of our time, such as climate change, biodiversity, overpopulation, and depletion of oceans and soil.
Last November, QEW collaborated with Earth Quaker Action Team to hold a hybrid meeting for worship outside the Vanguard headquarters in Malvern, Pa., to urge the company to act against climate change.
Earlier this year, QEW welcomed a new general secretary, Keith Runyan. The outgoing general secretary, Shelley Tanenbaum, faithfully served the organization for over a decade.
QEW will hold its spring gathering online April 25–28. Its biannual gatherings offer fellowship and plenary programs as well as opportunities to share recent accomplishments and explore future leadings. Visitors are welcome.
This spring, QEW will launch “QEW on the Road” and start a podcast to connect with Quakers across the United States and tell stories with communities most impacted by climate change.
QEW publishes a quarterly newsletter called BeFriending Creation, earthcare curricula for adults and children, as well as other publications and social media. QEW offers small grants to individual Friends and groups working on earthcare projects, especially those promoting environmental justice and youth engagement.
Earth Quaker Action Team
Using spiritually grounded nonviolent direct action, Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) challenges corporations to turn away from fossil fuels and toward a livable future.
EQAT continues to build power and momentum in the Vanguard S.O.S. campaign, calling on the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels, Vanguard, to take responsibility for its role in driving pollution and extreme weather. Recently, the campaign has organized protests with students, grandparents, and people of diverse faiths. For example, in the fall, together with Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW), EQAT held a meeting for worship with attention to true climate stewardship right at the entrance to Vanguard’s global headquarters in Pennsylvania, and simultaneously online with Quakers around the globe. Over the winter, EQAT members shared their skills in an online webinar series on nonviolent direct action, in which QEW also presented.
EQAT is preparing for what is expected to be the biggest action yet in the international Vanguard S.O.S. campaign, this July in Pennsylvania, which will coincide with the Friends General Conference Gathering in Haverford, Pa. Sign up at the EQAT website to receive more information: eqat.org/subscribe.
Investment Management
Friends Fiduciary Corporation
This proxy season Friends Fiduciary’s shareholder engagement work has focused on environmental, social, and governance issues. Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC) continues to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion, proposing inclusive board refreshment policies, racial equity audits, and disclosure of workforce diversity.
FCC urges pharmaceutical companies to allow timely generic competition to avoid inflating drug prices for consumers and healthcare providers.
Friends Fiduciary calls on companies to set science-based targets and develop climate transition action plans aligned with limiting a global temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius. It also supports political contribution disclosures and is concerned about human rights abuses in technology supply chains, particularly human rights impacts from end use of company products.
Like its shareholder engagement work advancing Quaker values and testimonies, Friends Fiduciary offers a range of philanthropic services in support of Friends organizations. In 2023, the online giving program continued to grow, facilitating more than $84,000 in donations to benefit Quaker organizations. Friends Fiduciary serves as trustee for many granting funds, some of which provide discretion in how those funds may be used.
As a grant-making institution, last year Friends Fiduciary awarded over $200,000 that supported 24 initiatives benefiting Quaker organizations across the country. When making funding determinations, FFC prioritizes organizations and projects that support diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Retreat, Conference, and Study Centers
Whanganui Educational Settlement Trust
The Quaker Settlement is a Quaker intentional community situated on the northern outskirts of Whanganui, Aotearoa/New Zealand. The 20-acre site is owned by the Whanganui Educational Settlement Trust (WEST), a Quaker trust set up in 1975, and comprises 17 homes surrounding a residential seminar center that can accommodate up to 40 people, serving the needs of New Zealand Quakers and other groups.
There is no individual ownership of land: tenure is therefore “guardianship,” communal facilities kept up by people living in the encircling houses. Residents share all management responsibilities and work cooperatively using spiritually discerned decision-making.
Weekend seminars organized by New Zealand Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Learning and Spiritual Development Committee occur throughout the year and can be found on the website.
Seminars and events in 2023 included an intergenerational weekend focused on ways to reach out to young families and seekers of all ages; an autumn work weekend to complete maintenance jobs at the settlement; a Quaker men’s gathering; a WEST board meeting; a seminar exploring the word worship with facilitators who asked participants to consider what worship means to them individually and to all Friends; and a Rainbow Weekend for LGBTQ+ Friends and Friends who are curious about their sexual and gender identity and orientation.
Silver Wattle Quaker Centre
Established in 2009, Silver Wattle Quaker Centre is located on a 1,000-hectare (2,500-acre) property in Bungendore, Australia. Grounded in Quaker tradition, the center offers social and religious education in addition to support and preparation for witness and service.
The property is home to many species, including wombats, wedge tail eagles, black swans, shingleback lizards, and kangaroos. Hundreds of trees are planted each year. The focus this year is on sheoaks to provide habitat for black cockatoos. Chickens have been reintroduced to the orchard, which includes quince, nectarine, peach, plum, and fig trees.
New center coordinators Emily Chapman-Searle and Yarrow Goodley, both hired in early 2023, offer hospitality to all who stay at Silver Wattle, whether on personal retreats, group venue hires, or attending courses.
Founding member David Johnson retired as clerk of the board, but continues to offer courses on early Friends and contemplative practice. The first cohort of a year-long spiritual formation course, Food for the Soul, completed their program last June; it will run again in 2025.
The Quaker Basics online course was offered again in March. Further course offerings are listed on the website.
Quaker House at Chautauqua
Quaker House is located on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution in western New York.
For the upcoming 2024 summer season, Kriss and Gary Miller will return for their third year as the Friends in Residence team. Here are some highlights from last year.
Each Saturday evening, Kriss offered a simple community meal, giving new guests an opportunity to connect. Over 243 people attended Sunday worship during the season, many attending a Quaker meeting for the first time. Inspired by a Chautauqua presentation last year, Kriss also offered Church of the Wild every Sunday afternoon with Institution support. Over 163 people attended.
Weekly Friends offered brown-bag talks; one about their work in the world, and the other a discussion about how Quakerism intersected the weekly theme. Over 325 people attended these talks.
At Bestor Plaza, the “village green” of the Institution, Gary’s music jams included musicians and handheld instruments for onlookers. Participants in Kriss’s “Mindfulness and Mending” workshops appreciated her skill as both host and deep listener.
Quaker House also hosted participants from Homeboy Industries, and continues its ongoing relationship with the African American House. More than 100 people attended a screening of a video about the founder of Homeboy Industries, Father Greg Boyle.
Powell House
Elsie K. Powell House, located in Old Chatham, N.Y., hosted a fall work weekend during which volunteers cut up a very large dead tree into firewood despite rainy weather. On December 30, 2023–January 1, 2024, Families gathered for the house’s New Year’s Eve celebration for the first time since the beginning of 2020.
In the youth program, conferences have centered around themes of integrity, simplicity, gender exploration, creativity, and conflict resolution. Groups that have used Powell House include the Alliance of Families for Justice, New York Yearly Meeting Young Adult Friends, and the Alternatives to Violence Project.
Other highlights in programming include the annual Winter Solstice celebration; Friends decision-making and clerking; and Dwelling Deep, a yearly silent retreat. Powell House Bible Study has continued to meet online. The capital campaign has continued to raise funds for renovations that will improve energy efficiency and accessibility as well as establish an endowment.
Pendle Hill
Pendle Hill, a Quaker study and retreat center located outside Philadelphia, Pa., welcomed 168 sojourners, 48 rental groups, 1,537 online and in-person program registrants, and 10,809 visits to hybrid meeting for worship during the past six months.
Last fall began with the annual Stephen G. Cary Memorial Lecture led by Bridget Moix of Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) with over 350 hybrid attendees.
Ann Jerome is the Friend in Residence; Rev. Rhetta Morgan is the Artist in Residence.
Pendle Hill also hosted New Year’s celebrations, with retreats led by Valerie Brown and Karl Middleman, and a concert with Annie Patterson and special guest Peter Blood, both of Rise Up Singing.
Season 3 of the podcast The Seed: Conversations for Radical Hope launched with new episodes featuring Autumn Brown, Ingrid Lakey, Matthew Armstead, and K. Melchor Quick Hall, where they discussed with host Dwight Dunston the practices that enrich connections to self and others.
Schools and universities, wellness and mindfulness groups, social justice organizations, religious institutions, and many others continue to meet at Pendle Hill.
New overnight accommodations are being restored in the historic Upmeads building. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources funded replacing hazardous trees with native species, creating interpretive signage, and coordinating educational programming open to the public.
Friends Center
Through the pandemic period, Friends Center’s nonprofit office space has maintained a vacancy rate of 7–10 percent, which is relatively low compared to most commercial office buildings in Center City Philadelphia. Three new organizations recently leased space at Friends Center: (1) Junior Achievement of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that inspires and prepares young people to succeed in a global economy; (2) Defender Association of Philadelphia, Local 5520 of the UAW, the employee union for public defenders in Philadelphia; (3) Womanist Working Collective, a radical grassroots social action and support collective for Black folks of marginalized gender experience (trans and cis), femmes, and other gender-expansive people.
With these additions, Friends Center has 30 organizations with space on site, including both Quaker organizations and non-Quaker nonprofits whose missions and values align with Quaker testimonies and values.
In addition, events in the shared conference and meeting space at Friends Center have included a convening of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s peace and social justice grantees; a “Sleep Out” fundraiser for Covenant House’s programs for homeless youth; Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia’s all-staff meetings; the program year kickoff for City Year and their associated AmeriCorps partner organizations; and the filming of one scene at a Quaker meeting for an upcoming episode of a new streaming TV series.
Beacon Hill Friends House
Beacon Hill Friends House (BHFH) is a Quaker center and residential community in downtown Boston, Mass., that provides opportunities for personal growth, spiritual deepening, and collective action.
This fall, nova george, a Brooklyn-based poet, facilitator, and spiritual accompanist, gave the Ernest and Esther Weed Memorial Lecture, titled “Theologically Sound,” about the sacred interaction between music and silence. nova delivered a lecture on truth-seeking, peace, and Quaker history blended with an embodied practice in deep listening and play.
BHFH has continued to welcome many talented facilitators for its “MIDWEEK: Experiments in Faithfulness” program, a weekly facilitated spiritual practice. This season, facilitators have offered a diverse array of practices for our attendees ranging from cultivating active hope amidst climate grief to spiritual companioning.
Currently, the house’s residential community has 20 members, ranging in age from 21 to 70.
Upcoming repairs to the building’s exterior are funded by a City of Boston Community Preservation grant.
As a result of funding from Friends Foundation for the Aging and Obadiah Brown’s Benevolent Fund, BHFH is expanding the Vocational Discernment Program from a workbook and retreat focused on young adults to also assist an intergenerational as well as an older adult audience. In the fall, a pilot vocational discernment workshop for older adults took place, in addition to an intergenerational program.
Woolman at Sierra Friends Center
Woolman at Sierra Friends Center, located in Nevada City, Calif., seeks to inspire and prepare individuals to work for peace, justice, and environmental sustainability, and to deepen their personal and spiritual growth. For six decades, youth have come to Woolman to experience belonging and radical acceptance, connect with nature, and learn how to use their power to address the issues they care about. Today Woolman offers educational programming for youth and adults, and retreat spaces for groups and individuals. The 240-acre rural camp setting of forest, trails, streams, and an organic farm provides the backdrop for programs. In addition to fostering connection with nature, the land tells a rich and complex history, including the near genocide of the Nisenan people and gold mining operations whose environmental impacts are still evident today. Exploring these issues builds awareness and capacity for activism.
This year, Camp Woolman served 93 campers with residential sessions that included backpacking excursions. Woolman Outdoor School hosted 56 seventh graders from San Francisco Friends School, facilitating environmental awareness and activism through hands-on learning. Woolman Arts offered workshops for adults and youth, including an afterschool arts program.
Initiatives in development include specialty camp sessions; a year-long activist fellowship intensive; artists’ residencies; and Conversations for Change, through which dialogue to foster understanding and justice will be facilitated.
Woodbrooke
Woodbrooke, based in Britain, has continued to welcome more Friends from around the world onto their courses and research programs, and into their online worship spaces.
In July, Martin Ford began as the new interim co-CEO. Woodbrooke has progressed through significant change in the last few years. The majority of learning is now delivered online for both individuals and Quaker communities. In-person day and residential learning opportunities are offered in locations around the UK alongside a small number of courses running from the Woodbrooke Centre in Birmingham.
Deeper connections have been made with Friends World Committee for Consultation, particularly the Europe and Middle East Section and the Asia–West Pacific Section, to better support Friends globally.
The Equipping for Ministry program is being reimagined for a global Quaker audience in a challenging world.
In May, the 2022 Swarthmore Lecture, “Perceiving the Temperature of the Water” by Helen Minnis, challenged and inspired Britain Yearly Meeting, contributing to their reparations pledge—work Woodbrooke is focused on supporting by partnering with many others, including Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania and those that came to the first of two “Discomforting Quaker History” research conferences.
Silver Wattle Quaker Centre
Silver Wattle Quaker Centre, located in Bungendore, Australia, has returned to operations as un-usual, re-opening doors to courses, venue hires, and personal retreats, but still with some changes to keep everyone safe. For example, only people who are from the same household are allowed to share a room, and masks are required for the first two days of any visit to Silver Wattle to allow a safe incubation period buffer. This has kept Silver Wattle COVID-19 free.
Recently new carpets and curtains were installed, pipes were dug up to repair the aged drainage system, and hundreds of trees were planted to supplement ongoing re-vegetation efforts. Exceptional rainfall means the trees are doing well, and the lake is full. Some black swans have made a nest over the place where the labyrinth was built on the dry lake bed, so it’s time to find a new location for it.
There has been increased interest in being a resident volunteer at Silver Wattle, including international seekers. Courses are now offered both in-person and online. A new year-long course called Food for the Soul, combining residential and online methods, began in July.
Learn more: Silver Wattle Quaker Centre
Service and Peace Work
Youth Service Opportunities Project
Founded in 1983 at a community service conference in New York, Youth Service Opportunities Project (YSOP) is a Quaker nonprofit inspired by the international workcamp movement that began in the 1920s. YSOP programs are nonsectarian, emphasize service learning, and have focused on various issues over the years, including refugee aid work and housing and food insecurity.
Launched in 2020 during the pandemic, the YSOP Connex program brings students and seniors together in small groups to connect, converse, and learn through virtual conversations, and as of 2022, in-person service projects as well.
Connex ran several programs with Iona Preparatory School in fall 2023 at Purchase Meeting in West Harrison, N.Y. Several more programs ran in February and March 2024. High school students and senior citizens got to know one another and experienced new perspectives. Also in February and March, Connex hosted both virtual and in-person programming for women and girls with the Mary McDowell Friends School in Brooklyn, N.Y.
There were also several in-person service projects for seniors and high school students in Pelham, N.Y., and middle school students in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. Volunteers worked together to make blankets for area families in need.
Quaker Voluntary Service
In response to a survey of young people and the changing tides of service programs, the Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) board has decided on programmatic changes. Starting with the 2024-25 QVS year, the program will shorten from 11 months to 9.5 months, similar to a school-year schedule. This will allow Fellows to pursue summer employment and scholarship opportunities. A wider scope of site placements was requested, particularly for people interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
QVS will also be piloting three additional cohorts: In 2025, it plans to institute a short summer program for teenagers and a multi-week summer program for college students; the latter is in development and will take place in Philadelphia, Pa. In the 2024-25 program year, QVS will launch the Boston Angelic Troublemakers (BAT). The BAT pilot cohort is specifically designed for changemakers in Boston, Mass., acknowledging the unique challenges and burnout that can come with dedicated movement work. This cohort integrates Quaker traditions with earth-based practices.
While QVS chose to pause the program in Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minn., for one year, local enthusiasm for QVS kept the possibility open for a return to the Twin Cities. After reviewing the budget and organizational goals, the board of directors felt clear to reopen the Minneapolis–St. Paul program for fall 2024.
Quaker House of Fayetteville
Quaker House, based in Fayetteville, N.C., offers counseling and support to members of the armed forces questioning their role in the military; it educates them, their families, and the public about military-related issues; and it advocates for a peaceful world.
The war in Ukraine, attacks in the Middle East, and continued partisanship in the United States challenge military participants, their families, and veterans. The shrinking military and failure to meet recruiting numbers are increasing the stress on those who are joining the military. Quaker House seeks to help members resist the pressure to recruit while addressing the pressure to continue military participation.
Sexual assault in the military continues to be a troubling issue, with recent efforts focused on prevention, including the SHARP program (Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention) instituted in 2008. But even so, the U.S. military saw a 1 percent increase in sexual assaults in 2022, according to the Pentagon’s latest annual report, released in September 2023. In December, Quaker House participated in an event at nearby Fort Liberty that connected military leadership, Victim Advocates, and SARCs (sexual assault response coordinators) with community organizations and agencies that can assist with resources for victims. Quaker House is one of those organizations, providing trauma counseling services to civilian victims of soldier sexual assault.
Friends Peace Teams
Friends Peace Teams (FPT) is a Spirit-led organization that creates spaces for truth-telling, dialogue, healing, and nonviolent action for justice in 20 countries. In five regional teams, people of many different faiths, ethnicities, and cultures work together to create enduring cultures of peace. Here are some recent updates from each of them.
The Europe regional team offered Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) workshops to peace workers and psycho-social support to people displaced by war in Ukraine, the North Caucasus, and Iraq.
In five Latin American countries with persistent inequalities and violence, Peacebuilding en las Américas conducted AVP workshops and other activities to support families and individuals in crisis.
In the African Great Lakes region, FPT members offered trauma healing programs for refugees from wars in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The team also supports economic empowerment, women’s health, and education for English literacy and agriculture.
The Asia–West Pacific team recently developed new programs to support displaced persons from Myanmar (Burma) and build eco-justice projects in the Philippines and Korea.
In North America, FPT lifted up Indigenous voices and advocates for land return and healing from genocide, colonization, and forced assimilation, including harms caused by the Quaker Indian boarding schools.
Canadian Friends Service Committee
In June 2023, Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) hired a government relations representative, which is a new position: Sandra Wiens. Wiens is based in the nation’s capital, Ottawa, close to elected officials and many other influential organizations and individuals. In a recent article for CFSC’s newsletter Quaker Concern, Wiens explains that she’s building relationships and bringing Friends’ voices to key decision makers.
CFSC participated in a coalition contracted by Canada’s national broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), to provide expert advice on the UN-delineated human rights of Indigenous Peoples in the development of the CBC’s new strategy for its broadcasting. CFSC has been working to raise awareness and see full implementation of these human rights for decades.
American Friends Service Committee
Since October, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has provided food, water, and other supplies to Palestinians in Gaza. As of mid-March, AFSC staff in Gaza have assisted more than 343,231 displaced people in the region. AFSC offers a weekly meeting for worship with attention to peace every Thursday via Zoom. The organization is mobilizing people to advocate for a cease-fire, humanitarian access, and the peaceful release of all civilians held captive.
AFSC collected hundreds of public comments in support of a U.S. Department of Agriculture policy change, announced in September 2023, that enabled 3,000 more school districts to provide free meals to students, impacting millions of children.
Other recent highlights include: advocating with partners in California for the Racial Justice Act 3.0, which strengthens a path for people to challenge racist convictions and sentences; endorsing another law requiring California to notify people about community-based restorative justice programs; bringing a delegation of African peacebuilders to advocate in Washington, D.C. (Delegates met with policymakers to remind them of the human cost of wars and the need to invest in Africa-led solutions); providing food, water, and medical care to migrants held by the U.S. Border Patrol at open-air detention sites along the U.S.-Mexico border. AFSC and partners have also filed a federal complaint against the Department of Homeland Security.
Youth Service Opportunities ProjectÂ
To adapt to the post-pandemic world, Youth Service Opportunities Project (YSOP) launched a new program called YSOP Connex that facilitates virtual meetings between young people and senior citizens from anywhere in the country. Connex brings students and seniors together in small groups to connect, converse, and learn through virtual conversations and in-person service projects.
Connex ran virtual programs non-stop through the spring. Small groups of youth and seniors connected in conversation using video calls to talk about their lives, dreams, and hopes. Participants built relationships during their multi-week programs as they learned from each other. Because of the use of virtual tools like Zoom, people were able to join from all over, unrestricted by geography and broadening everyone’s sense of community.
During the summer months, volunteers came together in person in Pelham, N.Y., to make blankets for children living in temporary shelters. The projects allowed youth and senior volunteers to meet in person and forge connections with their local community members. This type of project was new to YSOP Connex, and met with great success.
Quaker Voluntary Service
Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS) is proud to be entering its second decade. In late August, the eleventh cohort of young adult Fellows began their in-person orientation at Pendle Hill in Wallingford, Pa., followed by a year-long commitment to Spirit-centered living, community, and service as a source of loving transformation in the world.
QVS’s second decade comes with unprecedented challenges as a result of the pandemic, current economic and employment trends, and changing generational demographics of young adults. The traditional methods of recruitment (person-to-person) combined with a challenging economy resulted in lower enrollment this year. QVS responded in three ways: (1) pausing the program in Atlanta, Ga., this year, while maintaining programs in Boston, Mass.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Portland, Ore.; (2) boosting capacity for recruitment and communications to reach more young adults and raise awareness of QVS; and (3) launching a strategic planning process for the coming decade.
Learn more: Quaker Voluntary Service
Quaker Social Action
UK anti-poverty charity Quaker Social Action (QSA) has undertaken research on how it can continue supporting financially vulnerable funeral customers, after one of its key aims—better transparency in funeral pricing—became a legal requirement for funeral directors.
The requirement for funeral directors to clearly display all of their prices in their premises and online has been in force since late 2021, through an order from the Competition and Markets Authority. Since then QSA has stopped inviting new applications to its “Fair Funerals pledge”—a voluntary commitment to price transparency which over a third of the UK funeral industry had previously signed.
QSA is reviewing what to do next, while continuing to run its “Down to Earth” UK-wide helpline for people struggling with funeral costs; it supports over 600 clients per year. As part of its review, QSA has been researching financial vulnerability among funeral customers and circumstances where someone may struggle to pay (the average cost of a funeral stood at over £4,000, or about $4,360, in 2021 according to research by SunLife). QSA received over 400 responses to its survey for recently bereaved people and funeral professionals about financial issues affecting funeral customers, and is currently analyzing the results. Around 20 percent of bereaved respondents indicated that they were not offered any information about potential financial support options in case they were struggling.
Learn more: Quaker Social Action
Comments on Friendsjournal.org may be used in the Forum of the print magazine and may be edited for length and clarity.