FGC Connections

By Wesley Mason Well, wasn’t there always a Publications and Distribution (P&D;) program? No, like everything else we had a beginning. While FGC always produced publications of some type, the genesis of the current Publications and Distribution Program seems to have been in 1972 when FGC first formed a Religious Education (RE) Committee. Previously, written…

Reviewed by Nils Pearson Culture of Peace: The Hidden Side of History, by Elise Boulding, published by Syracuse University Press, 2000 A scholarly and compelling book, this is no easy read. However, if you think that there is too much militarism, violence and war, too many people in prison and too many fast food restaurants; if…

By Pamela Haines For one lunch at the FGC Gathering, we were served rice and beans. The beans were gone when I went through the line so I got rice with bean juice. At each table there was information about Right Sharing of the World’s Resources, to which FGC donated the savings from that meal….

By Pat Fox The Publications and Distribution Committee came together for a weekend retreat February 19-21, 2001. We gathered at the Burlington Meetinghouse and Conference Center to finish our business plan, one that the committee worked on for the past year and would use for the next several years. Our working documents reflected aspects of…

By Sally Rickerman My offering is this alphabet of ministries–some frivolous, but most profound. AcceptanceBeingCaringDoingElderingForgivingGraciousnessHealingInsightfulnessJoyKnittingListeningMindfulnessNurturingOutreachingPrayingQuakeringReconcilingSingingThoughtfulnessUnderstandingVocalizingWritingXtending“Youngering”Zeal

By Barry Zalph, Louisville MM, Ohio Valley YM Five years ago, no one could have convinced me that I should “travel in the ministry.” As I understood it, traveling ministers had an extraordinary sense of the Divine presence and an undeniable leading to carry their witness to others. Neither of these descriptions fit me at…

By Laura Dixson The summer I turned sixteen, I was a teenager secure in my life, antsy for my independence (and drivers license), and annoyed because I was single. Then, I was nominated by Northern Yearly Meeting to be a representative to Friends General Conference, and attend Central Committee. At the time, I was struggling…

By Wally Winter Are Quakers boring? Some of us may be. In fact, all of us may be some of the time, but all of us, all of the time? Recently a First Day School teacher at our meeting announced that his class thought Quakers were “boring.” While reflecting on this blunt critique the other…

By Eileen Bagus with help from Hannah Branson Because children are important to Community Friends Meeting of Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting we continue to keep thinking of new ways to make them feel a welcome part of the meeting family. Our youngest children, infants and toddlers, have a paid child care worker for worship hour…

By Elizabeth Baltaro My grandfather pulled the car up in front of huge stone building. The front steps of the building were covered with teenagers about my age. I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. It was the end of June in 1997, and I had come all the way from Oklahoma City to…

Amesbury Monthly Meeting is the northernmost meeting in Massachusetts, active since the 17th century for all but a short period in the late 1970s. It helped other meetings get started and was the location for the Salem Quarterly meeting from 1851-1962. It is best known as the meeting of the famous poet and social activist,…

By Mary Kay Glazer, Rochester Monthly Meeting It has been about six months since Rochester Friends moved into their new meeting house, and in that time the look of the faces worshipping has changed almost as dramatically as the building itself. Each week brings new people, and now the sunlit meeting room that once seemed…