Thursday, 19 May 2011
FLGBTQC travel assistance request deadline for FGC Gathering is May 20th
Clerks are requesting help in getting the word out, since the newsletter will not be out before the deadline.
If you need the contact information, please let me know.
Friday, 1 April 2011
Closing Minute of Midwinter Gathering 2011 [of FLGBTQC]
As F/friends arrived at Summit Conference Center in Haw Rivers State Park near Greensboro, NC for the annual Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns Midwinter Gathering of Friends 2011, there were warm greetings and welcome hugs for both long-time and first-time attenders. Friends looked forward to exploring together the planning committee’s theme, “Reclaiming the Past – Proclaiming the Future.”
Two panel presentations, one led by older seasoned Friends of the FLGBTQC community and a second led by younger seasoned Friends, helped us first begin the process of reclaiming our past, and then considering what we might proclaim for our future. We were moved by stories of the faithful and powerful witness of early members of this community who made it possible for us to grow more closely into who God calls us to be today. We were equally moved by younger F/friends who boldly challenged us to joyfully move into our future, asking who might still be waiting to be welcomed to our table. They invited us to continue to grow in Spirit, faithfulness, and as a beloved community that is called to be radically inclusive by witnessing to the both the oppressed and the oppressor with radical love.
During meetings for worship, worship sharing, memorial meeting, and meetings for worship with attention to business, we became aware of the breath of the Spirit moving among us, ministering through us and to us, giving us glimpses of a vision we seek. We were challenged to continue in Friends’ rich tradition of walking cheerfully in the world (even in places that may not be welcoming or safe),
seeking and speaking to that of God in everyone. There is still work to be done.
We sought ways to include our youngest members more fully in our community, welcoming them into our worship. And during meals, over puzzles and card games, while walking in the beauty of the state park, during precious one-to-one conversations, dancing together, and joyfully celebrating during the talent show and auction, we all have continued to deepen and broaden this beloved community –
rooted and grounded in Divine Love and Joy.
We ask ourselves, “What is it we are called to proclaim for the future?” Perhaps it is the same Truth that early Friends proclaimed, that early members of our FLGBTQC community felt led to build upon, that we too feel planted in our hearts. We are invited by That Which Has No Name to live in the radically inclusive Love offered freely to us with each breath, and to find ways to share it with each other and the world. We have celebrated where we have been and where we are today, and we look forward to a time when we will even more closely reflect who we are called to be. Opportunities of radical Love are always before us, and our work will continue as we leave this beloved community to return to our homes, our meetings, and the wider world.
Our business coming to a close, we now adjourn planning to meet again Seventh Month 3 to 10 at the 2011 Summer Gathering of Friends General Conference at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA.
Deborah Fisch, co-clerk
Monday, 28 March 2011
A note about the Epistle: please share it!
It's vitally important to get the word out that there are communities of faith that are affirming of lesbians, bisexual people, gay men, transgender people, and queer people.
Please help spread that word.
If you are a Friend, please share FLGBTQC's Epistle with any Quaker groups with which you have a relationship -- your Monthly Meeting, Yearly Meeting, (Quarterly or Half-Yearly if they're active,) any Quaker email lists you're on, etc.
If you're a member of another faith community, please feel free to share it there.
Do you blog, or LiveJournal, or DreamWidth, etc? Twitter? Buzz? If the Epistle spoke to you, please consider sharing it there.
It's also been posted on Facebook; you can share it there.
You can link to it directly from the page at FLGBTQC:
http://flgbtqc.quaker.org/2011epistle.html
You can forward it from the posting on my blog (see the buttons at the end of the post).
Thank you!
An Epistle from Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns, Midwinter Gathering 2011
Midwinter Gathering 2011
To All Friends Everywhere,
We send you love from Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns Midwinter Gathering, held from February 18-21st, 2011 in Browns Summit, North Carolina.
There was a time when we could not say our name. We dared not say our name -- even in the Religious Society of Friends. We were the Committee of Concern. This community has grown up around the concept of “radical inclusion” – the willingness to welcome new and different kinds of people into our community even when we had not expected them, recognizing the expansion of our understanding of who we are as a form of continuing revelation. Some of those who helped form this community continue to actively be a part of our community, for which we are blessed. Others have moved on. Still others have passed on. Yet all these Friends are still very much with us, standing in their own integrity, and calling us into our own.
We came together once again to witness to the power of radical love and radical inclusion to transform and sustain us spiritually – both individually and as a community and to discern how we are called to deepen our commitment to that call. Framed by our theme, “Reclaiming our Past; Proclaiming our Future,” we heard stories of what happens when we do this well. When we are faithful, we recognize that love is a practice, that in relationship we reveal and discover our true selves. We share the stories and truth emerging from our lives; when needed, we say to one another, “You’re standing on my foot! Please get off!” And then we talk about it. We experience the gifts of receiving and giving love that is shaped by the quirks and flavors of each of our individual essences; in so doing, we invite each other into wholeness, greater integrity, a fuller understanding of who we are as a community, and even greater integrity, and thus the cycle begins again.
As we shared our truths with one another in worship, Spirit revealed to and through us how wholeness, community, love, and integrity are intimately intertwined with each other. As one Friend said, “With Quakers, I cannot lie about who I am.” He spoke about how Friends from this community “kicked me out of the closet” – not through violence, but through holding him to a higher standard of integrity and by loving him for exactly who he is. Another Friend gazed into the eyes of each speaker on a panel of our elders, expressing how she could feel the flavor of each life moving through her, transforming her. A third urged that in an unsafe and sometimes hostile world, we must nevertheless go cheerfully where we are led, understanding that only as we bring our full selves forward can we make the world safer for those who will follow. A fourth speaker, an attender for whom this gathering was hir* first experience of Quakerism, spoke powerfully at the end of the gathering of how way had opened for hir* to be here, and a sense of how “I am supposed to be where I am right now. Life is overwhelming but I can do it.” Young and young adult Friends spoke deeply of the condition of a continuum of sexual and gender identities and the urgent necessity of a place of full and unconditional love and acceptance to call forth one’s true self. They spoke of the blessing of a safe space where they could be fully known, of the feeling that FLGBTQC was a place where there was no “card check,” where all were welcome, warts and all, where they could bring their whole selves forward.
We also know our own stories of the pain it inflicts when radical love and inclusion are absent – experienced within this community and others. We know that we have work to do to more faithfully practice radical love and inclusion with people of color and Young Adult Friends and Young Friends, and those who may yearn for but not be aware of or have access to our community.
We ask for the prayers of all Friends everywhere as we do our work, and we ask you, as way opens, to support us and join with us in our struggle. We offer you our unfolding witness and testimony to the power of radical love and inclusion in this community and an invitation to join in this experience at gatherings in the future. Co-clerks can be reached via telephone at 267-270-2315 or email at flgbtqc@gmail.com. Our website is http://flgbtqc.quaker.org/.
On behalf of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns,
Deborah Fisch, Co-Clerk
Kody Hersh, Co-Clerk
* Many people who identify as neither men nor women prefer to be referred to by non-gendered pronouns, and this attender is among those people. The word "hir" in this case is grammatically equivalent to "her" as the possessive ("this is hir [item]") and object form ("I gave it to hir") but carries no connotation of a female or male gender.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Notes from FLGBTQC Mid-Winter Gathering
As soon as our Epistle is available, I will post it here. - sm
Meeting for Worship Sunday
the idea that one "ought" to write, blog, etc., from love rather than from anger
--> anger springs from love, is a sign that something needs to change --> I would not be angry if i did not love
--> would not be angry on my own behalf if not for self-love; would not be angry on behalf of my Quaker communities if I did not love Quakerism or my Pagan communities if I did not love Paganism and if I did not love the Goddess (each other, this beautiful Earth)
writing about being at FLGBTQC Mid-Winter and my experience being here
--> what is it that is so wonderful about FLGBTQC? it's hard to explain to people who haven't experienced it, or to someone who's come and who's maybe been put off by another who's rubbed them the wrong way
-- so far this weekend, we've talked quite a bit about this community as someplace where we feel known, with our imperfections, and loved
-- I certainly feel this way
-- worship
-- worship for business
(-- no "card check" at the door)
reminder from worship: community is one of the testimonies
large-group worship sharing
how we collectively hold the integrity and centeredness of our worship as something important
-- conversations I've had today with Friends about how theaological diversity, and sharing that with each other, is one of the gifts of FLGBTQC
--> these two things -- integrity and centeredness of Quaker worship, and theaological diversity -- are not in conflict; but rather, they complement and enrich each other
I am hearing: it is important to ask to be held in the Light on the list-serv
*post the intergenerational worship post on the blog --> radical inclusion
Singing the Goddess
(fun!)
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
About Sarah's poem
It blew me away. My breath caught. Tears came to my eyes. I knew right away this was the poem I'd been waiting for, for this year's on-line Brigid poetry festival.
I'm grateful to Robert for permission to reprint it here.
p.s. For a copy of Sarah Leuze: a collection of her poetry, fiction, and a memoir - with photos and biographical notes, please contact her estate, below.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
An accessibility ally
I was grumpy and overwhelmed at that point. I felt that fragrance issues hadn't quite been handled adequately so far, in a community with a history of handling them very well. I'd been trying to negotiate with my (well-meaning and responsive) cabin-mates, who'd brought fragranced personal care products with them. I certainly did not expect to have the reaction I did to zir announcement.
Ze stated very clearly that this was a fragrance-free gathering, and that this was for accessibility reasons and is an accessibility issue. Ze explained plainly and clearly several of the problems fragranced products can cause for people with medical conditions triggered or exacerbated by chemicals in fragrances, and how such exposure would prevent members of our community from participating in the gathering.
But ze went further. Ze announced that the Planning Committee was providing fragrance-free soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Ze added, "So there's no excuse for using scented products." Ze also said, If you are wearing something scented and someone with a fragrance sensitivity can smell it, you have already made them sick. Then ze said (I'm paraphrasing), If we can smell a fragrance, those of us without fragrance sensitivities, being allies and advocates, are the ones who should take it upon ourselves to say something in situations like that, rather than leaving it to people who are sensitive.
How did I feel?
This heavy load lifted from my shoulders. There were all sorts of things ze had said, and so I didn't have to. There were all sorts of ways ze was advocating for me and for other people there with this accessibility issue, and ze was calling other allies to do so, and so we didn't have to. I was off duty. It was amazing. It gets so completely exhausting doing self-advocacy around disability accessibility (and not just disability). This weight just lifted from my shoulders.
I made a point, later, of telling ze how much I appreciated what ze had said and the language ze had used. Ze said it was heart-felt, and that was how ze had chosen zir words, and that ze appreciated the feedback.
Me, I appreciated zir advocacy, and I appreciated how the whole community -- once again -- embraced responsibility for accessibility for vulnerable members of our community.
Someone over the weekend reminded us vocally that "community is a Quaker testimony." Yes.
Blessed be. Thank you, Friends.
Sunday, 25 July 2010
What is FLGBTQC?
For more information about FLGBTQC, Quakers, where to find us, how to get involved, etc, click here: http://flgbtqc.quaker.org/whatis.html.Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns is a Quaker faith community within the Religious Society of Friends. FLGBTQC deeply honors, affirms, and upholds that of God in all people.
We seek to know that of God within ourselves and others. We seek to express God's truth in the Quaker and in the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual/transgender communities, as it is made known to us.
It is our hope to offer an oasis to those who have been spurned by the world at large. We are learning that radical inclusion and radical love bring further light to Quaker testimony and life. Our experience with oppression in our own lives leads us to seek ways to bring our witness to bear in the struggles of other oppressed peoples.
We gather twice a year, at our Mid-Winter gathering and at the Friends General Conference Annual Gathering of Friends in the summer. At these times we worship together, discern our corporate witness through Meeting for Worship with attention to business, share our individual journeys, celebrate our lives, heal old wounds, and draw sustenance from the Spirit for our work and life in the world. After almost thirty years, we are still learning to spread love in the face of rejection and hostility and to embrace new friends. We have found faith and voice to speak truth to power and the courage to be open to new revelation.
(adapted from a minute approved 15 Second Month 1999)
FLGBTQC 2011 Mid-Winter Gathering
Proclaiming the Future
Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns
Join us at the Summit (Brown's Summit, NC)
http://tiny.cc/1mvsc
Newly Remodeled!
February 18-21, 2011
for
Mid-Winter Gathering
Need more info?
(MidWinter2011@gmail.com)