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Continuing Revolution eNewsletter
March 2015

Greetings, participants from Pendle Hill’s Continuing Revolution YAFCON 2012, 2013 and 2014. What an amazing three years it has been! This newsletter is the first step in moving towards our vision of YAFCON serving as a gathering ground for a more networked community of young adult Quaker activists, leaders and change-makers. Each year of YAFCON participants — YOU! — have amazed us with your courage, wisdom, hilarity, love and curiosity. While many of you may not know one another, you all have this experience in common, and we hope that we can begin to open up a space for connection and sharing across the cohorts of this conference.

To that end, we have started a new Facebook group for individuals and program leaders who have gone through this program, irrespective of participation year. Please feel free to use that space for personal updates, questions, event news or anything else of interest to you. We will keep our individual cohort Facebook pages active, as we know that finding a space to connect with members of your particular year will still be important.

In this newsletter, please find updates about YAFCON 2015, an introduction to Katrina McQuail (your new 2016 Conference Coordinator!), updates from participants, upcoming social justice related events/opportunities of interest, YAFCON-related reads, and funding opportunities for your ministry.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. It has been an amazing few years, and we look forward to many more in this Continuing Revolution!

YAFCON 2015: Equality

This summer, June 5-10, 2015, we are taking on the Quaker testimony of Equality. In keeping with past years, we are engaging the Equality testimony through the lens of social justice and the need for change. We will be exploring the need for justice, the power of Truth and love, our own growing edges as individuals and as a community, and what it means to create the Beloved Kin-dom here and now. We will cultivate a brave learning space within which to unpack privilege and power, and to develop greater capacity to tackle and break down the many intersecting systems of oppression around us.

The program is now available for download on the Pendle Hill website, but here are some quick highlights: workshops on the origins of oppression of native peoples in our country with Denise Altvater, powerful conversations about racism, white supremacy and privilege with Aljosie Aldrich Harding and Niyonu Spann, unpacking gender justice and identity with Peterson Thomas Toscano, Clark Reddy and Chloe Schwenke, and many more workshops on allyship, privilege in the environmental movement, social movement building and activism to confront injustice. On top of all that, the entire six day experience will be held and facilitated by the extraordinary Jean-Marie Barch.

As you all know, we must limit our enrollment to 45 young adults, and applications are already rolling in, so apply now if you’re interested!

Introducing 2016 YAFCON Coordinator, Katrina McQuail

Katrina is a Canadian YAF who grew up on an organic, mixed livestock and CSA farm. FGC Gathering and Quaker summer camp were part of her summers growing up and where she first started down the path of organizing educational and transformative events for her community. A graduate of Earlham College (‘06), Katrina has worked across the sectors, most recently running a social change hub and not-for-profit in Guelph, ON called 10 Carden. She’s made some big life changes recently, moving back to take over her family farm as her parents transition out of the day to day. She’s passionate about food security and sovereignty, and is pleased to be in a position where she can grow sustainable, high quality food for her local community. Having been a participant at the first YAFCON in 2012, she’s super excited to be working on YAFCON!

Confronting Racism in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

We wanted to take a moment to share some updates coming out of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, connecting the threads of social justice work to confront oppression and the Religious Society of Friends:

Minute of Action from PYM Called Meeting – January 2015
http://www.pym.org/2015/01/10/over-400-attend-called-meeting/

For background information about this Called Meeting, we refer you to the original announcement and letter from our Clerk published December 11, 2014.

More Events/Opportunities to Consider

There are so many incredible things happening in the social action and activism world. Here are just a few of the possible events and opportunities that could interest you!

2015 White Priviledge Conference
Resistance, Action, Courage, & Equity: The South Leading the Way!
Louisville, KY March 11-14, 2015
http://whiteprivilegeconference.com

Friends General Conference (FGC) Pre-Gathering Retreats: July 3-5, 2015 Culuwee, North Carolina.

1. Pre-Gathering Retreat for People of Color and their Families: http://www.fgcquaker.org/connect/gathering/programs-and-events/pre-gathering/poc-retreat. Friends of Color and multiracial families are invited to a retreat immediately prior to the 2015 FGC Gathering. This retreat is for Gathering attenders only.
2. Pre-Gathering Retreat for Quakers and Business: http://www.fgcquaker.org/connect/gathering/programs-and-events/pre-gathering/quakers-and-business. The Quakers and Business Group is open to all Quakers who have a heart and mind for business, and who are interested or are already applying Quaker principles to their work and life. Open to Gathering registrants and also those not staying for the Gathering.
3. Pre-Gathering Young Adult Friends Retreat: http://www.fgcquaker.org/connect/gathering/adult-young-friends/retreat. This optional event will focus on what it means to be an AYF in our meetings and our communities, as well as exploring the structure and function of the AYF community at Gathering. Please join us Saturday July 4 as we dig deep into our place in Quaker faith.

Beyond Diversity 101 training:
http://www.beyonddiversity101.org/current.html

Quaker Earthcare Witness: QEW always has great opportunities to come together with Friends to talk about climate justice, earthcare and the environment. You can find their events here: http://www.quakerearthcare.org/upcoming. To highlight the next two large QEW gatherings:

1. QEW Spring Meeting: April 23, 2015 – April 26, 2015. The spring meeting will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. QEW has scholarship assistance for young adult Friends! Register online at http://secure.quakerearthcare.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=8
2. QEW Fall Meeting: October 22, 2015 – October 25, 2015. The fall meeting will be held in Santa Cruz, CA at the Ben Lomond Quaker Center. QEW has scholarship assistance for young adult Friends! Plan ahead and check the QEW website in the coming months for registration information.

AFSC calendar
http://afsc.org/calendar/2015-03
AFSC is hosting the Ferguson to Philly Town Hall Meetings of the Philly Coalition for REAL Justice Town Hall Meetings twice a month at Friends Centre starting March 3 at 6:30 pm.

AFSC’s Friends Relations Program is excited to offer you the opportunity to host artist Naima Lowe’s powerful, interactive art exhibit, “39 Questions for White People.” http://afsc.org/39questions. Here is Naima Lowe’s artistic statement about “39 Questions for White People”: The deceptively simple text asks complex questions about race and accountability. This work started as an experiment based in the artist’s curiosity about how whiteness is framed and understood by white people. For more information about the piece, check out salon.com’s interview with Naima and her website naimalowe.net.

Quaker Voluntary Service: apply to their transformative programs at https://www.quakervoluntaryservice.org/. Quaker Voluntary Service is a program with 4 sites all over the country. Please, take a moment to learn about it, either for yourself, or for another Young Adult. If you are considering a year to transform your life, and take time to live into your values, this is a good chance!! Applications are due March 15.

Intern on the Peace Farm
http://www.thepeacefarm.org/

Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) Spring Lobby Days
Register online now at http://fcnl.org/events/slw/register/

Join FCNL Advocay Corps
http://futureadvocate.org/program/advocacycorps/
Advocacy Corps members will all help organize meetings with members of Congress in their local offices. But your work with the Advocacy Corps will be unique to you. We’ll help you develop a work plan that highlights your strengths and fits your community.

Bayard Rustin: Honoring an unsung LGBTQ hero with a U.S. postage stamp
http://www.thetaskforce.org/bayard-rustin-honoring-unsung-lgbtq-hero/
Send the US Postal Service a letter urging the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee to recommend a postage Stamp in honour of Bayard Rustin. Bayard Rustin was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, who was an openly gay man and an LGBTQ activist.

Friends United Meeting (FUM) Stoking the Fire Conference
http://fum.org/stoking-the-fire-2015
On Pentecost weekend – May 22-25, 2015 – we invite Friends to gather in Cincinnati, Ohio for a retreat experience entitled Stoking the Fire. A lightly-scheduled program of extended worship, prayer, plenary speakers, home groups, topical workshops and attention to the movement of the Holy Spirit will allow us to:

  • experience the power of God’s presence
  • deepen individual spirituality, passion, and commitment
  • build community with others
  • share stories of personal and corporate spiritual vitality and transformation
  • energize for work in our specific ministry contexts
  • equip spiritual revival of our meetings/churches and communities

To begin preparing hearts and minds for the retreat in May, the planning committee members are writing a 10-week devotional series on the following ten Biblical themes that arose out of our prayer. Look for the weekly series on FUM’s website and social media outlets beginning in the spring. Use these themes in your own context. Pray together. Get fired up.

Interesting Reads Related to YAFCON Program Leaders

Revelation and Revolution: Answering the Call to Radical Faithfulness, by Steve Chase. Pendle Hill Pamphlet #431 (2015)

Steve was a program leader for YAFCON 2012 on Stewardship, and YAFCON 2014 on Community, and is the new Director of Education for Pendle Hill!

Prophets, Midwives and Thieves: Reclaiming the Ministry of the Whole, by Noah Baker Merrill. Southeastern Yearly Meeting, 2014.

Noah was a program leader for YAFCON 2014 on Community.

Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement, by Vincent Harding (2010).

Civil rights leaders Vincent Harding and Aljosie Aldrich Harding were in residence at Pendle Hill in 2014, at the time of Vincent’s passing in May 2014. Aljosie was a program leader at YAFCON 2014 on Community.

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, by Shane Claiborne (2006)

Shane was a program leader at YAFCON 2013 on Simplicity.

Continuing Revolution: Young Adult Friends at the Intersection of Faith and Action, by Emily Higgs. Friends Journal (2014)

Emily has served as the YAFCON Conference Coordinator for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander (2012)

While Michelle Alexander has not been a YAFCON program leader, she is the keynote speaker at Pendle Hill’s upcoming conference on Mass Incarceration from April 29 – May 3!

Funding Opportunities for your Ministry!

The Clarence and Lilly Pickett Endowment funds young adult Quaker leadership and ministry! Applications are due every February, so start thinking about what you might want to do for February 2016! Check out their website for more information on funding, past recipients, and eligibility.

The Lyman Fund supports individual Quaker ministry. Do you have a leading for which you need support? Check out the Lyman Fund in New England Yearly Meeting for more information!

Friends Institute Granting Group is a Philadelphia Yearly Meeting funding opportunity for young adult members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. They also support the ministry and leadings of young adults, and accept applications throughout the year! Check out their website for more information.