Speakers at our 2006 Annual Sessions
Tuesday Evening Speaker: Rachel Stacy
Rachel is a former clerk of Baltimore
Yearly Meeting Young
Friends and is a student at
Earlham College and Earlham
School of Religion. In school,
Rachel studies Chemistry and Religion,
while outside school she
attends Quaker gatherings across the country and
throughout the world. Since 2000, Rachel has worked
among the diversity of Friends, attending Youth Quake
(2000, 2003), and serving as one of the organizers of the
World Gathering of Young Friends (Lancaster, UK, and
Mombassa, Kenya, 2005). Rachel serves as one of
Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s three representatives to the
Friends United Meeting General Board, as well as on
Friends General Conferences’ Youth Ministries Committee.
She was one of five Young Friends to edit Whispers
of Faith: Young Friends Share their Experiences
of Quakerism (QUIP: Quakers Uniting in Publications,
2005). Rachel believes deeply that the Religious Society
of Friends is on the cusp of great divine transformation.
While we see conflict and disagreement among
Friends, “There is a way forward, but it will take work,”
she says. Rachel is a member of Gunpowder Meeting,
which has appointed a support committee for her.
“I pray that each of you opens your heart to the possibility
of both transformation and conversion, perhaps
not to Christ, or even God, but into love for one another
that transcends our language and our interpretation of
the Divine.”
Rachel Stacy
Carey Memorial Lecture: Marshall Massey
In 1985, speaking to Pacific Yearly Meeting, Marshall
Massey proposed the creation of a nationwide Friends committee on environmental
matters. After two years of labor, the
committee was formally organized at a Friends General Conference summer
gathering. Now called Quaker Earthcare
Witness, it has a permanent staff and more than 1,000 supporters and
volunteers, and facilitates activities ranging from environmental lobbying to
earth-friendly agriculture.
Marshall also helped establish the first grassroots
interdenominational environmental organization in North America, and has
campaigned for a Nature Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In preparing for his presentation to BYM Marshall has
expressed the concern that Friends of varying persuasions are not working
together on environmental concerns. “We
have no organization that unites the branches of our Religious Society – FGC,
FUM, EFI, Conservative and Holiness – in a common environmental testimony.”
Marshall is now a member of Omaha Monthly Meeting, Iowa
Yearly Meeting (Conservative). He
serves on his monthly meeting's Committee for Ministry and Oversight, and
attends annual sessions both of Iowa (Conservative) and of Great Plains Yearly
Meeting (FUM). He is at work on a book
about the vision and practice of Friends, and how the underlying principles of
Quakerism might bear on today's environmental crisis.
Friday Evening Speakers: The Transformative Power of Crisis: The Legacy of Tom Fox
The Friday night plenary session,
“The Transformative
Power of Crisis,” will be organized
by Langley Hill Monthly
Meeting, the home meeting of
Tom Fox. Tom’s kidnapping,
death and, most importantly, his
example have deeply touched
his Meeting community, the Yearly Meeting, and millions
of others around the world. Suddenly the work of
peacemaking and its risks have become clearer. Suddenly
the plight faced by thousands of Iraqis daily has
been brought home to us in a very personal way. We
have been deeply affected, but we have found renewed
energy for the work to be done.
Representatives from Langley Hill and members of
the support team Tom Fox organized when he first joined
Christian Peacemaker Teams will talk about Tom’s work
in Iraq and how the events of November 2005 to March
2006 changed both them as individuals and their communities.
They will also lead a discussion of what the
Yearly Meeting can do to continue the work of “waging
peace” to which Tom was dedicated.
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