Durham Friends is considering applying to participate in FWCC’s Quaker Connect Program. (FWCC is Friends World Committee for Consultation, the organization that links Friends across the globe.)
Members of Durham Friends are encouraged to read these materials and participate in discussions around whether the Meeting should consider seeking to participate.
The three paragraphs below give a brief overview of the program. More information can be found on the Quaker Connect website.
Quaker Connect helps Friends meetings and churches to try new experiments and learn from each other how to connect the depths of our Quaker tradition and the breadth of our Quaker community with the living reality of our local context under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Quaker Connect will be a structured network of Quaker meetings across the branches of Friends
in the Americas. Each participating local meeting will nominate one to three Friends to join a cohort
of other energized Friends in virtual workshops over a two year period. At the heart of the program,
each meeting will choose one signpost of renewal that is lacking in their meeting, one Quaker,
Christian, or FWCC practice to address the need, and take three months to try the experiment, and then initiate further experiments. Robust evaluation and communication processes are essential parts of the program. Quaker Connect is designed to adapt and seed the continuing revitalization of the Religious Society of Friends.
In the United States, the project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations
Initiative. An additional $200,000 grant from the Thomas H. and Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund
will extend the program to Friends outside of the United States—from Canada to Bolivia—and
enhance collaboration among Quaker organizations to support the growth and vitality of the
Society of Friends.