FGC Gathering

This morning, I watched the sun rise over a field in River Falls, WI. It was the end of a week spent at the Gathering put on each year by Friends General Conference, the central governing organization of unprogrammed Quakers. It was the end of a lovely week.
It was also the end of a busy week. I arrived at the campus last Saturday after a seven hour drive with a Friend from Milwaukee Meeting and his daughter. I had connected up with him when I attended Milwaukee Meeting in April. The ride was fairly uneventful, as was my arrival on campus. I registered and moved into the Adult Young Friends dorm, where I discovered that my roommate was a student at Haverford, a happy coincidence. I spent each day this week going to a workshop that I had signed up for on spirituality and activism in the morning and hanging out with Adult Young Friends (Quakers roughly 18-35 in age) in the program in the afternoon and the evening. The theme of this year's Gathering was "And Who is Thy Neighbor?" (or something along those lines), focusing on what we can do to better understand and live in a community with those around us. There were a number of plenaries, presentations by Friends of different backgrounds relating to the theme. The one I found most powerful, I think, was a presentation by two members of the AYF community, one a transgendered young man and the other a woman who lives on a Catholic Workers organic farm. Both of them spoke about their experiences working to reach out to those around them.

I also got the chance to attend a number of other workshops and worship opportunities, including an interest group on chanting on Tuesday and a couple of things focusing on sexuality. Overall, though, I think what made the week great was getting to know those around me. Eveyone was very open and for the most part pretty approachable, and a pleasure to share worship with. I feel like I left the conference with a lot to think about.

Not much time to think about in it, though. I'm leaving for Seattle tomorrow with my parents to go visit my brother and go backpacking with him and my father. We'll also spend a few nights at Quinault Lodge, a lodge on a beautiful lake in the Olympic Penninsula area of Washington that we spent a night at last summer. I really think I'm needing some alone time right now, some time to reflect, but I'm not sure I'll get it. I'm leaving for Philly three days after I get back from Seattle. This is an odd concept to me at the moment, having just come from Gathering. The week seemed to stretch out forever and at times it seemed as if I had never been anywhere else. I think I'm really going to miss having a Meeting in Mali; I'm not sure if any other community of faith could really take its place for me, though I guess it could be good to explore.

Anyway, I'm also friggin tired. I haven't had any sleep since Friday at 9 am. We all stayed up last night to watch that sunrise. I guess I'll write one more update before I go. Crazy, crazy, crazy.