2022 North Carolina Fellowship of Friends Annual Gathering
August 20, 2022 – Online or in-person at Jamestown Friends Meeting
Theme: Let Your Life Speak
When we fought to free the enslaved, we were saying, “Every life should speak, not just ours.” When we labored for reform in our prisons, we were saying, “Every life should speak, not just those at liberty.” When the Quaker Rufus Jones visited Germany in 1938 to condemn the cruelties visited upon German Jews, we were saying, “Every life should speak, not just Christian’s.” Today, when we defend the rights of Palestinians, when we empower the poor, when we agitate and legislate for justice and freedom for all, when we house the homeless, when we feed the hungry, when we tend the sick, and defend the defenseless, we are saying, ”Every life should speak.” – Phillip Gulley, Plain Speech (used with permission)
SCHEDULE
8:30 – 9 a.m. | Fellowship time
9-9:15 a.m. | Music: Meredeth Summers
9:15 – 10 a.m. | Keynote Address: Dr. Adrienne Israel
10-10:15 a.m. | Break
10:15 – 11 a.m. | Worship Sharing Groups
11-11:15 a.m. | Break
11:15 – noon | Business meeting
Noon – 1 p.m. | Lunch (Quaker organizations will be available to chat in breakout rooms
1-2 p.m. | Continued business meeting
2-2:15 p.m. | Break
2:15 – 3 p.m. | Workshop 1 (your choice)
3-3:15 p.m. | Break
3:15 – 4 p.m. | Workshop 2 (your choice)
4-4:30 p.m. | Closing worship
Dr. Adrienne Israel
Dr. Israel is Professor Emerita of History. She taught for 38 years at Guilford College where she worked to cast a broader light on the community in and around Guilford College and its role in the Underground Railroad. Dr. Israel’s research contrib- uted to greater public attention being given to Lavina Curry, New Garden Boarding School’s first washerwoman and one of many Black agents on North Carolina’s Underground Railroad. Lavina Curry helped to shepherd enslaved people from North Carolina to Indiana.
Dr. Meredeth Summers
Dr. Summers is a native of Elon, North Carolina and proud graduate of Wake Forest University where she received two bachelor’s degrees in sociology and religion with a concentration in family studies. She went on to graduate studies in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received an Executive Juris Doctorate as a dual enrollee at McKinney Law School of Indiana University and Purdue University Global.
Meredeth currently serves as the Chief of Staff and the Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She also faithfully serves on the President’s Cabinet. Hailing various roles since 2011, she works closely with the popular Bryan Series, is a Title IX hearing officer, is responsible for executing Opening Convocation and Commencement Exercises and other major events on campus, and is the staff Director and Advisor for Voices of Victory, the College’s gospel choir.
Workshop Sharing Group Leaders
Rudy Gordh
Wayne Blythe
Catherine Griffith
David Smith
Dottie Hobbs
Roger Seel
Workshops
1. Friends Peace Testimony: Wayne Finegar, Quaker House
2. Members of the Body of Christ/Citizens of the World: Sara Beth Terrell
3. Trauma-informed Ministry: Lia Scholl
4. Quakers, Reparations, & Restoration: Margaret Rowlett *Register for the gathering at:
**You will receive the Zoom link prior to the gathering.
*** Friends may join the gathering in a hybrid setting at Jame- stown Friends Meeting.
Download the Annual Gathering Document Here
Please fill out the form below to register.