Friends Center Director's Report
Fall 2005

Friends Center General Programming

Summer at Friends Center brought a slowing down of activity on campus, but we kept busy, nonetheless. Final plans were made for the fall Quaker Renewal Program series and syllabi for two Quakerism courses on campus (Quaker history and Quaker testimonies) and one at Wake Forest Divinity School (Quaker women) were created.

The Hut was renovated during the summer with funds allocated by the President's Office. It now enjoys a fresh coat of paint, new floor and ceiling tile, new carpet and book cases, renovated bathroom, and furniture from Goodwill and the New Garden Friends flea market! Cleaning out the old stuff and re-arranging the new took a great deal of time; the process continues as I empty boxes into the new shelves and cabinets.

Another successful work trip to Ramallah, Palestine was held this summer under the sponsorship of Friends United Meeting. Jane and I accompanied seven group members and occasional "hangers-on" from the States who would join with us while visiting in the region. Good work was done at the Friends Schools and we were again favored with wonderful home hospitality and stimulating speakers.

Attendance at various yearly meetings has capped off a busy summer. Jane and I led a workshop for the high school Young Friends at Baltimore Yearly Meeting sessions, and I was the Bible half-hour speaker for New England Yearly Meeting. At North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM), two Ramallah workshops were offered, one on the work trip and one on the new Friends International Center in Ramallah. Timing of the work trip prevented attendance at NCYM (Conservative). Additionally, I was one of the evening worship speakers for the Plowshares Project conference, "Seeking Peace: The Courage to be Nonviolent," sponsored by the historic peace churches and funded by Lilly Endowment. The conference was held in Indianapolis in September and brought together more than 400 Mennonites, Brethren, Quakers and others who are committed to nonviolent action for peace and justice.

Deborah Shaw has remained engaged with Friends Center work while serving the Initiative on Faith and Practice and is traveling widely among Friends. She attended the Friends Association for Higher Education conference at Haverford this summer, serves on the Pendle Hill General Board, continues to be involved with The School of the Spirit and the FGC Traveling Ministries program, and is active in NCYM (Conservative) leadership. Later this fall, she will co-lead a Pendle Hill weekend "Basic Quakerism" course with Ben Pink Dandelion.

The coming academic year will witness a plethora of speakers and programs in the College's Year of Spirit and Spirituality. Friends Center's contribution to the mix includes:

Lon Fendall (J. M. Ward)	November 13-15
Peter Blood and Annie Patterson (Luby Casey)	January 21-24
Arthur Magida (with an Initiative grant)	January 25-27
Niyonu Spann (Judith Weller Harvey)	March 25-27

Landrum Bolling, former president of Earlham College and currently Director-at Large of MercyCorps, has agreed to come in September 2006 as the J.M. Ward Distinguished Quaker Visitor. Signe Wilkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Philadelphia Daily News will be the Judith Weller Harvey Quaker Scholar in November, 2006 and will accompany an art installation of her work. We are in conversations with Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) to be the 2007 Luby Casey Campus Ministry Visitor.

As the new academic year got under way, an experimental alcohol policy was tested at a campus dance. Friends Center has been involved in conversation about the policy through organizing discussion meetings, articulating a Quaker understanding of the issue for the Campus Life Office, the President's Office, and others.

Campus Ministry

At this writing, campus ministry programs are displaying an unusual vibrancy. Perhaps it is the contagion effect of the Year of Spirit and Spirituality, or perhaps we are catching part of the wave of contemporary young adults who are "desperately seeking spirituality;" perhaps we're just seeing the results of a doubling of enrollment at the College. Whatever the reason, College Meeting for Worship has enjoyed an average attendance of nearly 50, morning quiet worship has attracted increased attendance this year, and an experimental vespers program has been enjoying good attendance, even at 10:15 p.m.! Leadership for the vespers program (in the form of brief readings and occasional music) comes from the Quaker testimonies class.

The Guilford Council of Religious Organizations (GCRO) has transitioned successfully to new clerks and editors of the Caw and has helped outfit (plainly!) the new meditation room in the community center, a room that is the result of a GCRO suggestion to the architects and building planners.

Fall break work trips with Friends Disaster Service and to Tompkins organic farm are being planned. As of this writing, FDS believes it will be able to take students to Mississippi to help with the Hurricane Katrina clean-up. The American Friends Service Committee has made funds available to help Friends responding to the disaster.

Deborah Shaw continues to offer monthly Taize worship, also well-attended this year, in addition to work on discernment issues as part of her IFP work.

We have been unsuccessful thus far in finding a replacement for Fr. John Frambes, who worked with our Catholic students. There are some leads on a priest who might be able to help. Similarly, Hillel is undergoing a transition as the state office for the Jewish organization is emphasizing student leadership rather than more direct staff involvement. Guilford Christian Fellowship also lost its InterVarsity staff person and is depending on student leadership.

Quaker Concerns has been revived and infused with new energy through connection with a "second-level" QLSP group: students who have joined QLSP following their first year at Guilford.

A 16^th annual Friends Meetings Progressive Dinner was held for the College on August 26, with 130 students, faculty, and staff served a delicious potluck meal and dessert at New Garden Friends and Friendship Friends Meetings.

Friends Center Work with the Guilford Strategic Plan

Training materials on Quaker decision making and Friends testimonies were completed over the summer in response to the strategic plan's goal of strengthening the expression and understanding of Quaker principles on campus. Quaker Testimony at Guilford and Consensus at Guilford are being used in First Year Experience classes, Quaker history courses, orientation programs, and Friends Center's six-week series for the community, "Quakerism 101." Fifty faculty, staff, trustees, students, and community members are attending the series which began August 30 and will go through October 4, covering topics of Quaker history, worship, authority, decision-making, diversity, testimonies, and Quaker influence on the College.

Funding for production of materials and the Quakerism 101 series (which includes a free lunch!) is being provided by sources including the Initiative on Faith and Practice, the Chace Fund of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, funds budgeted for the strategic plan, and Friends Center. Chace Fund money will pay for four from Guilford attending Art Larrabee's November 18-20 clerking workshop at Pendle Hill: the co-clerks of QLSP, the president of community senate, and the clerk of the faculty.

This year, Friends Center will coordinate preliminary discussions on campus toward addressing the strategic plan's call for an ethical purchasing and procurement policy. Work will continue on educating the community about Quaker principles, strengthening relationships with the wider community of Friends, and recruiting Quaker students, faculty, trustees, and staff. Discussions are being held with the director of Quaker Lake to further cooperation between the College and the camp. I am serving on the NCYM (F) long-range planning committee, and the yearly meeting is once again planning to host the College at an open house in April.

Adult Programming

The Quaker Renewal Program offering for fall 2005 is a study of Karen Armstrong's A History of God. Brochures were mailed out over the summer for the six-week series led by local experts on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim understandings of God. Registration at this writing is nearing 30. The winter 2006 QRP program will be a Saturday workshop on singing led by Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, authors of Rise up Singing. A topic for the spring has not yet been determined.

Quaker Leadership Scholars Program

Friends Center continues to assist the QLSP program at Guilford through offering courses in Quaker history and spirituality, working with internships and service programs, and aiding in recruitment. This fall, more than 20 students are enrolled in the Quaker testimonies course, the majority first-year QLSPers. A smaller number of QLSPers are in the Quaker history class, a course required of participants in the program. A QLSP senior seminar is studying Wil Cooper's A Living Faith. I am advising a rejuvenated Quaker Concerns group on campus, revived to accommodate a new "second level" of QLSP for students who join QLSP after a year or two of Guilford.

With the new second level, QLSP numbers are in the mid-50s.

Of interest: Sara Van Degrift '97 was recorded as a Friends minister by NCYM (F) this year, and Becky Memelaar '03 and Michael Fulp, Jr. '04 are now under the care of the Recording Committee. Michael, Becky, and Sara were three of the four leaders for morning worship at the recent annual sessions. Michael is now serving Prosperity Friends as pastoral minister while assisting with the first-year QLSP program. April Bailey-Lyons, a current CCE student and former QLSPers, is the pastoral minister of Hillel Friends, an innovative young adult meeting under the care of the yearly meeting.

Three of the nine recipients this year of the national Clarence and Lilly Pickett Quaker Leadership Awards are current or former QLSPers: Evan Welkin, Christina Repoley, and Dorsche Pinsky.

A dozen or more current students and alumni attended the August World Gathering of Young Friends in England. All were past, current, or prospective QLSPers.

The IFP has hired a QLSP alumna for an Associate position working with QLSP.

Funding

Through the generosity of hundreds of friends of Friends Center, many meetings and Quaker organizations, and several charitable organizations, the Annual Fund goal of $50,000 was met this year, coming in at $51,095. An additional $25,000 was designated to Friends Center by a donor who had made an undesignated gift to the Our Time in History Campaign. Those funds will be placed in the Friends Center endowment. I would like to consult with the donor about using some of the income off the gift to establish a new award at the College for a student who has demonstrated the best in the Quaker tradition of "speaking truth to power."

I worked over the summer with the Advancement Office to identify those in the Henry Freeman report who wish to support Friends Center in a major way and began making "quiet phase" calls with the assistance of Advancement staff. The Office has been very supportive and encouraging.

The College will complete its feasibility study for a campaign this fall. Depending on the findings, Friends Center may be called on as early as next spring to join in a comprehensive College fund-raising drive. Already, Friends Center is being incorporated into materials that list giving opportunities for donors.

Quaker Recruitment

Visits by Scott Pierce Coleman to Quaker Lake Camp, Deborah Shaw to NCYM (Conservative) and other Quaker gatherings, and me to NCYM (F), Baltimore Yearly Meeting, FUM Triennials, and New England Yearly Meeting continued our plan to be more intentional about recruiting Quaker students. We seek out and respond to invitations to be present where Guilford has an opportunity to attract young Friends. This year, 9% of the entering class of more than 400 traditional-aged students are Quaker.

Faculty openings are advertised in Quaker journals and by other means. The new physics professor is a Friend, but he is the only one among the new class of 26 tenure-track faculty. A new staff person in the Library is a Friend, and the new Dean of Campus Life has begun attending a Friends meeting.

Max L. Carter, director
Friends Center
9/08/2005