Friends Center Director's Report
Spring 2006

Friends Center General Programming

Friends Center joined with countless others worldwide in mourning the death of Tom Fox, one of the Christian Peacemaker Teams hostages in Iraq. Since his kidnapping in November, weekly prayer vigils had been held in the Hut, and with his death an appointed meeting for worship to celebrate his life was organized and held at New Garden Friends. It was a time of deep grief but also of inspiration to "bear the cross" gladly. Upon the release of the remaining CPT hostages, a final vigil was held to rejoice in their safety while still remembering Tom. Later this year, Tom's daughter, a 2001 Guilford graduate, will come to campus to have a small, intimate meeting for worship with the College community.

During and after the CPTers' captivity, many at the College were interviewed by print and electronic media, affording an opportunity to share Friends' understanding of the Christian message.

Iraq was not the only place in the Middle East to occupy our attention this winter. Responding to the surprising news in Palestine of the Hamas victory in the January 26 elections, Friends Center organized a panel of four Palestinian students (all graduates of the Ramallah Friends Schools) to analyze and respond to the Hamas ascendancy. With the help of Jonathan Malino, the February 1 presentation included not only the students but responses from a local rabbi, a political science professor, and Jonathan himself. Eighty people attended, including good turnout from the wider community, including the Jewish community. The News & Record gave it good coverage, but included only a superficial report of the depth of analysis that was offered.

Friends Center continued to offer academic support for the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program and the Quaker Studies Concentration. Spring semester courses have included Quaker Faith & Practice, QLSP senior seminar, and a Fast Track Quaker history course. In addition, another six-week series of Quakerism 101 was offered to the community. Twenty-five registered for the sessions, including several off-campus people. Leaders for the series were Deborah Shaw, Betsy Blake, Max Carter, and a special session with Arthur Larrabee.

Arthur was on campus through a Chace Fund grant to do education on Quaker decision-making. His presentations at the College were very well received, and he was quite favorably impressed with Guilford during his first-ever visit.

Other campus visitors brought by Friends Center during winter/spring included Annie and Peter Blood-Patterson as the Luby Casey Campus Ministry Visitors, leading a music workshop, speaking in classes, bringing the message at College Meeting for Worship, giving public addresses, and doing a concert in the Greenleaf coffee co-op.; Arthur Magida, Guilford parent and author, speaking on and off-campus about his books on the spirituality of rites of passage and the sensational case of a rabbi who hired a hit man to murder his wife; Fergus Bordewich, author of Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America, speaking on Guilford County Friends' contributions to the abolitionist movement; John Muhanji, director of African ministries for Friends United Meeting, visiting classes and speaking on Quakerism in Kenya (courtesy of FUM clerk, Guilford trustee and parent, and NC Friend, Brent McKinney); Niyonu Spann, dean of Pendle Hill, speaking as the Judith Weller Harvey Quaker Scholar, teaching classes, bringing the message in College Worship, and meeting with the College's anti-racism team; Ralph Levering, professor of history at Davidson and the inaugural Fleming Peace Lecturer, talking on North Carolinians' contributions to world peace through global governance (including his parents, Sam and Miriam Levering); and Chris Pifer, AFSC staff in Washington, D.C., visiting classes and talking with students about opportunities with AFSC. Laura Magnani, AFSC staff in penal reform, spoke on Quakers and criminal justice in a JPS class and at an open meeting during Quaker Festival Week.

Quaker Festival Week (April 16-22) featured QLSP senior project presentations, public talks, worship, campus historical tours, and musical concerts. A CD of music from one of the concerts, "A Few Songs Occasioned," is available and is being marketed to Quaker bookstores and other outlets. The music and lyrics are profound.

Friends Center staff have accepted numerous invitations to lead conferences, speak at civic and religious organizations, and share in worship and forums at Friends meetings, including Durham, Charlotte, Oak Hill, New Garden, First Friends, and Spring. The director led a six-week series on the world's religions for the Greensboro Shepherd's Center; ninety attended. A six-week Quakerism 101 series will be presented at First Friends in June and July. Deborah Shaw wrote a chapter in a recently published book about Friends and the Bible and is preparing a chapter for yet another one.

This summer, Max and Jane Carter will again lead a work/study group to Israel and Palestine, June 27 -- July 12. The FUM-sponsored trip will include one Guilford student, a Guilford professor and spouse, a College trustee and spouse, and two others from NCYM (FUM), along with other Friends from around the U.S.

The director has been involved with the NCYM (FUM) Visioning Committee work on long range planning, including subcommittee work on issues dividing the yearly meeting. Intense meetings have been held considering the cultural and theological differences among Friends and seeking ways to avoid acrimony.

The untimely death of Library faculty member Ruth Richardson Scales at the end of the spring semester occasioned a powerful memorial worship after the manner of Friends. Friends Center assisted the Library staff in planning the service.

Speakers for the 2006-07 academic year are Landrum Bolling, September 17-18 (J.M. Ward); Signe Wilkinson, November 16-17 (Judith Weller Harvey); Noel Paul and Betty Stookey, January (Luby Casey -- tentative); and Ben Pink Dandelion, February (Friend-in-residence). Ann Riggs has agreed to speak in 2007-08.

Campus Ministry

We have continued to enjoy increased attendance and quality of College Meeting for Worship. Speakers have been good, and the depth of the silence in unprogrammed worship has been felt.

Morning quiet worship has been small but steady, with 4-6 in regular attendance. The experimental Vespers program continued with a core group of 2-3 who depend on it as a fitting close to the day. Quaker Concerns, Catholic Fellowship, Episcopal Fellowship, Guilford Christian Fellowship, Pagan Mysticism, Buddhist Meditation, the Guilford Council of Religious Organizations, and Hillel remain active. A fledging Unitarian-Universalist group is getting under way with enthusiastic student leadership.

Stump speeches continued each Wednesday, with most days witnessing at least a few practicing free speech. During national "Take Back Your Sleep Week" a sleep-in was sponsored in the Hut, with students in PJs sipping herbal tea, making S'mores in the fireplace, sharing favorite bedtime stories, and reading Goodnight Moon and other beloved children's books. Not much sleep was gained, but it was a surprisingly fun and informative evening.

A spring break work trip to Louisiana with Friends Disaster Service included more than twenty Guilford students, several parents, and the campus ministry coordinator. They joined with the FDS crew in roofing several homes in Bogalusa and making major repairs on one house.

Issues of the GCRO Caw newsletter have continued to be published bi-weekly under the capable editing of Tristan Wilson. GCRO is reaching out to representatives from the various religious groups on campus to increase participation and has had a heartening response. Several new participants were involved in GCRO's year-end planning retreat, and an excellent list of speakers for the fall College Meeting for Worship was generated.

Religious Emphasis Week was held the last week of January, with a theme of "Spirit, Spirituality, and the Spirit of the World." Featured speakers and resource persons were Peter and Annie Blood-Patterson, Jerry Neal, and Arthur Magida. The Blood-Pattersons attracted more than 200 to their various events. Jerry Neal, a member of Poplar Ridge Friends Meeting and co-founder of RF Micro Devices, gave a talk about his new book, Built on a Rock. Arthur Magida spoke to smallish audiences on campus but to more than 90 at the Shepherd's Center and a packed house at the Jewish Federation. In all, more than 560 people attended campus events of REW.

Beginning in the spring semester, a new "passional attraction group" was offered with the title "Am I the Only One?" The group's purpose is to bring together those students (and others) who feel they are the "only one" on campus to hold particular beliefs or make certain lifestyle choices. Topics of discussion included being substance free, holding alternative religious views, and making choices that are not supported on campus. They have attended concerts and lectures together, planted a garden behind the Hut, and had lively discussions over coffee in the Greenleaf co-op.

GCRO planned another successful Easter sunrise service by the lake (more than 60 attended, not counting the revelers who torched the pallets for the bonfire during the night!), an interfaith outing to the ISKCON community of Prabhupada Village in Stokes County, and the annual Baccalaureate worship before graduation.

This year's Judith Weller Harvey Award in Campus Ministry was given to the trinity of Evelyn Jadin, co-clerk of QLSP; Julia Hood, faithful attender of morning and College Worship; and Chris Lett, organizer of spirituality discussions on campus. All three were active in campus religious life through their four years and spoke in College Meeting for Worship.

Friends Center Work with the Guilford Strategic Plan

Through offering "Quakerism 101," we continue to address the strategic plan's goal of orienting the college community to Quaker principles and practices. Friends Center is also still working on recruitment of Quaker faculty, staff, and students, along with developing programs to strengthen the relationship with the wider Quaker community in North Carolina. I have talked with the director of Quaker Lake Camp about cooperative ventures between Guilford and the summer camp in areas where the College has expertise.

The goal for spring semester was to coalesce input on the strategic plan's priority of developing benchmarks for an ethical purchasing policy. GST 450, "Quaker Faith & Practice" took as their class project the development of a policy. They presented their work during Quaker Festival Week, and a final copy of their recommendations was presented to Kent Chabotar, who will now share it with key offices on campus.

Adult Programming

A spring study of Huston Smith's The Soul of Christianity began on March 14 with Huston Smith, himself, leading the first session. Subsequent sessions were led by David Bills and Max Carter, with fourteen in regular attendance. The Quaker Renewal Program was the subject of discussion at the April Friends Center steering committee meeting, with the suggestion that an extensive Quakerism 101 program be offered to the wider Quaker community. NCYM (FUM) has included this possibility in its strategic planning.

Funding

As of May 3, the Annual Fund had contributions of $40,464.00, $300 less than the same time last year. Our goal for the fiscal year is $50,000. We are down in "Sustainer" ($250), "Mover" ($500) and "Quaker" ($1,000) categories. Our "last gasp" letter will go out in May to thank contributors and invite participation from others. A copy of Jon Watts' excellent QLSP senior project CD, "A Few Songs Occasioned," will be sent with the letter to current and past Sustainers, Movers, and Quakers. All will receive a copy of an article in the April issue of Friends Journal by Tristan Wilson '07, reflecting on Guilford's and QLSP's impact on his desire as an unprogrammed Friend to prepare for Quaker ministry.

Friends Center Fund Drive

Friends Center and the College are in the "quiet phase" of the next major fund drive for the College. The Advancement Office has been very helpful to Friends Center in making calls on donor prospects and accompanying me on visits and telephone interviews. One $500,000 pledge to QLSP endowment has already been signed, with two other $10,000 gifts to the QLSP endowment received.

The Initiative on Faith and Practice received word that their proposal for a "transition grant" has been approved, meaning that in January, 2008, Friends Center fund-raising and earnings will have to match nearly $125,000/year in administrative and program costs for a three-year period. Reserves and Annual Fund income are sufficient to assure that for the first year of the grant.

The director has arranged his spring semester, 2007 teaching and administrative load so as to be free for travel, cultivation, and donor calls.

Quaker Recruitment

We will have to scramble hard to meet the goal of a 9% Quaker enrollment in the traditional-aged student body for the fall of 2006. Applications to Guilford are running at a record pace, well in excess of last year's record numbers. This means that we should be getting a proportionately larger number of Quaker applications, but it is doubtful that Quaker applications are keeping pace with such a large number. We will have to focus on yield. There were more than 20 applicants to the QLSP program, however -- one of the largest pools in QLSP's history.

Some positive results are being seen from previous contacts at YouthQuake and visits to various yearly meetings. At least one programmed Friend has expressed intent to enroll -- from Wilmington, OH, and one student each from the Ramallah Friends Meeting (the granddaughter of clerk Jean Zaru) and Kenya (the son of FUM's director of Africa ministries, John Muhanji) has applied.

The hiring of Betsy Blake (QLSP '99) in the Initiative on Faith and Practice and the imminent hiring of an Admission Office staff for Quaker recruitment are promising signs.

We continue to encourage Quaker prospects for faculty and staff positions, and the College has advertised prominently in Quaker journals both for students and for tenure-track faculty appointments.

Max L. Carter, director
Friends Center
Fifth-month, 2006