Caln Quarterly Membership Development Session

Presented by Marta Rusek and Rachel Ernst Stahlhut from Friends General Conference

Welcoming is not the work of one or two people at the door.  It takes a whole meeting to create a culture that is ready to attentively and joyfully bring newcomers into the fold of the community.  Sometimes, however, as a result of our assumptions and unexamined biases, we as Quakers can unintentionally put up barriers that keep people out rather than invite people in.  We refer to these barriers as “Friendly Fences.”  In this workshop, Marta Rusek and Rachel Ernst Stahlhut from Friends General Conference will explore the ways that Friendly Fences hinder the welcome experienced by visitors to our Quaker meetings due to race, family structure, age, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, political views, and class background.  We will offer some practical resources for shifting the culture of welcoming in your meeting.

Some of the presentation material is part of FGC’s Growing Our Meetings Toolkit which is organized around the three themes below. This part of the Caln Quarterly Meeting Membership Development Series will focus on the first of the three themes:

• Integrating Newcomers (welcoming visitors and helping them connect with the life of the meeting)

• Inreach (deepening and strengthening the spiritual life of the meeting)

• Outreach (making our presence known in the community)