Every year, FCNL staff travel to visit Quaker Yearly Meetings across the country. These are always encouraging moments to connect with Friends, hear their concerns, and share what FCNL is doing to be their voice in Washington.
In 2026, we asked staff to share some brief reflections on their visits. If you’d like to stay connected with FCNL through the year, you can sign up for our monthly Quaker Contacts newsletter or our weekly This Week in the World.
Lake Erie Yearly Meeting
Ashland, OH at Ashland University
Attended by: Justin Hurdle
Many Friends and advocates can appreciate Lake Erie Yearly Meeting’s Annual Session theme, “Finding Hope, Joy and Courage in Community.” On my drive back to Washington, I reflected on where I found each of those during the gathering.
They were present in too many stories to count. Friends from different generations, backgrounds, and communities have put their bodies on the line to protect their neighbors and speak out for peace and justice. It was in the Meetings with Attention to Business, each beginning with a different beautiful Epistle from Friends across the globe. And it was in the ways that Friends supported and motivated each other to practice hope in ways large and small as a response to the cruelty we see all around us.
The highlight for me and many others was a plenary message from Joe Volk, former FCNL Executive Secretary, in which he shared from his life several acts of resistance – not to brag nor rest in nostalgia, but to inspire and remind us that “joyful resistance” can have more impact than we may know or expect. I encourage you to watch his message here. The talk paired nicely with my workshop about engaging candidates for office, in which we discussed creative and unique ways Friends can build relationships with candidates and elected officials.
And what about finding community? That was easy. I found it during a discussion with other parents about raising Quaker children where we could talk openly and support each other – while children were joyfully playing around us. But mostly I found it in nearly every space I was in during the gathering, from the puzzle table between sessions and the meals to meet Friends curious about FCNL to the joyous updates from about growth in local Meetings and the Memorial Minutes met with celebration of truly remarkable lives lived.
I returned to Washington refreshed, reinspired, and recommitted to empowering Friends to not only find hope, joy, and courage – but to show each of those virtues in our collective work towards a World We Seek.
Western Yearly Meeting
Syracuse, Indiana at Quaker Haven Camp
Attended by: Alicia McBride
Western Yearly Meeting this year divided their annual sessions into three parts. Business is taking place over weekends in May and August, while this mid-June time at camp emphasized community time and reflection on larger questions in the Yearly Meeting about shifting demographics and welcoming. It was lovely to be among children, elders, and everyone in between in a beautiful place, even if it was too early in the season for comfortable swimming in the lake (at least for me).
Each day began and ended with worship. I was invited, along with five others, to offer a message considering one of the “SPICES” (simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship) and sharing on the gathering’s theme of “How to Be a Quaker Today.” Each message gave new perspectives and insights, along with a profound sense of interconnection between our testimonies as Friends. The worship that followed these sharings was deep. A version of the message I offered on the testimony of integrity is available here.
Bringing a message helped me feel a part of this gathering in ways that went beyond being a representative from FCNL. Another moment of belonging happened when I had taken a book to read by the lake. Within minutes, one of the children came over and asked me to push him on the swings. Another quickly joined him, so I soon found myself hurrying back and forth between two swings to make sure nobody lost their height or swayed into the swing set frame. My efforts seemed successful; at the end of our time together, one of the children rewarded me with a sticker.
