Fellowship of Friends of African Descent

"A Time for Healing Through Community"

April 12-15, 2007
St Helena Island, SC

My mother drove down to the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent Gathering with me. It was important that she went because two weeks prior to our departure I injured my back and was experiencing a lot of pain in my lower back. I was able to sit in the passenger seat of our car comfortably. However, sitting in the drivers seat was painful so my mother drove everywhere we traveled.

Visit Liz in Savannah, GA

We left Monday morning so we could take two days to drive down to Penn Center. I also planned to spend Wednesday with Liz in Savannah. My mother got sick so we spent the day in the hotel instead of with Liz. I used the time to do some work that I had not been able to complete prior to leaving. Mom was feeling better the next day, Thursday, so we spent the morning and early afternoon in Savannah with Liz, Helen & Robin, a former co-worker from Friends General Conference & Robin, her husband. We got a chance to visit Liz in her new house. The directions Frank gave us were perfect. They took us directly to the front door. Liz gave us a tour of the house. Liz, Helen, Robin, mom and I ate lunch at Liz's dining room table. Then we all piled into Liz's car and drove to Tybee Island to do some sight seeing. We stopped at the Lighthouse, but the line was long and we didn't want to stand in the heat to walk up the stairs inside of a very hot lighthouse. The beach was more exciting to us so we left the parking lot of the Lighthouse and drove to the beach. Tybee beach has a pier and pavilion. We walked along the beach, on the pier and around the pavilion. Many people were fishing off of the pier. The beach was surprisingly crowded with people of all ages. We assumed that many of the children and college students were there because their schools, colleges and Universities must have been on spring break. Before we knew it it was late afternoon and mom and I needed to leave Savannah to return to South Carolina so that I could attend the Gathering.

FFAD's 13th Gathering

The Gathering began with dinner on Thursday. It was smaller this year, fewer ad

ults and children attended. Several of my friends did not attend, including Barry. This was the first Gathering I attended without him.

As usual there were new Friends I had not met before who came and I enjoyed meeting and getting to know them. We had several business meetings, heard from members of the American Friends Service Committee's Third World Coalition about conditions in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi post Katrina, poured libations at the beach and watched the FFAD video that one of our members is making.

Fellowship Decisions: Travel to Africa - Kenya or Ghana?

The Fellowship made several important decisions. We decided not to combine our Gathering next year with FGC’s Midwest Regional Consultation for Friends of Color. Our biggest decision was something we had been talking about for several years, a trip to Africa. We talked about traveling to either Kenya or Ghana. As a group we were concerned about the homophobic environment in Kenya. The Fellowship has a diverse membership, we are gay, lesbian and heterosexual. The majority of the meetings in Kenya are programmed with a pastor and are members of Friends United Meeting (FUM). The extreme homophobia, which is deeply ingrained in African culture and reinforced by East African Christian theology Statements heard by members of New York Yearly Meeting who attended the strategic planning meeting about homosexuality while in Africa were:

“We don’t have any homosexuals in Africa. We don’t have that problem here.”
“The suicide rate for gay Friends in Africa is very, very high.”
“In the forty-six languages spoken in Kenya, there is no word for homosexual.”

“In the younger generation of African Friends, homosexuality is not such a big
issue.”
“God made Adam. When he was lonely, God made Eve out of him. God told them
to be fruitful and multiply. How are two men to do this? The Bible makes it very
clear that marriage is between a man and a woman. I do not understand why we
are having this discussion.”

FUM held a general board meeting in Kenya in February 2007. Just prior to this board meeting they had strategic planning meetings in Kakamega. In the morning of the second day of the meeting the clerk of Uganda Yearly Meeting "gave a lengthy sermon on Romans 1:18–32, proclaiming repeatedly that even those who condone homosexuality are worthy of death." Gi

ven this sermon and the general concern about the sexual ethics portion of FUM's personnel policy; the group was concerned about our safety among Friends in Kenya. Finally, on Saturday evening we decided to travel to Ghana, (and possibly Togo and Benin) West Africa in 2009 or 2010. The Friends in Ghana are unprogrammed and Independent, which means they are not affiliated with FUM. A subcommittee was appointed to plan that Gathering. I volunteered to serve on that committee. As a result of our decision to go to Africa we agreed to meet in Atlanta at Morehouse next year June 19-22.

Thank You Penn Center

The Fellowship has enjoyed meeting at Penn Center on St Helena Island in South Carolina. It was a warm, affirming and grounded environment for us. However, travel to the area is expensive for anyone who needs to fly. The nearest airport is Savannah which is about an hour away. Friends then have the added expense of paying for a limousine to drive them from the airport to Penn Center. Our decision to go to Africa encouraged us to relocate to Atlanta which will reduce the expenses related to travel so that Friends can begin saving money for traveling to Africa. We will miss meeting at Penn Center very much. It was like returning home for many of us each year we gathered there.

Committee for Ministry on Racism

March 16 - 18th, Friends General Conference's Committee for Ministry on Racism had their annual winter meeting in Washington, DC. Since my energy level was so low I decided to travel to DC the day before the meeting. I took the train down to DC Thursday afternoon. It gave me an opportunity to rest from my travel and be ready for the tour and meetings. Neil Froemming and Sara Satterswaite’s generously hosted me instead of staying at the William Penn House with the rest of the Committee. They live only a few blocks away.

National Museum of the American Indian
We had a guided tour of the National Museum of the American Indian on Friday afternoon. Later that evening we had dinner at Neil and Sara's house. We ate take out food from a nearby Indian Restaurant. After our delicious dinner we sat around Neil and Sara's television and watched the very powerful documentary, “In the Light of Reverence: Protecting America’s Sacred Land." This documentary tells the struggle of The Lakota, Hopi and Wintu people, the traditional caretakers for three sacred areas who fight to co-exist with non-Indians whose concepts about land use, culture and what is sacred are different from theirs.

Committee Meeting at William Penn House
Our Committee met all day Saturday at the William Penn House. The Committee decided to sponsor a consultation for Friends of Color in the Midwest in May 2008. The joint conference with CMR and Youth Ministries has been pushed back to March 2009. Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship is expected to be ready the fall of 2008.

Paul Ricketts was at William Penn House that weekend. He was there with a group from primarily peace churches in Fort Wayne. They scheduled a meeting with Keri Maloney, Sen. Lugar's legislative assistant for military affairs. Their meeting went well. I was glad to see him just sad that we were not able to spend any time together.

Dinner at an Ethiopian Restaurant
Saturday night we went to a local Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. I was excited because on the menu they said that they had two types of bread ( injera), one made with wheat and another made with Teff (a gluten free ancient Ethiopian flour used to make unleavened bread.) However, when we questioned them it turned out that even the Teff injera has wheat in it which meant that I had to get a separate meal because the joint meal we ordered was served on the injera.

Final Day of Work and Worship with Friends
We finished our meeting Sunday morning at Friends Meeting of Washington and worshiped with Friends there afterwards. I was surprised to find a member from Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting who has relocated there. I was happy to see several Friends of Color that I knew. We had a few moments to greet each other and talked for a few moments, but they were on their way to a committee meeting.

Angelina Conti and I returned to Neil and Sara's to wait for our late afternoon train after eating lunch and driving around Howard's campus looking for African shops which might be open on Sunday.

California in January 2007

Orange Grove Meeting – Pasadena, CA

January 16th I flew to Los Angeles to spend six days working with Friends in the Pasadena area at the invitation of Orange Grove Meeting.

When I arrived on Tuesday afternoon, a friend and member of Orange Grove Meeting, Michelle White picked me up at the

airport. She was also my host. The first thing we did was have lunch. Then Michelle took me shopping at Wild Oats where I was able to pick up the gluten free and soy products I needed for the week.

Meeting with the Committee
Later that evening I met with the Friends responsible for bringing me to Orange Grove (David Morse, clerk of Worship & Ministry; Michelle White, Clerk of Peace & Social Concerns; Cliff and Jean Lester, two members of Oversight Committee) to review the schedule for my visit. We

met after a nice dinner hosted by Cliff and Jean.

American Friends Service Committee Regional Office
The next morning, Wednesday, Jean drove me to downtown, Los Angeles for my meeting with the AFSC regional office. We met for two hours. They shared many concerns with me.

Orange Grove Meeting
Later that evening, I facilitated a discussion on race at the meetinghouse. Around 20 Friends attended. Several Friends came from Orange County Meeting. Elaine Emily, a member of Strawberry Creek Meeting, served as my elder for the evening.

California African American Museum
Thursday afternoon, Elaine Emily and I drove into LA and toured the

California African American Museum.

Friends Western School
Friday morning I visited with Friends Western School. Again Elaine served as my elder. I met with all of the children at one time. They ranged in age from Kindergarten to sixth grade. I found it very challenging to engage and keep the children engaged, but Elaine felt I did a wonderful job holding their attention. Elaine and I remained for lunch. During lunch we got an opportunity to talk with some of the teachers and parents. The school has a community lunch on Friday, where they invite parents, members of the meeting and board members to join them for lunch. Elaine left after lunch to drive to Orange County to attend a Pacific Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee Meeting.

Workshop for Orange Grove Meeting
Saturday afternoon I facilitated a 3 hour workshop at Orange Grove Meeting. 20 Friends came from several different meetings to participate. The workshop went well.

Meeting with Friends of Color
Sunday morning I had breakfast with three Friends of Color, two African American women and one Korean woman. We had a good time together. I encouraged them to come to the Fellowship Gathering. Both of the African American Friends had attended at least one previous gathering. It was a very good meeting, one that was very supportive of the Korean Friend who shared her feeling of isolation with us for the first time. The women decided they wanted to continue meeting as Friends of Color and will invite some of the other local Friends of Color who were not able to join us for breakfast.

Final Day at Orange Grove
We drove to the meetinghouse after breakfast where I gave a presentation on the experience of some African Americans in the Religious Society of Friends. The presentation was well attended. I didn’t get a chance to count, but I think there were 35-40 people who came, again from several different local meetings. The meetinghouse was full. The presentation ended in time for worship. A questions and answer period was scheduled for after worship. My presentation was audio taped. The question and answer session was not well attended, the group who planned and orchestrated my visit participated plus a few other Friends. Since there were not a lot of questions I used the opportunity to talk with the group and help them think about what they wanted to do next. They decided that they wanted to form a committee to address racism in the meeting. I hope they are able to establish the committee.

I'm Back!!

Hi Friends,

I know it has been several months since I have written. Many of you know that in February I had my thyroid and three large nodules that had attached themselves to it removed. The surgeon said it was the size of a grapefruit. I am very happy to have it out of my throat, but have struggled with the amount of time it is taking me to recover. After several months my doctors have gotten my synthroid dosage correct, but my energy level has not returned to where it was pre-surgery. As a result there are several things I had to cut back on. Unfortunately, writing in this blog was one of them. I did create and maintain a blog about my surgery which you can read on CarePages which you can view by clicking on this link www.carepages.com , registering and looking for my carepage which is titled, Vanessa Julye.

Believe it or not I have done a lot of traveling since my last entry. I plan to write about all of those trips. Some will have more information than others. So look for my trips in 2007 on this blog.

My Visit to Colorado

On November 3, 2006, I flew to Denver, Colorado to be keynote speaker for the Colorado Regional Meeting of Friends Fall Gathering. The theme of the Gathering was Creating Community: Confronting Power, Prejudice and Privilege. The Gathering was held at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado. Bruce Thron Weber picked me up at the airport, took me shopping at Wild Oats to pick up some corn & gluten-free products. We had dinner with his wife, Penny and daughter, Katya at a Thai restaurant before heading to the Rocky Mountains. It was dark when we drove to the YMCA, so I did not get to see the mountains until the next morning. They were beautiful, but those of you who know me know that I was really unhappy to be in the cold. Despite the fact that it was a bright sunny day, thanks to the wind it was cold!

Will Alsup agreed to serve as an elder for me for the weekend. We spent some time talking and getting to know each other a little on Friday night. I was scheduled to give my keynote address at 1:30 PM on Saturday afternoon, November 4th. So we agreed to meet after lunch so that we could spend some time worshipping prior to my talk. The title of my talk was Faithful to God's Leading, Moving Toward Wholeness.

Friends listened as I shared my struggle with God about what message I should bring to Friends in Colorado. In addition to that struggle I presented some of my work on the history of racism in the United States of America. After my presentation we had time for a question and answer period. Friends asked several questions. I felt good that they had so many questions.

After my keynote, I also facilitated an interest group. Fortunately my group was in the same room where my talk had been. God was moving very strongly in me that day. I was moved to throw out the design I had come to the Gathering ready to present and design a new one with different exercises. I was led to have the workshop focus on "Whiteness." 14 Friends participated in my interest group. This turned out to be the right area to focus on because Friends were not ready to leave when our time was over. I was willing to stay later, but let Friends know our time was over and gave permission to anyone who had another commitment and needed to leave to do so. No one left the room and we remained there an additional 15 minutes.
Participant in the workshop my workshop: What We Can Learn from Our Past.

Pelican Lee and her partner Rebecca Henderson came from New Mexico to participate in the weekend. Peli and I met in 1994 in Abiqui, New Mexico. Peli and I got a chance to spend time together last winter when she came East to participate in Niyonu's Beyond Diversity 101 workshop at Temenos in March. It was such a wonderful surprise to see them. Their presence also helped me feel less alone.

Rebecca Henderson & Pelican Lee

I was exhausted after my presentation and interest group. I returned to my room instead of going to dinner. I called Barry because I needed to hear and get energy from his voice. He and my mother were at a restaurant celebrating our eldest daughter's birthday. Our brief talk energized me enough to walk to dinner. It was nice that the YMCA had taken my food allergies in account and had a selection of foods in the buffet that I could easily eat. I sat at a small table with two other Friends.

As we walked back from dinner a Friend told me that she appreciated me sharing my struggle with writing my talk. She said she had come ready to argue with whatever I said, but that sharing my the extent to which I wrestled with God for my message made it easier for her to listen to me. Her words were very important to me. I feel vulnerable when I present my work, but this talk made me more vulnerable because I began it with sharing the amount of struggle I went through in writing it.


Later that evening, I attended the Cabaret, the traditional Quaker talent night. Will Alsup along with several other Friends performed. The performances ranged from singing while playing a musical instrument to an elementary school age Friend sharing a joke.

I attended one of the sessions of the business meeting and was surprised to learn that they were in the process of discerning if they should affiliate with Friends General Conference. In a letter dated September 2006, InterMountain Yearly Meeting sent several queries to their constituent monthly meetings for Friends to discuss, season and discern in your Meetings and Worship Groups.

Each Meeting was asked to share the queries along with the accompanying background materials. The yearly meeting requested that they prepare their responses to send to the Continuing Committee meeting. The meetings are to be held at Mountain View Meeting in Denver this coming January 26 and 27. Each of the queries suggested possible action to be taken by the Yearly Meeting. Here is the querie regarding the FGC affiliation:

Affiliation with Friends General Conference

Several Meetings in Arizona Half-Yearly Meeting have asked that our Yearly Meeting give consideration to affiliating with Friends General Conference. Background documents are posted under "Fall 2006 Queries" on the Yearly Meeting website http://imym.org that provide information about FGC, define what it means to formally affiliate with FGC and describe the process of mutual discernment that takes place when a Yearly Meeting or Monthly Meeting expresses interest in affiliation.

Query: How does your Meeting respond to the requests that IMYM explore affiliation with Friends General Conference?

The Gathering ended with lunch. As we drove back to Denver I was able to see more of the mountains and countryside in the daylight. When we got into town at Estes Park, we saw a big elk eating in a person's front yard. It was an unusual sight. I was sorry we did not have time to stop for me to take a photograph.

To see more photographs from my trip go to my flickr accout.

Friends General Conference Central Committee

Central Committee 2006!!


Vanessa & Janice Domanik (CMR Clerk)

New FGC Staff members, Naman Hampton and Angelina Conti with Frank Barch (personnel committee member)

Friends General Conference's Central Committee met October 26-29th in New Windsor, Maryland. It was a very good meeting. A lot of work was accomplished. The Committee for Ministry on Racism (CMR) gathered for dinner on Saturday night. We had our formal committee meeting in September in Philadelphia.

The development committee presented FGC's clerk, Marian Beane, a special fusia bonnet for her to wear. It was very popular and comfortable. Marian was very gracious and let many of us try it on.

Interim Program Staff Coordinators: Emily Stewart & Vanessa Julye

Central Committee approved making both the coordinator positions for the Committee for Ministry on Racism and Youth Ministries (YM) permanent positions. The CMR position was increased to a three day a week part time position and the YM position was made full time.

I have been serving as the interim coordinator for CMR over the past year. I have agreed to serve as the long term CMR coordinator.

Pastsy Martin & Traci Hjelt Sullivan relax after Saturday evening Plenary session.

Watching Crash!!

Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting











On the afternoon of October 15th Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting's Ad hoc Committee on Race and Racism sponsored the showing of the film, Crash. Unfortunately, it was a very busy Sunday in Philadelphia. We were competing with the Aids Walk. Around 15 Friends joined us to watch the film. All, but one Friend stayed to share ice cream and talk about the film. Our discussion was artfully facilitated by Barry Scott.