The Gathering
A key program of FGC is the annual Gathering of Friends held at a different college campus every July. The event usually attracts 1,200 to 1,500 attenders from around the world, but most participants come from the United States and Canada. The event features 40–60 workshop and a slate of plenary speakers. Topics covered include Quaker faith and practice, arts and crafts, multigenerational programming, and political activism. The Gathering hosts both Quaker and non-Quaker speakers focusing on messages of interest to Quakers. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. offered a Plenary presentation in 1958. More recently, the Gathering hosted Lester Brown, Shane Claiborne, and Ben Pink Dandelion.
In addition to workshops and plenary sessions, the gathering often features special events such as concerts. Folk legend Pete Seeger performed a concert in 1997. Evalyn Parry, older sister of FGC attender Richard Parry - of the Arcade Fire, has also performed several times at FGC, including in 2002 and 2011.
Read more about this topic: Friends General Conference
Famous quotes containing the word gathering:
“The way to go to the circus, however, is with someone who has seen perhaps one theatrical performance before in his life and that in the High School hall.... The scales of sophistication are struck from your eyes and you see in the circus a gathering of men and women who are able to do things as a matter of course which you couldn’t do if your life depended on it.”
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