Epistles

To All Friends Everywhere.

We greet you warmly and open this epistle with a part of the vision statement of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC):

Ours is a Quaker faith community committed to justice, liberation, and the full affirmation of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. We honor the divine Light in all humans and nurture a deep well of faith that sustains courageous witness in the world. We gather to listen deeply to the Spirit, to one another, and to the spoken and unspoken messages that rise among us.

Through direct experience of the Light, we seek spiritual refreshment, fellowship, and the bonds of love that we discover in our shared differences. We affirm loving, Spirit-led sexuality and gender expression as powerful, Divinely bestowed gifts. Guided by this sense of sacred queerness, we reclaim faith as a source of power and resistance, embodying a living testimony of inclusion, equality, and deep, nourishing love.

We came together at the University of Vermont during the Friends General Conference Gathering July 7-12, 2026. In 2024 at Gathering at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, we sat in discernment over the future of the organization. We listened deeply to one another, worshiped together, felt the profound love that has always been the hallmark of FLGBTQC. Over the last year a “Steering Committee” has been working together to examine next steps. They engaged the community in a lengthy survey that asked hard questions including the possibility that FLGBTQC should be laid down. It’s noteworthy that seven times as many people responded to the survey than had in 2022 and there was an overwhelming desire to revitalize the organization. From the Steering Committee four sub-committees were formed: the Reconnecting Subcommittee, the Rebooting Subcommittee, the Revisioning Subcommittee and the ReGathering Subcommittee. Friends did great, creative work including three online threshing sessions.

We are delighted to report that FLGBTQC is alive and revitalized, stronger than ever in spirit. Themes of gratitude were abundant in our Meetings for Worship and our Meetings for Worship with Attention to Business were spirit led. We have clerks, a working Nominating Committee, and Friends joining all the committees: Ministry and Counsel, Online Presence and Tech, Finance and Fundraising. It was very moving to be together in our hybrid format. A Friend wrote: “Being in a room of queer folks of all generations is incredibly meaningful.”

Humor was evident in our work together. Our co-clerk kept referring to doing an agenda review as a gender review! And to the Rebooting Subcommittee as the Rebooting Commootee. We accomplished a lot in our Business Meetings this week because we were so present with each other and Spirit and trusted in the work of our committee. The Rebooting Subcommittee determined that groups.io might better serve our online needs and over 100 Friends have tested this online platform. Hoots and hollers of gratitude were heard as we approved going forward with groups.io as the platform for our communication, a place where we may know each other deeply and honestly. We further approved the 5-year road map proposed for first stabilizing our structure, then expanding our capacities online and with regional gatherings, and finally bringing our online and in-person community together. There are already two regional gatherings in the works for 2027 and the possibility of a national mid-year hybrid gathering in 2028 Infused in all our work is attention to accessibility for all. We seek the participation of people of all generations to serve FLGBTQC in leadership roles.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has had a long witness supporting LGBTQ+ rights, spiritual gifts and equality. Now, in a time of mounting backlash and rising discrimination against transgender people, four Yearly Meetings within Quakerism have named transgender Friends to prominent roles. FLGBTQC sends these Friends our care and support in their new roles and blessings for their service. We also send our care and support to transgender people in all places. We continue, as always, to pray and work for a world where each person’s dignity is honored and each person’s spiritual gifts and talents are nurtured by their communities unconditionally.

On behalf of Friends for Lesbian Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns,

John Skinner and Karen Lightner, co-clerks
clerks@flgbtqc.org
http://flgbtqc.org