Our 2022 Annual Meeting brought together more than 500 Friends online and in Washington, D.C., to learn, lobby, worship, and chart FCNL’s future.
Over the course of five days, we undertook significant work. Friends gathered for FCNL’s 79th Annual Meeting—and our first hybrid gathering. As General Committee clerk Mary Lou Hatcher reminded us, we gathered in Washington, D.C., and in person all around the country. We connected and reconnected and remembered Friends who were not with us.
In our business, the General Committee approved our legislative priorities for the 118th Congress (2023-2024) and looked forward to the coming year’s work to develop FCNL’s next strategic plan. We reflected on and celebrated our community’s advocacy and our staff’s leadership and challenged ourselves to live into our aspirations of a society with equity and justice for all. And we lobbied powerfully for our government to pursue environmental justice.
Highlights
- Community: We were joined by 151 people in Washington, D.C., and 384 people online, for a total of 535 registrants. Participants in our Quaker Public Policy Institute went on 160 lobby visits, representing 43 states.
- Advocacy: Clarence Edwards spurred us to action in support of the Environmental Justice for All Act (H.R. 2021/S. 872) and the unique opportunity before us to center the most impacted communities in our work to respond to the climate crisis.
- Spirit-led Reflections: Our worship leader, Francisco Burgos, grounded us in prayer. His Sunday message reminded us of the teaching to witness, love, and walk humbly with Spirit from Micah 6:8. Our reflection and worship were deep. tom kunesh, Jose Santos Woss, and Lauren Brownlee reflected on their experiences as Friends and how they envisioned Quakers being brave and constant as we consider how to learn from our past to build a more just and peaceful future.
- Vision: General Secretary Bridget Moix spoke about her journey with FCNL and encouraged us to consider our own journey and vision for the future of this work together.
- Intergenerational Connection: In a time of worship sharing, FCNL’s program assistants reflected on queries related to why they lobby.
- Celebrating Congressional Champions: We recognized two members of Congress for their leadership: Sen. Tim Kaine (VA) for his bipartisan efforts to reassert Congressional war powers, which is critical to reining in the use of force abroad, preventing the escalation and expansion of conflicts, and forging a path to end forever war, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK), for her work to honor the nation-to-nation relationship the federal government has with tribal nations and leadership in responding to the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People.
- Looking to the Future: With a determined eye toward the world we seek, the General Committee reached unity on new legislative priorities to guide FCNL’s advocacy in the 118th Congress (2023-2024) and began a process of listening to divine guidance around policies related to reproductive health care, including abortion.
Recordings
Save the Date for Annual Meeting 2023: November 15-19