Registration for this year's Quaker Women's Conference is open now. If you've attended the conference before you should be receiving the registration brochure soon. Registration deadlines are August 15 for the early bird special ($15 discount), and September 1 for the final deadline.

These may seem like early deadlines, but many thing need to happen after your registration is received.

Because this is a "participant-led conference," and part of the goal is to get to know each other better, after you register a conference planner will contact you about the active roles you may wish to take. Some are very simple (sing in the choir, fix coffee), others more complex and require stronger leadership commitment. Your level of participation is up to you.
To help us get to know each other, you'll get an opportunity to respond to a thoughtful Open Response Query by writing a brief essay. This is always a simple but profound way to explore your own experience in relation to the conference theme. You'll be asked to return the Query, and your response will be shared with other women as we prepare to attend the conference. Sisters of the conference say that it's a lovely way to meet other women before we even arrive. When we get to the camp we realize that we know these women already, from their essay. It's been wonderful.

If you have not attended before, please let us know you want to come. Send a registration request to registrar Sara Scribner at SaraBScribner@aol.com . We're getting excited. Look forward to seeing you in November.

Sue Wine and Elda Ann Cox during the 2007 QWConference.

Sisters in the Faith

Quakers have been given the gift of diversity. Even though it's a gift that's sometimes hard to appreciate, it has lessons that sisters of this conference value deeply. Our beliefs may vary. Our lives may seem peculiar to one another. Our values may seem at times to contradict our claims of sisterhood.

But beneath it all our unity in the Spirit rests on a solid rock of certainty that the Spirit of God moves in and among us through every condition in which we find ourselves.

The Infinite Love of God... Speaking to all conditions.

"And the Lord answered that it was needful I should have a sense of all conditions: how else should I speak to all conditions? And in this I saw the Infinite love of God." (George Fox)

As Quaker women in the 21st century, we, like George Fox in the 17th, want to have our own conditions ministered to and also to speak to the conditions of others in our world. Together, let's consider how we may more fully experience "the infinite ocean of light and love" that George Fox saw flowing over the ocean of darkness.

2009 Quaker Womens Conference on Faith and Spirituality, November 5-8, Heart o' Hills Conference Center near Tulsa, OK. For registration information email SaraBScribner@aol.com.

6th Quaker Women's Conference in planning

The sixth Quaker Women's Conference on Faith and Spirituality is now in the works. Please put this date on your calendar:

November 5-8, 2009
Heart O' Hills Conference Center
Welling Oklahoma

This is a new camp site for the conference. It's 60 miles east of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and only a few miles from Tahlequah. Very different then the red rocks of Canyon Camp, but also beautiful, with rolling hills, trees and streams. The conference center is a comfortable retreat, simple, but with all the amenities we're accustomed to.

The center is proud of their kitchen staff, and they've worked carefully to help set up a menu that meets a variety of needs for us. If you have special dietary needs please let us know. Hope we can help you now.

More Conference information will be coming out soon. Please ask, if you have questions. We'd love to talk about it.

Conference Epistle 2007

The fifth biannual Quaker Women's Conference on Faith and Spirituality was held November 1 – November 4, 2007 at Canyon Camp and Conference Center in Hinton, OK. The camp lies at the base of Red Rock Canyon. We were graced by days of sun lighting up the rugged cliffs and early autumn foliage. Our theme this year was “Mustard seeds in the 21^st Century: Growing in the Spirit.” In attendance were fifty-one Friendly women including members of our sponsoring yearly meetings: Evangelical Friends Church, Mid-American Yearly Meeting, South Central Yearly Meeting, and Great Plains Yearly Meeting, as well as women from other Yearly Meetings. We were fortunate to welcome Dorothy Day from Friends World Committee for Consultation and Sue Axtell from Earlham College of Religion. Peggy Parsons, recorded minister of Freedom Friends Church in Salem, Oregon, joined us as a guest speaker.

“Spiritual journeys take different paths.” These were the first words of the registration brochure inviting us to Quaker Women's Conference. Coming from different paths, we arrived at Canyon Camp equipped with homemade jam, herbs and spices. These would be mingled in Thursday evening's bread-baking activity. This activity introduced us to the women assigned to our home group. We shared the process of transforming a sack of dry ingredients into golden brown goodness using Betty Jean Penrose's mother's recipe.

Through a series of scriptural passages and queries, our home groups provided a safe environment for us to share our stories of spiritual turning points, weathering storms, God's call in our lives, and bearing fruit. The home groups offered an opportunity to speak to each other in the Spirit, bridging our differences in love.

Times of programmed and unprogrammed worship refreshed our spirits. Deeply personal stories of spiritual growth and prophetic ministry touched our hearts and challenged us to listen and act upon God's call in our lives.

Eva Brightup and Liz Wine shared journeys of coming into awareness as a spiritual being. Our traveling Friend from Oregon, Peggy Parsons, recounted a transformative experience in which God utilized her to begin a process of healing for a traumatized church and community. Peggy identified obstacles to hearing and obeying God's call to action. She challenged us to remove these obstacles.

Jude Filler and Lois Smuck inspired us with their courage in weathering personal storms and finding the Spirit in adversity. Donnetta Carpenter and Donna Dzerlinga offered fresh understanding on what it means to bear spiritual fruit in ministry and in raising children.

Twelve workshops were offered over the weekend. Some of these focused on creative expression, including beading, knitting scarves, faith-booking, and butterfly-making. Consistent with our theme of sowing seeds and growth, we provided workshops on eating and growing locally and on Quaker attitudes toward food and drink.

We enjoyed learning about each other as programmed and unprogrammed Friends through two workshops: “Quakers by Convincement” and “Similarities and Differences in Quakers”.We also learned about each other in the informal process of getting together to eat, sing, talk, walk and play. Shelli Kadel led and accompanied a small, but enthusiastic choir.

In one workshop we turned our hearts and minds to the suffering of Iraqi refugees. In another we viewed the hopeful beginnings of peace in Rwanda and Burundi with a slide show presentation on Evangelical Friends mission work.

Friday evening Liz Wine emceed a coffee house. We enjoyed poetry, tai chi, singing, and scarf juggling. Saturday evening two historical Quaker Women, Mary Dyer and Elizabeth Fry, mysteriously appeared. Although laced with humor, the stories of these Quaker heroines exemplified courage and trust in God's call.

After semi-programmed worship on Sunday our conference closed with singing hymns and songs frequently used by Quakers from different traditions. Discussing these songs and hymns in small groups allowed us to open a window from which to view differences in our traditions.

“Spiritual journeys take different paths.” These words reflect reality, but from November 1st to November 4th, programmed and unprogrammed Quaker women were on one path – the path of loving companionship. We left the red rocks of Canyon Camp having been taught by the Spirit.

Fifty-two women attended the 2007 conference. A few had to leave Sunday morning before the group photo was taken. Photographer was Alice Jake, who didn't want to be in the photo anyway.

Wow, Lovely Conference

Wow, lovely conference. All sisters of the conference report that they've made it home safely, and are in the process of recovery. Now we have the memories, like the odor of fresh bread, that wafts us back to the experience.

Fresh bread was the first order of business. We met in Home Groups and lovingly formed the loaves as we got to know each other. We planned to have the bread at Friday night's Home Group session, but those of us still hanging around the kitchen got a sample as it came from the ovens. Sorry if you missed it. It was still really good the next evening.

Each loaf included lots of 'provenance' -- ingredients with personal history -- for us. Herbs, flavors, blue corn meal, stone ground flour. The provenance also included fresh-churned butter, jams, honeys and other tasty treats that remind us of our homes and history. That part waited for Friday night.

One Week One Day

It's Wednesday. One week and one day from now - on Thursday - women will begin meeting at Canyon Camp for the 2007 conference. If it's anything like today's weather, it'll be a brisk November day. As we move back and forth between Hardt Lodge and the dining hall our pace will be brisk, and the talking and laughter will shiver off the red canyon walls around us. It's a protected and protecting place for deep connection.

If you're planning to join us, expect your final mailing very soon. It will have maps, instructions, and other info. If you don't receive it soon, email Kathleen Cairns (kathleencrns@yahoo.com) to check on it. We can email instructions at the last minute too.

The planning committee is excited that the day is finally coming. We're looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. We're glad you're a part of it.

Open Response Query, 2007 QWC

2007 Quaker Women’s Conference on Faith and Spirituality

Theme: Mustard Seeds in the 21^st Century: Growing in the Spirit

Query: Reflect on an experience (or experiences ) which has contributed to your spiritual growth.

What is a Query?

“…Queries remind us of the essential faith and principles of the Religious Society of Friends. They challenge and inspire us in our personal lives and in our corporate life…As we speak to what we know to be true in our lives and to listen to each other in humility and understanding, we trust the Spirit that transcends our human effort and comprehension… (We) hope that we may be more faithful and find deeper joy in God’s service.”

Faith and Practice, Pacific Yearly Meeting, 2001, page 48.

Why do we pose this query prior to the Conference?

We have found that reflecting on a query prior to the conference helps us to prepare to engage the theme of the conference. Prior sharing of our responses with other women attending the conference serves as an introduction to each other. It can help facilitate deeper relationships with each other during our time together.

What to do with this Query?

Spend some time in reflection and prayer. Write about the thoughts, feelings, insights, that rise up within you, to the extent you feel comfortable sharing them. Your response need not be long or address all the parts of the query. It does not need to be an “answer” to the questions.

Directions for sending your responses:

Please send your response by e-mail or regular mail by October 1^st so that there will be time to share them with other women who are attending. On your response indicate whether you wish to receive others’ responses by e-mail or by regular mail. Be sure to include your e-mail or mailing address on your response.

Mail responses to:

Kathleen Cairns

4870 E. 68^th St. #234

Tulsa, OK 74136

Or send them by e-mail to: kathleencrns@yahoo.com phone number: 918-671- 1843

Your Name:

Your City or Town:

Query: Reflect on an experience or experiences which have contributed to your spiritual growth.

Possible questions to consider in your reflections:

1. How did the experience help you to become aware of God and the Spirit in your life?

2. Who and what nurtured you in your spiritual growth during that time?

3. What challenges and difficulties did you face?

4. What gifts has this experience brought to your life?

5. How can you share these gifts?

You may use this page, front and back - or attach pages as needed.

Mail responses to:

Kathleen Cairns

4870 E. 68^th St. #234

Tulsa, OK 74136

Or send them by e-mail to: kathleencrns@yahoo.com phone number: 918-671- 1843

How would you like to receive other’s responses?

______ I prefer to receive others’ responses by e-mail. My e-mail address is:

______ I prefer to receive others’ responses by regular mail. My address is:

Sondra Sage, from New Mexico, took some nice photos in 2005. This one, of the rocking chairs on the Hardt Lodge porch, just look so friendly. They're still there... just waiting for us to come back and sit in 'em to laugh and talk.