[saymaListserv] Weekend Workshop with Vanessa Julye

[Evdavwes at aol.com]

To Friends in Asheville and surrounding areas,

You are invited to join Asheville Friends Meeting for 

A Weekend with Vanessa Julye.

October 31, 6-9 pm and November 1, 9-5, at Asheville Friends Meeting House, 
227 Edgewood Road in Asheville.

Vanessa is a Quaker minister from Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting.  She 
has a special interest in the experiences of people of color within Friends.  
I have attached at the end of this email information from her web site, <A HREF="vanessajulye.quaker.org">
vanessajulye.quaker.org</A>.  Vanessa will be traveling with her husband Barry Scott as 
elder.

The fee for the workshop is $30.  There are unlimited scholarship funds for 
Friends from any Meeting to participate by paying what they choose.  We will 
collect the fee at the workshop-- no need to pay in advance.

The schedule for the weekend is as follows:

October 31 6 pm potluck dinner, followed by introductory session until about 
9 pm.

November 1, 9-5, with lunch break probably 12-2.  Brownbag lunch (bring your 
own).  Participants will be asked to bring some snacks to share with others.  
We will be in touch in the week before the workshop to confirm your 
registration and let you know what to bring.  Coffee and tea will be provided.

Please notify David Clements if you are interested in attending.  Call 
828-280-4431 or send an email to evdavwes at aol.com.  Because of the size of the 
Meeting House, we have to limit participants to 30.  We have about 20 as of this 
writing.  We may be able to arrange housing for those from out of town.  
Childcare will be offered if  requested by October 24.

In Peace,

David Clements, for the organizing committee:

Joan MacKenzie, Ursula Scott, Evan Richardson, Margaret Farmer, Mark Cobb, 
David Clements

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All About the Ministry of Vanessa Julye

Vanessa's journey has been to listen to members of the Religious Society of 
Friends, especially people of Color (past and present.)  She shares the 
experiences of people of Color with The Society of Friends to help Quakerism become a 
 whole blessed community.  A large part of her ministry is to hear that 
people of Color often do not feel welcomed and included in the Religious Society of 
Friends.  Vanessa's ministry involves a combination of visiting, writing, 
speaking, and traveling to provide witness and education.  She also provides 
leadership on a number of committees and concern groups in the wider Quaker 
community that have grown out of her ministry. Vanessa responds to requests for 
visits from Friends schools, organizations, yearly, quarterly and monthly 
meetings.  This ministry is well-rooted in the Quaker Testimony of Equality and is a 
concern that needs lifting up in the Religious Society of Friends at this time. 
 

The ministry has been tested over a period of eight years, and has gradually 
grown, not only as a result of Vanessa's inward leading, but as a response to 
her outward practice of visitations and other work. All indications are that 
there is a readiness for her ministry, an opening that seems of the Divine.

Called to do this work in 1994, one of the ways Vanessa started answering 
this call was by serving as the convener of a worship group for people of color 
at Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting 1996. She continues this work in the 
present, also providing pastoral care for individuals of color.  She clerked the 
Fellowship of Friends of African Descent from 1996 to 2002. In June 2000, she 
received a minute for religious service from her meeting, Central 
Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (CPMM).  This minute has since been endorsed by Philadelphia 
Yearly Meeting's Interim Meeting.  

Vanessa has given numerous workshops and written several articles about her 
experience as a Friend of Color in the Religious Society of Friends.  These 
have been published in The Canadian Friend, CPMM's newsletter, FGC Connections, 
Friends Journal, Quaker Life and Westtown in Word and Deed.  Vanessa and her 
ministry were the focus of an article in the December 2000 issue of Essence 
Magazine (a popular magazine for African American women).  

She travels in the ministry to monthly meetings as a participant in Friends 
General Conference's Traveling Ministry Program.  Vanessa travels specifically 
sharing her concern about racism within the Religious Society of Friends and 
to nurture isolated Friends of Color.  Nurturing Friends of Color includes 
visits to meetings that have one or a few people of Color as members or attenders.

As a part of her ministry Vanessa is researching and co-writing a publication 
about the historical and present day relationship of Friends and people of 
African descent.  This book will include biographies of specific Friends of 
Color.  Unacknowledged racism in the Religious Society of Friends is one of the 
historical factors that make it difficult for African Americans to join and 
remain in our society.  

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