17 September 2024
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you from a boat on the Blyde River in South Africa, where I am currently enjoying a six-week solo road trip around the country. I was originally invited to this beautiful land by my Quaker community, to serve as a representative from New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) at the World Plenary Meeting (WPM) for the Friends Committee for Consultation (FWCC) from August 1st–12th in Johannesburg. The theme for the gathering, “Living the Spirit of Ubuntu: Responding with Hope to God’s Call to Cherish Creation and One Another” was rooted in the Zulu word “Ubuntu,” which can be roughly translated as I am because you are. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity and privilege that made this trip possible, especially for the generosity of my family and the NEYM sponsors who provided financial support for my spiritual pilgrimage—thank you!
My time in South Africa started with a Young Adult Friends (YAF) pre-gathering event for Quakers from around the world aged 18 to 35 to come together in fellowship to forge new bonds across distances both geographical and spiritual. The YAF group consisted of nearly 50 young adult Friends representing each of the four FWCC Sections—Africa, Europe & the Middle East, Asia & West Pacific, and the Americas. Over the four day event, we got to know one another through playing games; exploring various forms of programmed, semi- and unprogrammed worship; workshops on the three intersecting themes of the WPM (care for creation, healing historical and ongoing injustice, and nurturing ubuntu), and lots of talking, laughing, singing, dancing.
At the end of the YAF gathering, we joined another 450 or so Quakers on the banks of the Vaal River and online for an even more richly diverse, nourishing, and challenging week of fellowship and connection with Friends from around the world, representing 53 countries and 95 Yearly Meetings. Together we continued to explore and weave together the threads of our interdependent themes, engaging in many activities related to how living the spirit of ubuntu (“I am because we are”) can help us to care for creation while simultaneously healing relationships among our human and more-than-human kin in the light of historic and ongoing injustice. Again we worshiped and shared, sang and danced, played and broke bread together, crossing vast cultural, spiritual, and personal differences while creating connections and memories that are sure to last a lifetime.
Although the gathering was not always easy and I even experienced a crisis of faith partway through, by the end of our time together I felt a renewed commitment to the Quaker Movement and my global community of Friends who are faithfully committed to wrestling with the causes I care about most. We cannot address the climate crisis (care for creation) without also confronting and working towards reparations for historical and ongoing injustice, and I am profoundly moved by the spirit of ubuntu that I feel moving through Friends across the globe that bolsters our connections with the entire Earth community while increasing our capacity for collective radical change. I am proud to call myself a Quaker and deeply grateful for the powerful connections and insights that I am carrying forward from my time at the FWCC WPM in South Africa.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed to my journey, and especially to all those whom I met and developed deep friendships with throughout the gathering. I can confidently say that I am a changed person as a result of the World Plenary Meeting and I am pleasantly surprised and encouraged by my newfound devotion to my faith community. I see so much potential for the global community of Friends to serve as the radical change-makers the world so desperately needs now, and I am immensely glad to be part of the growth and evolution of the Quaker Movement.
I will now be traveling throughout South Africa while working remotely and continuing to make connections with new F/friends across the vast and strikingly beautiful country. I am heading to Kruger National Park this weekend for what I am calling a “sacred safari” with the intention to cultivate connections with the African wildlife who choose to reveal themselves to me while I wait in quiet receptivity and open myself to any messages they may wish to convey through the practice of intuitive interspecies communication (IIC).
If you are curious to hear more about my time at the FWCC WPM or to learn more about the practice of IIC, or if you’d like to follow along on my solo journey through South Africa, feel free to respond to this email or follow me on social media to send a message and watch my stories on Instagram (@trulybri93) or Facebook (@Briana Halliwell). Finally, you are welcome to forward any of my newsletters or my social media handles to people who you think might enjoy the content!
With Blessings and Gratitude,
Briana