The purpose of the Legacy Gift Funds is to support the ministries of New England Yearly Meeting Friends, both within and beyond our region. Guided by our living testimonies, we seek to strengthen our Witness through the funding of public and released ministry
Dear Friends of the Legacy Gift fund,
I am writing to recognize and lift up the service of Mary Link as Clerk of the Legacy Gift Committee for some seven years. Many Friends in New England Yearly Meeting, and beyond, have been inspired and touched by Mary’s personal support, commitment, expertise, and accompaniment of ministries, whether as recipients, as fellow LG Committee members, as guest reviewers, or a beneficiary of flourishing ministries. We wanted to share a selection of appreciations and testimonials expressing gratitude for Mary’s gifts of spiritual accompaniment and practical support for ministry, to celebrate this life-giving service of stewardship and accompaniment of ministry.
Susan Davies, NEYM Permanent Board Clerk
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Fostering ministries and witness has been a lifelong commitment of Mary Link. I first met Mary in the early 80s when she was traveling on behalf of New York Yearly Meeting to local meetings to learn about their witness. Over the years she has provided leadership in Peace Brigades International, based on Gandhian principles of nonviolent resistance; Elise Boulding’s Imaging a World Without Weapons; serving as a catalyst for creative initiatives in a local school district, and much more.
So for her, serving on the Legacy Gift Committee was another opportunity to support Friends in the joy of ministry and witness. As clerk she was conscientious, creative, and committed to Legacy’s approach of identifying the positives in an application and looking for ways to strengthen the work, as well as of helping meetings test, support and provide accountability to individuals called to ministry and witness.. Under her leadership the Committee took on the Salem Quarter grants for two years, organized and implemented the processes for the Bodine-Rustin Fund, and obtained administrative support for the work of the committee. The committee has relied on her energy, full engagement, spiritual wisdom, organizational skill and clarity; she will be sorely missed.
Karen Reixach,
Incoming Clerk, Legacy Gift Committee
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During my many years of serving on and co-clerking the Legacy Gift Committee with Mary, I came to know Mary as a person with a deep and steadfast knowledge that the Spirit works among and through us. She encouraged others to listen to their leadings and to bring them forward into our community. She was aware that an applicant might face challenges and pitfalls, changes of course and circumstances, and knew that having support from strong committees and monthly meetings would help them find the right way forward. She delighted in seeing gifts and leadings supported with love and good practice among Friends.
Mary can find her way around a spreadsheet and budget, which comes in handy, but her joy in finding the workings of Spirit among us, and lifting it up, has been her gift to us as Legacy Committee.
Sue Rockwood,
Former Co-clerk, Legacy Gift Committee
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I first met Mary when I led a Legacy workshop at Mt. Toby Meeting in either 2018 or 2019. Mary attended the workshop and approached me afterwards about joining the committee. I had shepherded Legacy through the discernment in 2012-13 to the establishment of the funding program beginning in 2014. Later, Jean McCandless joined me as co-clerk.
It was a gift to work with her on the Committee and when it came time for Jean & I to step down, Mary was the obvious choice to step in as co-clerk with Sue Rockwood. Mary’s deep spiritual grounding and commitment to experimental ministry has been a gift to the Yearly Meeting. I was honored to be able to work closely with Mary again in 2023-24, along with Fritz Weiss, as we conducted the 10-year review of the Legacy Gift program. It was challenging and often emotionally difficult work. But I can say that it was Mary’s leadership and steadfast commitment to supporting ministry that helped ensure another 10 years of the Legacy Gift Program to nurture Quaker ministry both within and bey9od New England. It has been a joy to share this journey with Mary.
Another unsung heroine in the Legacy journey is Sue Rockwood of Midcoast Meeting in Maine, who co-clerked with Mary. Sue is not a Sessions Friend and so is less known to the wider Yearly Meeting, But her service as co-clerk with Mary, was vital to the work of Legacy after Jean and I stepped down in August 2020.
Suzanna Schell,
Former Clerk, Legacy Gift Committee
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One of the aspects of Quaker community that I cherish is service, such that I often include it as a living testimony in our collection of SPICES. My understanding of our faith tradition requires us to live in the Power and Presence that helps make real the realm of the Divine on Earth. "For the kingdom is among you, and you see it not." from the gospel of Thomas.
It has been a blessing to me to do that work together with Mary Link, especially in her service on the Legacy Gift Committee. The wisdom, discernment and life experience that she brought to our process and to the purpose of the committee was a powerful reminder of what it means to support and uphold personal and collective ministry, the gifts of which are given through an individual for the benefit of the community, and for which the community needs to have hold and care. Mary is an example and mentor for those of us who seek to live in that Power and Presence. And, she knows how to have a good time in the doing of it.
Leslie Manning,
former clerk of the Permanent Board and ex officio member of LGC
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To the Friends of the New England Yearly Meeting Legacy Gift Committee,
I write with deep gratitude for the $9,500 Legacy Gift grant you awarded in Fall 2018, which supported the launch of Haven’s Harvest in January 2019. Your early belief in this ministry gave me the courage and resources to begin transforming a simple practice—recovering excess food—into a dynamic, community-powered network of care. This summer, Haven’s Harvest reached a powerful milestone: with your support, we have diverted over 10 million pounds of good food from incinerators. The reduced retail value of this food exceeds $50 million, but the deeper impact lies in people fed, time restored to families, and relationships built across neighborhoods. We are no longer simply preventing waste—we are stepping fully into the work of delivering nourishing food where it’s needed most, with care and intention. Because of your trust in this work, we’ve been able to:
- Provide food to schools, shelters, daycare centers, senior centers, clinics, public housing sites, libraries, and mutual aid networks
- Build a multigenerational volunteer base grounded in care and shared responsibility
- Support nonprofits with reliable food access that they would not otherwise have
- Shift public thinking—from seeing food as waste to understanding it as a community resource
Haven’s Harvest is also, at its core, an environmental organization. Our theory of change is simple: Good food should not go to waste.
Lori Martin
Founder & Executive Director, Haven’s Harvest
Member, New Haven Friends Meeting
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From the moment Mary and I shared our first meal together at the Partners in Spirit Retreat in 2019, I felt a deep kinship. Though we weren’t officially paired as minister and elder, we decided to walk together anyway—and I am so grateful we did. I believe Mary saw parts of herself in me, and from that moment on, she showed up as one of my most steadfast supporters.
Over the years, she has called to check in, met me for lunch when visiting family in Maine, and reminded me again and again that she believed in me and in the ministry I was carrying—long before I had the courage to call myself a minister. Mary was the first person to suggest that the Legacy Gift Fund might support my ministry, and her encouragement was instrumental in my receiving my first grant in 2020. That support became the foundation that allowed me to step away from conventional employment and embrace the path of full-time ministry.
Through seasons of doubt, complexity, and new beginnings, Mary has been a consistent elder presence: encouraging, listening, and reminding me of the Spirit-led nature of my call. I know in my bones that I would not be where I am today without her fierce belief in me. Mary’s clerking of the Legacy Gift Committee has been marked by generosity, grace, and love, and I am profoundly grateful for the ways she has lifted me up, seen my gifts, and walked alongside me on this journey. Her ministry as an elder has shaped my ministry as a Friend, and I will always hold her presence in my life as one of the greatest gifts Spirit has given me.
Briana Halliwell, 2020 Legacy recipient
Member Vassalboro Friends Meeting