Each February, Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns gather for a long weekend to worship, conduct business, pray, and play. Our numbers are often smaller than at FGC's summer Gathering, with from 100 to 200 attenders, and we retreat together to attend to old relationships and deepen new ones. We welcome all Friends and friends of Friends to join us, whatever your sexual orientation or gender identity, as we seek to make real the radical inclusion and radical love that bring further light to Quaker testimony and life.

The 2010 Midwinter Organizing Committee is excited to welcome FLGBTQC back to the northeast and hope this will be an occasion for old and new friends to connect. Our site is located about one hour north of New York City at Graymoor, a beautiful Franciscan retreat center with views of the bucolic Hudson River valley.

We intend our theme of “Stitching our quilts, Waving our banners” to be an opportunity for us to explore the diverse ways we build relationships and communities, how we build and claim pride in that diversity, and how we build mutual support and accountability with our wider communities. We will have a keynote speaker and a panel to speak about the variety of our relationships and how our Meetings support us in that diversity. There will also be a threshing session and time in our Meetings for Worship for Business to consider how to bring to life the FLGBTQC Midwinter Gathering 2009 epistle, which speaks of "bringing Quakers together to help us all understand what is meant by 'that which God joins together.'”

The weekend will also include the opportunity to participate in small-group worship sharing each morning, workshops and interest groups, evening social activities, free time to relax and explore the beautiful grounds, and all-community worship each day.  If you want to organize a workshop or interest group, let us know!  Midwinter Gathering will begin with a light dinner Friday evening and end with lunch Monday.

Help promote Midwinter to your friends and at your Meeting!  Invite your friends to join the Midwinter facebook event, download beautiful full-color or grayscale 8.5 by 11 posters for distribution at your Meeting, or just ask a friend "Will you be at Midwinter?".