An interview with Chad Stephenson of 27Wishes on his impressions of the "Reclaiming Primitive Quakerism for the 21st Century" retreat at Ben Lomond Conference Center in California.

It's been a smorgasbord of Quakers. One thing that I've liked about the Convergent Friends idea is that I get to come to one location and meeting Quakers of all stripes and all different backgrounds that normally I would have to either travel around, read online, or somehow come into contact with. I really like the idea of being able to have meals, have conversations, and draw from other Quaker backgrounds in one place.

One of the things I noticed about this particular gathering is that it really has a variety of age groups and that's one of the things I've found really refreshing: you hear a lot of different generations of Quakers speaking about a hunger for action, a greater thirst for deepening spiritual connections with the Bible. There are various voices at the table.

It's striking to me that I've never heard them all speaking together because I believe at my own meeting we don't have that range or that spread even though it seems that we should or could. When I come here, we have geographical, regional discussions from all around the country, it's hard to capture.

I haven't been to PYM [Pacific Yearly Meeting) or the very large gatherings like FGC, so this as introduction to a wider range of Quaker. It's the largest Friends meeting I've been to that encompasses the most types of Quakers and it's enlightening.

QuakerQuaker Profile: Chad
Twitter: chadstep
Blog: http://27wishes.wordpress.com