Annual Gathering offers a welcoming vibe where all our family

In June 2025, Patrick Jaramillo attended the IMYM Annual Gathering. Its theme was “Beloved Community: Gathered in Courage and Care.” In this interview, Patrick shares about his experiences.

Had you been to IMYM before?

I attended several years ago when it was at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. Back then, our colleague in the NM office, Maria Brazil, went with me. She was raised Quaker and worked for AFSC. She was something of a guide for me. Our AFSC colleagues from Denver were there then, too. This time I was the only AFSC staffer there.

What was your experience like this year?

It was one of the most welcoming and lovely places to be. I really needed it – and I know our communities and world need it.

I loved how welcoming and family oriented it was – not in the nuclear family sense, but in the sense that we are all family. There was an intergenerational aspect and the genuine appreciation of being in community. Everyone there was welcoming. It was really nice for me to be in a space where faith was centered -- along with the many terrible issues we are facing as a society.

I’m very grateful for Rosemary Blanchard. She has served as the program liaison between Albuquerque Friends Meeting and the AFSC New Mexico Program since 2013. She’s currently an IMYM representative to the AFSC Corporation. At the IMYM annual gathering, she and I co-presented on AFSC’s work to about a dozen people.

She shared a lot about the work of AFSC in general. Along with climate change, AFSC’s work centers on our concerns for the people of Palestine and our immigrant family – as well as our eroding democracy and rising of the police state.

Again, we’re all part of the human family and this network of life. And we can find solace, strength and comfort with each other in these times.

What did you share about AFSC’s work?

I didn’t share a lot of details about AFSC New Mexico work. I shared the logic we employ. It’s a completely different worldview of how we understand property and the natural world. These are gifts from the creator to sustain life and community - as opposed to legal frameworks and systems that delegitimize sustainability.

We talked about the underlying perspective of what these resources mean to us. They sustain life, but they’re not for us to own or hoard. There’s a saying in Spanish regarding acequias, our ancestral irrigation systems: “Water you’re not going to drink, let it run.” Yes, it’s for you to sustain life. But don’t hoard it or deny it to other living things.

What sort of discussions did you have with Friends?

Aside from the heavy discussions about the topics of the day like climate chaos, genocide, and ascendant fascism, the ones that resonated with me most were the conversations about how our faith motivates us to act in the world.

Following a panel, six of us met in a small group. There was a prompt we all responded to.

I shared two quotations from Saint Theresa. One about connection: “If we find ourselves without peace, we’ve forgotten we belong to each other.” And the other about the power of silence: “The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace.”

Being with Friends and AFSC and our connection with silence, I love that.

Quoting a Catholic Saint in a group of Quakers made me feel I needed to disclose that I am not Quaker, but Catholic. The woman next to me in my small group said, “I’m Catholic, and I’m inquiring. I’ve been going to Meeting for five months.” And another woman in her 60s said she was a Catholic her whole life and became a convinced Friend five years ago.

Still another Friend said Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, has been a big influence on her. I’ve told many friends of mine that if I weren’t Catholic, I’d be Quaker. I found myself saying to the woman who is inquiring, “You can have a Catholic heart and a Quaker practice.” I’d never really thought of that before. For me, it’s not one or the other.

Any final thoughts about the IMYM Annual Gathering?

I just loved the vibe at IMYM. It’s so genuine. It’s not a mega-church, where they’re super welcoming but not real. Friends say, “Come be with us” rather than “Come be like us.”

In these times, we’re all struggling. There’s a genocide happening. Innocent people are suffering terribly here and in many parts of the world. It’s hard. It’s hard to find our center and to know what to do in these times.

It was good to be with people who could hold that and also look for joy and calm, for peace. I know that in some other circles, people think, “If we don’t talk about it, we don’t have to think about it.” But it’s happening and it’s getting worse. We need to act. It’s not about ignoring it. 

We are all meeting this moment in the ways we can. We have different abilities. So it was great to be around people who can hold that awfulness -- and try to channel it into something good.