Cary Lecture 2010
The Richard Cary Lecture has been held annually during German Yearly Meeting since 1936 (with the exception of the years from 1940 to1947 when, due to the War, Quakers were not able to meet). It was named after a Friend from Baltimore Yearly Meeting.
Born in 1886, Richard Cary was active in the AFSC relief service in Germany after WWI and again after 1930 as Secretary of the International Quaker Bureau in Berlin which sought to assist Jews. After an exhausting tour of lecturing in the U.S. in an effort to create much-needed connection and understanding across national borders, he returned to Berlin where he died in 1933. His ashes are interred in the cemetery of the Quaker House in Bad Pyrmont where the yearly meeting is traditionally held. Richard Cary had joined German Friends in membership. Baltimore Friends created a fund for the support of this Lecture named in his memory. Speakers in this series have been drawn from several countries, though mostly from Germany. American speakers have included Thomas Kelly (1938), Douglas Steere (1968), and Dan Snyder (2007).
The Carey Lecture 2010 was given by Heidi Blocher, who emigrated from her native Switzerland to the United States in 1966, and, after finding Friends in Mssachusetts in 1991, returned to her country of origin for six years (1998-2004). During this time she became acquainted with German Friends, and was asked to deliver this lecture originally in German (text will be available shortly).
The Cary Lecture in 2011 will be delivered by Julia Ryberg of Sweden Yearly Meeting, Ministry and Outreach Co-ordinator for FWCC-EMES.
