WFCRP General Information
Washington Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology has been meeting annually in February since 1977. We are a “miniconference” of Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology which has been meeting in Pennsylvania since 1943. WFCRP is similar to our parent organization, but is a smaller conference lasting 2.5 days instead of 3.5. Like FCRP, we explore ways to strengthen the inner life of the Spirit. We are part of a spiritual community that seeks to discover and nourish our own deepest process, and to uncover ways in which this process can help us live in the everyday world more focused and grounded in our spiritual reality.
Themes of the conference incorporate the Quaker belief in the Inner Light, as well as the principles of depth psychology, with particular emphasis on the work of C.G. Jung. Meeting for worship, plenary sessions, group drumming, small group experiences, and informal dialogue nurture our conference community and help us to understand the life of the Spirit. Affiliation with the Religious Society of Friends is not necessary to attend.
The Conference is organized and administered entirely by a Planning Committee composed of conference attendees who volunteer their services. The Committee meets several times during the year. The Committee welcomes the participation of any attendee who wishes to become part of this process.
WFCRP History
History of Topics and Presenters by Year, Topic, and Presenter:
1977 Use of Mandalas in One’s Life Journey: Forming a Centered World
Dorothea Bloom & Nancy Kline
1978 Tensions Between the Inner Life and Outword Committments
John Yungblut
1979 The Yang and Yin of Our Creative Lives
Jake Goering
1980 Exploring the Symbols of the Age of Aquarius
Keith Kinsolving
1981 The Role of the Unconsious in Peace-Making
Harriet Crosby
1982 Mine Enemy Teaches Me
Frank & Louise DeLeeuw, Judith Simmons, Keith Kinsolving
1983 No Conference
1984 Destruction and Renewal: The Myth of Inanna
Penelope Yungblut
1985 Four Journeys: A Puppet Play
Pamela Mayer
1986 Choosing Relationship as a Catalyst for Change
Marjorie & Peter Bankson
1987 Out of Wonderland
Judith Simmons & Karl Harshbarger
1988 The Creative Sprite Lives
Libby Baker
1989 Warriors, Witches and Fools: The Embodying Mythic Images
Barbara Dunn
1990 The Journey – Encounters with Inner Experience
Elizabeth Oxlade
1991 Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey
Tom Peterson
1992 From the Mesabe Iron Range to the Bath Iron Works
Phillip Berrigan
1993 Sexuality and Spirituality: Healing the Split
John Davis
1994 Music as Magician: Exploring the Inner and Outer Landscape
Beth Kingsley Hawkins
1995 Compassion: A Response to the Illusion of Duality
Frank Culley
1996 Tools for the Journey: Tales of the Road
Elizabeth Dearborn
1997 Telling It Slant: The Glory of Indirection in Poetry, Myth and Religion
Jerry Downs
1998 The Evolution of the Soul Through Service
Susan Trout
1999 Money, Harmony, Community and Spirit
Olivia Mellan
2000 Personal and Archetypal Dimensions of Dreams
Michael Conforti
2001 Body as Soul: Exploring the Archtypal and Personal through the Body
Barbara Goodrich-Dunn
2002 The Mythic Quest: Understanding Our Personal Journey
Janet Kane
2003 A Second Chance: The Myth of the Fisher King
Anne Tongren
2004 Truth, Choice, Power and Freedom
Ruth Shilling
2005 Sodom, Gomorrah and Other Cliches
Georgia Fuller
2006 Feeling Our Way To Integrity and Peace
Joe Izzo
2007 Body, Soul and Metaphor
Barbara Goodrich-Dunn
2008 Rekindling Our Brilliant Tribal Life
Mardy Burgess
2009 Energy Psychology and Spiritual Wellbeing: Integrating East and West
Carole McNamee
2010 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Bonnie Damron
2011 Forgiveness as a Spiritual Practice
Sue Regan
2012 The Story of the Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology
Dixon Bell and Bonnie Damron
2013 The Brain, Spirituality and Neurotheology
Margee Iddings
2014 Music and the Psyche
Janice Quinn
2015 Dreaming Back to Right Relationship with Mother Earth: Healing the Body, Healing the Spirit,Healing the Earth
Stephen Pothoff
2016 Homer’s Penelope: A Workshop on the Archetype of a Destiny Fulfilled
Bonnie Damron
2017 Decline and Ascent: The Paradoxical Passage to Elderhood
Melanie Starr Costello
2018 Hauntings: Dispelling the Ghosts that Run Our Lives
James Hollis
2019 The Medusa Complex
Julie Bondanza
2020 Transforming the Negative Father Complex
Lisa Marchiano
2021 White Privilege: Naming It and Its Complex and Confronting It to Build an Equitable Society
Sean Fitzpatrick
2022 Dante’s Divine Comedy: Journey from Despair to Joy
Anne Pickup
2023 The Trauma of Exile through a Jungian Lense
Lourdes Hernandez
2024 Finding Wholeness in the Midst of Chaos
Jeff Kiehl