Atlantic Friends Gathering 2026

Camp Abe gweit (Camp Abby) a United Church camp near Borden-Carleton, PE about 12 kms from Confederation Bridge
Victoria Day Weekend, May 15 to 18, 2026. Friday Evening – Monday at Noon Register at this link!

Atlantic Friends Gathering is an annual event linking members and attenders of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) from across Atlantic Canada.

2026 Theme: Music: Music As a Doorway to the Soul

A weekend of creative sharing to refresh and rejuvenate

All are welcome!

We are hoping that this will be a truly intergenerational weekend! The joy of children adds SPICE to this time in our lives and invites us to share our playful ways with the children in our community.

“Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.”

— Leonard Bernstein

“Sing and rejoice, ye children of the Light.”

— George Fox

Description:
This gathering welcomes Friends to explore how music can prepare the way for clarity, tenderness, and spiritual leading. Music becomes a companion to Quaker practice when we treat the act of listening—whether to a single note, a remembered melody, or the hush between sounds—as another doorway into expectant waiting and shared discernment.

This multi-generational gathering invites Friends to sing together and share stories, along with listening to invited guests reflect on the ways music has shaped and deepened their spiritual journeys. Together we will create community and celebrate.

To register for the gathering, click here!

More information regarding programming, accommodation and costs can be found below. (Click on a bar to open its information.)

Camp Abegweit (Camp Abby) has been chosen as the site for this year’s Atlantic Friends Gathering. Camp Abegweit is a United Church–supported summer camp on PEI offering faith‑rooted programs. It includes a centrally heated building with shared dorms (large rooms with bunk beds, rather than the smaller rooms we have had in the past), hot water, and multiple showers, as well as additional unheated cabins.

The camp is a 10-15 minute drive from the Confederation Bridge, with a beach and beautiful views. It is 45 minutes from downtown Charlottetown and 30 minutes from downtown Summerside. The camp is an hour from Sackville NB, and two hours from Truro using the TransCanada Highway entering P.E.I Via the Confederation Bridge (there are signs).

Website: Camp Abegweit
140 Camp Abegweit Rd, Borden-Carleton PE C0B 1X0 (Bing maps link)|
Google Maps Link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/TKB3qZhkjacbpjeE6

Here are the directions from Google Maps

From both directions Take TCH exit 513B on the right onto Route 16/TC-16 E toward P.E.I
At the roundabout ( which is part of the exit)take the exit onto Route 16/TC-16 E toward Port Elgin about 0.1 km, less than 1 min
Take the exit onto Route 16/TC-16 E (about 0.3 km, less than 1 min)
Follow Route 16/TC-16 E toward P.E.I (41.9 km, about 28 min)
Turn right onto Highway 10/PE-10 (about 0.3 km, less than 1 min)
Follow Highway 10/PE-10 (7.2 km, about 6 min)
Turn right onto Richard Point Rd (about 0.7 km, less than 1 min)
Bear left at Camp Abegweit Rd (0.7 km, about 3 min)
You have arrived at Camp Abegweit Rd. Your destination is on the right

This year’s Atlantic Friends Gathering invites us into a tender exploration of how music prepares the heart—how a single note, a remembered song, or the hush between sounds can open the way to clarity, tenderness, and spiritual connection. Music becomes a companion to Quaker practice when we treat listening—whether to a single note, a remembered melody, or the hush between sounds—as another doorway into expectant waiting and shared discernment.

Friends have long known that singing gathers us, deepens community, and draws us more fully into the Presence. Many of us carry songs from childhood, camp, Meeting, or moments of joy and grief—melodies that rise unbidden and continue to guide our spiritual lives. As we weave singing more fully into the life of our Gathering, we are invited to notice the music that has shaped us and the ways sound and silence help us enter deeper spiritual spaces.

This Gathering continues that living tradition. Friends of all ages are welcome to explore how music—sung, spoken, remembered, or simply received—can open pathways to Spirit-led creativity and companionship. We will sing together, listen together, share stories, and hear from Friends whose spiritual journeys have been shaped by music.

The program brings together song, storytelling, and guided conversation, creating space for communal exploration. Visiting and local Friends will offer opportunities for singing, musical dialogue, and even song writing. Instrumentalists are warmly encouraged to bring their instruments. Friends may participate in whatever ways feel right singing, listening, creating, or simply being present.

Several special interest groups will be offered, including one by Mel Burns of the Canadian Friends Service Committee that highlights the songs being featured at No Kings rallies in the United States.

We are also planning a SIG for singing sacred chants. The chants we recommend are based on beloved Quaker texts and are performed by Paulette Meier on her recent recording, available on the Bandcamp app or website: Wellsprings of Life: Quaker Wisdom in Chant.

We are delighted to welcome two special guests whose musical gifts will help us explore this year’s theme:

Julie Pellissier-Lush is a Mi’kmaw singer and cultural interpreter, and we greatly look forward to meeting her. A former poet laureate of Prince Edward Island, Julie is an active and respected cultural ambassador who works extensively with students and with diverse communities.

Gray Cox will be familiar to attenders of Atlantic Friends Gathering 2024 as a Quaker educator, philosopher, activist, and skilled musical animator. He is a co-founder and the clerk of the Quaker Institute for the Future, and he teaches at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. His current area of special interest is artificial intelligence. Gray maintains a blog that weaves together music and social commentary at http://breathonthewater.com, and his music is available on Bandcamp: https://graycox.bandcamp.com/.

Please bring musical instruments!
We encourage you to bring any musical instrument you play—or are willing to share—including, of course, your singing voice. A possible source of instruments may be your local public library, which often lends drums, tambourines, stringed instruments, and other kinds of percussion.
To avoid the Victoria Day rush, you might want to explore library lending options a week or two ahead of time.

Family Night will surely be a delight. On Saturday evening, our Gathering for Sharing invites Friends of all ages to offer something from their lives—a reading, a sound, an image, a piece of music, or a song—deepening our collective presence. As you prepare to join us, consider what you may wish to offer.

What songs rise in you among Friends? How has singing shaped your worship and community life? What sounds or silences nourish your spirit still? During registration, you’ll be invited to lift up music that speaks to your spiritual journey, we are planning for this music to be part of the gathering.

This Gathering is not about performance—it is a space for exploration, joy, and celebration. Through singing, silence, reflection, storytelling and Spirit-led experimentation, we will co-create a community that listens for the notes—spoken or unspoken—that open the way.

At recent gatherings we’ve noticed during times for singing how the stock of shared songs, the one that young and old alike know and can share, has shrunk from what it has been in the past. Because of this we are asking you for song recommendations.
If there is a song you’d like to have sung at the gathering, please send us the title, and, if possible, some other information in an email to .
When you email us, please include whatever details you can, such as:
– the song title
– who has recorded it
– a link to a performance of the song posted on Youtube if there is one

Songs might include folk songs, protest songs, hymns, love songs, Maritime songs, rock and roll, opera, soul, or hip-hop—you name it! Songs in languages other than English are welcome.

We hope to post a YouTube playlist of requested songs and will email everyone a link when it’s ready. During singing times at the gathering, we plan to project lyrics and chords on the wall or a screen.
So please—send us your recommendations!

A children’s program will offer its own creative, Spirit-led opportunities, with moments of intergenerational activity woven throughout. Many of our events will be intergeneration. Parents may request childcare, and volunteers are warmly welcomed to support this part of the Gathering. (Note that volunteers with the Children’s Program will need to have and bring a recent Crimunal Records Check / Vulberable Sector Check.)

Housing preference: the options this year are

Lodge (heated, bunk beds in large shared rooms)

Cabin (unheated, bunk beds)

Bringing own tent

Making own arrangements

To register for the gathering, click here!

Meals are potluck, we have a kitchen coordinator.—Wendy has agreed to join us again.

Please bring food for sharing, including 3 prepared pots that can be warmed up to contribute to the meal table along with whatever else you wish to bring. Make sure each item is labeled with a full list of ingedients so we can manage special dietary needs. Please remember that your contributions should equal the amount of food you would eat for the entire gathering. We want to have enough food. As always, we will share kitchen responsibilities

Dietary Requirements: If you have any dietary restrictions, please list them in the registation form comments box.

Registration Deadline
May 1.
A late fee of $10 per person will be charged after this date.

Fees:

Adult: $150 per adult for the weekend (Friday evening to Monday noon) if registered by May 1.
Adult rate for One overnight (with two days of programs and meals): $90. Please specify the days in the registration form!
Adult Day rate (no overnights): $40 for Friday/Saturday or Sunday/Monday. $80 for the weekend. Please specify the day(s) in the registration form
Children/Youth 10–18 years: Half of Adult rates above.
Children 9 and under: No charge

Your presence is truly valued. Please contribute what you are able at this time. Assistance is available if needed.

If you are able, would you consider offering an added amount to help support Friends who may require financial assistance? (Suggested donation: $25)

To register for the gathering, click here!

As we look toward our time together, we offer this blessing:

May our voices rise together,
our hearts be softened by song,
and our silence be filled with listening.
May we return renewed, carrying light into the days ahead.