The Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology is one of the oldest conferences in the U.S. dedicated to individual spiritual exploration with a focus on depth psychology, specifically Jungian psychology. 

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The conference began in 1943 in the dark shadow of WWII.  A group of Quakers, many trained as Jungian analysts and psychologists, came to see how coming to know one’s inner landscape through dreams, creative work, and active imagination actually supported the life of the spirit.  The inward journey through the dark and light of the unconscious, they discovered, helped the Inner Light shine more brightly.

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The first Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology was held over Easter weekend in 1943 at the Friends Meeting House in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Elined Kotschnig, one of the founding members, would later recall: “Gradually out of the very extremity of the darkness, pinpoints of light and understanding were seen glimmering here and there in a counter movement to the vortex of devastation and degradation we had been sucked down into.”

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Today, a darkness similar to the time when our founders created the community of FCRP has settled on the world, making the work we do and share more relevant and more important than ever.

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FCRP is held annually over Memorial Day weekend.  This year, the 83rd Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology will be an in-person only conference that will be held at the Quaker retreat center, Pendle Hill near Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. 

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FCRP’s sister organization, the Washington Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology (WFCRP) takes place over President’s Day weekend in February.

 

For further information on our origins, click below for a Short History of FCRP, written

in celebration of our 75th anniversary by former FCRP Clerk, Lorraine Kreahling.

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