|
Friends United Meeting |
 |
April 2000
News from Friends United Meeting
FUM Solidifies Its Purpose with Focus on
Missions and Communication of Faith;
New Role for North American Ministries Approved
General Board Clarifies FUM's Direction by Della Stanley-Green, Western Yearly Meeting
The Spirit of the FUM Retreat by Kevin Mortimer, Iowa Yearly Meeting
Paradox and The Vision Thing by Jens Braun, New England Yearly Meeting
VBS To Assist Children of Turkana, Kenya
U.S. Friends Roof Parsonage, Worship in Cuba
FUM Solidifies Its Purpose with Focus on Missions
and Communication of Faith;
New Role for North American Ministries Approved
Cross-cultural missions, communication of our Christian faith to the
world as well as among Friends, and coordination of yearly meeting concerns:
these three things are what Friends United Meeting is uniquely equipped
to do. This focus, and a new staffing structure to match it, emerged from
the three-day meetings held in Richmond, Indiana, in early February.
Many Board members expressed surprise and delight at the energy and spiritual
unity of the meetings. There was a sense of new clarity about how Friends
United Meeting is called to carry out its purpose to "energize and
equip Friends through the power of the Holy Spirit to gather people into
fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved, and obeyed as Teacher
and Lord."
The Board approved a reconfiguration of top-level staff. The report of the Program Coordination and Priorities Committee, approved by the Board, renames the former associate secretary positions as "Director of World Missions" and "Director of Yearly Meeting Relations." The World Missions work will be supported by assistants in offices in Richmond, Indiana, and in Kenya. According to the report, "The Director of Yearly Meeting Relations will be guided and supported by the superintendents and secretaries of North American yearly meetings....The initiatives addressed will originate in the yearly meetings...." The Board anticipates projects such as: gatherings for specialized yearly meeting workers (such as superintendents and secretaries, Christian education leaders, etc.); coordination of information (such as guidelines for recording of ministers, etc.); and other coordinated work (such as leadership development or addressing Quaker testimonies as new issues emerge). This replaces the Meeting Ministries program.
The general secretary will have a newly sharpened job description focusing on the communications task: "to communicate the distinctive Christian Quaker message across our constituency and to the general public" including overseeing current projects such as Quaker Life, Friends United Press, and Quaker Hill Bookstore. A new position of Administrative Services Manager will assist the General Secretary in carrying out some of the current office management duties.
General Board members had prepared for the retreat by reading the Among
Friends study commissioned by the Earlham School of Religion (see the
November 1999 Quaker Life), and Tom Sine's Mustard Seed versus McWorld
(reviewed on page 24).
In anticipation of the significance of these meetings, we asked three
Board members to record their impressions.
General Board Clarifies FUM's Direction
Della Stanley-Green, Western Yearly Meeting
Three primary areas for Friends United Meeting's attention come to the forefront repeatedly: missions, communications (both among Friends and sharing with the world) and coordinating yearly meetings. The strong sense that FUM needs to be working in these three areas shaped the board discussions about staff configuration and financial priorities. The General Board has approved beginning a search process for a new general secretary of Friends United Meeting. A new priority for this position will be in the area of communications. A search will also begin for a new staff position, tentatively named the "Director of Yearly Meeting Relations." The top priority for World Ministries will be to have an FUM office in Kenya with a staff person in place by the time of the 2002 FUM Triennial.
Other significant decisions were the acceptance of Uganda Yearly Meeting and Uganda Evangelical Friends Church as associate yearly meetings of Friends United Meeting and the approval to enter into a process of agreement with Africa Quaker Vision (AQUVIS) about becoming an FUM project. AQUVIS is a group of Kenyan Friends (primarily young adults) from several yearly meetings who have been working together to serve and witness throughout Africa.
Important information regarding the finances of Friends United Meeting was received. The 1998 audit was received, and the financial picture for that year showed a deficit which was thankfully much smaller than feared. The 1999 audit will be available for board review at the June General Board meeting.
Interesting Information
As we began our retreat on Saturday, board members (35 present), staff persons (5 present) and visitors (9 present) took time to introduce themselves. We discovered that 1/3 of the assembled group were convinced Friends, while 2/3 of the group had grown-up in a Friends meeting/church. Based on an observation of the group (not verified statistically), the group was approximately 20% under the age of 40, 55% in the 40-60 age bracket, and 25% above age of 60.
Reflections on FUM General Board Meetings
There was an open and honest spirit among us as we shared, discussed, worshiped and made decisions over the three-day period. The question, "What can only Friends United Meeting do best?" seemed to focus us well. Our ability to have clarity about the three areas in which FUM needs to work (missions, communication, and coordinating of yearly meetings) was a gift to us in moving forward both for the short-term concerns at hand and the longer term course of the organization.
There seemed to be a concerted effort to raise the awareness of cultural differences that affect our understanding of one another. Several American usages of words do not have the same connotations for Canadians and Kenyans. We clarified those differences and were able to proceed with better understanding. Friends began to share openly about the different needs of pastoral and non-pastoral meetings without defensiveness. The Kenyan members actively participated and helped North American Friends understand the differences in values between our cultures. The ability of Friends United Meeting General Board to acknowledge and work through those differences (as minor as they may seem on the surface) demonstrates our ability to move into a deeper relationship with one another and to listen with more awareness for how God is calling us to be faithful as Friends United Meeting.
The Spirit of the FUM Retreat
Kevin Mortimer, Iowa Yearly Meeting
Our retreat opened with worship led by Stan Bauer, FUM'S clerk. My thoughts were drawn to the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, spoken to the exiled Israelites in Babylon,
"When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future....You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart....I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."
Were Friends in exile? Had we slipped into a non-experiential rut in which there was little outward movement into contemporary society. I waited…Silent worship concluded and we circled our chairs so that we could face each other as we shared how we personally had come to Friends, why we were on the General Board, and why, in our minds, were we having this retreat? The answers were varied. We then communicated back what we had heard. "A North American preoccupation...difference in expectations for the day...a need for all of us to move from birthright to convinced...local meetings are looking for leadership outside of themselves rather than being led by Christ who is present in their midst...redefine what FUM as an organization is...."
We counted off in groups of eight and moved to the dining area to consider five things that only FUM can or should be doing best. Lunch was lively. When we returned, many of the youthful members were spokespersons for their dinner group. We began to hear common themes: Promote the Quaker message of the Light of Christ within each person. Hold and articulate a particular Christian-Quaker identity. Communicate the Christian center of Quakerism. Articulate, teach, publish and model ways of being church that is both unapologetically evangelical and authentically Quaker. Communicate through Quaker Life, educational curriculum and books that accentuate the testimonies. Coordinate world missions. Engage in holistic Quaker mission. Provide cross-cultural mission experiences for both adults and youth. Build a cross-cultural community of faith. Provide a place for consultation, support and accountability between member yearly meetings. Communicate who Friends are to those outside our constituency.
The day had been utterly exhausting but, at day's end, there was an excitement in the air: the Holy Spirit had led us to higher ground. We sang some of the great hymns of the faith realizing that God was blessing us with fresh energy and a corporate sense of direction that would guide us into the coming triennium.
Paradox and The Vision Thing
Jens Braun, New England Yearly Meeting
Deep down we all know we have something fabulously wonderful in Quakerism. So why do we seem to be a small, marginally effective faith community? We celebrate a gloriously courageous and spirit-led history but wonder if we will survive for another couple of generations given the current rate at which our numbers appear to decrease.
Though for many of us Friends the blessed gift of Quakerism provides a worshipful framework upon which to base the consequences of our relationship to God, it is a gift most people overlook. And yet we know that in this world of violence, busy-ness, consumerism, disintegrating communities and environmental degradation the testimonies of Friends could provide much healing. But we don't see it happen.
During the February FUM board meeting we were told by Patti Crane (not a Quaker) about the paradox we are. The Religious Society of Friends encompasses many paradoxes-in our worship, in our theology, in our relationships among ourselves. It is this ability to accept and hold paradox in our hands and hearts that makes us particularly special. From this understanding flowed another insight that made the rest of the weekend meetings especially productive. Many of us began to understand how the diversity among Friends-as encompassed in the evangelical, programmed, unprogrammed definitions of Quakerism-is a strength and not a weakness. Though our diversity can be a source of crippling divisions, it is also a source of enrichment, healthy challenges, deepening relationships, broader understandings of our infinite God, and just plain joy.
Patti asked us to think about what things only FUM can do best. And a vision emerged from various discussions, and various committees. We talk of the need for leaders to lead and define us, but once again I found that our Leader is sufficient. FUM's mission statement speaks of energizing and equipping "fellowships where Jesus Christ is known (check), loved (check) and obeyed (whoa! obedience is for pets, not red-blooded thinking, intelligent adults)." Might our real need not be for leaders but rather for obedient followers?
The vision we were given is simple and fitting for a disparate group such as us. Let FUM only work on missions, communication/publications, and assisting in sharings between yearly meetings. I believe I am not alone in experiencing the creative thrill of corporately redesigning FUM's organizational structure to fit identified needs, and meet the priorities arising out of faithfulness to our testimonies. Paradoxically (again), it is in some respects the same old structure, yet it is fundamentally redirected. In the past it might have been said that the world is ready for a renewed Society of Friends and part of FUM's job is to make Quakers ready for it as well. Now we might say that FUM's job is to hear and amplify our corporate experiences of God through sharing this witness among Friends and non-Friends alike.
VBS To Assist Children of Turkana, Kenya
Vacation Bible Schools and Sunday school classes can make a difference in the lives of Turkana Friends Mission school children through the 2000 FUM Children's Mission Project. Students at Nakiria and Lokoyo Primary Schools in the Turkana District of Kenya have no desks. They have to sit on dirt or on cement floors during their classes.
Friends United Meeting has set a goal of $9,000 to purchase 180 desks for the two schools. Made of an iron frame with wooden tops, each desk will seat three students and will be made by Kenya carpenters and craftsmen.
Meetings and churches will receive promotional posters and suggested
class activities to help students learn about the Turkana culture and
the daily lives of children at home and at school. Financial contributions
to the 2000 FUM Children's Mission Project will make a difference in the
lives of students who never take education, food, or even water for granted.
See a related story about drought in Turkana on page 8.
U.S. Friends Roof Parsonage, Worship in Cuba
VELASCO, CUBA An FUM-sponsored work team helped rebuild a roof on the pastor's house in Velasco, Cuba, from January 28 to February 11, 2000. Fifteen men and women from Indiana, Iowa, New England, Western, and Wilmington Yearly Meetings helped Cuban crews to remove timbers from a decaying wooden roof, lay a web of steel reinforcements and beams, and pour the concrete roof. For nine-and-a-half hours, approximately fifty people helped pour the roof using only buckets, shovels and a hand cement mixer. The roof measured 30 by 36 feet.
"[The team] did two months' worth of work in fourteen days," Yosmani Mujicha said. "Viva el FUM." Muchija largely directed the work.
Individuals on the team also led worship, preached, gave adult Bible school, and shared their spiritual journeys during meetings for worship. Margaret Hawthorn of Monadnock Friends, New England, brought materials for sock puppets, and helped the children at Sunday School each make their own puppet.
Told that many Cubans were grateful, but could not understand why U.S. Quakers would spend two weeks working in the hot sun on someone else's meetinghouse, Libby Curry of Chester Friends, Wilmington, Ohio, said, "Some people spend thousands of dollars to go on a spiritual retreat. We just come here."
At the good-bye meeting for worship, each member of the team was awarded a cardboard circle with a ribbon through it, "champion" hand-printed on it. Some members were spotted in the Toronto, Canada, airport on their return trip to the U.S., still wearing the medal.
Send your comments : QuakerLife@FUM.org.
Return to April 2000, Table of Contents