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Friends United Meeting |
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May 2000
News from Friends United Meeting
Invitation to FUM Triennial in Kenya 2002
FUM Helps WCC Move Toward Consensus Decision Making
Special Report: The Boys of Belize by Michael and Kay Cain
Dear Friends,
As clerk of Friends United Meeting, I would like to take this opportunity to communicate directly with you about the upcoming Triennial. It is with great anticipation that we are planning this event and it is my hope to convey some of that excitement to you.
Let me present some of the details. The Triennial will be held July 10-14, 2002, in Nairobi, Kenya. It seems especially appropriate to locate this event in Kenya since it was in 1902 that Friends began the mission work in East Africa. What a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the centennial anniversary! Much work has already gone into the planning of this event. The FUM Triennial Planning Committee, clerked by Marian Baker, has been working diligently along with the Kenyan Host Committee, clerked by Serah Lukalo. I had the opportunity to meet with this committee in Kaimosi last January and they are actively participating with great excitement.
The theme that has been selected is from II Corinthians 8:5-15; "So now finish the work." A site has been chosen, the Kenya College of Communications Technology, located just outside Nairobi. We visited the college and let me assure you the facilities are very acceptable, even by the most discriminating western standards. There are motel style rooms available with private baths as well as more traditional and less expensive dorm style housing. There is ample space for meeting and for dining, and since this is a communication college, they are equipped with the most up to date technology. Plans are being made for trips to Kaimosi, Lugulu, Turkana, and Samburu. These would be offered after the Triennial and would be optional. It is also hoped that a work camp can be arranged immediately prior to the Triennial.
Along with the tremendous opportunities that this Triennial presents, there are, of course, challenges as well. One of these challenges is the need for more advanced planning. It is important that Yearly Meetings name their delegates as soon as possible. It is also important that Yearly Meetings begin budgeting for what will obviously be increased expenses. Western hemisphere attendees need to anticipate a cost of $2,500. This would cover the cost of transportation to and from Nairobi, the conference itself, and some of the optional travel opportunities. In addition, the General Board is working out the details of the travel pool: how much will be required and how the money will be dispersed. Preliminary figures indicate that each North American yearly meeting will need to contribute $500 per allowable delegate toward the travel pool.
Above all I would ask that you commit the upcoming Triennial to prayer that it will be a Spirit-filled event. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to address them to Marian Baker, the FUM office or to me.
In Christ's Service,
Stan Bauer
FUM Helps WCC Move Toward Consensus Decision Making
DAMASCUS, SYRIA A subcommittee of a Special Commission of the World Council of Churches, meeting March 6-8, 2000, near Damascus, Syria, was unanimous in its recommendation that the World Council adopt consensus decision-making procedures for all governing bodies. The subcommittee, one of four which was established by the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the World Council of Churches, was charged with analyzing concerns and recommending changes to the Council's membership, representation and decision-making procedures.
The Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the World Council of Churches was appointed by the WCC Central Committee in August 1999, in response to serious criticisms of the Council from some Eastern Orthodox member churches (many of the criticisms were echoed by other churches, including FUM). The Special Commission is charged with proposing "radical restructure" of the WCC. Eden Grace of New England Yearly Meeting was elected to the Special Commission, and also serves on the Central Committee of the WCC. The Special Commission held its inaugural meeting in December 1999 near Lausanne Switzerland. At that meeting, the Commission took a sweeping look at the issues at stake, and divided into four subcommittees for the next step of its work. These four subcommittees are working on WCC structure; style and ethos; theology; and emerging models for ecumenical organizations. Eden Grace was appointed to the first subcommittee, discussing structural matters.
This subcommittee met in March at St Ephrem Theological Seminary, Ma 'arat Saydnaya, Syria, under the generous hospitality of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Eden Grace had been invited to present a paper on Quaker decision-making, and the subcommittee also heard a paper from the Uniting Church in Australia on their experience making the change from parliamentary to consensus decision-making. After hearing these two papers and discussing the experience of several ecumenical councils at national and regional levels which practice consensus, the subcommittee was in unity to recommend that consensus decision-making be adopted at all levels of WCC governance, as soon as possible.
This recommendation will go to the plenary meeting of the Special Commission in Cairo in October. If the plenary Commission concurs with the subcommittee's recommendation, it will be forwarded to the Central Committee (the highest governing body of the WCC between Assemblies) for approval in January 2001 in Berlin.
The Boys of Belize
Michael and Kay Cain
I want to take you on a little trip. We are going to a private, all-boys school in the country of Belize. It is a small, out of the way school on Allenby Street in Belize City. The students have all failed to pass their entrance exam to high school and there are very few places for these boys to go. Some might have been able to attend the YMCA school but the cost there is much higher. Most of these boys have to struggle just to meet our small monthly fee $25.00 Belize ($12.50 U.S.). With our curriculum of Math, English and Health and Science, we try to fill the gaps left by the overcrowded, understaffed primary schools-many with classes of 30 or 40 students and only one teacher.
Students with a stable home life have a better chance. But, most of the students at Belize Friends Boys School have only one parent at home or live with a grandparent. One of our students lives in a small hut in back of his mother's house.
Let me introduce you to John, age 15, and Jeremiah, age 14. From the time Jeremiah was an infant, their mother had a babysitter watch her two boys while she worked. The sitter told Jeremiah's mother that she would watch the boys for free, as she liked the boys very much. This was good for the mother as it meant she had more money for other things. When Jeremiah was about three years old his mother asked if the sitter would take care of the boys while she went to the United States for the summer. That was more than ten years ago now. John doesn't talk about his mother much. Jeremiah still talks about going to California to see her. From time to time, he hunts for small jobs to find money to buy a phone card just so he can call this woman he calls mom. He still loves his mother, but he only knows her from the occasional photo she sends.
Our students range in age from 14 to 17 years. We struggle to teach them about the love of Christ. It's difficult to talk about love to someone that is not sure if there will be enough food on the table for everyone, or if Dad or Grandma will be mad about something and take it out on him.
We are constantly looking for ways to reach out to the boys. We joined a basketball tourney which was held in January of this year. We would dismiss class to go to the Belize City Center for the games and the entire student body would cheer the players on. It was exciting to see the student body come together in support of the athletes and the school. We managed to acquire uniforms for the players, and that gave them a sense of pride and self esteem, something that these boys needed.
We require that the players have a good attendance and grade record. The boys that made the team had a great time, and it was also a good time to teach them Christian values and ethics. This point was brought home when we removed ourselves from contention by turning ourselves in for having an ineligible player on the team. One of the students had misrepresented his birth date, and as soon as we realized what had happened we phoned the sports committee to report the problem. This meant that we forfeited the four games that we had won. The students thought we should have kept quiet to see if we could slip it past the other schools. I use our weekly devotional time to show the students how scripture can help them make the proper choices; that week we had a long devotional class discussing right and wrong. It was a good object lesson, and helped show the students that the things they do not only affect them but those around them.
We have a new teacher this year. His name is Alberto August and he has been a blessing! He is of Mayan descent, and has eight years teaching experience. At night, he attends the University College of Belize, working toward his Bachelor's degree. If there were an award for dedication it should go to Mr. August. He has missed I don't know how many lunches helping students grasp the finer points of some math problem, and has been late to evening classes when students needed help. He has given up most all of his Saturdays to offer extra classes for the students who want to do well on their PSE exam-the new exam needed to enter high school.
On Fridays, when Mr. August doesn't have evening classes, I often hear
guitar music coming from his classroom after school is over. There he
is, teaching guitar to any student willing to stay.
Another addition at the school this year is a volunteer, David Romberger.
Dave is a retired lawyer from Florida, via New Jersey, via Pennsylvania.
Dave is very handy with his hands and power tools and is teaching a construction
skills class. As a recent class project, he and the students replaced
the stairs and railing for a 78-year-old lady of Hispanic and Mayan decent.
Miss Chata had been hit by a car and was having trouble navigating her
uneven stairs which had some risers as high as 14 inches. Her new stairs
have twin railings and uniform risers of 7 1/2 inches. This project was
a suggestion of a Christian community service group known as Help-Age.
We hope to teach the boys to love others as Christ loved us. To emphasize this, we are teaching the students to become givers not takers. We often remind them that the school is available only through the unselfish giving of others. We are hopeful that they will come to understand this and give back to the community in which they live.
Mike and Kay Cain are members of Portland Friends (Indiana Yearly Meeting).
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