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Friends United Meeting |
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July-August 2005
Developing Value Led Global Community
By Colin South, FUM Global Ministries Director
There should be a Federal Health Warning concerning Global Partnerships. They are risky endeavors. There are many kinds of partnership and some are more equal than others. Our Friends tradition of equality and our Christian understanding of the Church as the Body of Christ determines that we are expecting our partnership will be one of sharing a variety of gifts and experience. This sharing will demonstrate our dependence on one another and the mutual advantage of our relationship. In that respect it is like a good marriage. Such a marriage will work best when there is mutual respect and commitment despite the ups and downs of relationships. A good marriage knows that disagreements managed compassionately grow trust and understanding. Disagreements badly managed require a health warning, in marriages as in other partnerships.
Friends United Meeting is described by Retha McCutchen in the 2004 Weed Lecture as “an international, cooperative program of 26 yearly meetings.” Friends United Meeting is possible because its membership has a cooperative intention. FUM membership perceives or hopes for a mutual advantage in working together. Critical to this are values that are held in common. Without common values, cooperation will surely fail. These values are not often articulated but are worth trying to spell out in order to recognize how our cooperation may blossom into partnership.
Our partnership will grow and bloom when we acknowledge together our common humanity, that Christ is at the center of our community, that the Holy Spirit is our guide and that Love must be the prime motivation for our relationships.
Common Humanity
Our political and social histories of dominance and submission, of war and peace, of wealth and poverty have helped shape our prejudices. Our small physical differences as people within communities and between racial groups have fueled these prejudices and in our history have formed societal and personal attitudes towards one another, which are stumbling blocks to partnership. In reality, we are all, as examples of humanity, vulnerable, fallible and in need of salvation. It is in Christ that we find a new perspective; as we travel and meet one another our eyes are opened. Peter found this to his surprise when he experienced Gentiles who were filled with the Holy Spirit just as the Jewish followers of Christ were. (Acts 11:17)
In our global partnership, there is no room for airs and graces born out of difference. We are equal before God, as vulnerable, as fallible and as in need of salvation.
Christ as Center of our Community
FUM made a decision to be Christ-centered and our purpose statement says clearly “we shall gather people into fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved and obeyed as Teacher and Lord.” This simplifies and enables our spiritual journey together. It does not deny other journeys that undoubtedly have singular value in people’s lives. It does not close our fellowship to others who think differently. It does not intend to limit the service we bring to the community around us in any way. It does however state clearly that in our community we acknowledge Christ as our Savior. This enables a partnership where, while we recognize, affirm and value difference in non-essentials, we celebrate unity in essentials. This provides us all with a basis for trust in each other and a basis for moral standards with which we may challenge each other.
Holy Spirit as Guide
We come from many different traditions and understandings of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. However, all of us can agree that the Holy Spirit does move among us and from time to time shakes us to our very core. Filled with the Holy Spirit we are called to think again, to speak, to act and to change. Our God is a God of Surprises. As a community we are prepared to explore with our Friends where they feel the Holy Spirit has led them, even if it is to unfamiliar places; together we continue to seek unity. This is a core value of our community. The tag line under the FUM logo reads “Listening to Christ—a faith that transforms lives.” It is the Holy Spirit at work that
enables this process and it is binding on us to be still and listen.
Love as the Prime Motivation
Recognizing that we are marked as followers of Christ, being led by the Holy Spirit, and that we are fallible and in need of salvation, there is no other option but to Love. Christ first loved us and that is how we will be known and recognized—in our love for others. This Love, if it is real, will drive us to share our learning as disciples with one another and with those who do not know the Light of our Salvation. It will drive us to recognize injustice and despair, and name them as demonic; it will drive us to strive for justice, hope and equity. Where our neighbor cries out in need we will listen and respond in Love. This may cause trouble from time to time, but together, with compassion one for another, we will strive for Truth.
If these values represent where we are as Friends United Meeting, then global partnership will be second nature to us. We will see no boundaries of race, gender or status but only parts of an interdependent Body of Christ.