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Friends United Meeting |
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January 1998
News from Friends United Meeting
U.S. Government Recognizes FUM's Increased Financial Support for Cuba Yearly Meeting
Quakers in Cuba: New Video Tells the Story
Official Opening of the Ramallah Friends School Science Building
New Face in World Ministries: Matthew Keller
New Leadership Resources from Meeting Ministries
Teacher at Ramallah Held by Israelis
Tom Mullen Retires, Announces Scholarship
U.S. Government Recognizes FUM's Increased Financial Support for Cuba Yearly Meeting
Friends United Meeting's request for an increase in the amount of financial support we can legally provide to Cuba Yearly Meeting was approved in December by the U.S. Treasury Department.
The federal "Trading with the Enemy Act" prohibits sending U.S. dollars to Cuba. Religious organizations are not automatically exempt, and therefore must apply for permission from the federal government to support their ministries in Cuba, a requirement that some call an infringement of religious freedom.
The U.S. Treasury Department has granted FUM an increase under the license that provides FUM a legal avenue to benefit Friends in Cuba with U.S. dollars. The original license, first granted in 1995 and renewed annually, allowed FUM to transfer up to $15,000 a year to Cuba Yearly Meeting. The renewal will allow FUM to send as much as $60,000 to supplement pastor's salaries, provide support for the Good Shepherd Seminary in Holguín, and meet ongoing needs for funds to continue rebuilding projects. FUM will send only the amount that FUM actually receives from donors who designate their gifts to Cuba Yearly Meeting, plus pastoral support of $3,000 annually.
Quakers in Cuba: New Video Tells the Story
A 14-minute video on Quakers in Cuba is available to be borrowed by individuals and groups through World Ministries (see coupon). Pictures, narration and interviews show the lives, challenges and successes of members and attenders of Cuba Yearly Meeting.
Official Opening of the Ramallah Friends School Science Building
A new three-story science building has opened at the Friends School in Ramallah, Palestine. The ceremony was held in the main lecture hall, named in honor of Jim Harb, in recognition of his efforts in the RFS Second Century Campaign and in securing funding for the building through the U.S. Agency for International Development. FUM's onsite construction supervisors were Ray and Jean Bubak.
New Face in World Ministries: Matthew Keller
Matthew Keller has assumed the newly created position of Development Officer for World Ministries-supported Initiatives at FUM.
Matthew joins FUM after almost two years living in Shefa'amr, an Arab town in the lower Galilee region of Israel, where he worked in the international relations department of The Galilee Society: the Arab National Society for Health Research and Services, a Palestinian non-governmental organization involved in health and development.
"The achievement I am most proud of," Keller said, "was assisting in the development of a $5 million regional wastewater treatment and reuse project involving Israelis, Palestinians, and Egyptians."
Keller will be helping with the development of FUM's mission partners. Initially, he plans to help them develop a stable resource and information base. This base will in turn help them increase the services they provide to their communities. He will then work with local staff to develop and promote their ideas to ensure long-term sustainability.
New Leadership Resources from Meeting Ministries
Looking across the Quaker landscape, we clearly see our urgent need to develop leaders who can give guidance to keep us in tune spiritually and provide vision and direction. This is needed at all levels: monthly meeting, yearly meeting and the wider body of Friends. Both biblically and in our Quaker tradition, elders have played a vital role. In recent years, though, elders have been under-employed among Friends. Is it because we have lost sight of the value of this role and consequently fail to model it for new generations? The time has come to take a serious look and strengthen or restore this important role. Here are two resources to help us do that:
The Elders Handbook, prepared by Northwest Yearly Meeting, declares that, "The success of the Church is a direct function of Spirit-led leadership." This loose-leaf book explains the role the church could be playing in the world today. It provides helpful insights on identifying elders, their qualifications and responsibilities, how they should be chosen, and the congregation's responsibility to the elders. The Elders Handbook includes a guide to other resources and offers many examples and helps for coping with consensus and congregational polity, discipline and restoration, job descriptions and the care and feeding of pastors, recording ministers, and other situations that congregations face. You'll find it thought-provoking and practical. Published by Barclay Press, its cost is $12, and is available through Quaker Hill Bookstore.
"The Role of Meeting Elders" is a three-hour seminar offered in Friends United Meeting's Revitalization Toolkit. This seminar looks at biblical elders, identifies qualifications and major responsibilities of an elder, defines how elders function within Friends meetings, discovers some tools for carrying out responsibilities, provides some understanding of how congregations function and recognizes the responsibilities the meeting has to its elders. To arrange to host such a seminar or for more information, contact Mary Glenn Hadley, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond IN 47374-1980; phone (765) 962-7573; fax (765) 966-1293.
The FUM Chain of Prayer
The FUM Chain of Prayer began Jan. 1 and will continue through Pentecost, May 31. This year's prayer emphasis is "The Fields Are Ripe for Harvest." We appreciate the many meetings that are joining this chain of corporate prayer. If your meeting would like to participate and is not yet on the schedule, please contact Cheryl Stoner at FUM at (765) 962-7573.
Teacher at Ramallah Held by Israelis
Faraj Malki, a full-time teacher at Ramallah Friends School, was held for 10 weeks in Israeli administrative detention (prison), possibly on suspicion that he knew something about the Ben Yehuda Mall bombing because he had expressed pro-Palestinian views as a university student. He was held without charge or benefit of a hearing, or knowing when he would be released. Other Palestinians with similar cases have been held for 16 months. The Ramallah Friends School kept his position open and paid his salary to his family until he was released in November.
Malki taught other prisoners Hebrew during his detention. In his school re-entry interview, he emphasized forgiveness, saying "nothing is accomplished by violent reactions."
Tom Mullen Retires, Announces Scholarship
At a retirement dinner at Earlham College on Dec. 13, Tom Mullen, Quaker Life columnist and professor of preaching and creative writing at the Earlham School of Religion, announced the establishment of a full tuition scholarship. Made possible by annual gifts and an endowment, the scholarship will be given to an ESR student with both personal conviction and openness to new insights, having a love of people in general and compassion for those with particular needs. Tom named it for the one former student who best exemplified these characteristics, his wife, Nancy Kortepeter Mullen.
Copyright (c) 1998 Friends United Meeting
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