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Friends United Meeting |
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May 1998
An Open Invitation
By Johan Maurer
I served on the staff of Friends World Committee for Consultation for nearly ten years, traveling among Friends of all flavors in several countries. It was always a joy to be among Friends who were passionate for the cause of Christ and authentic Christian discipleship, whatever the particular division of Friends they were in. Sometimes they had chosen their particular Quaker branch deliberately when a choice was possible locally, but usually their location in the range of Friends divisions was an accident of history or geography.
Now that I am at FUM, I do less traveling outside the FUM constituency, but I still have the occasional joy of sneaking outside the camp and renewing old FWCC-era acquaintanceships. For example, I'm writing this as Retha McCutchen and I are visiting Russian Friends. In the last couple of years I have been in my hometown of Oslo twice; I've spoken at Arizona Half-Yearly Meeting of Intermountain Yearly Meeting; John Punshon and I co-led a retreat for Atlanta Friends Meeting of Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association. Later this year I'll be visiting among Friends in Minneapolis (Northern Yearly Meeting) and speaking at Illinois Yearly Meeting.
In visits like these, anywhere in the world, whenever I am with individual Friends or whole meetings who are excited about what FUM is doing, I've always wanted to say, "Come and join us! This is an exciting time to be involved with Friends in FUM; we can use your enthusiasm." But then the church bureaucrat in me takes over and says, "Careful, Johan, you don't want to be seen as divisive. You don't want to start a whole new round of Quaker separations! And remember how you felt when it looked like Evangelical Friends wanted to pull Jamaican meetings away from FUM." Maybe it isn't as simple as issuing an open invitation.
I was thinking about this dilemma when I attended the annual meeting of the Western Association of the Religious Society of Friends, which took place on March 15 at Whittier, California. It seems to me that the Western Association would be a natural affiliation for any Quaker anywhere in the world who wants to be involved with Friends United Meeting. On the one hand it is inclusive: its articles of incorporation specifically describe it as providing "an organization and structure through which Meetings or Churches of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and individual Friends (Quakers) may come together to constitute a viable organizational entity to enjoy participating membership in Friends United Meeting...." On the other hand, the Western Association has made it clear that it does not intend to serve as a haven for rebel meetings or to lure any Friend or meeting from an existing satisfactory affiliation. It is a positive relationship based on "like interests and conviction" and a shared support of FUM's mission. The founding members of the Western Association are the members of the Whittier Monthly Meeting, which is not affiliated with a yearly meeting. However, most of the more recent members of the Western Association are also members of non-FUM yearly meetings, and these Friends have no intention of weakening their relationship with those yearly meetings.
At the Western Association annual meeting, I asked whether Friends were
willing for FUM staff, in our travels and publications, to promote their
Association as enthusiastically as we actually feel about it. With the
caveats already described (not encouraging rebellion or separations),
I heard a clear go-ahead. As a result, you can expect to hear more about
the Western Association in the months and years ahead.
Johan Maurer is general secretary of Friends United Meeting and editor of Quaker Life.
Copyright (c) 1998 Friends United Meeting
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