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Friends United Meeting |
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May 1998
News from Friends United Meeting
Visitation Among Cuban Friends
Jim and Debbie Fine-FUM Representatives in Palestine
Announcing New Activities Book
Visitation Among Cuban Friends-a Spiritual Experience
By Retha McCutchen
Facing two months of almost continuous overseas
travel, I headed for Cuba feeling fractured. We had just finished a weekend
of General Board meetings and field staff interviews and I was leaving
behind a pile of unfinished correspondence.
By the end of the first week, I realized the godly people of Cuba Yearly Meeting had led me into the presence of God where peace prevails. The act of being together in worship for business, hospitality and sharing our spiritual lives was an act of communion which healed.
During the 1997 yearly meeting sessions a year ago, Cuban Friends struggled with difficult decisions regarding building priorities even though funds and permits for construction were not yet available. A different atmosphere pervaded the 1998 priority setting sessions. The intervening year reflected God's provision. The new Retrete meetinghouse is now a reality. In March, the building was dedicated and a pastor appointed. Walls at Bocas are half up and several smaller projects complete. Funds are available for a new roof at Velasco. Nevertheless, there were difficult issues to be faced. A few Cuban Friends expressed embarrassment about some of the yearly meeting business that felt to them like "airing dirty laundry" before guests. The "dirty laundry" seemed to me to be situations common to monthly meetings and yearly meeting sessions worldwide. However, the difference in how the Cubans handled them was profound.
Solutions were reached after lengthy and often heated discussions. Most Friends felt little reticence to boldly state opinions. Out of what appeared to be confusion to an outsider arose a simply stated, clear decision minute. The recording clerk stated the minute. The clerk asked for consensus. Sometimes the minute was edited but always a genuine sense of the meeting was reached. Friends understand that no one gets his or her way and at times it is important to step aside from one's personal opinion out of respect for the group.
Some very personal issues were aired with all parties present. Yet, because they were handled respectfully, no one left the yearly meeting or church because of hurt feelings and no faction removed itself from the yearly meeting because it didn't get its way! At times this was a painful process for individuals and meetings. But they were led by the Holy Spirit to a final result that reflected a deep spiritual maturity.
The yearly meeting added evangelism to its list of priorities for 1998-inviting Christ to live in them where Friends work and worship. Reconstruction in a place where worship would be illegal without the building is evangelism. After the construction is complete the focus changes. Cuban Friends are truly gathering people into fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved and obeyed as Savior and Lord.
We were greeted by a group of 25 Friends when we made a visit to the Bocas construction site. Juana Díaz, an 86-year-old woman from Bocas, praised God for allowing her to live to see the answer to her prayer. She has prayed faithfully for 15 years that the Friends Church in Bocas would be reopened!
My prayer is for the strength, courage and wisdom of Cuban Friends to permeate FUM worldwide.
Jim and Debbie Fine-FUM Representatives in Palestine
Jim and Deborah Fine have been appointed to serve as Friends United Meeting
Representatives in Palestine. According to a job description approved
by the Ramallah Friends School Board and FUM, Jim will fill the position
of director/interim principal and Debbie as assistant director.
Previously working in the Middle East, Jim and Debbie lived in Palestine from 1975 to 1982 first as co-director of the Quaker Legal Aid Office in Jerusalem and then as Quaker International Affairs Representative to the Middle East, during which time Jim traveled widely in Israel, the occupied territories, and throughout the region. They lived in Baghdad for three and a half months following the Gulf War in 1991 administering Quaker relief for Quaker Peace and Service (London) and the American Friends Service Committee. They returned to Jerusalem for three months in 1995, and to Ramallah for a month in 1997 as a consultant to al-Haq, an affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists.
Jim Fine is currently advisor to foreign students and scholars with the University of Pennsylvania. Debbie Fine is a secondary school teacher in the Bristol Borough School District, and taught ethics at the Friends Girls School in Ramallah from 1979 to 1982.
"We know the important contribution to Palestinian society that the Friends Schools have made over many years," say the Fines, "from their establishment in the last century, through the traumas of 1948, 1967, the intifada and the post-Oslo disappointments. We are very grateful for the opportunity to play a role in continuing and elaborating this vital Quaker witness and service in Palestine. We hope we will have the prayerful support of many Friends as we attempt to respond to the challenge of this assignment and set out to 'answer to that of God in everyone' in Ramallah and the wider community."
The Fines plan an initial orientation visit to Ramallah in June, and will move to Ramallah as soon as fund raising and other arrangements are completed. The goal is for them to be available for the 1998-99 academic year. Contributions toward their support may be sent to Friends United Meeting.
Both Samer Shehadeh, clerk of the RFS School Board, and Retha McCutchen, FUM World Ministries, expressed deep appreciation to Laurie and Marilyn Hadden of Toronto, Canada, for the excellent leadership given to RFS this year.
Announcing New Activities Book
Preparing Hearts and Minds is an exciting activities book developed by Meeting Ministries. Available by June. What is an "activities book"? It provides supplementary materials for Sunday and First Day Schools: object lessons, children's messages, Quaker stories, Bible lessons, teaching on prayer and peace, activities from FUM mission areas. Games, puzzles, songs, icebreakers and coloring pages round out the possibilities. Reproducible pages are included. For all ages. Order from the Quaker Hill Bookstore (800) 537-8838. Price pending.
Vacation Bible School Goal
Will your Vacation Bible School help kids in Belize, Central America? Friends have started a Continuation School for boys who fail to pass the exam to enter high school. About 40 students are presently attending. The classrooms are small and ill equipped. School fees are not sufficient to meet the cost for maintaining the school.Four thousand dollars will build 40 desks and provide a daily snack. A poster and information is available from Friends United Meeting.
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