During the General Board Meeting, FUM members received an update from the Planning Committee about the upcoming Triennial. The Planning Committee reported that plans are underway to host the 2023 Triennial in Kenya. Given plans for the joint gathering in 2020 were disrupted, invitations were issued to the United Society of Friends Women International and Quaker Men International to partner with FUM in the gathering. Both agreed.
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During the first retreat of the FUM African Mission Committee or Friends Africa Board of Missions (FABOM), held at Noble Hotel in Eldoret in August, the Board explored what they need to do to make mission a part of the work of the African church. During the retreat in Eldoret, it was clear that the committee needed to develop a mission, vision, and strategy for African missions. The purpose of the Friends Africa Board of Missions (FABOM) is to fuel the engagement of African Friends in fulfillment of the Great Commission across the world. The mission statement developed at the retreat directs FABOM to energize, equip, and send African Friends to mission fields to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Emily Provance writes about how Quaker communities might begin to think about caring for parents and families, based on the second year of the Quaker parent mutual support groups co-sponsored by Friends United Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting, and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Chief among her findings: Quaker parents feel profoundly isolated. "Some parents are literally alone...Other parents feel isolated despite not being literally alone. Parents in the group talked about the isolation of being the only Quaker in their geographic area or the only Quaker family in their meeting. They talked about the difficulty of developing deep friendships in modern society. They talked about their hunger for connections with parents in similar circumstances: other disabled parents, other single parents, other foster parents, other parents with shared custody arrangements. Facilitators heard it repeated again and again: 'I feel so alone.'"
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One of the conversations we have had this year at Belize Friends Church is about creating multiple sacred spaces for people with various needs within the church. I find that the Spirit is in this conversation. . . . Creating multiple sacred spaces can be an alternative to, or can supplement, the more traditional mobilizing of people to know and experience God by focusing on a sermon.
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Throughout our history, the people known as Friends (or Quakers) keep rediscovering an essential and enduring truth: There is one who speaks to our most basic needs and most significant hopes—Christ Jesus the Lord. Both individually and communally, we are learning to know and follow the Voice that guides us in the way we should go. Together, we seek to understand and obey that truth which sets us free. As a people, we share in the experience of that powerful life which makes all things new. Maybe you are searching for an authentic and transforming faith and community to call home—if so, come in and join us as we seek to know and follow Christ.
Friends United Meeting commits itself to energize and equip Friends through the power of the Holy Spirit to gather people into fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved, and obeyed as Teacher and Lord.
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