The Seventy-Eighth and Seventy-Ninth Commencement exercises of Friends Theological College—Kaimosi, celebrating the graduations of the 2020 and 2021 classes, took place in a combined in-person ceremony on Friday, 29 October 2021. Commencement ceremonies and graduation celebratory activities are a culmination of all the hard work, personal sacrifice, and determination manifested by FTC’s students and faculty. But with the Covid-19 pandemic putting every academic institution in limbo, difficult decisions were made in an effort to keep our communities safe. In 2020, FTC, like many other schools, was faced with the decision to cancel or postpone their in-person commencement ceremony due to the worldwide pandemic, leading the celebration to be re-scheduled for later dates in 2021.
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Although Shawn and Katrina McConaughey will not leave their positions as Programme Officers in Friends United Meeting’s Africa Ministries Office until March 2022, work is already beginning in the AMO transition plan. As outlined in an E-news story on October 6, the interim plan to cover some of the McConaugheys’ responsibilities after their departure is to distribute them among the AMO staff and to bring on Friends Church Peace Team Coordinator Getry Agizah in a new role as Programme Manager, in which she will coordinate the activities of the Friends Church Peace Teams and Girl Child Education Programme, while also working with the Global Ministries department and the AMO to oversee FUM’s relationships with Samburu Friends Mission and Turkana Friends Mission, including serving on both boards.
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The story reminds us that we can be the drivers of the bus, or passengers in the bus: drivers because we have leadership positions to help steer the congregations or meetings; passengers because we could be part of those being directed by the leadership...
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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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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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