As the world is suffering from the impacts of the COVID-19 virus, FUM is deepening our commitment to connect the global family of Friends and we are increasing our support for our most vulnerable communities. In response to this commitment, all of our field staff are serving in various ways. Concurrently, in a normal year, Field Staff would be using the North American summer traveling to our Meetings and Churches to raise funds to support their ministries. Of course, they cannot do that this year. Most importantly, the three-year terms of Oscar Mmbali and Robert Wafula are scheduled to be renewed in September 2020. The COVID-19 threat and associated travel restrictions are preventing them from traveling to raise their support.
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On Thursday, June 17, Belize Friends School was able to host a small, in-person graduation ceremony while still complying with the Covid-19 public health directives for Belize.Six students graduated from the special Belize Friends School program, which is a small remedial alternative school for at-risk inner-city youth who have been unable to succeed in a traditional classroom setting. The school has been operating by remote learning since the middle of March. Since our students are among the most disadvantaged people in Belize, this involved loaning each student a smart phone with cellular data so that they could access the lessons being posted by their teachers. We praise God that this rapidly-deployed experiment in technology assistance within an impoverished setting has proven so successful, and that six of our students have graduated!
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I served as a pastoral minister among Friends for most of my adult life. In preparation for a recent move, I sorted through twenty-three years of sermon files, notes, and manuscripts. This revealed a lot about me and the kind of messages I like to preach—and the kind of messages I avoid.
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The Fall 2019 issue of Quaker Life, on justice, is in the mail and on shelves now. In the Bible, justice has to do with land and labor and family structures; with ownership and employment; with widows, orphans, and immigrants; with food and water and housing; with access to God at the Temple—with everything, material or spiritual, that is required for a human being to thrive. God cares for ALL of what God has created, and therefore shows a special regard for the weak and the marginalized for whom society cares less. And since God shows a special regard for the weak and the poor, a corresponding quality is required of God’s people. God’s people must also be especially concerned with equity and fairness in society and economy, with guaranteeing every creature’s access to the necessities of life: to water, food, health, respect, attention, kindness, helpful community, and the opportunity to draw near to God. As a foundation for life together, justice is a vast and widening gyre, and our authors in this issue explore the theme from many angles.
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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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