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.
Read MoreAlthough 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.
Read MoreRecently I had the opportunity to participate in a leadership conference held in Kakamega, Kenya. Conference organizers invited Friends leaders from each FUM Yearly Meeting in Africa, along with representatives from other Friends organizations. The conference provided an opportunity for Friends to look at their past, celebrate their accomplishments, acknowledge their mistakes, and envision how God will guide them moving forward.
Read MoreThroughout 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.