The mission of Friends United Meeting calls us to “energize and equip” Friends. While this is happening in multiple ways, the General Board is initiating a new effort to support the financial sustainability of our project partners and ministries. In June 2019, the Board adopted the policy that all current and future FUM ministries should move toward the goal of being self-sustaining. The Board recognizes that paternal missional systems that create financial dependency do not “energize and equip” the communities we serve. The Board committed FUM to come alongside ministry leaders and boards to develop sustainability plans that will result in long-term financial stability. At that time, the Board stated, “This absolutely does not imply a diminishing of our commitment and spiritual partnership with any given ministry. Rather, we believe that genuine spiritual partnership is one in which no one is indefinitely dependent on the other.”
Read MoreEverything that affects society also affects the church. Communities of faith need an economic base that sustains both community members and their institutional and administrative order. Cuban churches have been supported by the contribution of their membership and additional support from counterpart churches abroad—which now encounter obstacles in sending their contributions. In general, the Cuban churches do not have financial support beyond these options.
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.