Getry Agizah, Coordinator for Friends Church Peace Team, recently spoke in the Living Witness of Friends Fall Conversation Series organized by Wilmington (Ohio) Friends Meeting, and open to all Friends over Zoom. Getry shared testimonies of her work in FCPT—a ministry born out of Kenyan Quakers’ response to the 2007 Kenyan election violence. FCPT continues to work to reduce violence and conflict in Kenya, whatever the causes may be. FCPT volunteers and staff have trained thousands of Kenyans in Alternatives to Violence, Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities, trauma healing, nonviolent social change, transformative mediation, and more. The Peace Team’s efforts were central to the quelling of violence between the 2007 and 2013 elections. They enabled displaced persons to move back to their homes. They worked to rebuild connections between neighbors of rival communities. The ongoing work done through this ministry literally removes the causes of war.
Read MoreDuring 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.
Read MoreGenesis 22:9 – 9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. The blunder many believers make I to think that, the last thing that God wants from them is the sacrifice of death, but when we carefully look at the passage above, we realize that God is interested on the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Christ Jesus did.
Read MoreMark 4:10 – “When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables”. Sometimes allows situations in our lives that would call for a time of solitude with Him. God may allow this by affliction, temptation, heartbreak, disappointment, sickness or by simply thwarting affection by a broken relationship by a loved one. When He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded by the situation and we cannot even ask a question – then He begins to expound and make things clearer to our minds so that we can know Him better. When you look at the life of Jesus Christ with the disciples, it was the disciples who were perplexed by His deeds and not the crowds outside.
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.