| Spanish- and English-speaking Friends meet
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Nearly 60 Friends - adults and children - almost equally balanced between Evangelical Hispanic Friends and unprogrammed Friends, gathered at a rustic camp in New Hope, Pennsylvania for FWCC's Northeast Regional Gathering. Participants came from New England, New York, Philadelphia, Ohio and Southern Appalachian Yearly Meetings and from the two Hispanic Friends Churches in Philadelphia, which are members of Evangelical Friends Church - Eastern Region.
They shared each others' cuisine and music, worked to prepare food and clean, participated in small group discussions and shared in childcare. A team of volunteers interpreted the entire program which included keynote talks on Peace within Us, Peace with God, Peace with our Neighbor, by Mary Lord of Baltimore YM and César Nufio of the National Evangelical Friends Church of Guatemala. The program concluded on Sunday morning with three hours of extended worship which moved seamlessly between planned music and messages and expectant waiting.
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| Historic Peace Church Peace Gathering set for the Dominican Republic
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Aminda de Arévalo (El Salvador YM), Paul Mitchell, (North Carolina YM FUM) and Benigno Sánchez-Eppler (New England YM), interpreter, were the Quaker participants in the meeting of the steering committee for the Historic Peace Churches' regional conference which will be held at Manresa Loyola Retreat Center, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, November 28 through December 3, 2010. It is the final of four world regional conferences under the auspices of the Decade to Overcome Violence, and will lead up to the 2011 International Ecumenical Peace Conference (IEPC) that will take place in Jamaica.
They joined members of the Church of the Brethren from Brazil, the Dominican Republic and the USA and Mennonites from Brazil, Canada, Guatemala and the USA. It is anticipated that approximately 60 persons from the Historic Peace Churches all over Latin America and the Caribbean will be invited to take part in the regional conference - roughly 20 from each denomination. The conference is intended to provide an opportunity for leaders and members of the Historic Peace Churches in Latin America to consider their responses to violence in their own lives and regions, and strengthen their peacemaking and witness to be shared with other churches. This is an ambitious undertaking that will involve additional fund-raising, but the Steering Committee believed that the goal of seeking peace is important enough to stretch to make it happen.
The first regional conference was held in 2001 at the Mennonite Seminary in Bienenberg, Switzerland, and resulted in the publication of Seeking Cultures of Peace. A second conference, in 2004 near Nairobi, Kenya, led to the publication of Seeking Peace in Africa, Stories of African Peacemakers. The most recent conference took place in 2007 in Solo, Indonesia. Its theme was Peace in Our Land, Historic Peace Churches in the Asian Context of Injustice, Religious Pluralism and Poverty.
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| Friends prepare to select theme for 2012 World Conference
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The International Planning Committee for the 2012 World Conference of Friends will hold its first meeting at Woodbrooke, England, June 4-7. Co-clerked by Liz Gates of Philadelphia YM and Pradip Lamichhane of Nepal YM, the first tasks are to choose a theme and begin to prepare a budget.
It is hoped that 1,000 Friends will be able to attend the event which is planned for August 14-21, 2012 at Africa Nazarene University, near Nairobi, Kenya. Priority will be given to younger people, to nurture future leadership. Yearly meetings will be asked to name their representatives by September 2011. Study materials linked to the theme will be distributed in late 2011 so that meetings and individuals will be able to follow the development of the theme.
The last World Conference of Friends was held in 1991 on three sites: Tela, Honduras; Elspeet, The Netherlands; and Chavakali School, Kenya. |
| Looking for volunteers to check FWCC directory listings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The book version of the FWCC Directory of Meetings in the US and Canada is getting ready to go to print. We are looking for volunteers from each yearly meeting who are willing to look over a list of the meetings within your yearly meeting to make sure the listing is complete and accurate. If you are knowledgeable of the meetings and churches within your yearly meeting, and are willing to help, please contact us. |
| FWCC display at your yearly meeting session
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Can you take FWCC literature to your yearly meeting session?
If so, contact us and we'll send you a small packet of materials and possibly a display for exhibiting at your yearly meeting sessions. Contact us by email here. |
| Greetings from the kitchen at the Northeast Regional Gathering.
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| Singing together
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