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| Section of the Americas | April 28, 2011
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Greetings!
We are getting closer to reaching our income goal for this fiscal year, for which we feel very thankful. It is no small accomplishment! We are blessed by the many folks who faithfully and generously support FWCC's mission all the time.
We don't know what's still coming in the mail, but we predict that we still need at least $6000 to make our income goal for this year.
If you were thinking of making a contribution to help, you can do so immediately online through our secure donation page. Checks dated in April and received next week will also count towards our fiscal year end. A gift in any amount can really make a difference.
Thank you,
FWCC Section of the Americas
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Next Quaker Youth Pilgrimage planned for 2012
FWCC will soon begin the search for two adult leaders and fourteen young Friends ages 16-18 from the Section of the Americas to participate in the 2012 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. An equal number of leaders and young Friends from the Europe and Middle East Section will join the Section of the Americas Friends for this pilgrimage. Hosted by FWCC's Europe and Middle East Section, this month-long pilgrimage will take place from mid-July through mid-August. Details are still in the planning stage, but you can expect application forms for potential pilgrims and leaders to be available soon from our website. The Pilgrimage is an opportunity to promote loving understanding within the Quaker worldwide family. Please encourage young Friends to consider this life-changing opportunity for spiritual growth. Check our website for application forms and other important information soon, |
New Section Executive Secretaries and Clerks
The Central Executive Committee of FWCC, at its just-concluded meeting in Switzerland, said goodbye to Dilawar Chetsingh, Clerk of the Asia West Pacific Section; Margaret Fraser, Executive Secretary of the Section of the Americas; and Moses Musonga, Executive Secretary of the Africa Section. The incoming Section Executive Secretaries Robin Mohr (Americas) and Churchill Malimo (Africa) were present, as was Jane Snyder, new Clerk of the Section of the Americas. The new Asia West Pacific Section Clerk, Patricia Macgregor of Aotearoa/New Zealand, was appointed so recently that she will have to wait until the next meeting in Kenya to join the group face to face.
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from l: René Mamani, IEUBA treasurer; Jeff Keith; Sabino Chipana; and Gualberto Torres, IEUBA presiding clerk
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Bolivian yearly meeting newest FWCC affiliate
With great enthusiasm the Annual Meeting of the Section of the Americas in March approved the formal affiliation of the Evangelical Union Friends Church of Bolivia (abbreviated IEUBA in Spanish).
IEUBA was officially founded as a church in 1986, but its history goes back to 1948, when a group of Friends separated from the National Evangelical Friends Church (INELA), which was a mission field of what was then called Oregon Yearly Meeting (now Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends).
The affiliation process included the formation of a Clearness Committee to visit with the yearly meeting. Jeff Keith (Philadelphia YM and member of the Executive Committee of FWCC-SOA), Sabino Chipana (INELA-Bolivia and Director of Evangelical Friends Church International in Latin America), Jesús Huarachi Cutipa (INELA-Peru and Coordinator of COAL, Southern Region), and Paul Mitchell (North Carolina YM (Conservative) and member of the Executive Committee of FWCC-SOA) comprised the committee.
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| Committee of Latin American Friends: changes for 2011
FWCC Section of the Americas has begun an in-depth evaluation of the Committee of Latin American Friends (COAL) program, through extensive consultation processes with Latin American Friends. We expect this will take the rest of the year to complete.
In the midst of this change in COAL, and in order to maintain our ongoing programming and retain "institutional memory", the three current COAL regional clerks - Jorge Luis Peńa Reyes of Cuba (northern region), Bernabé Sánchez of Honduras (central region) and Jesús Huarachi of Peru (southern region) have been asked to continue in their roles for an additional year.
Annual workshops in the various regions of Latin America will continue this year with the focus on the theme of Being Salt and Light: Friends living the kingdom of God in a broken world, in preparation for the Sixth World Conference of Friends planned for April 2012 in Kenya.
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 Appreciation for Loida Fernandez, COAL Executive SecretaryAt last month's Annual Meeting Loida Fernández González was recognized for her long service, completed in December 2010, as Executive Secretary of the Committee of Latin American Friends. Over the years she has served FWCC as a volunteer, an employee and more recently as a consultant. The Annual Meeting approved the following minute: Friends expressed deep appreciation to Loida Fernández of the Reunión General de los Amigos en México. Loida served the Section of the Americas as Executive Secretary of the Committee of Latin American Friends from January 1994 until December 2010. Loida has been committed to the work of FWCC for more than thirty years. In addition to acting as a translator and interpreter over the years, she served as the coordinator of the "Round Table" of Latin American Friends at the Conference of Friends in the Americas held in Wichita, Kansas in 1977. The proposals of that group led to the formation of COAL. Between 1978 and 1981 Loida served as FWCC Associate Secretary, based in Mexico City. Ten years later she served as an interpreter at the 5th World Conference of Friends, and she was the coordinator of the Local Planning Committee for the 1993 Annual Meeting of FWCC Section of the Americas that took place in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico. Loida's warmth, spiritual strength and creative spirit have contributed greatly to the work of the Section of the Americas, its representatives and its staff. With her counsel and leadership, the Committee of Latin American Friends has grown and explored diverse ways of building fellowship and a shared sense of identity. We deeply miss her presence and look forward to seeing her often in the future. |
 Latin American Quaker Peace Center proposedFrom the recent annual session of Cuba Yearly Meeting, which took place in February, we received this news: "As a result of the workshops on Quakerism that were conducted for us by the American Friends Service Committee, we felt the hand of God opening the way for us to deepen and project out our Quaker faith, and placing upon us a call to deeper service. This would put us in His hands as instruments of peace... As a result, it was proposed to create a Center for Peace and Latin American Quaker Studies, whose purpose would be the following: 'To create a Quaker training center that would help us to deepen and project our faith and our Quaker witness within our context, and at the same time be able to prepare leaders who can work towards the promotion of peace and the resolution of conflicts...'" FWCC Section of the Americas looks forward to sharing news of this project as it develops. |
 Young adult Friends shine in Salt & Light program
Karen Gregorio de Calderón (Guatemala Holiness YM) and Cristela Martínez (El Salvador YM) have been leading workshops and visiting Friends in Peru for the last two weeks. Their travels will culminate this weekend when they will be the main speakers at a three-day leadership conference in Cusco for youth from Peru and Bolivia, with the focus on "Being Salt and Light."
Karen and Cristela have addressed groups of Friends in southern Peru, in the yearly meeting annual Easter week conference in the highlands of Ilave, and in Arequipa. One Friend observed:
"Their youth and joy have been great encouragement to young Friends, and they have a promising future within the Religious Society of Friends. Their ways of teaching and communicating are something we have not seen before in INELA Peru, and with their charisma they have broken down barriers of age and culture. We are very grateful to them." |
Invitation for Young Adult Friends to celebrate with Friends in Peru
Funding is still available for one or two more young adult Friends to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of the National Evangelical Friends Church of Peru in October.
This is possible thanks to a grant given to FWCC from the organizers of a recent conference of young adult Friends. They minuted: The funds remaining from the 2010 YAF Gathering will be given to FWCC Section of the Americas as a restricted gift. The money is to be used for the travel expenses of a North American Quaker between 18 and 35 traveling to Peru Yearly Meeting's 50th anniversary events or a North American Quaker between 18 and 35 traveling in the ministry among Friends in Central or South America, with a minute of travel from their monthly meeting. Please contact the Section Office if you are considering this opportunity and would like to know more. |
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