logo
 
Section of the Americas
May 16, 2014
In This Issue
Regional Consultations
Match your gift!
QYP Reunion
Planning for the Future
Quick Links

 

I am happy to announce that the Section Meeting will be March 12-15, 2015 in the Mexico City area. The usual meeting of the Committee of Latin American Friends will precede the full Section Meeting. The theme will be "Los Amigos Tejidos Juntos en el Amor de Dios," or "Friends Woven Together in God's Love." This is connected to the Biblical verse Colossians 2:2, "I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love...." More details will be announced this fall. robinmohrelsalvador

 

 

In friendship, 

Robin Mohr 

Robin Mohr

Executive Secretary

 

Hundreds gather at regional Living Water Consultations

 

Group photo in Bolivia 

Friends gathered in Bolivia, El Salvador, California, and North Carolina this spring for the first-ever FWCC regional consultations. Each consultation attracted over a hundred Friends representing over a dozen yearly meetings apiece. The unifying theme "Let the Living Water Flow!" highlighted the power and vitality in serving God's purposes today.

Facing Bench North Carolina
Friday Night Facing Bench
in North Carolina

 

Participants heard talks about the future of leadership in the Society of Friends. In workshops, they learned skills in cross-cultural communication and conflict transformation. And in between, they met in homegroups that mirrored the broad cultural diversity of Friends across the Americas, reflecting and engaging tenderly with each other's faith and witness.

 

A Home Group in El Salvador 


In California, one of the participants said, "I experienced unanticipated ways people can find their way to unity with each other across seemingly irreconcilable differences in theology and 'conviction'. In some ways we accomplished this in spite of ourselves. This is wonderfully encouraging."

 

Read more about the 2014 Consultations, and download the study booklet in English and Spanish. 

Mustard Seed Tree The Mustard Seed Matching Campaign  

  

Have you held off donating to FWCC because your gift is "too small"? Remember, with faith the size of a mustard seed, we can do great things! Now is the time to give to the Friends World Committee: if you have not donated in the last five years, your gift will be matched by a small group of our generous, long-term supporters. You can give online at www.fwccamericas.org/donate. And if you have donated in the last five years, invite a new Friend to make a donation this year.

Quaker Youth Pilgrimage Reunion

 

Alumni of the 1989 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage gathered for their 25th reunion at the home of Michael Eccles in Birmingham, UK, on 26 April. Most of the group is connected via Facebook and 8 were able to participate (5 in person and 3 via video chat). Pictured from left: Alice Drewery Carter, Michael Eccles, Megan Perry-Spears, Sunu Chandy, Ruth Magoon Eriksson, Anne Mowat-Mulder, Gwen Gosney Erickson, Matt Gillett (along with children of Alice, Matt, Michael, and Anne visible in photo). The group represented alumni currently living in Britain, Sweden, and the United States. The 8 originally came on the pilgrimage from Britain (Britain YM), the Netherlands (Netherlands YM), and the United States (four yearly meetings including FGC, FUM, and Conservative Friends).

  

To read more about the 2014 Quaker Youth Pilgrimage to the Andes, visit our website, http://fwccamericas.org/QYP-Andes.shtml.   

Executive Committee meets, begins strategic planning

The Section of the Americas Executive Committee met in Miami, Florida on April 24-27, 2014. We were very warmly hosted by the Miami Friends Meeting and the Iglesia de los Amigos/Miami Friends Church.

 

Two important items of business were choosing a theme for the 2015 Section Meeting, and a series of exercises for considering broadly and deeply how God is calling the Friends World Committee to serve in the 21st Century. The Executive Committee began this process of strategic planning last fall and will continue through the 2015 Section Meeting. 

 

A webconference with more information for all Representatives to the Section will be held at the end of May. This webconference will be conducted in English on May 22 and in Spanish on May 29, 2014. Connection details will be sent directly to Representatives.

 

The Executive Committee thanked Sheila Bach (Baltimore YM), Mike Hinshaw (Lake Erie YM), Jehu Lopez (Honduras YM), Margaret Stoltzfus (Iowa YM-FUM) for their service on the Executive Committee of the Section of the Américas. We welcomed Karen Gregorio de Calderon (Holiness Friends YM-Guatemala), Dorothy Grannell (New England YM), Chuck Kleymeyer (Baltimore YM) and Gloria Thompson (New York YM). Ron Bryan (Iowa YM-FUM) will be joining the Committee in July.