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Friends United Meeting |
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April 2002
News from Friends United Meeting
Notes from Quaker Hill Bookstore
Hello, Friends. This is the first in a series of letters to Friends everywhere to keep you abreast of what is happening here at Quaker Hill Bookstore.
Financially, the store came through pretty well during 2001. Our bottom line was a little better than break-even. We hope to keep a good balance, this year, between best prices for our customers and fair prices for the store. And it will be done with efficiency on the part of store employees.
This brings to mind the "Quaker Book Club." We can and will provide a good service to our customers by carefully:
—Mailing to friends who are currently interested in membership in the new "Quaker Book Club." We are working on a new mailing list and you can help by clipping the membership coupon on page 24 of this issue of Quaker Life. Please fill in the requested information and return the form to the store.
—Sending selections to our customers on a quarterly basis while providing 10% discount on all titles on the list. Shipping by book rate will keep customer costs down.
—A bookstore goal for 2002 is to increase sales, while keeping expenses in line. We will be effective in this goal if we can continue to fine-tune operation through thoughtful efficiency. Please send in your New Book Club coupon, call our toll free number to place an order, or look for us at our new web site, quakerhillbooks.org. We want to serve you better and often!
Sue Gongwer
Bookstore Manager
New Appointment Announced for World Ministries
Patrick Nugent, Mary Kay Rehard and their two daughters, Emma and Eliza, will fill the position that Rich and Sandy Davis have held at Friends Theological College as Principal. While they are attending language study, Stan Bauer, Clerk of FUM from Iowa Yearly Meeting, and his wife Karen will fill in at FTC between the departure of Rich and Sandy and the arrival of Patrick and Mary Kay.
Patrick currently is Director of the Institute for Quaker Studies and Project Director for the Lilly Endowment Grant on Faith, Vocation and Leadership at Earlham College. Besides home schooling their children, Mary Kay teaches "Basic Skills Reading" at Ivy Tech State College. Both are active members of West Richmond Friends, Indiana.
General Board Report, February, 2002
New entryway chairs, tables and coffee pot greeted General Board members when they arrived for the February 2002 meeting. Meeting for the last time before triennial sessions in Kenya this July, the inviting atmosphere began a time of visiting and sharing that continued throughout the weekend.
Highlights include:
—The finance report was accepted with gratitude. The 2001 year budget
ended in the black and debt reduction was significant.
—Ben Richmond's call as Director of North American Ministries was
extended to cover the 2002-2005 Triennium.
—Dennis Mills was approved as Director of World Ministries, beginning
March 18 through the 2002-2005 Triennium.
—Patrick Nugent and Mary Kay Rehard were introduced as the new Principal
of Friends Theological College in Kenya. Their daughters, Emma and Eliza,
also accompanied them. Stan and Karen Bauer will serve as interims during
the transition at the Friends Theological College between the leaving
of Rich and Sandy Davis and the arrival of Patrick and his family.
—Jens Braun of the missions committee led a Saturday afternoon brainstorming
session on the future of FUM missions work. Many ideas were generated
and the committee will now begin developing a clear vision for the future
of FUM missions work.
—The last meeting of the Triennial Planning Committee was held. Clerk
Marian Baker led the meeting as final details were undertaken and some
items assigned to the Host Committee in Kenya. Several workteam opportunities
are available before the Triennial (see page 6).
—North American Ministries reported on their activities, including
the Ambassadors for Christ program and a greater sense of not being isolated
yearly meetings but Friends sharing common concerns. An Emerging Leaders
Conference will be held in March. A working paper on Friends and Evangelism
is being used to formulate new vision for the future.
—Public Service Announcements about Friends are now being shown on
the Hallmark/Faith & Values network. The focus of the 30-second commercial
is on the Alternatives to Violence program in prisons.
—Approval of full membership in FUM to associate Kenyan members was
approved. Recognition will be held at the Triennial Celebration in Kenya.
They are: Central, Chavakali, Elgon East, Kakamega, Lugari, Malavca, and
Tulor.
—The Ecumenical Task Group sent the FUM response to the WCC call
for papers concerning the nature and purpose of the church. The Decade
to Overcome Violence is still being supported.
—The Triennial Nominating Committee is at work filling the slate
of officers for the 2002-2005 Triennium.
Quaker Youth Work Camps, Kenya, June 30 - July 15, 2002
By Jens Braun, Work Camp Director
Quakerism derives much of its transforming power in people's lives through direct and personal experience. Is it not vital for us as Friends to make available for our children and our young people the experiences that can open their minds and hearts to God's love in the world? How do we do this? Beyond talking about service, integrity, equality, community, peacemaking and other testimonies, what can we do to show these values in our lives?
One possibility is to encourage young Friends to join the Kenya Youth Work Camp preceding and during the FUM Triennial Sessions this summer. We have set three objectives for the Work Camp:
1. To provide a forum for young Friends from a variety of Yearly Meetings
to work and live together in a context of service and cross-cultural understanding.
2. To encourage young Friends to learn more about the structure, organization,
functioning and decision-making of the wider body of Quakers.
3. To give young Friends an opportunity to explore their own beliefs,
the meaning of missions and service in a Quaker context and the experience
of being representatives of their meetings/churches back home.
The Work Camp is open to young Friends ages 16-21. Once in Kenya, the group will divide into several smaller groups to visit villages with Friends Churches, where they will live and work with local Kenyan Friends on projects determined by the local church groups.
North American meetings wishing to encourage leadership and deeper understanding of Friends are encouraged to identify young Quakers with gifts in need of nurturing, and to support them in joining this project.
For more information about the program, costs, flights and more, contact Pat Sickmann at FUM (pats@fum.org) or Kenya Youth Work Camp, 101 Quaker Hill Dr., Richmond, IN 47374.
Cuba Yearly Meeting Looks to the Future
By John Myers
Cuban Friends are enthusiastic about their faith in Christ, and as they share their faith, their churches continue to grow. Growing churches mean growing needs. One presently unmet need is for a centralized yearly meeting office. The yearly meeting Building Committee oversees all renovation projects. The clerk of this committee is architect Idalmis Hernandez Perez.
During the 2001 FUM Cuba work team, Idalmis and yearly meeting clerk Maria Armenia Yi Reyna excitedly unveiled their projected plans and drawings for a new yearly meeting office and visitor center complex. Next door to the Holguin Friends Church are the ruins of the old "mission house," property already owned by Cuba Yearly Meeting. The proposal is to build on this area presently occupied by the ruins. The new facility will contain yearly meeting office space, classrooms for seminars and workshops sponsored by the yearly meeting, temporary living quarters for pastors in transition and accommodations for visiting Friends. The estimated cost of this project is $110,000.
Please join with Cuban Friends in prayer that God will provide all the resources necessary, according to His timing, to build this much-needed multi-purpose facility.
"And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)
Greetings from Cuba Yearly Meeting
A greeting with the love of Christ Jesus.
Last September we held General Board Meetings, and after a time of sharing and reflections on the relations between Cuba Yearly Meeting and Iowa Yearly Meeting we felt greatly blessed. Enriched by the history that we have read, and the Friends we have met along the way. Each day we thank God for the missionaries like Zenas L. Martin. He was the one to request that a mission be started in Cuba. Hence, the Gospel was brought by Friends to the Provience of Oriente in Cuba.
The testimonies of your love broughtÊback by our Pastor Maulio Ajo Berencen have been a great blessing to us. We wanted to express our desires, that the bridge that was once built may one day be strengthened. This is the desire ofÊour hearts, and we know it is yours as well.
Peace to you. The Friends here send their greetings. Greet the Friends there by name.Ê (3 John 15)
God Bless,
Maria Armenia Yi Reyna Clerk,
Cuba Yearly MeetingÊ
Copyright (c) 2002 Friends United Meeting
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