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Friends United Meeting |
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May 2003
News from Friends United Meeting
Commitments
By Retha McCutchen
Grace, in my opinion, is the most important of Christian doctrines. My seminary education defined grace as "the unmerited favor of God." Grace is the undeserved, yet freely given, forgiveness of God in Christ. The church in America has a difficult time with grace. We like the concept. We believe grace is available to all but we trip up on interpretation.
The fundamentalist operates with fear — what if the person wasn't really serious? What if salvation doesn't take? What if we trust and the person breaks our trust? So we set up rules to live by to ensure repentance is genuine, thereby earning grace.
Universalism presents an open and loving grace. Through God's love, all are recipients of God's grace, wiping out the need of rules to the extent there is no punishment in God's plan. The logical conclusion is there is no freedom to reject God's invitation.
FUM organizationally has chosen a middle road. FUM is evangelical with a small "e," sometimes defined as Christian Quakers to distinguish itself on the grace-scale. Certainly our constituency has representatives of the extreme ends and everywhere in the middle.
I was sad to hear a Sunday morning message in an FUM meeting that stated everyone would enter into God's eternal grace. There is no hell/punishment for those who don't accept God's grace through Christ. Part of my sadness arose from the fact that except for this one sentence I am in strong agreement with the message presented. I believe most of us miss grace by being too severe. We expect, often unconsciously, a Christian to use Christian-ese. If they don't say the right words in the correct sequence as we define it, we exclude them from community. What we must do as Christian Quakers is to stop the judging. God is Judge.
The kinds of judgments that get us into trouble include:
Rejecting the Christian witness of a person not living my accepted lifestyle.
Rejecting the Christian witness of a person who does not say the prescribed
words even though his/her life reflects the fruit and gifts of the Spirit.
Assuming that saying the right words is all that matters even through
his/her life does not reflect the fruit and gifts of the Spirit.
I am what insiders define as a convinced Friend. As an adult, I chose the Friends Church as the place to live my Christian experience. I found my beginning among Evangelical Friends. I owe Northwest Yearly Meeting a debt of gratitude for loving me to Christ and having belief in my gifts when they weren't believable. An error some NWYM Friends have made is an underlying belief that unprogrammed Friends aren't Christian. And because FUM includes unprogrammed Friends, we are all spiritually suspect. This information is far from accurate.
Let's get beyond the worship style, the language differences and listen. Listen through the Spirit of Christ. One of my blessings has been the experience of forgiveness given and received within the community. For a reason I haven't quite grasped, unprogrammed Friends have the ability to lay down expectations of language and behavior, allowing God's Spirit to work. In that environment, God changes lives. But when they run into a strong Evangelical with a capital "E," up go their barriers. No human way is perfect.
Friends, let us listen with ears of the Spirit.
Announcement of Summer Deputations
New Field Staff:
World Ministries announces our newest family members, Andy and Lisa Stout, who will be serving as field staff for Happy Grove High School in Jamaica. Happy Grove High School is located on the far eastern coastline. The school began in the late 1800s and now has over 1400 students ages 12-18. Both Andy and Lisa grew up in the Wabash Friends Church in Indiana Yearly Meeting. They have known each other since high school, and they believe God has been working in both of their lives preparing them for Christian service. Andy will serve as Chaplain of Happy Grove. Lisa and Andy have already begun their deputation and are most eager to begin their ministry in Jamaica by mid-August.
Other Field Staff available for speaking are:
- Colin and Kathy South are coming from Ramallah for just a few weeks in July.
- Mike and Kay Cain will return to Indiana from Belize. They have exciting news about the changes at Friends Boys School and are eager to share.
- Patrick Nugent, Mary Kay Rehard and their children, Emma and Eliza, will be home in August from Friends Theological College in Kenya.
If your meeting is interested in hosting any of these field staff, please call Terri Johns at (765) 962-7573 or email her at terrij@fum.org.
Free Book Available on Iraq
Iraq on the Edge, a photo essay by Thorne Anderson, is being distributed free to the public through independent bookstores by Publishers for Peace Coalition. A designated contribution has made it possible for Friends United Press to join other members of Publishers for Peace in the publication and distribution of this anti-war pamphlet. It will be available through Quaker Hill Bookstore.
An independent journalist, Thorne Anderson, currently in Iraq, emphasizes the impact of conflict on civilian populations. Images in Iraq on the Edge show an Iraq not often pictured by the mass media — children, families, art, a chat between friends, architecture, celebrations, and signs of deprivation resulting from more than ten years of economic sanctions. Thorne Anderson produced Iraq on the Edge in cooperation with Voices in the Wilderness, a U.S./U.K. group that coordinates the Iraq Peace Team, a constant presence of volunteers in Iraq working with the Iraqi people and millions around the world who are speaking out against the use of war, deprivation, starvation, and disease for political gain.
As the war against Iraq began, the members of the Iraq Peace Team chose to stay in the country to continue the struggle for peace and justice in solidarity with the people of Iraq. Photographer, Thorne Anderson, is also remaining as a witness.
Publishers for Peace is coordinated through Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont.
Photos by Thorne Anderson and others are available at www.iraqjournal.org.
Wanted: Recipes for a Quaker Cookbook
Quaker Life and Friends United Press are joining together to publish a new cookbook, Plain and Plenty: A Quaker Cookbook. The core of the book is taken from a Quaker Life column written by Avis Rees in the 1980s. Included in each column were recipes from a local meeting/church, a picture of the meetinghouse and a short history of the congregation.
Guidelines for other meetings to contribute to this new cookbook are:
¥ 1 long or 2 short recipes, especially focusing on more healthy guidelines;
¥ a picture or photo of the meetinghouse which will be returned;
¥ a short history of the meeting of no more than 200 words.
Also wanted are short quotations by Quakers that could be inserted as fillers thoughout the cookbook.
Send contributions to: Quaker Life, 101 Quaker Hill Drive, Richmond, IN 47374. For more information, contact Trish Edwards-Konic at (765) 962-7573 or email: quakerlife@fum.org. Deadline for all contributions is July 31, 2003.
The Spirit is Alive in Cuba
By Lisa Baum-Waters
I am assured that each and every day we co-create with God. In Cuba, Friends are working side by side to create a new place for Cuban Friends to gather and glorify God. The spirit is accessible; it surrounds us daily. Whether one is in the comforts of a car or home, or on a busy street, the spirit is accessible. The Spirit is alive and well in Cuba.
For He will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways (Psalm 91:11). Each day as we grabbed onto the mottled steel handles and pulled ourselves up the steps of what I might describe as a Midwest stock truck for our trek to the worksite at Floro Perez, it was obvious we were in the palm of His hand. The truck would slow to pass a horse-drawn cart, or provide caution to us in a curvy hilly section of road. The magnificent views from the truck became history lessons of Cuba. Spanish guardhouses would break the far horizon lines. Political slogans, "VIVA FIDEL," dotted the landscapes. Was the spirit with the Cubans through those times? Yes! Is the spirit with us today? Yes!
As we approached the narrow work site, each day adding more complications and more hazards, I was aware of the activity unseen by human eyes. Protection was abounding, all working in co-creation with us to bring this building to life. The call for a cardena, a chain to move blocks from the truck, brick from one area to another or concrete in buckets to a prepared section, was a familiar call. Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, with smiles and song, the work continued and we were partners in this holy work...we became the hands of Jesus.
The Cubans struggle each and every day for things we take for granted. I oftentimes would look to the tree, as Paul would call out the Spanish name for a hummingbird. He spotted one several times at the worksite of Floro Perez. Birds are constantly searching for food in their daily lives. So it goes for Cubans too.
Our weekend trip to Banes to see our other worksite and friends there, and then onto the beach, was a lesson in Cuban life. As the bus broke down 50 minutes into the trip, it left us in Holguin. Had the bus not broken down, we would have missed 100 beautiful children singing at Cuban levels (100 thousand watts in radio terms) at the chapel there. Once on the road again, after a two-hour wait, we broke down again. Steve and Paul gathered some sugar cane from the roadside field and patience was part of the plan. Our Cuban friends sent a wad of cash ahead to get a truck to help us complete our trip that day.
Finally, we dropped off the beach crew, headed to Banes for our reunion and the dedication of a new Cuban baby. We missed the initial lunch and gathering of people since we were now four hours late. However, we saw an ample number of familiar faces waiting on the sidewalk in front of the church. The building we had torn down last year was now standing tall and gorgeous in the Cuban sun — new bathrooms, new dorm facilities are now part of the building. We celebrated the baby and parents and we sang together. The day ended with a late supper at 9 p.m. It was a perfect experience. Cuban life — nothing's for sure with schedules or food — but something is sure — the spirit is there preparing a way.I know that through my life I have knowledge of the spirit walking with me, preparing a way. The plan takes form and is easier to see once the chapter closes and I move forward to the next phase of life. I am thankful for the protection our work team experienced and for the support of the meeting as we co-created with God in Cuba. When has the spirit walked with you?
Lisa Baum-Waters is a member of West Branch Friends, Iowa, and was a member of this year's FUM workteam to Cuba.
Copyright (c) 2003 Friends United Meeting
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