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This year’s Stoking the Fire theme, “Rediscovering the Basics”, is about reclaiming the fundamentals of our spiritual fire—getting us to a place where we can empower the core strength of our faith. We will be exploring questions about the space between ideal and real. What do we consider fire? Does everyone’s fire need to be identical? How do we show up for ourselves and one another when all we have is a small spark? What does it look like to stoke the flames of spiritual fire when it is raining and damp and the kindling is wet?
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On February 27, FUM Global Ministries Coordinator Karla Jay, North American Ministries Coordinator Michael Sherman, and Communications Director Dan Kasztelan sent a shipment of emergency supplies to Cuba Yearly Meeting through a shipping agency in Louisville, Kentucky. Friends contributed generously to this effort by using an Amazon shopping list to purchase supplies requested by Cuba Yearly Meeting. These items were delivered to the FUM office, then packaged up and driven to the agency in Louisville, to travel on to Cuba.
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As Ugandans went to the polls on 15 January 2026, the country stood at a historic crossroads, balancing four decades of continuous leadership against increasing demands for democratic openness, accountability, and peace. The recently concluded general elections, which included both presidential and parliamentary contests, have since attracted intense national, regional, and international attention. The elections re-elected 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni with 71.65% of the vote from around 21 million voters, extending his rule to forty years. Uganda’s population is approximately 51 million, including an estimated 5,000 Quakers. While many citizens participated peacefully in the voting process, the wider electoral environment showed both promising signs and significant challenges.
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On the way to visit someone in the hospital, I was listening to Carrie Newcomer’s new CD, The Beautiful Not Yet. I must admit I am already a Carrie Newcomer fan. Her style of singing and the manner in which she uses words always lifts up my soul. Each of her songs is more than a delightful tune with which to hum along—her songs portray the depths of spirituality, always inviting the listener to join her as she sings about everyday life occurrences and reflect on God’s touch throughout the journey.
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My good friend just started teaching at a public high school in rural Pennsylvania. While her main subject area is social studies, she also teaches Spanish, which she acquired while studying abroad in Guatemala.
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This poem is one I’ve struggled to write for three years or so. The experience itself is a struggle of longer duration. When I found myself on the Jesus Way again after being a non-believer for forty years or so, I also saw that Christ asked more of me than acceptance of miracles and belief. I feel much ambivalence about what Symeon’s revelation means for me. —Franchot Ballinger
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Throughout our history, the people known as Friends (or Quakers) keep rediscovering an essential and enduring truth: There is one who speaks to our most basic needs and most significant hopes—Christ Jesus the Lord. Both individually and communally, we are learning to know and follow the Voice that guides us in the way we should go. Together, we seek to understand and obey that truth which sets us free. As a people, we share in the experience of that powerful life which makes all things new. Maybe you are searching for an authentic and transforming faith and community to call home—if so, come in and join us as we seek to know and follow Christ.
Friends United Meeting commits itself to energize and equip Friends through the power of the Holy Spirit to gather people into fellowships where Jesus Christ is known, loved, and obeyed as Teacher and Lord.
