FUM News

Board Makes Changes to NAM Committee

At the March meeting of the Friends United Meeting General Board, North American and Caribbean section, board members agreed to changes in the work assigned to the North American Ministries committee of the board. Previously, the North American Ministries Committee was responsible for four FUM programs: Stoking the Fire, African Friends in North America (AFNA), Flourishing Friends, and Unleashing the Power.

Report from the FUM General Board

Friends United Meeting’s General Board met in person and via Zoom from March 6–8, 2025. The meetings started with a development session led by Colin Saxton, Director of Church Relations and Stewardship Theologian for Everence Financial Services. Colin initiated a discussion on how Everence could further build financial capacity within Friends United Meeting, prompting a deeper conversation among board members.

What Does it Mean to be Publishers of Truth?

In these partisan and divided times, when many Americans are arguing not only about how to respond to the truth, but what truth (or Truth) even is, Friends United Meeting has been asking what it means for us to be publishers of truth in this time. The FUM staff has agreed to the following guidelines for our news stories, social media posts, and our own personal communications, whether on social media or in person: • Share first-hand experience • Resist passing along AI “news,” or even an AI voice • Avoid creating or spreading memes that pass along partial truth without context• Ask whether what we are communicating will enhance a person’s dignity, or is intended to take dignity away

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FUM Journal

Unlovable

When Kevin’s mother called me to tell me he had run away from home, she was crying. Anger, fear, and exhaustion poured out of her through the phone. She wept as she explained how her son told her he would rather live on the streets of Portland, Oregon, than stay one more day with her and his younger brother. He didn’t need them or want them—and at fifteen years old, he was perfectly able to fend for himself.

Ask Tom: How were children expected to behave in traditional Quaker worship?

My sense is that one of the major changes in Quaker worship over the past century-and-a-half, aside from the introduction of programmed worship (definitely a biggie!), has been the growing sense that young children should not be present for the whole period.

Hidden

We were driving to my mother’s home in Nashville for our Christmas celebration, and my daughter reacted to a new construction project we hadn’t seen before. Obviously it had been quite a while since we drove south.

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An Enduring Truth

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.