During the recent gathering of the General Board, FUM’s General Secretary, Kelly Kellum announced the resignation of Oscar and Miriam Mmbali, who serve as our field-staff in Belize. Seven years ago, Oscar accepted the call to serve in Belize as FUM’s church planting pastor. When Oscar and Miriam were married, she joined him in the ministry. In 2024, Oscar became the director of FUM-Belize.
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In recent weeks, the FUM E-news has reported on the impact the suspension of US foreign aid is having on ministries under the care of Friends United Meeting. We carry a burden of concern and responsibility for Ramallah Friends School and the Lugulu Friends Mission Hospital. For years, FUM has collaborated with USAID to oversee grants through the ASHA (American Schools and Hospitals Abroad) Program. Both the Lugulu Friends Mission Hospital and Ramallah Friends School have benefited from this program.
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The FUM Living Letters service-learning trip to the Ramallah Friends School this summer will be June 13 to July 1, dates subject to slight change depending on flights. It will be led by Jane and Max Carter, of New Garden Friends Meeting, in North Carolina, who have led more than thirty trips to Palestine and Israel. During the 2½ week sojourn, the group will stay on the campus of the Friends School, do simple projects around the campus, meet with local leaders of Palestinian religious, cultural, and political society, and enjoy meals in the homes of families connected with the School. Travel away from Ramallah will include visits to Jerusalem, the Galilee, the Jordan Valley, Bethlehem, Hebron, and meeting with Israelis who are working with Palestinians towards a just peace. For information and an application, contact Jane Carter (click to send email).
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With no employees allowed on the Ramallah Friends School campus for a month, no one will be there to do the heavy landscaping work until at least April, after I leave. I won't be able to participate in the installation of the Circle. My disappointment is pretty intense—so much design happens when you actually install. Besides the landscaping, the connections I have been developing with people here are not going to have this last month to deepen.
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I served as a pastoral minister among Friends for most of my adult life. In preparation for a recent move, I sorted through twenty-three years of sermon files, notes, and manuscripts. This revealed a lot about me and the kind of messages I like to preach—and the kind of messages I avoid.
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The Fall 2019 issue of Quaker Life, on justice, is in the mail and on shelves now. In the Bible, justice has to do with land and labor and family structures; with ownership and employment; with widows, orphans, and immigrants; with food and water and housing; with access to God at the Temple—with everything, material or spiritual, that is required for a human being to thrive. God cares for ALL of what God has created, and therefore shows a special regard for the weak and the marginalized for whom society cares less. And since God shows a special regard for the weak and the poor, a corresponding quality is required of God’s people. God’s people must also be especially concerned with equity and fairness in society and economy, with guaranteeing every creature’s access to the necessities of life: to water, food, health, respect, attention, kindness, helpful community, and the opportunity to draw near to God. As a foundation for life together, justice is a vast and widening gyre, and our authors in this issue explore the theme from many angles.
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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.
