In Samburu, Kenya, pastor Christopher Leduma, from Samburu Friends Mission, facilitated a one-day transformative dialogue called by Samburu community members who are tired of bandits from rival Samburu communities attacking familes and stealing their animals.
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Each year on Pentecost weekend Friends United Meeting hosts a retreat, Stoking the Fire, inspired by Acts 2:1–4: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Inspiration for this year’s Stoking the Fire came from The Four Pivots, a book by Shawn Ginwright. In the introduction Ginwright writes, “Our real power comes from the courage to deal with our fractured relationships, the vulnerability to acknowledge our hurt feelings, and the awareness to know when our ego shows up.” . . . This year at Stoking the Fire we looked directly at how each of us might be able to, as Isaac Penington wrote, “Give over thine own willing. Give over thine own running. Give over thine own desiring to know or be anything, and sink down to the seed which God chose in thy heart...”
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The Friends Church Kenya (FCK) inaugurated its formal constitution in an auspicious ceremony held in Poroko-Highland Yearly Meeting. The ratification took place after an intensive development process that involved representatives from all Yearly Meetings in Kenya. The Yearly Meeting representatives participated in a robust and dynamic discussion over several meetings, ultimately arriving at the completed document that was approved and launched in April during the FCK Triennial.
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Today, I shared communion with eleven other Quakers. Actually, the meal was mandazi and Chai tea, but the real Presence of Christ was experienced and celebrated in our midst.
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On Friday night I went to dinner with two classmates from Earlham. Between quick intakes of breath taken to counter our fatally authentic Indian dishes, our discussion turned toward how women should respond to misogyny in the workplace.
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The lessons for this Sunday describe signs of God that appear in the midst of everyday life. Joseph was an example of faithfulness, even when the signs he perceived were unclear, even mysterious. When we have been “fed with the bread of tears,” scorned and ridiculed, we long to be restored by God.
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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.
