In April, Friends United Meeting organized a pastoral care trip to Friends in Palestine and Lebanon. We carried multiple stories in the enews. We reprint here the initial prayer request for guidance and protection, an account of the trip, and FUM General Secretary Kelly Kellum's prayer upon leaving.
Read More
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.
Read More
For years, FUM has collaborated with USAID staff 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. Currently, FUM has received a $1.4 million grant to construct an assembly hall on the lower campus of Ramallah Friends School. Construction was underway when, on 28 January 2025, we were notified that our grant is suspended for 90 days pending review. We have been working to comply with the terms of the suspension. . . Friends Lugulu Mission Hospital is another program deeply impacted by this suspension of American foreign aid...Our Comprehensive Care Clinic (CCC), supported by Catholic Charities through U.S. foreign aid, employs twenty-three dedicated staff members who provide life-saving medical services and counseling to patients diagnosed with HIV and tuberculosis. The clinic also runs essential programs to mitigate malaria in the region. The enforcement of the executive order required us to cease all clinic activities and dismiss our clinic staff.
Read More
The urban environment of the San Francisco Bay region is unlike any that I’ve ever lived in, in that while it has plenty of pollution and concrete and population density, it is yet very close to some of the most beautiful natural areas in Northern California.
Read More
This Sunday’s lectionary texts present the familiar vision of the peaceable kingdom: a place of harmonious coexistence of those who might seem like “natural” enemies. This is the place where God perfectly enacts just rewards and punishments, perfect winnowing. We get a taste of this Reign of God as we live in harmony with one another.
Read More
This Sunday’s lectionary texts surprise us with a vision of peace that breaks in, disrupting business as usual. Isaiah’s rousing vision of nations streaming to God’s mountain is jolting with its graphic images of the ways in which the ancient war machine will be decisively overcome. God’s enactment of justice will catch us unawares.
Read More
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.
