FUM News

Rediscover the Basics at 2026 Stoking the Fire

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?

FUM Ships Supplies to Cuba

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.

Uganda General Elections Raise Regional Concerns

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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What Quaker Parents Say They Need

Emily Provance writes about how Quaker communities might begin to think about caring for parents and families, based on the second year of the Quaker parent mutual support groups co-sponsored by Friends United Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting, and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Chief among her findings: Quaker parents feel profoundly isolated. "Some parents are literally alone...Other parents feel isolated despite not being literally alone. Parents in the group talked about the isolation of being the only Quaker in their geographic area or the only Quaker family in their meeting. They talked about the difficulty of developing deep friendships in modern society. They talked about their hunger for connections with parents in similar circumstances: other disabled parents, other single parents, other foster parents, other parents with shared custody arrangements. Facilitators heard it repeated again and again: 'I feel so alone.'"

Creating Multiple Sacred Spaces

One of the conversations we have had this year at Belize Friends Church is about creating multiple sacred spaces for people with various needs within the church. I find that the Spirit is in this conversation. . . . Creating multiple sacred spaces can be an alternative to, or can supplement, the more traditional mobilizing of people to know and experience God by focusing on a sermon.

Samburu Mission Takes Entrepreneurial Training

Africa Programme Officer Shawn McConaughey writes about the multiple benefits of an entrepreneurial ministry training with pastors from the Samburu mission and some leadership from members of the Turkana mission who went through the same training several years ago.

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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.