Friends United Meeting Global Ministries Coordinator Karla Jay joined the Central American tour with the Friends World Committee for Consultation as an interpreter for their annual Nominations and Representative Engagement Retreat in El Salvador, held November 6–9, 2025. The tour continued from November 11–16, beginning with visits to Friends churches in El Salvador and then crossing into Guatemala to visit Friends in Guatemala Holiness Yearly Meeting, who have expressed interest in joining Friends United Meeting.
Karla’s visit fulfilled a long-standing request from Guatemala Holiness Yearly Meeting to begin a dialogue about the mutual benefits of becoming an FUM member body. For several years, FUM had attempted to make such a visit, but a series of obstacles—political instability leading to road blockages, and travel concerns—prevented it. In 2023, General Secretary Kelly Kellum was scheduled to travel to the country, but Guatemala’s political turmoil at that time led local leader Karen Gregorio to advise postponing the visit until conditions improved.
The long-awaited visit was productive. It began with a Quaker tour of the city of Chiquimula, where the first missionaries from the United States founded Guatemala National Yearly Meeting over 120 years ago. In the 1960s, Edgar Madrid separated from that body and established what is now Guatemala Holiness Yearly Meeting. Today the Yearly Meeting includes fifteen churches and about 500 members. Since the passing of its founder, the Yearly Meeting has been restructuring and discerning its future—part of which includes strengthening existing international Quaker connections and forming new ones.
With this discernment in mind, FWCC hosted a collaborative dinner in Guatemala, inviting FUM, Friends Journal, and Right Sharing of World Resources to explore opportunities for joint ministry. RSWR has been active in Guatemala since 2023 and has already reached 285 families through its seed-grant program. Holiness Friends expressed interest in strengthening their Quaker identity through FUM’s existing resources, including membership curriculum and Quaker educational materials. Upon joining FUM, they would also be invited to appoint representatives to the Latino Friends Ministries Committee and to participate in other areas of global collaboration.
This visit held special meaning for Karla, who was born in Guatemala and whose family maintains ties with the Friends Church there. After the Quaker tour, she spent time with relatives, accompanied by her father, Carlos Moran.Friends United Meeting has long had historic ties with Friends in Cuba, Mexico, and the United States, and we continue to see God at work among Spanish-speaking Friends across the Americas.
