COAL
The Committee of Latin American Friends is a program of the Section of the Americas that strives to serve the needs of Latin American and Spanish-speaking Friends.
As part of its mission, FWCC, through COAL, promotes intervisitation between Latin American Friends and English-speaking Friends in the Americas, resulting in a deep sense of spiritual enrichment for the participants. Also through COAL, the Section holds workshops that help to cultivate and prepare leaders in Latin American churches and meetings, to promote a deeper understanding of the Quaker faith.
Friends from nine Latin American countries and eleven Yearly Meetings are affiliated with FWCC, and participate in activities at both the Section and World levels. These face-to-face and heart-to-heart encounters provide opportunities for Friends to share their responses to the call of God in their lives in their countries of origin.
En Pocas Palabras
Our Spanish newsletter, En Pocas Palabras (In a Few Words), is sent out electronically each month. It includes news about activities, ministries and projects that Yearly Meetings are conducing in Latin America as well as requests for prayer, words of gratitude, and general information about FWCC activities.
Publications and Training
COAL has given special attention to publications in Spanish, particularly those concerning the beliefs of Friends. In recent years, these writings have been the basis of a series of workshops which have been held in Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador concerning the sacraments, using translations of Propositions XII and XIII from Robert Barclay‘s Apology, as well as the book Why Friends are Friends, by Jack Willcuts.
Other publications have been produced in collaboration with The Wider Quaker Fellowship (another program of FWCC Section of the Americas).
Note: In the 1970s the Section of the Americas held a hemispheric conference entitled “Friends in the Americas.” The conference provided an opportunity for Latin American Friends to become better acquainted and discuss areas of shared interest and concern. As a result, the Section quickly decided to support forming a group known as Comité Organizador de los Amigos Latinoamericanos (Organizing Committee of Latin American Friends).
Over the decades, groups of Friends and Yearly Meetings from many countries have joined, and transformed what was an organizing committee into what is now the Comité de los Amigos Latinoamericanos (Committee of Latin American Friends).