Young Adult Development fund applications due January 15

Applications to the Young Adult Development fund are due January 15 2020!

This Fund was created from Quaker Youth Pilgrimage monies, and the hope is that it will generate similarly powerful experiences of deep spiritual connection and encouragement for Young Adult Friends.

Please consider applying for events and projects that benefit and strengthen the network of Young Adult Friends around the world according to the objectives and requirements. This could include anything from running a Quaker leadership training course to planning a World Gathering of Young Friends (maybe connected to the next World Plenary Meeting in South Africa in 2023!). We have a preference for engaging in partnerships and for working across theological and cultural differences and across Sections.

In order for the application to be successful, it must meet the following objectives of the program:

  1. Deepening the religious experience of participants by challenging them to engage outside their known Quaker environments and appreciating different Quaker cultures.
  2. Training in Quaker processes and practice of taking on Quaker leadership roles – pastoral care, eldership, clerkship, etc.
  3. Sustaining and building community, fostering authentic friendships among participants. Encouraging Young Adult Friends to organise events that give them time to bond.
  4. Exploring theological differences that make up Quaker diversity. Encouraging engagement in formulating and articulating the evolving expression of Quaker faith for a new generation of Friends.
  5. Encouraging participation in the leadership of the home meeting/church and strengthening the impact of Young Adult Friends’ voices in their communities.

You can find the more information and the application online at: https://fwcc.world/areas-of-work/supporting-young-friends/young-adult-development-fund/

Conservative Quakers Raise Cattle Sustainably in Bolivia

We met Neva and Grant Kaufmann at World Plenary of Friends in Peru and were fascinated by their story. The Kaufmans have lived in Bolivia for several decades but they are not typical Bolivian Friends. They are Conservative Friends who moved to Bolivia from Iowa twenty years ago and became cattle ranchers. They live as simply and as sustainably as possible. Neva is a birthright Friend and Grant was born into a secular Jewish family. With their mostly homemade plain dress, they look like Friends who’ve stepped out of the 19th century.

Grant and Neva moved to an area in the southeast part of Bolivia called the Chaco, where the climate is extremely hot and arid. When they arrived, the pond on their property looked like pea soup.  To make the water drinkable, they had to boil it over a wood fire. The cistern held rainwater, but it rains so rarely the water was insufficient. They couldn’t grow corn because it is too dry. The ground was unproductive.  They lost cattle because there was not enough grass to feed them.

Through the Mennonites they learned about panicum  gatton, a species of grass that grows in shade. They also learned about a system of ranching called sylvopastoralism, which is “the practice of combining forestry and grazing of domesticated animals in a mutually beneficial way.” Instead of cutting down trees to create a monoculture, the Kaufmanns planted panicum grass, which grows under trees and feeds their cattle. As a result of thispractice, the Kaufmanns began to see deer, wild pigs and new species of birds.  As their ranch prospered, neighboring ranchers also began to follow their example.

They learned that certain trees called choroquete thrive in this dry climate. Their leaves taste like salad. In June through October they drop their leaves and help create a cushion, which the cattle like to lick up.

“It’s a beautiful symbiotic system,” explained Grant.

Their life hasn’t been easy. In the first year they killed over 300 poisonous snakes.  They had to work hard to live sustainably but they have a happy family and a deep gratitude to God. Neva explained, “Our family loves to work and loves to have fun. They love to milk cows. One son wanted a cow since he was four years old. Nathan likes ranching, and Rachel trains horses. She loves animals and is very gentle and kind.”

Grant told us, “The biblical counsel ‘whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might’ has encouraged us to press ahead with the ranch at a time when Bolivia’s chronic political and legal instability, combined with threats of climate change, have discouraged many others.” He is thankful for all that he has been able to accomplish in South America.

We enjoyed many meals with Grant and Neva in Pisac, and we have kept in touch in the year that has passed. For us, the encounter with these Friends, living a particular but sustainable life, displays the essence of FWCC’s mission to bring Friends of varying traditions and cultural experiences together.

When we asked the Kauffmans what was most memorable about the FWCC Plenary, they responded:  “Knowing again that we are not alone….The essence of our Friends community seems to be sharing the love of God, whether we call it that or something else.  This was the Pisaq experience for us.”

To learn more about the Kaufmanns, including their spiritual journey, go to http://laquaker.blogspot.com/2016/10/conservative-quakers-raise-cattle.html.

FWCC and Sustainability (Video)

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The December QuakerSpeak – FWCC partnership video focuses on the work that started with the Kabarak Call and led to our sustainability minute from the 2016 World Plenary in Pisac, Peru.

The Kabarak Call for Peace and Ecojustice was approved on April 24, 2012 at the Sixth World Conference Friends, held at Kabarak University near Nakuru, Kenya. It was the culmination of the FWCC World Consultation on Global Change which was held in 2010 and 2011.

In January 2016, the FWCC World Plenary Meeting approved the Pisac Sustainability Minute proposed by the Consultation on Sustaining Life on Earth. “This FWCC Plenary Meeting also asks all Yearly Meetings to initiate at least two concrete actions on sustainability within the next 12 months. These may build on existing projects of individuals or monthly meetings or they may be new initiatives. We ask that they encourage Young Friends to play key roles. We ask that meetings minute the progress and results, so as to share them with FWCC and Quaker meetings.”

 

If your meeting, church, or group is responding to the 2016 Sustainability Minute, please let us know how by filling out this brief form.

One way FWCC Section of the Americas has responded to this minute is by creating a Green Endowment Fund, which will invest in companies that are working responsibly towards peace and ecojustice. This new fund seeks contributions from Friends who wish to help ensure the ongoing support of the Section’s work, with assurance that their gift will be invested in a fund that is screened for Quaker values and is fossil fuel free, with a portion of the portfolio specifically invested in alternative energy and green technology. Click here to make a contribution to this new fund – select Other and specify the Green Endowment Fund under Purpose.

The Quaker Religious Education Collaborative has produced materials for those interested in using the video as part of religious ed or first day classes – or other presentations!

Additional links and resources:

Meeting Face to Face

Joshuah Lilande and Friends in front of Dallas Meeting House

The Friends World Committee connects Friends face-to-face and heart-to-heart. We are continually looking for the best ways to do both. Read on for more information about our Traveling Ministry Corps and the next Section Meeting. Both will provide face-to-face opportunities for Friends to learn deeply from one another. Behind the scenes, we are also working on a new website design that will make it easier for you to connect with other Friends — and with FWCC — heart-to-heart, any time day or night, and to find new Friends wherever you are. Look for more news in May.

In friendship,
Robin Mohr
Executive Secretary

Joshuah Lilande’s Travels in Texas

Joshuah Lilande and Friends in front of Dallas Meeting House

Joshuah Lilande and Friends in front of Dallas Meeting House. Photo by Jerome Lilande.

Joshuah Lilande, clerk of FWCC Africa Section, traveled to Texas after the World Plenary Meeting in Peru to visit with Friends in Fort Worth and Dallas. After worshipping at the two meetings, Joshuah took time to speak about some of the struggles facing Quakers and others in Africa, particularly in Burundi. In this photo, Joshuah poses in front of the Dallas Meetinghouse with clerk Paula Keeth and other members of the monthly meeting.

“We cherished the togetherness we had and look forward to other meetings in the future as God wills,” Joshuah wrote, thanking Friends for their hospitality. Joshuah found warmth and connection with Texas Quakers on this trip: “In our brief talk, we seem[ed] to agree that our people suffered a great deal and in order to be delivered from this anguish, [we must] talk about it openly, write many more journals about these sad and inhumane behaviors, even if it means repeating oneself.”

Dallas Friends felt enriched by Joshuah’s visit and the chance to hear about Quakers in other parts of the world. “For our Meeting, it was a good experience to hear from a Friend outside the U.S. who could address our similarities and differences. It was interesting to hear about his home meeting,” said Paula Keeth, clerk of Dallas MM.

As FWCC moves forward with forming the Traveling Ministry Corps, we hope that Friends will find moments of commonality, as well as possibilities of understanding our differences, through intervisitation.

Save the Date! 2017 Section Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: March 23-26, 2017

Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

We are excited to announce that our 2017 Section Meeting will be held in Pittsburgh, PA from March 23-26! We will be gathering at the Gilmary Catholic Retreat Center next March with Friends from all over the Section of the Americas. We hope that you can join us as we gather together in business, fellowship, and worship.

Traveling Ministry Corps

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In the 21st century, the traveling ministry is an important way to realize our vision of a thriving and integrated network of Friends woven together in transforma tive faith. Our goal is still to further draw the strands of Quakerism in the Americas together into the rich tapestry that is the Religious Society of Friends. In 2016, the Section of the Americas is organizing a small volunteer corps of Friends to send as traveling ministers throughout the Section, crossing Yearly Meeting lines and other divisions among Friends.

We will accept applications from Friends who express concerns that are deeply rooted in the Spirit, and who can transcend differences and division to seek broader unity in the Light. FWCC will provide training, support, and accountability for those Friends who are chosen to travel in this ministry. Funding will be available to support the travel expenses of the members of the travelling ministry corps.

If you would like to share your ministry or to host a visitor at your local meeting or church, please visit our website for more information and to download the application forms. The first round of applications is due June 30, 2016.