Among Friends

Posted on 04/23/2012 @ 10:26 AM

A.T. Miller is the Clerk of FCNL's Executive Committee and a Professor at Cornell

April 21, 2012

Diane Randall and I are experiencing the unity and spiritual depth of the World Gathering of Friends and are truly inspired. We have had a whole series of plenary speakers who are profound Quaker leaders from around the world and most have been under the age of thirty. It is a sense of tremendous renewal, and these speakers have been eloquent in bridging programmed and unprogrammed, evangelical and liberal, and across many languages and cultures. Major points of unity are a commitment to faith in action in the world, a profound commitment to testimonies on peace and equality, and strong messages of concern for the earth and global change. FCNL is of great interest to Friends worldwide, and we find ourselves sharing frequently. We also daily hear messages that underscore the importance of our work, including a message from South Korean Friends about the extreme militarization of their country and from Aotearoa/New Zealand about our fragile earth. We are in a stunningly beautiful location among Friends of like mind experience warm and deep Kenyan hospitality. Tonight, Diane and I are presenting a table at the "Fair", and the official photo of the gathering of over 1000 friends has a "War is not the Answer" sign up front!

April 23, 2012

On Saturday evening, there was a project and organization fair, and FCNL had a table with many interested Quakers from all over the world talking with us and gathering information. Then on Sunday evening we were part of a very well-attended interest group on Peaceful Prevention of Deadly Conflict with a focus on work in Kenya towards preventing violence during the upcoming elections. The work of Cassidy Regan was much appreciated, and we built stronger ties with local and international partners in Kenya. Now today again at lunch on Monday we held a discussion group at which friends in Kenya expressed interest in starting their own institution to examine and inform Kenyan Friends about national and governmental issues. "War is Not the Answer" pins and bumper stickers are traveling the globe this week, home from the conference.