Realignment Among North American Friends?
FUM tells people that they must look to local or yearly meetings for this support. But the united yearly meetings generally aren't involved, and are unlikely to become involved, in starting the kinds of meetings/churches described in FUM's purpose statement. FUM now takes an approach focused on networking among constituent yearly meetings rather than FUM programs themselves in its North American work. This means that the extent to which FUM's purpose statement actually translates to activity varies enormously in areas where FUM-affiliated yearly meetings operate.
The Future of North American Friends
There are real obstacles to organizational realignment that, to the best of my knowledge, nobody has yet come up with good ways to overcome. Most notably, we have the issue of the united yearly meetings which generally lean more to the universalist end of the spectrum, but which contain individuals and sometimes meetings which are oriented towards FUM's purpose. How do we avoid leaving those Christ-centered Friends hanging out there, without solid ties to a larger grouping that shares their vision? I agree with the implication in Maurer's statement that organizational realignment will not come quickly. But I think leaders among Friends need to keep this question in their minds so that some way forward may emerge. And I also think that the movement, while not very visible as well as being tender and small, towards independent worship groups and meetings centered on Christ within the geographical confines of the united yearly meetings may wind up playing a significant role in how this all works out in the next couple of decades.
How do you see it? I encourage readers to use Suite101's discussion capabilities to share their insights and questions.
Those interested in this concern may also be interested in my 1996 article, Towards Renewal Within the Religious Society of Friends and my June 2000 article, Keeping the Faith.
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