Friends from the Asia/West Pacific station of FWCC gathered at the 20th Triennial. FWCC staff photo. Groups from the 20th Triennial. Photo by Carl Williams, FWCC Section of the Americas staff.

stablished at the Second World Conference of Friends in 1937, Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) exists: to facilitate loving understanding of diversities among Friends while we discover together, with God's help, our common spiritual ground; and to facilitate full expression of our Friends' testimonies in the world.

FWCC began to meet every three years in 1952. Triennials have been held in Europe, Africa, Asia, the West Pacific and the Americas. At Triennial meetings we review what has been done in our name and consider future tasks related to these purposes. Accounts and budgets are considered and the FWCC officers are appointed as are the General and Associate Secretaries for service at the World Office in London. Reports are received from the World and Section Offices and the Quaker United Nations Offices, and Friends are brought up to date on work to carry forward the purposes and projects initiated by previous Triennials. The 21st Triennial in January 2004 will be held in New Zealand.

Representatives to FWCC from affiliated yearly meetings are entitled to attend the Triennial meetings. While representatives need to know the mind of their yearly meeting they are not delegates with a mandate from their meeting. In addition, observers from non-affiliated yearly meetings, Quaker mission and service bodies and Friends' publications are invited to each Triennial, along with additional Friends from the Section in which the Triennial is being held. Each Friend present is expected to be familiar with the life and concerns of their own yearly meeting and to carry the concerns of the worldwide Religious Society of Friends back to their yearly meeting.

Triennials also provide opportunities for sharing the life and concerns of individual yearly meetings and groups and for discerning common concerns among them. At the 20th Triennial concerns were shared about indigenous peoples in several areas of the world and for Africa and her people. In response to those concerns Canadian Friends Service Committee has agreed to maintain a network of Friends and meetings involved with indigenous issues and several Quaker service bodies are considering ways to increase their work in Africa. Previous Triennials gave rise to discussions on mission, service, racism, disarmament, gender relationships in the Society of Friends and work with refugees and migrants. Implementation of these concerns is most often referred to individual yearly meetings or picked up by the various Quaker mission and service bodies.

At Triennial meetings worship is shared from the variety of Friend's experience. Friends who approach worship at Triennial meetings with open hearts and a desire to learn are enriched by the shared experience. Throughout the eight days of meetings there is worship and study in small groups, giving Friends the opportunity to learn together and grow into a community seeking to know God. Participants are enriched, and their vision enlarged by this first hand acquaintance with the variety, breadth and depth of the Quaker experience.

FWCC cherishes the traditional Quaker manner of decision-making. Our meetings for business are meetings for worship where we seek to learn the will of God. The clerk is the servant of the meeting and has the sensitive task of discerning the sense of the meeting. This way of conducting business together is the common experience of most of the Friends attending the FWCC meetings. Doing business together has always been a test of our loving understanding and faithfulness.

Editor's note: The Northeast Region of the Section of the Americas will hold a regional gathering from June 1-3, 2001 at the State University of New York, New Paltz campus. For information about this Gathering contact Robert Baldridge by phone (212) 388-7999 or e-mail him at robertartist@hotmail.com. The theme of the gathering is creativity and Spirit.