Friends General Conference

Together we nurture the spiritual vitality of Friends

FUM membership in WCC and NCC – 5/1995

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Minutes Details: 

After thoughtful consideration of the issues raised by the question of FUM’s membership in the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches, the Summit Monthly Meeting feels led to support FUM’s continuing membership in these organizations. We recognize that NCC and WCC may have flaws, as indeed do we in our Quaker organizations. We recognize also that the diversity of many different Protestant and Orthodox communions presents a challenge for dialogue and united action even greater than the challenges posed by diversity within our own Quaker communities. But, in light of our affirmations of continuing revelation and world peace, we feel it would be a contradiction for us as Quakers to turn away from these organizations that foster continuing theological dialogue and ecumenical harmony. If we are indeed to be agents of reconciliation, our witness must be heard in religious discussions as well as in the political arena. While we acknowledge the need for NCC and WCC to continue in their efforts to reorganize themselves to be more responsive to their constituent bodies and while we hope that FUM will find financial resources to support its affiliation, our overriding concern— to use the words of Manasquan monthly meeting—is that FUM not “take action which would tend to isolate Friends within the Christian Church.” We treasure our Quaker heritage of working within society and organizations to bring about changes we desire, and we believe that the Quaker presence within NCC and WCC is important both as a symbol and means of working with others to bring about positive changes in the world and in the community of world citizens who share a Christian tradition.

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