FWCC World Plenary 2024

Carol

Friends World Committee on Consultation grew out of a world-wide conference of Quakers held in 1937. Ever since, FWCC has worked to connect Quakers in every region on every continent whether programmed or unprogrammed, orthodox or liberal.

On June 14 they held a Zoom information session on the upcoming world plenary in South Africa in August of next year (2024). Timothy Gee, General Secretary for the World Office in Great Britain, joined staff from the offices in Philadelphia to answer our questions. There were 33 Friends at the information session, including me but no others from SAYMA.

Interest in attending was high among the Zoom attendees but space is limited both for the in-person sessions (about 270) and for Zoom (500 tops). Every Yearly Meeting world-wide has a space reserved for a delegate and FWCC is raising funds to help bring Friends who can’t afford the steep price of traveling to South Africa as well as the registration fee and room and board. The location was chosen because there is good transportation to get there, South Africa has no VISA restrictions and, most importantly, in the spirit of Ubuntu: I am because you are, South African Friends are eagerly looking forward to hosting.

Friends asked about possible power outages during Zoom sessions, but were reassured that a generator would kick in so any outage would be brief. However, a world-wide Zoom meeting is a challenge even when power is uninterrupted because it spans every time zone around the globe. A world plenary connects Friends and facilitates decisions that can only be made in a plenary meeting for business. For example, the Quaker United Nations Office was born in a world plenary and the Kabarak call for climate action came out of the last plenary held in Kenya.

In 2024 the focus will be on social justice issues and climate migration and mitigation. Surprisingly, registration opens this month, over a year before the plenary gets underway.