FWCC—What Is Its Purpose?

World membership in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) is about 340,000 in over 70 countries. Friends differ not only in language, culture and national allegiance but also in the emphases they place on different aspects of Quakerism. FWCC encourages Friends to work together in many practical ways and to meet to share their experience at the deepest level.

FWCC—Meeting Face to Face

FWCC was founded in 1937. Yearly, general and monthly meetings affiliated with FWCC appoint about 200 representatives. These meet together once every three years, aiming to provide links between Friends in the search to perceive God's will more clearly, and to make their corporate witness more effective. The 22nd Triennial is planned for Dublin, Ireland, in 2007. Recent Triennial meetings have been held in Aotearoa/New Zealand (January, 2004), the USA (1994 and 2000), the UK (1997), Japan (1988), and Mexico (1985).

World Office
The World Office serves as a centre of worldwide communication for FWCC and its affiliated groups. World Office staff work with International Planning Committees to organize triennial meetings and other occasional world gatherings. The Office maintains contact with the work of the four FWCC Sections and the Quaker United Nations Offices. Isolated Friends and worship groups throughout the world may be linked to the world family of Friends through the International Membership programme. By means of staff travel, correspondence and publications, the office seeks to bring Friends into closer touch with one another, and help them to experience the world-wide character of the Society of Friends, its varied gifts of worship and practice, and its vocation in the world.

Section of the Americas
FWCC Section of the Americas, established in 1938, serves over 40 diverse yearly meetings and groups of Friends in the western hemisphere. In that service, it sponsors a variety of programs, most with an international outreach and all seeking to bring Friends from different traditions together.

FWCC Section of the Americas programs include: Quaker Youth Pilgrimages (in collaboration with EMES), Wider Quaker Fellowship, and Comité de los Amigos Latinoamericanos (Committee of Latin American Friends).

An extensive program of visitation, FWCC publications, and frequent regional conferences serve to help American Friends find their spiritual unity in the rich diversity of practice and tradition. Appointed representatives conduct the business of the Section at an annual meeting which is held bilingually in English and Spanish.

Europe & Middle East Section
The FWCC Europe & Middle East Section (EMES) was established in 1938 and consists of 11 yearly meetings in addition to several smaller national groups. Annual and family gatherings, border meetings, seminars, peace and service consultations, the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage (in cooperation with the Section of the Americas) and other events encourage mutual respect and trust, leading towards greater involvement.

A small Executive Committee, working with a part-time Executive Secretary, ensures communication within the Section and with other Quaker bodies and individuals. Justice, peace and service issues are a major focus. A Visiting Friend programme nourishes smaller groups and isolated Friends.

Europe & Middle East Young Friends (EMEYF) is well established, operating within the Section but remaining fully autonomous.

Africa Section
This Section, established in 1971, with an office located in Nairobi, Kenya, maintains links with Friends in West Africa, Central and Southern Africa as well as with the yearly meetings and groups of Friends in Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Pemba, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

The Section held its first representative conference in 1975 and the first full time Secretary was appointed in 1976. Section gatherings were held in Kenya in 1982, 1987, 1991, 1993 and 1999. Uganda was the site in 1996 for a Section Triennial of over 400 Friends, followed by a consultation on Quaker Mission & Service Work in Africa organized in cooperation with the World Office. Section Triennials were held in Kenya in 2000 and 2003.

The Section is involved with many outreach and peace and service projects, including the Change Agent Peace Programme in cooperation with Quaker Service Norway.

Asia-West Pacific Section
The formation of the Asia-West Pacific Section was formally recognized at the 16th Triennial meeting in 1985. It meets during the triennial meetings of FWCC and usually at least once between triennials.

The Section seeks to serve the affiliated small and widely dispersed yearly meetings in India, Japan, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia, as well as smaller groups in Korea, Hong Kong and elsewhere. It tries to maintain links with other Friends groups within the region.
The main organ of communication is the regular Section newsletter circulated by the Executive Secretary. In addition, intervisitation and regional gatherings, such as the All-India Friends gatherings, are encouraged within the Section.

FWCC exists to facilitate

• loving understanding of diversities among Friends while we discover together, with God's help, our common spiritual ground
• full expression of our Friends' testimonies in the world.

(14th Triennial, 1979; 19th Triennial, 1997 and Interim Committee, 1999)

FWCC enables Friends to work together by

• witnessing to our faith in the world;
• encouraging intervisitation and travel under religious concern (including Quaker Youth Pilgrimages);
• arranging conferences and gatherings;
• facilitating mutual understanding and cooperation between mission and service bodies of Friends worldwide;
• maintaining contact with isolated Friends and worshipping groups through intervisitation, correspondence and the International Membership Committee;
• sharing information about Friends around the world; publishing a bulletin, Friends World News, as well as pamphlets and books about Friends in several languages;
• acting as Friends' official voice at the United Nations and its agencies, with consultative status as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO);
• furthering Friends' concerns—such as peace and disarmament, women's rights, racial equality, environmental concerns, and economic justice;
• participating in ecumenical and inter-faith meetings.

FWCC: UK Charity No. 211647 May 2004

French/English Glossary
Please visit our French/English Glossary produced by Ed Dommen, which gives translations of French and English Quaker terms, and also a few of the classic quotations with French translations.

Above:
Loida Fernández-González, Mexico