Bethesda Friends Meeting

Bethesda held a series of five Adult Religious Education forums around the issues of BYM’s relationship with FUM. Outside speakers ranged from Quakers raised in the FUM tradition (from within the U.S., Kenya, and Palestine) and from area BYM leaders who have served on FUM’s board. Bethesda wishes to express our appreciation to all who participated, noting that no one turned us down and that all found their way open to participate on the date we requested. We are now actively exploring what it means to us (in the language of our Minute to BYM) to “seek to sustain and broaden our own Meeting’s dialogue with FUM and its constituent Meetings…. We recognize we are also challenged to seek new, creative, and more fruitful ways both to sustain our historical connections with FUM as part of the wider Quaker community, and to continue our efforts to reach unity with them on this specific issue [the personnel policy].”