Friends General Conference

Jump to: navigation, search

The Friends General Conference (FGC) is one of three major Quaker umbrella groups that primarily serves yearly and monthly meetings in the United States and Canada. The FGC was founded in 1900^[1]. There are two other similar organizations within Quakerism, the more moderate Friends United Meeting and the more conservative Evangelical Friends International.

The FGC hosts an annual conference in early July for members of monthly meetings. Its main offices are in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1 Mission Statement
2 Structure
3 Comparison to EFI and FUM
4 References
5 External links

[edit]

Mission Statement

The Friends General Conference is a Quaker organization in the unprogrammed tradition of the Religious Society of Friends which primarily serves affiliated yearly and monthly meetings. The FGC proclaims that:

faith is based on direct experience of God
our lives witness this experience individually and corporately
by answering that of God in everyone, we build and sustain inclusive community.

The FGC provides resources and opportunities that educate and invite members and attenders to experience, individually and cooperatively, what they believe to be God's living presence, and to discern and follow what they hold to be God's leadings. FGC reaches out to seekers and to other religious bodies inside and outside the wider Religious Society of Friends.

[edit]

Structure

The FGC is overseen by a committee of 170 Friends, 112 of whom are appointed by affiliated yearly and monthly meetings. The work of the FGC is carried out by the staff and volunteer members of its program committees.

[edit]

Comparison to EFI and FUM

Each of the three major Quaker umbrella groups represent different branches within Quakerism. The FGC is the most theistically and politically liberal, while the Friends United Meeting occupies a more centrist viewpoint, and the EFI representing an admixture of Quakerism and conservative evangelicalism. FGC-affiliated meetings are in the "unprogrammed" tradition, which means that such meetings take place without human pastoral leadership, or a prepared order of worship. Friends (Quakers) in FGC tend to be decidedly more socially and theologically liberal than Friends from other parts of Quakerism, and than the general U.S. population, and are closely affiliated with the social justice and humanitarian organization, the American Friends Service Committee.

The FGC tends to be strongest in the east; FUM is based in the midwest and has members everywhere, particularly in East Africa; and EFI is concentrated in the west.

[edit]