Quakers gather in Kenya

Friends come together for one of the largest Quaker gathering for forty-five years

About a thousand Quakers from around the world are meeting in Kenya this week for the World Conference of Friends. It is one of the largest Quaker gathering for forty-five years.

The event, from 17 to 25 April, takes place in Kabarak University in the Rift Valley. The theme is ‘Being Salt and Light: Friends living the kingdom of God in a broken world’. Over forty aspects of the theme will be explored in small groups and workshops.

The gathering brings together Quakers who may be unfamiliar with each other’s theology and worship. There will be liberal Friends, such as most of those from Britain; pastoral and evangelical Friends, who bring programmed elements to worship and give a higher status to the Bible; and conservative Friends, who emphasise early Quakers’ focus on the inward experience of Christ.

Nancy Irving of Friends’ World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) said the gathering’s theme ‘unites the spiritual foundation of our faith with our understanding of the basis of our work in the world in all its diversity’.

‘I know that the Light of Christ will be amongst us,’ said Christopher Hatton of Hamburg in Germany. ‘I also think it will be challenging, inspiring, exhausting and liberating but, most of all, spiritually nourishing and life-giving’.

Margery Post Abbott, from Oregon in the US, told the Friend she hopes ‘to learn more about Friends elsewhere in the world, particularly in Africa, and help to make their voices heard in the United States’.

Fifteen Bolivian Friends are attending the conference despite a last-minute emergency. The airline on which they were booked went bankrupt shortly before the event. After considerable worry, they were able to book on other flights. The new flights cost around US$11,000 and the FWCC Section of the Americas have put out a fundraising appeal.

Shortly before the conference, staff at Kaimosi Friends’ Hospital in Kenya took delivery of over £500 worth of medical equipment donated by British Quakers. The items were handed over by Jez Smith of Westminster Meeting, who is visiting Kenya for the conference.

The hospital now has a stethoscope for every department. Nursing officer Irene Gulavi said staff had been praying for new equipment. She added: ‘God has found a way through British Friends’.

Jez Smith bought the equipment after collecting donations in Britain.

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