Friends among Friends

Valerie Joy reports on how internation support has brought together Quakers in the Philippines

Before the devastating typhoons this year, Friends in the Philippines were not very aware of the international aspects of the Quaker family. Only a handful of evangelical Friends had ever travelled overseas, and few had met liberal Friends. The small number of unprogrammed Friends in the Philippines had only met infrequently and before the typhoons had no plans for social action.  The encouragement received by generous donations has put a whole new perspective on both streams of Friends being part of a world wide family. It has also encouraged discussions to take place between the liberal and evangelical Friends in Manila.

The majority of your donations went to actual relief goods for distribution, medical and dental supplies and rehabilitation of churches and student centres.

Added to this was energetic work by volunteers in repairing meeting places.

The grief counselling and psycho-social healing provided by Atenao University and now the University of the Philippines has had a great impact on victims, and discussions are taking place on offering this to evangelical Friends.

Both agree that a longer term solution is needed given the increasing frequency and ferocity of natural disasters in the Philippines. A proposal to establish a Philippines Friends Service Committee will be discussed informally at Australia Yearly Meeting in January 2010, when members of both streams of Filipino Quakers will be present. Unprogrammed Friends have expressed cautious optimism in relation to working with evangelical Friends. Friend Michael Tan spoke: ‘We are open to working with Philippines Evangelical Friends Committee (PEFC) but on terms consistent with the Friends’ tradition of reflective introspection and strong sense of fairness’. 

Friends World Committee for Consultation’s Australia West Pacific Section (AWPS) is grateful to have had the opportunity for real dialogue with both streams of Friends in the Philippines, ahead of our Section Gathering in Manila from 1-7 April, when Friends from all over the world are invited to be present.

Valerie Joy is executive secretary of AWPS.  In October, she reported on the initial effects of the typhoons on Friends in the Philippines.

---

Comments

Please login to add a comment