Friends,
Welcome to the Fellowship of Reconciliation!
As one of several organizations involved in bringing equality to United Methodist LGBTQI clergy, we're thrilled to have you on board. And as an out Methodist clergy member myself, I want to personally thank you for your support.
Over the coming weeks, as you've requested, you'll begin to receive our action alerts. If you find they're not for you, you can unsubscribe at any time.
I wanted to take a moment to tell you a little bit about the Fellowship of Reconciliation, or FOR, and introduce you to some of the other faith-based initiatives on which we're working.
An interfaith organization, FOR's mission is to organize, train, and grow a diverse movement that welcomes all people of conscience to end structures of violence and war, and create peace through the transformative power of nonviolence.
FOR-USA is one part of a global network working for peace and justice through the International FOR. We have local chapters throughout the United States, and coordinate among numerous affiliates and religious peace fellowships.
As Executive Director of FOR, I stand in a long line of United Methodist clergy who sought justice from this role: Rev. Richard Deats, Rev. George Houser, and Rev. John Swomley all are United Methodist clergy who served the cause of justice, peace and freedom through FOR. I also represent a long lineage of lesbian and gay executive leadership in FOR, including past executives Grace Hutchins and Pat Clark, which goes back almost a century to our earliest years.
Within the United Methodist Church, we maintain a relationship with the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) and the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) as well as the Methodist Federation for Social Action. But as an interfaith organization, we also work with such diverse groups as the Baptist Peace Fellowship, the Jewish Peace Fellowship, Pax Christi USA, Tikkun, and the Muslim Peace Fellowship.
Our interfaith efforts for social justice isn't a new project on our part -- we've been around for just over a century, and in the past hundred years we've been a part of dozens of social justice movements. In 1917, we incubated the organization that would become the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1947, we organized the first interracial "freedom ride" with the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1966, pacifist Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh spoke on an international tour to the United States sponsored by FOR. In the 1980s, FOR took the lead in organizing "nuclear freeze" campaigns, while in the early 2000s FOR launched campaigns that would eventually become Interfaith Peacebuilders and FOR Peace Presence.
Today, we have several campaigns in which you might be interested:
Thank you again for your support for the #FreedomToServe by all United Methodist clergy -- and we are still collecting signatures if you'd like to share it with friends and family!
And I hope over the coming months that you find the Fellowship of Reconciliation a source of inspiration, action, and peace in your own work for social justice.
If you have any questions or thoughts, please don't hesitate to reach out to me!
In peace,
 Rev. Kristin Stoneking
Executive Director
Fellowship of Reconciliation
P.S. Be sure to follow FOR on Facebook or Twitter too!
Top image: Out LGBTQI clergy gather at the United Methodist General Conference last month; Rev. Stoneking is fourth from the right. Second image: FOR staff and supporters at the People's Climate March in New York in 2014. Third image: FOR Director of Campaigns and Strategy Anthony Grimes participating in Give Refugees Rest. |
