Plans are already under way for the sixth World Conference of Friends, which will be held in Kabarak, Kenya, from 21 to 28 August 2012. Around 1,000 Friends will gather on the campus of Kabarak University to consider the theme “Being salt and Light: Friends living the Kingdom of God in a broken world”.

The theme will inform the preparation for the Conference, and between now and August 2012 there will be many opportunities for Friends to consider and reflect on it, both individually and in groups.  This website will be the focal point for this, so please bookmark this page. As material is produced, it will be available here, and we expect this website to develop rapidly during 2010. For example, a study pack will be prepared, and FWCC hopes to offer an on-line course focusing on different aspects of the theme, as well as other opportunities for Friends to share their views and thoughts. This will lead to a Conference book being prepared which will bring together the various ideas and issues that will be generated. Ultimately, the theme should guide the Conference in discerning concrete ways in which Friends can live the Kingdom of God in a broken world.

In deciding the theme, the International Planning Committee (IPC) drew inspiration from several Bible passages, including Matthew 5:13 (“You are the salt of the earth...”), Matthew 5:14-16 (“You are the light of the world...”), Matthew 6:33 (“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God...”), Matthew 6:9-13 (the Lord’s Prayer), Micah 4:4 (“They shall sit under their own vines and fig trees and no one shall make them afraid.”), and Micah 6:8 (“... And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”).

The theme is supplemented by a passage from Luke, 17:20-21. “The Kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed … the Kingdom of God is among you.”

The second supporting quote for the theme is from the eighteenth century American Friend John Woolman: “We have the prospect of one common interest from which our own is inseparable, to turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the business of our lives.”

“This theme unites the spiritual foundation of our faith with our understanding of the basis of our work in the world in all its diversity,” said FWCC General Secretary Nancy Irving.

The Conference programme

The International Planning Committee has begun to develop the conference programme. It will be refined over the coming months, but the basis is the following:

The World Conference is for all Friends. It is an opportunity for Friends to know one another, to recognize our differences, to be open to being stretched and challenged and to re-affirm our common roots. All Friends are welcome and are free to express their understanding of the Truth. It is an opportunity to learn experientially was it means to be part of the channels of Universal Love.

Worship will be central during the World Conference. Before breakfast each morning there will be multiple worship opportunities offered in different venues with different approaches to worship. Following breakfast, there will be a 90-minute plenary that combines worship with reflection on the theme, organised in turn by each section. The final plenary worship on Wednesday will be a “mosaic” of worship, growing out of all that had been experienced during the previous week. Each day will end with Epilogue.

Home groups will meet every day, except the middle excursion day, following worship. Each afternoon there will be two time slots for workshops/working groups. For the first three days, World Conference delegates will be asked to commit to at least one three-day workshops/working group. Workshop/working group topics will be solicited from delegates and will focus around five different themes: Roots and History; Living the Kingdom; Salt and Light; Friends and other faiths; The Broken World. At least 20 different workshop/working groups will be offered during each time slot, for a total of 40 offerings.  The final three afternoons will provide a variety of opportunities for “weaving the threads”. Representatives from each of the workshops/working groups will then meet to share and see what themes emerge and to plan the next afternoon sessions (which may be plenary). These sessions may result in a message to the world from the World Conference.