The Request:
The Yearly Meeting last summer asked our constituent Monthly Meetings if we
should continue to remain affiliated with Friends United Meeting. Almost
half of the Monthly Meetings replied, as did one quarter. Thanks to all
those Meetings for their responses.

We asked for an early reply so that we could circulate all these responses
to Monthly Meetings so that they would know what other Meetings had
recommended and thus those attending the Annual Session would be informed
and be better prepared for the Yearly Meeting to make a decision. We hope
it will also assist those Meetings unable to discern the right way for our
Yearly Meeting to proceed this summer.

Well before the question of affiliation was raised, Interim Meeting in
March of 2004, asked the Committee on Ministry and Pastoral Care to develop
recommendations regarding Baltimore Yearly Meeting's financial contribution
to Friends United Meeting, in consultation with Stewardship and Finance and
the Ad Hoc Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns (minute
I2004-2). This group became known among us as the "Committee of Four
Committees" after Advancement and Outreach was added.

The Committee's attention languished during 2005 and 2006, as Friends'
appointments to the constituent committees changed, and Intervisitation
progressed.  In the fall of 2006, Katherine Smith (Maury River) agreed to
serve as Clerk of the Committee of Four Committees.  Details of membership
were approved at Interim Meeting (12007-5), and the Committee was charged
"to recommend to the 2007 Annual Session regarding BYM's financial
contributions to FUM." The reconstituted Committee held its first meeting,
with all members present, in November 2007. It has now prepared a
recommendation for Yearly Meeting. A first reading was heard at Spring
Interim Meeting and laid over until the Annual Session. A copy of the
minutes that contain this report is attached.

Short history of FUM
Friends United Meeting was established in 1902 as Five Years Meeting
following meetings at five year intervals following the Richmond Conference
in 1887. The Conference is noted for issuing the Richmond Declaration,
which was to be incorporated in the various Yearly Meetings' Disciplines.
Many orthodox Yearly Meetings did this, but others, including Baltimore
Yearly Meeting did not. London Yearly and Ireland Yearly Meetings only
attached the Declaration to their minutes as a report. Ohio Yearly Meeting,
which was the object of the Declaration, also did not approve it. (Remember
that the purpose of the Declaration was to renounce water baptism and
communion.)

Despite not placing the Declaration in its Discipline and officially
rejecting the pastoral system, Baltimore Orthodox attended the follow-up
conferences and joined Five Years Meeting. Some time after meeting every
three years, the name was changed to Friends United Meeting. Four of the
Yearly Meetings that had split in the early 1800s reunited. The last of
these was our Yearly Meeting. These unions brought more liberal Friends
into the FUM fold. A fundamentalist-modernist dispute that began in 1905
now included more modernist Friends. Our present concern with FUM is part
of this ongoing dispute. Each North American Yearly Meeting has
congregations that are modernist and congregations that are fundamentalist,
including our own.

Typically, a fundamentalist Yearly Meeting would challenge FUM to move in
their direction and FUM would be unable to do so. The Yearly Meeting would
then leave and join what is now Evangelical Friends International. The last
such challenge was about fifteen years ago by then California Yearly
Meeting, now Evangelical Friends Church, Southwest. A departure was
generally preceded by a cut in contributions by the Yearly Meeting.

FUM's response to our withholding funds
This casual history of FUM indicates that there are no criteria for
membership. However, our five years of withholding have been resented by
many leaders of pastoral Yearly Meetings. A committee has been established
to prepare expectations for members or alternate forms of membership.

We will continue to accept minutes about this matter.

Attachment - Interim Meeting Minutes
I2008-9 Financial Support of Friends United Meeting. Katherine Smith (Maury
River) presented the report and recommendation of the Committee of Four
Committees for a first reading:

Baltimore Yearly Meeting
Committee of Four Committees
Report and Recommendation

1) At Interim Meeting in March of 2004, the Committee on Ministry and
Pastoral Care was asked to develop recommendations regarding Baltimore
Yearly Meeting's financial contribution to Friends United Meeting, in
consultation with Stewardship and Finance and the Ad Hoc Committee on
Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns (minute I2004-2). This group became
known among us as the "Committee of Four Committees" after Advancement and
Outreach was added, at their request, in July 2004. 

2) Regular meetings were held during the ensuing year, and unity was
reached around a proposal to send the funds withheld from FUM in 2004 and
2005 as a Restricted Contribution, to be used to promote intervisitation
and communication among Friends.  This proposal was approved at Interim
Meeting in June 2005 (Minute I2005-55).  The Friends United Meeting office,
however, returned the contribution, citing a policy of not accepting
restricted funds for projects that did not have the prior approval of the
General Board. 

3) Feeling somewhat discouraged, the Committee's attention languished
during 2005 and 2006, as Friends' appointments to the constituent
committees changed, and Intervisitation progressed.  In the fall of 2006,
Katherine Smith (Maury River) agreed to serve as Clerk of the Committee of
Four Committees.  Details of membership were approved at Interim Meeting
(12007-5), and the Committee was charged "to recommend to Annual Session
regarding BYM's financial contributions to FUM."  The Committee's
membership was reported to Annual Session (Y2007-22).

4) The reconstituted Committee held its first meeting, with all members
present, in November 2007.  At this meeting, we shared out of worship,
listening deeply to each other. We were reminded that witnessing to the
truth that has been opened to us is vitally important.  We were challenged
to keep faith with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Friends among
us, and not to take any action that would seem to disavow them and thus
wound our own community.  We were reminded that transformation is achieved
through humility, love, patience and faithfulness, not through argument and
contention.  We considered the question: "How can we claim to be
peacemakers in the world, if we cannot make peace among ourselves?"  We
were reminded of the suicide rate among youth as a result of gender
identity and sexual orientation concerns, and how we may serve as a
lifeline to people who are desperate for reassurance that God loves them as
they are. 

5) We are aware that many Friends within our yearly meeting have been
uneasy, as a matter of conscience, about giving money to an organization
that engages in employment discrimination.  We acknowledge the pain and
anger our yearly meeting experienced in 2002 as a result of the FUM
personnel policy of discrimination. We also acknowledge that we share
responsibility for the governance of FUM and thus for the challenges it
faces today.  We know that many among us find a spiritual home in FUM and
feel blessed by an opportunity to participate in its ministries. 

6) In the course of our deliberations we have come to see that money is not
really the issue.  We believe that an undue focus on money is getting in
the way of the work we are called to, work which includes being present
with lesbian and gay Friends in FUM-only yearly meetings, and engaging
actively with the rest of FUM in working and witnessing for peace and
equality.  Money is a clumsy form of communication-a carnal weapon-that
cannot convey the transformational power of our spiritual concern.  We have
come to trust that the Holy Spirit is working among us, for purposes that
we do not yet fully understand.  We know that it is not money but the
Inward Teacher who transforms hearts. 

7) We remind the yearly meeting of our 2007 Carey Memorial Lecture.  Joe
Volk, Executive Secretary of Friends Committee on National Legislation
(FCNL) spoke of the importance of hope, understood as a verb that entails
faith in action and risk-taking.  He told us that everything changed for
FCNL once they redefined their collapsing building as an opportunity rather
than a problem.  As a result of their leap of faith, the FCNL offices now
stand on Capitol Hill as a witness-a much-needed green and accessible
witness. 

8) In the spirit of seeing our relationship with FUM, not as a problem, but
as an opportunity to witness actively for peace, equality, and compassion,
the Committee of Four Committees offers the following minute:

We Friends in Baltimore Yearly Meeting, gathered for Interim Meeting at
(place, date) agreed to direct our General Secretary to release to FUM  the
monies withheld since 2004, and furthermore, we ask that Stewardship &
Finance Committee together with Trustees formulate a plan for paying what
is owed, in installments if necessary.

The question was raised of how this recommendation relates to the
discernment being done in our monthly meetings regarding whether we should
remain members of Friends United Meeting.  Katherine Smith explained that
this recommendation only addresses the past, and the unpaid amounts that
have accrued while we have been members of FUM.  The issue of future
membership and contributions will be decided by the monthly meetings.  

After other questions for clarification, the report and recommendation were
LAID OVER until annual session 2008.  Trustees and the Stewardship and
Finance Committee are asked to prepare a comment on the financial
feasibility of the recommendation for presentation at that time.  Friends
asked that the recommendation be widely disseminated prior to annual
session so that as many Friends as possible can have an opportunity to
consider it.

I2008-10 Support of Quaker Kenyan Relief. Malachy Kilbride (Friends Meeting
of Washington) presented a proposal from the Peace and Social Concerns
Committee, growing out of a leading to respond to the violence in Kenya.
The Committee prayerfully suggests that Baltimore Yearly Meeting send
two-thirds of the funds that have been held back from FUM over the past
several years to the Kenya Relief Fund to meet urgent needs.

In response to questions about how we could be sure that such a donation
would serve the purposes for which it is intended, Rich Liversidge (Sandy
Spring) and Mary Lord (Adelphi) explained the functioning of the Kenyan
Relief Fund.  This Fund will support both humanitarian relief and
Alternatives to Violence programs. Friends United Meeting has been named
the lead agency in administering the Fund, because of its resources and
staff in Kenya and its ability to ensure that the money will be well spent.
Contributions to the Fund have already been received from many Quaker
organizations, including Friends World Committee for Consultation, the
American Friends Service Committee, Friends General Conference, and Friends
for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns.  It was noted
that FUM has agreed to forego its usual administrative cut, so that the
entire amount contributed will go toward relief and peace work.

Questions were raised about whether we can responsibly commit to donating a
substantial portion of the funds set aside for Friends United Meeting in
past years, since these funds are not being held in an escrow account and
thus may not be readily available.  It was noted that any sizeable donation
might have to be spread out over a period of months, because of cash flow
problems.

Mindful of such constraints, Friends UNITED with the concern presented by
the Peace and Social Concerns Committee, and agreed that Baltimore Yearly
Meeting should contribute $9,000 -the amount of undesignated funds in this
year's budget - to the Kenyan Relief Fund administered by Friends United
Meeting to support the Kenyan Friends peace initiatives.  Since individuals
and monthly meetings may also want to support this work, the Yearly Meeting
treasurer is empowered to accept earmarked contributions to be added to
this donation.