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| Maison Quaker à Congénies / The Quaker Centre in Congénies, France. Source. |
There's a Russian phrase, both precise and vague at the same time, that translates to English as "in times like these...."
In times like these, we write about Friends' service in Russia with love and enthusiasm tempered with discretion. We don't give names of people and partner organizations. We do emphasize our nonviolent and truthful principles, just as we "harmless and innocent people of God" did in earlier turbulent times—the years of our movement's origin.
As a former member of the board of Friends House Moscow, I appreciated receiving this report on the meeting held this autumn in southern France. I'm grateful for the permission to use it here, with one or two edits. Links were added by me.
— Johan
Maison Quaker Congénies warm embrace of FHM
Seventeen Friends travelled from far and wide to be in Congénies in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France during the weekend of the 24-27th October, 2025, coming from as far away as Berlin, California and Moscow. For some, the journey took several days to complete, which made it all the more gratifying when we were offered a warm welcome on arrival at Maison Quaker by the resident staff, Eli and Miranda. Their generous hospitality extended over the entire weekend.
Asked about the massive amount of work the FHM meeting entailed for them, both Miranda and Eli responded in the same manner: “It is lovely to see Maison Quaker so full. It is rare to have such a large group of Friends present all at one time. This makes it really special for us.”
Even the weather seemed to make an extra effort, sharing the last warmth of summer, while much of the rest of France suffered downpours in the wake of Storm Benjamin. In the beauty of Congénies, war felt a very long way away. Heavily laden persimmon trees in the garden sagged under the weight of their late-summer abundance; butterflies, including two-tailed pashas and fritillaries, flitted among the flowering bushes; the balmy nights were punctuated by the hooting of tawny owls. Congénies was a fine place to be: a place of quiet and peace, ideal for discernment of difficult and pressing questions.
The task of the board was to discern the future strategy of Friends House Moscow. This was no easy challenge. Given that the war in Ukraine shows no signs of ending any day soon—astonishingly, there has already been nearly four years of fighting, rather than the three or four days many commentators had predicted—nothing about the work of FHM can be taken for granted. The board thus needed to answer tough questions. Should we continue the work? And if we should, how do we do so practically, given all the challenges it now faces?
Our deliberations started with a look back in time through the lens of Sergei Nikitin’s history of Quaker relief in early twentieth century Russia, noting that there has been constant Quaker interaction with Russia for more than a century. We then examined how our personal motivations for this work live into the Quaker Testimonies of Peace, Simplicity, Integrity and Equality, before pivoting to look at the current political environment in Russia. We considered how these changes have affected the relationships of Friends to Friends House Moscow, asking whether or not there was continuing support from local and yearly meetings in Europe and the U.S. We agreed that there is still support.
Tight finances mean that FHM cannot do all it would like to, nor meet all the needs of those approaching it for help. Three days of discernment led us to the conclusion that we should continue to support the refugee centre, bolster our publishing work, and maintain our support for the language club.
Three priorities
The refugee centre continues to help the socialisation and education of children whose families have come to Russia in search of a better life and greater security. We have been supporting the Centre since the mid-1990s. The refugees and other migrants come from a wide variety of countries. Once in Russia, they face many challenges, and often need to keep a very low profile, which makes the centre so critical for them.
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| Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. Source. Online version. |
Our publishing efforts remain central. We have published 22 titles in Moscow, following translation into Russian. “Best sellers” include Plague, Pestilence and Famine by Muriel Payne, The Fruits of Solitude by William Penn, and Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster.
We will continue to support the language club. Over the past year we have conducted hundreds of language lessons for students who wish to develop confidence is speaking in public in another language. We view it as a sign of hope that students wish to continue learning another language and that cultural contact with other European countries has not stopped completely.
The way opens
By the time Friends gathered for meeting for worship on Sunday, which included members of the local meeting, board of Friends House Moscow had already spent two days in contemplation and debate, chewing over the difficult issues facing the organisation. There was still a further day to go, but by the time of meeting for worship, we were feeling positive about the future of FHM.
Around thirty, including partners and Friends from Congénies local meeting, shared lunch on Sunday. Like every meal in Maison Quaker, it was graced by excellent food. Each day’s breakfast were notable for being laden with pastries and croissants from the local boulangerie, L’ Amandine, which also supplied the cake for Sunday evening when we celebrated Pat’s birthday. Lunch and dinner were prepared by a local cook, so no one went hungry!
The final day was something of a threshing meeting, as we needed to match our finances to our priorities. Sterling efforts by those of us who understand spreadsheets and IT gave us all a clear understanding that, whichever way up we looked at things, they did not square—there simply was not enough money in the pot to do all we wished FHM to do. We the leading to continue the work, we concluded the three days by committing ourselves both to the budget and to urgent need to raise additional support.
Perhaps the most important support that Friends House needs is the energy and vision of people who may have never heard of this program, and might not speak Russian, but who recognize the need for Friends House and its potential for healing, reconciliation, and encouragement in times like these. If you have follow-up questions or ideas, write to me, and if I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does. Also see the related link below.
In The Friend: some context for the board meeting described above.
Two appreciations of filmmakers Rob and Michele Reiner: Andrew Pulver. Kristin Du Mez.
Homeland Security (USA) is proposing to require certain tourists coming to the USA to make available their social network posts for the last five years and all e-mail addresses, personal and business, over the last ten years. Here's the form to read the details and make your comments. In the list of "newly proposed changes" to the data required from travelers, see especially (3) "Mandatory Social Media"; and (4) "High Value Data Elements," requiring data from family members as well as travelers themselves. Deadline for comments: February 8.
Mattea Kramer (TomDispatch) on antisemitism and freedom of speech.
Bradley Bell (Upstream Collective) on racial reconciliation in cross-cultural ministry.
The promise of Genesis 3–4 is that despite our best intentions we will inevitably cause ruptures (such as on my second to last day on the field when in a wave of cultural exhaustion I exploded on my closest friends because they asked for money). The aim of cross-cultural service is not solely to avoid such things, though it’s worth our best effort. It is to be sent as ambassadors of the entire Ephesians 2 gospel, true ministers of reconciliation who abide the often mortifying work of repair—the costly reweaving of trust.
Cherice Bock was co-editor for a special issue of Quaker Studies. (That page has links to the individual articles, including Cherice's on “Quakers and Ecospirituality: Spiritual Grounding for Climate Action.”)
Sergey Kadyrov's music, and his scenes and holiday decorations from the cities of Noginsk and Elektrostal. Instant nostalgia, of course. Thank you, Sergey! (The cafe at our former workplace, the New Humanities Institute, appears briefly starting at 1:12; three views altogether.)
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