Fellowship of Reconciliation Flier, ca. 1960

Civil rights movements--Public opinion

Nonviolence--Philosophy

Nonviolence--Moral and ethical aspects

Flier from the Fellowship of Reconciliation outlining the mission of the organization and the tactics of non-violence used by the group.

Fellowship of Reconciliation (U.S.)

State Archives of Florida, Collection N2015-1

1960 (circa)

fliers (printed matter)

eng-US

Text

n2015-1_b001_f10_27

Postwar Florida (1945-1968)

Nyack (N.Y.)

/fmp/selected_documents/thumbnails/n2015-1_b001_f10_27.jpg

ca. 1960

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n2015-1_b001_f10_27_02

Slavery And Race Relations

Fellowship of Reconciliation (U.S.)

FELLOWSHIP (periodical)

Box 271 Nyack, New York The Fellowship of Reconciliation The Fellowship of Reconciliation is a non-profit religious membership association with approximately 12,000 members in the United States. it is affiliated with the International The Fellowship of Reconciliation, and through it with other national groups in some 25 countries around the world. The Fellowship was organized in England in 1914, and in this country the following year. The FOR is pre-eminently a fellowship of men and women who have rejected war completely and dedicated themselves to the search for non-violent, reconciling ways of resolving conflicts between individuals, groups, and nations. Members are expected to, and do, work out the purposes of the organization in their own communities and in their lives, and are found throughout the country in positions of active leadership in movements for peace, civil liberties, racial justice, abolition of capital punishment, and other similar causes. Members of the Fellowship through their contributions also support a national staff of 26 men and women, and 16 volunteer and semi-volunteer field workers. This staff works constantly at developing the Fellowship's purposes in terms of education, training and action. Education. Through the publication and distribution of a semi-monthly magazine Fellowship(now in its 26th year)and a large volume of leaflets, pamphlets, books, tape recordings and films, the Fellowship makes available informative, analytical and inspirational material on peace and related matters. Its traveling secretaries carry a heavy load of speaking and discussion engagements, working in churches, college campuses, and community groups. Because of its roots in the Christian community, a major emphasis has been and continues to be the effort to arouse Christians to the special obligation laid on them to be peacemakers through the use of love, forgiveness, and the willingness to suffer rather than inflict suffering. Partly this is done by its own secretaries, partly through the Church Peace Mission, in which the Fellowship plays a major role, partly through the efforts of affiliated peace fellowships in most of the leading denominations in the country. The Fellowship itself is a [non-creedal], interdenominational, interfaith group accepting into membership all those who can commit themselves in good faith to its Statement of Purpose. Training. The Fellowship's position has never been that passive surrender to evil, but rather of the active search for more effective means of resisting evil. Through the years its staff and members have experimented with the kind techniques associated with the Gandhian movement in India and with the recent successful nonviolent assaults on racism in the American south. Both at its national headquarters in Nyack, New York, and in the field, its staff has directed training sessions designed to equip men and women with a complete understanding of the (over)

The Fellowship of Reconciliation philosophy and techniques of nonviolence, and with necessary skills to carry on peace education and action in the local communities. Such publications of the the Fellowship's as Richard Gregg's The Power of Nonviolence($2.50), How to Practice Nonviolence(free), and the "comic book" Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story(10¢), have supplemented this work. Action. over the years the Fellowship's staff and members have initiated and participated in many forms of direct action designed to further the concerns of its members. These have taken various forms. On occasion there have been directed attempts at reconciliation of specific disputes between nations, or between labor and management, or in problems of interracial accommodations. On other occasions there have been efforts to witness against war or injustice, as for example the FOR-initiated "vigil and appeal" against biological and chemical warfare that has gone on for more than a year at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Another dramatic example was the Fellowship's attempt a few years ago to persuade our government to offer our vast stores of surplus food to famine sufferers in Communist China, built on the idea of "If thine enemy hungers, feed him." In other activities, such as the 1959-60 "Program for Disarmament," the Fellowship works cooperatively with other peace organizations such as the American Friends Service Committee, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and others, through the Consultative Peace Council. Currently the Fellowship's major concern is to build an informed public opinion to insist on the injection of understanding, compassion, and forgiveness into the search for world peace. it believes that continuation of attitudes of unabating suspicion and hostility cannot hope to reduce tensions and end the arms race, but on the contrary threaten to lead to the catastrophe of total nuclear war. It wants America to recover its faith in a genuine concern for the well-being of every human being, and to place its great resources of power and technical skill at the task of alleviating the suffering and poverty of millions of our fellow men. It wants an America that will renounce the use of modern weapons that slaughter millions indiscriminately across both space and time. It believes that such a renunciation would release such a wave of relief and support across the world as would start our human society on a wholly new direction toward a decent life for all men. The Fellowship of Reconciliation invites all who share such beliefs to join with it in the effort to make them a reality in all our lives. Address inquiries to Box 271, Nyack, New York.