Faith and Practice
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Part I: Friends History, Belief, and Practice
Chapter 1—Historical Summary
D. Friends Worldwide
European Friends tended to follow the liberal drift. The Friends World Committee for Consultation seeks to maintain consultative functions among Friends around the world, but doctrinal differences prevent true unity. The younger churches in Latin America and Africa, the fruit of missionary movements, suffer less from the erosion of belief apparent in the mother church. They continue to lead the Friends Church in growth.
Recent scholarship has focused attention upon the evangelical nature of our early movement. Two of the Yearly Meetings which withdrew from Five Years Meeting in the early 1900s formed a new evangelical alliance in the early 1960s, along with Rocky Mountain Yearly Meeting and Northwest Yearly Meeting. This organization, Evangelical Friends International, is a worldwide movement with regions in North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This Christ-centered movement works hand in hand with Evangelical Friends Mission planting churches and carrying the gospel message around the world to participate in the fulfillment of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19 and 20).
Friends United Meeting (formerly the Five Years Meeting) is also a worldwide movement which seeks to be Christ-centered in its work around the world.
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