On Monday, June 25, Durham Friends Meeting will be hosting a potluck and presentation about the Ramallah Friends Schools in Ramallah, Palestine. We will be hosting Adrian Moody, the new head of Ramallah Friends Schools, and Eden Grace, the Global Ministries Director of Friends United Meeting.
Potluck will begin at 6 pm, program at 7 pm.
A committed Roman Catholic with a master’s degree in theology, Adrian feels deeply called to the particular witness of a Friends School under occupation. As he shared with the school when he visited: “I am drawn to RFS for so many reasons. It has a long history of shared communities. It has a strong academic program and is able to offer its students wonderful opportunities. But RFS is not just a school – it is much more than that. I look at RFS and I see that the grace of God is working within your community. I see God carrying us all on a journey, together through moments of success and challenges which strengthens our lives and our bonds with each other and God.”
Adrian, an Australian national, and his wife Gillian, a New Zealander, will took up residence in Ramallah at the beginning of August while their teenage daughter continues in boarding school in New Zealand.
Eden Grace, Global Ministries Director. Eden Grace has served as FUM’s Global Ministries Director since July, 2013. From 2004 through mid-2013, Eden served as the Field Officer for FUM in the Africa Ministries Office in Kisumu, Kenya. Eden is responsible for shepherding FUM’s programmatic work in 11 countries on 4 continents. She has a passion for the holistic and transformational witness of Friends that arises from deep worship in the gathered body. She thinks of her role specifically, and that of FUM in general, as a ligament in the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:15-16 and Colossians 2:19).
Eden holds a Masters of Divinity degree from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Certificate in International Mission and Ecumenism from the Boston Theological Institute. Her undergraduate degree is from Brown University in Providence Rhode Island, where she studied drama literature and semiotics. In addition to Eden’s extensive involvement with Friends’ organizations, she has also served in leadership roles in the World Council of Churches and the Massachusetts Council of Churches, and carries a deep concern for Christian unity.
Eden Grace is a member of Beacon Hill Friends Meeting (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) in New England Yearly Meeting. She and her husband Jim have two young adult sons, are the host family for a Kenyan college student, and have taken in a Richmond teen. Eden loves to travel, sing, read fiction and make quilts using African fabrics.
