TheFellowship of Reconciliation (FoR orFOR) is the name used by a number of religiousnonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. They are linked by affiliation to theInternational Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR).
In the United Kingdom, the acronym "FoR" is normally typeset with a lower-case "o"; elsewhere, it is usually typeset in all capital letters, as "FOR", such as in "IFOR".
The first body to use the name "Fellowship of Reconciliation" was formed as a result of a pact made in August 1914 at the outbreak of theFirst World War by twoChristians,Henry Hodgkin (an EnglishQuaker) andFriedrich Siegmund-Schultze (a GermanLutheran), who were participating in aChristian pacifist conference inKonstanz in southern Germany. On the platform of the railway station atCologne, they pledged to each other that, "We are one in Christ and can never be at war."
There were a number of people involved in the creation of the organisation, among themLilian Stevenson,Pierre Cérésole, and its first secretary,Richard Roberts.[1] Stevenson later wrote up the first history of the organisation.[2]
To take that pledge forward, Hodgkin organised in 1915 a conference inCambridge at which over a hundred Christians of alldenominations agreed to found the FoR. They set out the principles that had led them to do so in a statement which became known as "The Basis".[3] It states:
Because the membership of the FoR included many members of theSociety of Friends (Quakers), who reject any form of writtencreed, it has always been stressed that the Basis is a statement of general agreement rather than a fixed form of words. Nonetheless the Basis has been an important point of reference for many Christian pacifists.
The FoR had a prominent role in acting as a support network for Christian pacifists during the war and supporting them in the difficult choice to becomeconscientious objectors - and in taking its consequences, which in many cases included imprisonment. In the interwar years it grew to be an influential body in United Kingdom Christianity, with federated associations in all the main denominations (theAnglican Pacifist Fellowship, theMethodist Peace Fellowship, the Baptist Peace Fellowship, etc.) as well as a strong membership among the Society of Friends (Quakers). At one time the Methodist Peace Fellowship claimed a quarter of all Methodistministers among its members.
During the 1930s, the FoR's members includedGeorge Lansbury.[4]
The FoR was active in the anti-war movement of the 1930s, and provided considerable practical support for active pacifism during and after theSpanish Civil War. It could be argued that it lost influence when theSecond World War came, was won, and was widely perceived as morally justified, especially as the horrors ofNazism became known in the post-war period. Equally, it could be argued that the questionable morality of the Cold War threat of mutually assured nuclear destruction again vindicated the FoR philosophy. The FoR retained considerable strength in post-second world war British Christianity, and many of its members were active in theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1950s and 1960s. Prominent members includedDonald Soper, a high-profile President of the Methodist Conference of the period and later a member of theHouse of Lords. With the continuing decline of Christianity in Britain, the FoR has lost influence, although active Christians in the UK are now probably further to the left politically, on average, than they were in the 1930s or 1950s.
A history of British FoR from 1914 to 1989, entitled Valiant For Peace, was published in 1991.[5]
FoR remains active:Norman Kember, the British peace activist kidnapped inIraq in December 2005 was a member of the Baptist Peace Fellowship and a Trustee of the FoR in England. There areRoman Catholic members of FoR, and although most Catholic pacifists affiliate instead to the specifically Catholic peace organisation,Pax Christi, FoR and Pax Christi work closely together. Although many members have universalist sympathies and are happy to co-operate with pacifists of other faiths or none, the FoR has remained a distinctively Christian organisation. However, with a number of Hindu, Buddhist and other supporters, members, and staff, there is a degree of flux here as well.
Currently, there are separate FoR organisations for England andScotland, and forWales. The Welsh branch is calledCymdeithas y Cymod [cy].
United States Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR USA) was founded in 1915 by sixty-eight pacifists, includingA. J. Muste,Jane Addams andBishop Paul Jones.Norman Thomas, at first skeptical of its program, joined in 1916 and would become the group's president. It was formed in opposition to the entry of the United States into World War I. TheAmerican Civil Liberties Union developed out of FOR's conscientious objectors program and the Emergency Committee for Civil Liberties.
The FOR USA claims to be the "largest, oldest interfaith peace and justice organization in the United States."[6] Its programs and projects involve domestic as well as international issues, and generally emphasize nonviolent alternatives to conflict and the rights of conscience. Unlike the U.K. movements, it is an interfaith body, though its historic roots are in Christianity.
Among the first chapters inCanada were those established inToronto byRichard Roberts in the late 1920s and inMontreal byJ. Lavell Smith in the mid-1930s.[1]
The Fellowship also has a European branch. In the post-World War Two period, the secretary of the EuropeanFOR was PastorAndré Trocmé, known for saving Jews at Collège Cévenol during the Nazi occupation of France.[7]
Since 1935, FOR has helped form, launch, and strengthen peace fellowships of many faithtraditions to form a network of faith-based nonviolent action. Membership of these peace fellowships has changed and grown over the past decades; what follows are fellowships that are currently affiliated with FOR: