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GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND The first body to use the name "Fellowship of Reconciliation" was formed in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War by two Christians , Henry Hodgkin (an English Quaker ) and Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze (a German Lutheran ), who were about to be parted by the oncoming war. On the platform of the railway station at Cologne , they pledged to each other that, "We are one in Christ and can never be at war." To take that pledge forward, Hodgkin organised a conference in Cambridge at which over a hundred Christians of all Denomination s 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". It states that:
Because the membership of the FoR included many members of the Society Of Friends (Quakers), who reject any form of written Creed , 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 become , the British peace activist kidnapped in Iraq in December 2005 was a member of the Baptist Peace Fellowship and a Trustee of the FoR. There are Roman Catholic members of FoR, most Catholic pacifists affiliate instead to the specifically Catholic peace organisation, Pax Christi ; however 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 in the UK has remained a distinctively Christian organization. Currently, there are separate FoR organizations in England, Scotland and Wales . UNITED STATES United States Fellowship of Reconciliation (FORUSA) was founded in alternatives to conflict and the rights of Conscience . Unlike the UK movements, it is an interfaith body, though its historic roots are in Christianity. FOR in the USA was formed initially in opposition to the entry of the United States into World War I . The American Civil Liberties Union developed out of FOR's Conscientious Objector s program and the Emergency Committee For Civil Liberties . In 1918 , FOR and the American Federation Of Labor formed Brookwood Labor College , which lasted until 1937 . In 1947 , FOR and the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE , which had been founded by FOR staffers James Farmer and George Houser , along with Berniece Fisher , sponsored the Journey Of Reconciliation , the first Freedom Ride against southern Segregation in the wake of the Supreme Court 's 1946 Irene Morgan decision. In 1954 , China was facing famine and the United States was enjoying surplus harvests, so the FOR organized the Surplus Food For China campaign to convince the government to send food to the Chinese, instead of bombing them. In 1955 and 1956 , Glen Smiley , a white Methodist minister, was assigned by the FOR to assist the Rev. Martin Luther King in the Montgomery Bus Boycott . The two, sitting behind the Rev. Ralph Abernathy , were seatmates on the first interracial bus ride in Montgomery . The Fellowship of Reconciliation is an organizational and founding member of the Coalition To Stop Gun Violence , which advocates Gun Control . INTERNATIONAL The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFor} was formed in 1919 EXTERNAL LINKS International Fellowships of Reconciliation
FORUSA and Local Groups
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