Dear Friends:

This is the message of our love.

We have been united with you this week in closer fellowship which transcended our diversity, as New York Yearly Meeting became again one body of Friends.

We wish to share with you our joy that the way to unity has been found.

We shall continue to share our differences, which serve a useful purpose. God does not ask us for conformity, but calls us to unity, in obedience to the leadings of the spirit.

Informal cooperation in these agencies and in other ways has, in some instances, led to reunion of some of the yearly meetings that split in the 1800s: New England, Canada, Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore. Except for Philadelphia, these reunited meetings now affiliate with both the Friends General Conference and Friends United Meeting.

Three organizations have formed to join in loose confederation those yearly meetings that stand in general agreement with one another: Friends General Conference, Friends United Meeting, and Evangelical Friends International.

The Friends General Conference was organized in 1900 as an association of Hicksite meetings to provide a channel of coordination for them. Today it includes any Quaker meeting interested in the services it provides, such as religious education materials and annual conferences.