Philippines Quakers in Brisbane

On the evening of Wednesday 13th January, Bonifacio (Boni) Quirog, one of less then 12 unprogrammed F/friends in the Phillipines, met Brisbane F/friends to have a shared meal and tell how he learned about Quakers a few years ago, becoming a Member only a year ago.

He told what it is like being an Unprogrammed Friend out of a population of 90+ million. He lives in the large province of Bohol(an island - at least 2 hours flight from Manila), so in one sense he is an ‘isolated’ Friend as the nearest worshipping group is a 2 hour flight away. However he attends the online MfW (quakerworship.org) for International Friends, and so does not regard himself as isolated. He is a civil servant with three degrees including public administration and law, and has previously been to Canberra on government business.

On the 24th January, John and Lois Ocol who are Evangelical Friends [they would also be considered Young Friends] joined Brisbane F/friends at the Meeting House for MfW followed by a talk from John and another shared meal until they left to stay with relatives in Chermside before flying back to Manila. John and Lois were instrumental in organising relief work during the recent devastating floods. F/friends from across the world sent approx $17,000 to FWCC AWPS in Adelaide, which was then sent on to Manila. This in itself was also historic, in that unprogrammed and Evangelical Friends in our section worked together to collect and then to distribute these funds. They told us about Evangelical Friends [there are some 4000 adult members] and their now growing connections to Unprogrammed Friends in the Philippines, also give first hand stories of just how the recent floods affected them and all of their thousands of neighbours in Pasig and their barrio of Sta. Lucia. We were most impressed by the amount of social welfare work Quakers are doing amongst the poor. They also provide a medical and dental clinic in February; they would like to make it year-round, but have limited funds.