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History : Quick recap
We are one branch of a global, spiritually-based movement committed to active nonviolence as a means of personal, social, economic and political transformation. FoR International (IFoR) began in 1914, and now has 83 branches and groups in 5 continents. Our England branch (FoRE) is among the oldest registered UK charity organisations.
A Fellowship born out of a handshake...
On the eve of the First World War, the former chaplain to the German Kaiser, a Lutheran called Friedrich Siegmund-Schültze b.1885 and an English Quaker (Henry Hodgkin - see 'Basis') parted at Cologne Station with the words, "We are one in Christ and can never be at war". Henry Hodgkin, followed up this commitment by organising a conference (attended by 130 Christians of all denominations) in Cambridge in December 1914 at which the visionary statement, known as the Basis of the Fellowship, was drafted. By November 1915, over 1,500 members were meeting in 55 local branches in the UK. [Source: John Ferguson, The Cambridge Review, December 1984, p.206]
Siegmund-Schültze was put before a military tribunal for his involvement. He was condemned to death, but on production of a letter of support for his views from the Kaiser, was instead offered a post in the German Ministry of Information - which he refused. Henry Hodgkin went on to be the first director of Pendle Hill in the USA.
[John Ferguson was Chairman of FoR England, as well as being Professor of Classics at the Universities of Ibadan and Minnesota. He studied at St John's, Cambridge.]
