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Kairos Britain and Friends of Sabeel UK officially merge

Efforts to support the Palestinian Christian community combined

April 2017

Since early 2016 the Board of Trustees of Friends of Sabeel UK (FOSUK) and the Management Committee of Kairos Britain have been discussing a possible merger. This has now been voted on, and approved, by both the FOSUK Board of Trustees and the Kairos Britain Management Committee.   It was felt that the advocacy work undertaken by Kairos Britain would be strengthened by the Theology of Liberation for the Palestinian Christian community that Sabeel has developed over the last 70 years. In addition the Liberation Theology of Sabeel would benefit from the advocacy work that Kairos Britain engages in and the merger would allow the development of a joint advocacy programme which would have a significant impact in the UK. In practical terms a number of areas have been agreed on:

• FOSUK would retain its charitable status and would become the official vehicle for the newly merged organisation.
• The trading name of the new organisation will be Sabeel – Kairos UK.
• The responsibility for the day to day running and administration will pass to FOSUK on the 1st June 2017 with the full financial handover being on the 1st July 2017.
• The advocacy worker of Kairos Britain, Charlotte Marshall, will start officially working with the Director of FOSUK, Mark Battison, on the 1st May 2017 with direct line management starting on the same day.
• Currently FOSUK members pay an annual membership fee which supports the running of the organisation and which entitles the member to various written and electronic resources throughout the year. In addition many members make regular, or ad hoc, donations as they are able.
• The supporters of Kairos Britain will be invited to join the new organisation by becoming members of FOSUK and will be encouraged to continue their donations for Kairos Britain alongside this. In addition if you support Kairos Britain through Standing Orders or Direct Debits via Amos Trust details will be supplied as to how to redirect these.
• The aim is to utilise all membership fees and donations made by Kairos Britain members, who are not currently FOSUK members, to support the work of the Advocacy Worker for a minimum period of one year. After that period it is hoped that all donations, from whatever source, will be utilised to support the work of the merged Sabeel – Kairos UK organisation.
• Charlotte will continue to use the Amos Trust premises as she needs and will also spend some time in the office at Oxford currently used by FOSUK and its administrator Alison White.
• We will run both websites and social media channels for the time being until we decide how best to utilise them (be that combining or continuing with two websites for specific purposes)
• Chris Rose from Amos Trust will become the Chair of the new organisation in June 2017 and will serve for 1 year. In addition a number of Kairos Britain supporters will be invited to join the Board of Trustees to ensure continuity and a balance of experience and views.

This merger has the backing of both organisations in Palestine (Kairos Palestine and Sabeel Jerusalem) and mirrors similar models around the world. The organic growth that the merger will bring can only serve to make our support of our Palestinian sisters and brothers stronger and enable each of us to play a full part in ending the 50-year occupation in Palestine today. Thank you for all of your hard work and commitment and we look forward to sharing our work together as the year progresses.

Chris Rose                                                                   Mark Battison
Kairos Britain                                                              Friends of Sabeel UK