World Council of Churches Mourns Death of Eden Grace, Quaker Former Central Committee Member

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has announced the death of Eden Grace, a member of the Religious Society of Friends and a former member of the WCC central committee. Grace died on 27 May 2023 in Maine, United States. She was born on 23 November 1968.

Grace’s service to the WCC went beyond its central committee, to which she was elected in 1998. She also served on the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the WCC and worked as a minute-writer for meetings of the central committee and executive committee.

She also worked as a consultant on consensus decision-making. The WCC said she helped it move toward the consensus approach now used in the conduct of all its meetings.

In remarks to the WCC on the consensus process among the Society of Friends, Grace described it this way: “It is rooted in our deepest theological affirmations, and is one of our highest spiritual experiences. Our bold affirmation is that God does indeed have a will for us, that God is actively trying to communicate that will, and that we are capable, through corporate prayer, to discover that will.”

Grace was also active with the Massachusetts Council of Churches, Friends United Meeting, and several other organizations. She held a Master of Divinity from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a certificate in International Mission and Ecumenism from the Boston Theological Institute.

For several years, Grace and her family served with Friends United Meeting in East Africa, living in Kisumu, Kenya. There they worked with church leaders to establish an Africa Ministries Office of Friends United Meeting, intended to carry out the denomination’s programmes and priorities within the African constituency. The WCC said Grace sought to promote Christian faithfulness among Friends and to work toward Christian unity and reconciliation for the sake of Christ’s mission in the world, a commitment she pursued in part by writing and speaking to ecumenical groups (John 17:21).

Grace is survived by her husband, Jim, and two sons. She is also survived by her father, Larry Parker, and her sister, Wendy Parker.

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