by WebPost | Aug 19, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
Saturday, October 24 from 10-12 noon. A presentation featuring Lynn and Steve Newsom, co-directors of Quaker House Military Counseling Center, Fayetteville, NC, home of Fort Bragg. MORAL INJURY, a relatively new term employed by the Veterans Administration, recognizes that among the effects of war on military personnel is emotional trauma over serious transgressions of moral, spiritual, or religious beliefs. Acknowledging the reality of “moral injury” provides common language for people of faith and conscience to collaborate with the medical profession in caring for the needs of veterans of all wars, past and present. (For more information about moral injury, see the August Meeting newsletter for in-depth article.) This free workshop is sponsored by the Richmond Peace Education Center, the Alliance for Unitive Justice and Friends Meeting. It is open to the public so please share information with others who may wish to attend also. If you plan to attend, please email Gordon Davies or Betsy Brinson. (The Newsoms will be presenting on moral injury to the local Veterans Hospital on Friday.) This is a timely opportunity to learn more about this important concept.
by WebPost | Aug 19, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
Sunday, October 18 at 1 pm. Dr. Alice Rothchild, Boston physician, human rights advocate and Jewish advocate for peace in Israel and Palestine, will present on her recent and ongoing travels to Gaza. This session is a kickoff to Dr. Rothchild’s three day visit to Richmond, where she will speak and meet with numerous groups and organizations. Dr. Rothchild is the author of
Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience and
On the Brink. In addition, she produced the documentary film
Voices Across the Divide. Her visit to Richmond is co-sponsored by Richmonders for Peace in Israel and Palestine, the Richmond Peace Education Center and our Adult Spiritual Education Committee. For more info about speaker, please see her website at
www.alicerothchild.com.
Finger foods will be served after meeting and before the 1 pm program.
by WebPost | Aug 19, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
Sunday, October 4 at 9:30 and 11 am. With no draft and a Selective Service registration system often linked automatically to obtaining a state driver’s license, the idea of Conscientious Objection is fading from the consciousness and relevance of Friends, monthly meetings, and perhaps Quakerism as a whole. Without nurturing this fundamental component of our Peace Testimony in ourselves and our youth, we, as Quakers, run the risk of raising a generation ill-prepared to articulate and document claims against war and violence. Everyone is encouraged to attend at least one session. These workshops are the first step in setting up a more formal meeting process for assisting youth in their effort to become more knowledgeable about conscientious objector status and giving them tools now to begin documentation. In addition to youth and parents, we need all meeting adults to be informed also. Quaker House board member Curt Torrell will be here to conduct these workshops. Sponsored by Religious Education and Adult Spiritual Education committees.
by WebPost | Jul 1, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
(The following minute, proposed by the Peace and Social Concerns Committee, was approved at Fifth Month Meeting for Business.)
Richmond Friends Meeting is a Quaker community of spirit dedicated to peace, justice, and right relations with all creatures and life upon the earth. Our place on the earth is rooted in respect, not domination. We submit this Minute in furtherance of that respect.
The effects of climate change have been documented by scientists who agree that human activity, specifically pouring millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is reaching a tipping point. Living in harmony with the natural world has been replaced with unsustainable ways of living: reliance on fossil fuels, extreme methods of resource extraction, widespread destruction of old-growth and rain forests, and over-consumption of natural resources. These unsustainable practices are responsible for the Earth’s degraded state and climate disruption. As a faith community dedicated to peace and social justice, it alarms us that the effects of climate change disproportionately impact the world’s most impoverished peoples and that fossil fuel extraction and consumption has contributed to international conflict.
We recognize the urgency of this problem and support actions on all levels–individual to international — to work toward an ecologically healthy planet. Developed countries must reduce carbon emissions and actively support the development of alternative energy sources. It is imperative that developed countries transfer money, expertise, and technology to support sustainable development in less developed countries.
Our commitments to peace and justice, as well as our commitment to care for the earth, compel us to restorative action. Restorative actions include: education about both climate change and sustainable living; conservation; consideration of the impact our dietary choices has on the environment. We can also reduce consumption and our carbon footprints, invest in renewable energy, divest from fossil fuels and support sustainable energy development.
We are convinced that climate change is real, significant, worsening, and urgent. We are called to advocate for immediate attention to the climate at the local, state, national, and global levels through lobbying, community education, and peaceful protest as conscience dictates.
Although the challenge posed by climate change is complex and may seem daunting, our call to action is grounded in faith and supported by community. We are a connected part of this earth, not separate from it. We invite other communities, individuals, and groups to endorse this minute and to join us in restorative actions to heal ourselves and the planet.
by WebPost | Jul 1, 2015 | Peace and Social Concerns
– from Peace and Social Concerns Committee
Michael Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, writes in a recent essay about the Obama administration’s use of energy as a weapon in US foreign policy. In this context, the unprecedented expansion of oil and gas production in the United States under the Obama administration is in part a national security strategy. American production reduces our consumption of global supplies, creating the opportunity to enlist allies otherwise dependent on others to join the US in sanctions on countries like Iran and Russia. The weaponization of energy may help explain in part why Senator Tim Kaine has signed onto legislation to expedite the export of liquefied natural gas and why both of our Senators and Governor McAuliffe are supporters of off-shore drilling in Virginia waters. It’s not just about the purported jobs and economic growth fossil fuels generate, it’s about wielding power in the world.
Virginia is on the frontline now in the vast expansion of infrastructure to enable the export of natural gas. The proposed Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines are massive 42 inch pipelines that will cross the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Mountains, two national forests, the Appalachian Trail, hundreds of streams and rivers, hundreds of farms, home places, businesses and communities. The Governor is an advocate and proponent of the projects and our senators are standing on the fence saying that the federal process for pipeline proposals should be followed. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has never turned down a pipeline proposal.
The political influence of Dominion, and the industry generally, as well as the “national security” imperative undergirding energy production and export makes this is an uphill fight. As we consider ways to act in the world to promote peace and stewardship of the earth, the pipeline proposals call out for our response. If you are so led, the advocates in the path of the pipelines have many resources available to take action, including sample letters and information. Please see Friends of Nelson, http://friendsofnelson.com/; Preserve the New River Valley, http://preservethenrv.com/, and Appalachian Voices, http://appvoices.org/tag/mountain-valley-pipeline/
by WebPost | Jul 1, 2015 | Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Peace and Social Concerns
… from Waking Up White — and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving, 2014
Author Debby Irving will spend two days at Friends School of Baltimore in September. Over the summer, Trustees and faculty of Friends School, and perhaps also parents and students, will read Waking Up White in anticipation of her visit. The book is divided into 9 parts and 46 short chapters. Titles of some of the parts give a sense of what she covers: “Childhood in white,” “Midlife wake-up calls,” Why didn’t I wake up sooner?” “Inner work,” “Outer work,” and “Reclaiming my humanity.” Each chapter ends with queries to answer or a statement to reflect upon, and she encourages readers to journal their responses and reflections. Here are the queries at the end of chapter 6, “From Confusion to Shock:”
“The late historian Ronald Takaki referred to the history taught in American schools as ‘The Master Narrative,’ the version of history told by Americans of Anglo descent. Think about what you did not study. Did you learn about Lincoln’s views on enslaved black people? Anti-immigration laws of the nineteenth century? America’s laws regarding who could and could not gain citizenship? The Native Americans who had once lived on your town’s or school’s land?”
This column is prepared by the BYM Working Group on Racism (WGR) and sent to the designated liaisons at each Monthly and Preparative Meeting for publication in their newsletter or other means of dissemination. The WGR meets most months on the third Saturday, except July & August, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, usually at Bethesda Friends Meeting or Friends Meeting of Washington. In June 2015, however, it will meet at Adelphi Friends Meeting. If you would like to attend, on a regular or a drop-in basis, contact clerk David Etheridge.
