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Religious Society of
Friends - The Quakers
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Burlington Quarterly Meeting of The Religious Society Of Friends
Third Month 12th 2005
Burlington Minute in Support of Gay and Lesbian Friends
Burlington Quarterly Meeting Third Month 12th, 2005 minutes our unity with the following statement, which rose up from Princeton Monthly Meeting in Tenth Month 2004, and is modeled on a like statement of the Clerks Council of Friends General Conference, which was later adopted by Friends General Conference as a whole:
Our experience has been that spiritual gifts are not distributed with regard to sexual orientation or gender identity. Our experience has been that our worship, fellowship, and corporate witness through work in the world have been immeasurably enriched over the years by the full participation and Spirit-guided leadership of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer Friends. We will never go back to silencing those voices or suppressing those gifts. Our experience confirms that we are all equal before God, as God made us, and we feel blessed to be engaged together in the work of our Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, and in our Yearly Meeting.
Friends of Burlington Quarter feel truth and power in these words. We minute our unity with this message, and we rejoice.
Harold Jernigan, clerk
Burlington Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends