|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Approximately 50 people were present. They identified themselves as members of Old Haverford, Merion, Schuylkill, Radnor, Central Philadelphia, Haverford, and Valley meetings as well as two who were Haverford College students (one a member of Haddonfield Meeting).
Six major themes were lifted up by the participants:
This time of crisis opens up special opportunities for Friends particularly to raise up a greater vision of what can be in our world.
People are turning to us with questions.
We need to have a corporate plan of action that can galvanize and motivate us and have a larger impact than individual actions.
Work with CCCO.
Connect with Muslim communities.
Collaborate with emerging peace movement.
Lifting up the words of other faith traditions regarding nonviolent responses: the Pope, the Dalai Lama, etc.
There is importance in responding in small things.
Letting our lives speak.
Attention to how our economic life styles affect the world situation.
Relationships with family, neighbors, community.
We need to collaborate in developing vigorous, active, pacifist responses.
Not just opposition to war.
Not weakness and inaction.
Make friends of our enemies.
Make peace with Islam (let the Crusades end!).
Let the peoples of the world hear pacifist voices (take out ads in international media).
It is a false dichotomy to regard violence as pragmatic and nonviolence as utopian.
The importance of all of our work as Friends for a more just world in intensified in these times.
Work on our standard of living, on U.S. foreign policy, on race, etc.
Need for care within the Religious Society of Friends.
We need opportunities to search and pray together: potlucks, discussions, and extra times of worship.
Our children need care and preparation as they face advocacy of violence in their schools and high schools.
Our young men may need draft counseling.
We need to be attentive to and prepared for ways in which our pacifist position makes us targets.
Humility.
- Admit that we are not in control.
- Remember a higher authority.
- Discern and be useful to God's purpose.
Justice.
- There is a need to make a distinction between criminal acts and an act of war.
- There is a need to bring the terrorists to justice.
- We need to find ways to make the world a better place. Friends need to make a clear statement about how justice can be done. We need to describe what justice means.
- We need to protect our society and find a positive approach. We need to do this all at once.
Friends need to speak out individually and corporately.
- We need to find positive ways to communicate with fellow Americans who do not agree with us. We need to develop individual responses to those with different opinions.
- This provides an opportunity for people who love peace to speak out and be listened to.
- Concern for a new McCarthy period. Some will be scared to speak out. It will take courage.
- A recommendation to develop and sponsor a full-page advertisement in newspapers describing where Friends stand in relation to a national response.
- Sponsor an advertisement with other peace churches. Include the Pope, Dalai Lama and other world leaders and their pleas for peace.
- Let people of the world know what we (Quakers) think. Write an open letter to the world. Work with Quaker Meetings around the world.
- Sharing the corporate voice of Quakerism is a good thing.
- The more we communicate, the more commonality in views we will find.
- Concern expressed about the symbolism of the American flag — not creating a divisive symbol
Educating ourselves about root causes.
- We need to educate ourselves.
- This was a wakeup call. We need to feel sorrow for the Americans who were killed but there needs to be a recognition that thousands of people all over the world have died because of American foreign policy.
- Our policies created the hostility of others.
- Look at the history of the area and the ignorance of our foreign policy.
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM