 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 (XXXXI 4) |
Since August 2000, Laurence Sigmond of Germantown Meeting (PA) has served our Yearly Meeting community in an experimental staff position, first called Meetings' Initiatives Coordinator, then re-named Peace and Concerns Coordinator. It was intended to last two years, but was later extended into a third year.
At the very start of the second year, September 11, 2001, and its aftermath shifted the focus of the work to Monthly Meetings' responses to a world filled with rumors of wars. Laurence was active in setting up regional threshing sessions for PYM, in which Friends shared their feelings and initiatives.
In January 2003 more than 40 PYM Friends, including Laurence, took part in a peace conference convened by Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas. Laurence took the lead in putting the conference on the Internet. In the spring the Peace and Concerns Standing Committee asked Laurence to telephone all Monthly Meeting clerks, in order to learn their Meetings' responses to a Yearly Meeting minute of opposition to the war in Iraq. He spoke personally with 102 clerks, and reported many different Friends' responses to the war.
Laurence says the three years of his service have been "a very joyful period" in his life, and he especially loved collaborating with Friends new to peace witness. The experimental position has now been laid down. Yearly Meeting thanks Laurence Sigmond for his service.
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM