Peace & Social Concerns

Newtown Friends Meeting played a pivotal role in supporting Heeding God’s Call and other faith communities in putting on a Gun Violence Awareness Day. Read more about it here. If you’re interested in organizing something similar or other work around gun violence prevention, contact Heeding God’s Call Executive Director Bryan Miller, bryanheeding@gmail.com.

A faith-based organization called Heeding God’s Call can help Quaker meetings across Philadelphia Yearly Meeting with reducing and eliminating gun violence. If your meeting is looking for an avenue to make a difference in this public health crisis, we hope you’ll be in touch. There are several ways to do so:

• Attend a conference call on Wednesday September 23 at 7 PM.
• Attend and Spread the word about Newtown Meeting’s Gun Violence Awareness Day.
• Talk to Brad Sheeks of Newtown Meeting about how to organize your own Gun Violence Awareness Day in your Quaker community. sheeksbrad@gmail.com
• Contact Bryan Miller, Heeding God’s Call Executive Director, about other information and other ways to help. bryanheeding@gmail.com

We interviewed Brad Sheeks about his experience organizing the Gun Violence Awareness Day in Newtown, and this is what he said:

I got started with planning a Gun Violence Awareness Day event as a result of a talk last May by Bryan Miller, Executive Director of Heeding God’s Call to End Violence at Newtown Friends Meeting. Bryan suggested the idea of having such an event in Newtown. It seemed that this was a good thing to do, and I had the time and energy to do it.

I made phone calls to about fifty faith communities and organizations in Bucks County, telling them about the idea and inviting them to attend an informational meeting. Twenty people, representing thirteen organizations came to the meeting.  Bryan Miller explained the basic idea of a Gun Violence Awareness Day. He offered to be the primary sponsor. We agreed to start discussions in our home faith communities about co-sponsorship as a way of witnessing to the community about our concerns for reducing gun violence.

We agreed to set the November 10th as the date for the Gun Violence Awareness Day event itself. 

So far eight faith communities and organizations have approved co-sponsorship of the Gun Violence Awareness Day, set for November 10th.

 The service Awareness Day will feature survivors of gun violence, music, responsive readings, and prayers. Informational tables will display opportunities for taking further action about reducing gun violence. There will be a witness walk on and around State Street, leading to the church were a service will be held.

If you have questions or concerns about how this event fits into the wider question of reducing gun violence, contact Bryan Miller directly by phone at 856-371-3038 or by email at bryanheeding@gmail.com as well as visiting the Heeding God’s Call website https://www.heedinggodscall.org/

 I am available to others who might like to consult on how to organize a Gun Violence Awareness Day event.

Church World Service (CWS) is launching a new Ration Challenge Campaign at rationchallengeusa.org.

Ration Challenge is a fundraising and awareness building campaign that invites participants to commit to live for one week (the week of World Refugee Day) on the same rations that Syrian refugees receive in a camp in Jordan. Leading up to the challenge, participants ask family, friends and colleagues to sponsor them by donating to their campaign. Participants earn rewards as they raise money to help supplement their rations (fruit, veg, tea, spices etc.). The money raised goes to provide food, medical care, and education to Syrian refugees in Jordan via Act for Peace (30%) and to support CWS programs for refugees and displaced families around the world (70%).

Here’s how you can get involved:

• Share a post about the Ration Challenge on Facebook or Twitter
• Invite your networks to join/sign up via email
• Do you know any “influencers?” pro-refugee contacts with more than 20,000 followers on social media—Let us know if you’d be willing to reach out them to get them involved in the challenge. We will help with outreach and follow up.
• Take a short version of the Challenge (one or two days) and write about your experience
• Sign up the take the challenge yourself the week of June 16-23
• Work with CWS to write an opinion piece highlighting the challenges facing refugee families and support for the Ration Challenge

We hope to hear from some of you about getting involved as the Ration Challenge gets underway. Please let us know if you decide to sign up yourself. Thanks for your support!

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is a member of Church World Service, and we occasionally post announcements and invitations from CWS on our website.