A movie focused on the life and work of Friend Bayard Rustin is being released in the coming days, joining the 2002 documentary Brother Outsider and offering a new way for the wider public to learn about the peace, labor, and civil rights organizer and activist. [Read more…] about Feature Film about Friend Rustin Bayard Opens November 3rd
Anti-Racism
AFSC Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now
Join the American Friends Service Committee to take action and write to Congress during this heightened period of crisis in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. AFSC will share an update from our staff on the ground, then help you engage with us in making calls to the White House and your member of Congress, calling for an immediate ceasefire. We will also show a tutorial on effective letter writing and spend time writing letters together. We will share resources and other action items that can increase our collective voices at this critical time.
Thank you for offering prayers and support as we witness the horrific scenes of violence and destruction in Palestine and Israel.
AFSC Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now
Join the American Friends Service Committee to take action and write to Congress during this heightened period of crisis in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. AFSC will share an update from our staff on the ground, then help you engage with us in making calls to the White House and your member of Congress, calling for an immediate ceasefire. We will also show a tutorial on effective letter writing and spend time writing letters together. We will share resources and other action items that can increase our collective voices at this critical time.
Thank you for offering prayers and support as we witness the horrific scenes of violence and destruction in Palestine and Israel.
AFSC Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now
Join the American Friends Service Committee to take action and write to Congress during this heightened period of crisis in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. AFSC will share an update from our staff on the ground, then help you engage with us in making calls to the White House and your member of Congress, calling for an immediate ceasefire. We will also show a tutorial on effective letter writing and spend time writing letters together. We will share resources and other action items that can increase our collective voices at this critical time.
Thank you for offering prayers and support as we witness the horrific scenes of violence and destruction in Palestine and Israel.
AFSC Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now
Join the American Friends Service Committee to take action and write to Congress during this heightened period of crisis in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. AFSC will share an update from our staff on the ground, then help you engage with us in making calls to the White House and your member of Congress, calling for an immediate ceasefire. We will also show a tutorial on effective letter writing and spend time writing letters together. We will share resources and other action items that can increase our collective voices at this critical time.
Thank you for offering prayers and support as we witness the horrific scenes of violence and destruction in Palestine and Israel.
Darby Friends Meetinghouse Named as Underground Railroad Site by National Park Service
Church Creek, MD – The National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom accepted the Darby Friends Meetinghouse and School site, in Darby, Pennsylvania., as one of 23 new listings, from the 46th round of applications, representing sites and programs in 14 states across the U.S. and Canada. These new listings, alongside more than 750 sites, facilities, and programs already in the Network, provide insight into the diverse experiences of freedom seekers who bravely escaped slavery and allies who assisted them. [Read more…] about Darby Friends Meetinghouse Named as Underground Railroad Site by National Park Service
The 339 Manumissions and Beyond Project: A Reparative Search for Descendants of Formerly Enslaved Africans
Chattanooga Friends Meeting and the University of Tennessee, Chatanooga will host a hybrid program entitled “The 339 Manumissions and Beyond Project: A Reparative Search for Descendants of Formerly Enslaved Africans.” To repair is to fix what was broken. The history of Quakers as slaveowners contains much damage and breakage. This project seeks to restore families histories of those descended from people enslaved by Quakers and answer the question: What happened to these newly freed Americans and how did they survive? Speakers: Avis Wanda McClinton, community liaison for the 339 Project and David Satten-Lopez, who led the Haverford College website “Manumitted: The People Enslaved by Quakers.”
Beyond Diversity 101
An on-campus intensive with Niyonu Spann and Lisa Graustein.
Beyond Diversity 101 intends healing transformation. We provide frameworks, offer practices, and hold a space for growing skills to de-structure systems of oppression and raise up liberation. Participants are offered pathways to move beyond the guilt-blame cycle toward radical truth-telling, co-responsibility, and activating joy & justice!
Participants will:
- Recognize and remove blocks that hold you back as a facilitator, artist, leader, healer, teacher, or organizer;
- Articulate and break patterns of domination/power-over/oppression;
- Practice being a courageous and heart-centered transformer;
- Work within a community of learners and justice workers with the potential for ongoing support;
- Increase the ability to discern, speak, and activate a vision of liberation;
- Recognize how our spiritual lives relate to our social justice work;
- Develop applications for continuing work at home
Friends’ Decision-Making and Clerking: Participating in Meetings for Business with Joy and Confidence
An on-campus weekend workshop with Steve Mohlke and ,O on liberatory clerking skills and principles.
Nov 17-19, 2023
6:00pm Friday through lunch on Sunday
This is an opportunity for both new and experienced clerks of Friends’ meetings and committees to meet and think together about the role of presiding clerk in the spiritual practice of meeting for business.
The workshop will address racism in the context of Friends’ decision-making and clerking. We need to pay attention to racism because it affects (infects) nearly everything in this society. We will be lifting up decision-making processes that seek to liberate the Spirit among all participants.
There will be handouts to follow along during the program, exercises, and opportunities to share experiences, with most work being done in a whole group setting. It is expected that each person will leave the weekend with new energy and enthusiasm for being a clerk, feeling well grounded in both the theoretical and the practical.
Reparations: Responsibility & Relationship
“We are responsible for the world that we’ve inherited, and the world that we pass down.” — Reverend Naomi Washington-Leapheart
January Workshop Opens Conversations
At the start of the year, the Mayor’s Commission on Faith-based and Interfaith Affairs invited members of Philadelphia-area faith communities to spend four days examining the intersection between theology and systems of white supremacy alongside reparations and truth telling. Under the leadership of Reverend Naomi Washington Leapheart, Director for Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs for the city of Philadelphia, and the Commission’s ongoing “Rise Up for Reparations” campaign, inaugurated in June 2022, the January program was part of ongoing work to build a culture of reparations in the city – and one where faith leaders are at the front of the movement. [Read more…] about Reparations: Responsibility & Relationship