Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has partnered with the American Friends Service Committee to support local community organizing around the Poor People’s Campaign. The Quaker Life Council minuted an endorsement of the Poor People’s Campaign alongside our Young Adult Friends community. Both bodies invited monthly meetings to endorse the campaign as well. Trenton Meeting of Friends has recently approved an endorsement, which was forwarded to us recently:
Trenton MM has enthusiastically approved a Minute in support of the 2020 Poor People’s Campaign, echoing the leadership of the Quaker Life Council and in response to your recent email.
“Given the historic connection that Quakers have had to the Poor People’s Campaign and the continued need for a moral call toward economic, racial and environmental justice in the United States, Trenton Meeting of Friends in Trenton, New Jersey endorses the 2020 Poor People’s Campaign and encourages other Monthly Meetings in our Quarter and beyond to do the same.”
Thank you for your leadership and guidance.
Charles Hardy, Clerk
Trenton Meeting of Friends
Trenton, New Jersey
Quaker Life Council Minute
Given the historical connection that Quakers have had to the Poor People’s Campaign and the continued need for a moral call toward economic, racial and environmental justice in the United States, Quaker Life Council endorses the 2020 Poor People’s Campaign on behalf of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. It encourages PYM monthly meetings to do the same. To find out more about the 2020 Poor People’s Campaign, visit http://poorpeoplescampaign.org/.
Young Adult Friends Minute
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Young Adult Friends support the 2020 Poor People’s Campaign: a National Call for Moral Revival (PPC). There are several principles of the campaign that speak to us. We realize that there is a right way and a wrong way to lead in religious communities, we know what side we’re on and we are excited to shift the moral narrative promoted by the religious right. We agree and recognize that everyone has the right to live a life, not in economic and environmental turmoil, but equitable communities. We are in the spirit of realizing the Peaceable Kingdom is here on Earth, and by supporting the PPC, we keep the choice to stand in solidarity with communities and to keep our morals.
Stephen Cary of AFSC remarked in 1968 that the PPC “…has made poverty in America visible, and never again will it be possible to pretend that it is not real.” As a community, we recognize that we need to continue to make poverty and all the injustices that cause it visible. We are excited to continue this work as the AFSC organizer is hired. Specifically, we will work to bring representation to the actions occurring in Philadelphia and will work to bus people to the march in Washington, DC, in June 2020.
Some more information on the campaign:
- The Fundamental Principles of the PPC
- Moral Agenda, the demands of the movement
- A Call for a Moral Revival – TED Talk, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis at TEDWomen 2018