Micah MacColl Nicholson, FCNL Program Assistant Quaker Engagement – February 5, 2025
Presidential actions and congressional legislation have undermined a just and humane migration system. They violate the rights of immigrants residing in the U.S. or attempting to find safety here. As Friends, we are actively working on migration issues. Some are challenging these threats in the courts while we at FCNL continue to tell Congress that mass deportation is not the answer. FCNL’s Quaker Changemaker Event on February 19 at 6:30 p.m. ET will focus on urgent advocacy for migration rights. Participating at this event will be FCNL’s Anika Forrest, Linnea Halsten, and Alicia McBride. Join us as we make our voices heard. As immigrants face unprecedented threats, we will reflect on how we, as Friends, can live and act on the call to love our neighbors without exception. We will draw on a long – and continuing – tradition of Quakers taking a stand for migrant’s rights. Together, we will navigate how we can make our voices heard in the 119th Congress. Join us in building a society with equity and justice for all. Register today
ACLU CALLS ON GLOCESTER SCHOOL DISTRICT TO HALT ARBITRARY RESTRICTIONS ON STUDENT ACCESS TO BOOKS – February 3, 2025
In an attempt to avert implementation of a policy that the ACLU of Rhode Island argued would encourage censorship efforts, the organization sent a letter today to Glocester school district Superintendent Renee Palazzo, urging her to rescind directives she issued to the Fogarty Memorial School’s librarians to allow students to check out only “age appropriate” books. Continue Reading
Quakers Sue DHS over Immigration Enforcement and Religious Freedom – by Sharlee DiMenichi – Friends Journal – January 27, 2025
Quakers are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over potential immigration raids at houses of worship. Plaintiffs include Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM), New England Yearly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Adelphi (Md.) Meeting, and Richmond (Va.) Meeting. The suit argues that plaintiffs’ religious liberty is violated by the Trump administration’s January 20 rescindment of protections for people without legal status in “sensitive locations” such as places of worship.
Clerks of meetings making up PYM, as well as clerks of councils within the yearly meeting, met and easily came to unity about becoming plaintiffs of the suit, according to PYM general secretary Christie Duncan-Tessmer. Read More
“Everything just moved lighting fast. By Quaker standards, it was breathtaking,” said Duncan-Tessmer.
Information from Gail Fletcher regarding FCNL Call on January 28th at 8:00 PM
The 119th Congress has begun and President-elect Donald Trump takes office next week. You may be wondering how we can make a difference with our advocacy in the current political environment. You’re not alone. But I have good news: FCNL has been strategizing and planning, and we are prepared for the challenges ahead.
Our call will focus on how we can work together on opportunities we can seize and threats we cannot ignore. This includes:
Restoring aid to Gaza and furthering peace in the Middle East.
Protecting health care and food assistance funding for poor and working families.
Preventing funding for harmful immigration enforcement and detention.
December 21, 2024 – FCNL – As 2024 draws to a close, we pause to reflect on the remarkable strength and dedication of our community. As an FCNL Contact, you have played a critical role in connecting the concerns of Friends in your meeting or church with opportunities for advocacy with federal policymakers. This year you have shown up in powerful ways in our communities by speaking out for peace, justice, and integrity with prayerful listening and active participation. Since January, nearly 2,600 people in our community have taken part in more than 700 lobby visits, and more than 80 of your communities shared minutes of concern about the heartbreaking violence in Gaza. Hundreds have participated in Advocacy Teams as we worked to rein in wasteful Pentagon wish lists. More than 250 of your communities gathered to listen to Spirit’s leadings for our work in the new Congress. FCNL’s Policy Committee relied on this faithful listening to discern our legislative priorities for the 119th Congress. You can learn how we will build on this work in 2025 by joining us January 28, at 8 p.m. ET to welcome the 119th Congress with action. In peace and gratitude, Micah MacColl Nicholson, Program Associate, Quaker Engagement
December 20, 2024 – FCNL – BREAKING NEWS: Today, the Senate unanimously passed the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S. 1723)! This is “a landmark milestone in the fight for truth and healing,” FCNL’s Rachel Overstreet said. It is also a major testament to your advocacy and the courageous, persistent efforts of Native advocates and boarding schools survivors. Now, the House must follow suit and move swiftly to pass this vital legislation before the end of the 118th Congress on Jan. 3, 2025.
December 18, 2024 – Missoula Current – The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with 16 young climate activists who claim the state’s environmental laws violated their constitutional right to a clean, healthy climate, upholding their August 2023 victory in a first-of-its-kind decision that could pave the way for more youth-led climate lawsuits. The youths, who are now between 6 and 24 years old, argue that under the Montana Constitution they have a fundamental right to “a clean and healthful environment,” which includes a stable climate system that sustains human lives and liberties — and which was being violated by state energy laws that allowed the government to permit projects without considering the impact of increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
Don’t Mourn…Organize by Rebecca Solnit – November 6, 2024
“They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. Don’t mourn, organize, but you can do both at once and you don’t have to organize right away in this moment of furious mourning. You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots and call someone who’s upset and check your equipment for going onward. A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones. There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good. You can keep walking whether it’s sunny or raining. Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.”
President Biden is set to issue a formal apology for the federal government’s Native American boarding schools
During his visit to Arizona today (October 25, 2024). He will be the first sitting president to formally apologize for these schools, which operated for over 150 years and separated American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children from their families in an attempt to assimilate them. This system often exposed children to abuse and, in some cases, even death. Biden will visit the Gila River Indian Community, marking his first time visiting a Native American tribe as president.
Gunilla Norris reads excerpts from some of her published writing below…
Cultivating Sanctuary: Hallowed Places and Inner States – In scary times, there is a deep need to have a sanctuary, a place for rest, renewal, and comfort. We have such a place inside, but, when we’re afraid, it’s hard to know it and feel it. If we dare to trust what has already been given to us by Spirit, we will discover an inner place of grace to return to again and again. In it we can find a connection with Spirit, hope, each other, and life itself. To cultivate such a sanctuary we need to honor our essence and be in solidarity with it. And we need to share that common depth with one another in our Quaker meeting houses and places of worship. This pamphlet is offered in the hope it can be of use in helping us become sanctuaries for each other and for our aching world. – Pendle Hill Pamphlet #466
Being Home – Being Home is a collection of meditations in which our household tasks are closely and contemplatively examined, inviting the reader to explore the holy ground that these activities actually are. It is also an essay on how and why we should work toward simplicity — materially, socially and spiritually. The photographs by Greta Sibley are beautiful companions to the text. – GunillaNorris.com
Happy Birthday John Wilbur! On July 17, 1774, John Wilbur, was born to Quaker parents in Hopkinton, Rhode Island.
Greetings, For those of you that do not follow on Facebook, New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) just posted the following on their page. Be sure to visit the Quaker cemetery in Hopkinton and reflect on the long history of our Meeting John Wilbur would never have seen or worshipped at the meeting at 57 Elm Street, but his spirit lives on. In light, Beth – Post from Facebook
Friends, In doing some of my work as clerk of the Southeast Quarter, I stumbled on a 2013 blog post, “Digging Up the Past: Archaeology at the Old Quaker Meetinghouse.” I don’t think I’ve seen this before. Perhaps others have… The lead on this project is a member of Providence Meeting and attended Quarterly Meeting several weeks ago. I guess it must be Quaker history week at Westerly! Beth
This past June archaeology students from the Anthropology Department at Rhode Island College led by Dr. Pierre Morenon, undertook a study of the site of the former South Kingstown Society of Friends Meeting House and the adjacent Quaker Burial Ground. Read More
Westerly Monthly Meeting’s Minute Concerning the War in Israel-Palestine – June 13, 2024
Drawing Circles, Not Lines – By Sarah Katreen Hoggatt – Friends Journal – June 1, 2020
This being June 2024 and Pride Month it would seem appropriate to revisit Sarah Katreen Hoggatt’s article on “Drawing Circles, Not Lines”
I look out among the faces in front of me and am in awe of their compassion and protectiveness of one another. The people gathered together care deeply about one another’s well-being, especially those who are typically disenfranchised or whose voices aren’t heard as loudly as those better represented in our community. We stand up for each other, firmly and with alacrity, making sure everyone is respected and given space to bloom. I love them and their loving hearts so much. Our yearly meeting, Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting, is not yet even four years old. Created after another yearly meeting decided it would not include any LGBTQ+ inclusive church, we decided at the very beginning—even before deciding we were a group—that we were passionately inclusive. The meeting has since proved those words time and time again. Continue Reading
Since 1996, the Academy of American Poets has set aside April to salute poetry’s “integral role in our culture” and to assert that “poetry matters.” The Academy celebrates poetry’s central artistic and cultural role by issuing a unique annual commemorative poster based on an image and a quotation by an American poet. This year’s poster recognizes “raising the boats” by African American poet Louise Clifton (1936-2010). It depicts a young African American girl sailing through the air on a dive into the water by Jack Wong, an award-winning children’s illustrator. The poster quotes Clifton’s words, “May you in your innocence/sail through this to that.” It is inspiring. Our column this month features an original piece by Westerly Multicultural Committee member David Madden, a resident, retired teacher, community volunteer, member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), husband, father, grandfather, and published poet. Continue Reading / David’s Poem
April Action – Share your meeting’s or church’s minute on the war in Gaza to Quakers@fcnl.org and read what other Friends are saying Read More
In Quaker meetings and churches, meeting minutes represent the wording of a decision or an agreed upon action to be taken by the meeting or church. FCNL recognizes the importance of meeting minutes both as advocacy tools and as a means of communicating to members of Congress how their constituents are thinking and acting on a particular issue. If your organization, church, or meeting has approved a minute, statement, or resource on the war in Gaza, please email it to Quakers@fcnl.org to include it in this collection. The Quaker Engagement team will follow up with you to offer support in sharing your minute or statement with your members of Congress as another way to change public policy through faith-in-action.
A new FCNL report highlights a promising approach: community-led violence interrupters programs. – Friends Committee on National Legislation
These programs empower trusted community members to mediate and de-escalate conflicts before they become deadly. Further, violence interrupters build relationships with high-risk individuals in their communities, providing resources like mental health services, housing, and job training to improve their circumstances and offer hope and dignity. While fully addressing the root causes of violence in marginalized communities will require long-term systemic change, violence interrupters programs have proven they get results. By expanding funding for these programs, Congress can save lives now by stopping gun violence before it happens. Supporting this violence prevention work goes to the heart of our Quaker peace testimony and our conviction that every person’s potential deserves fulfillment. We see the inherent worth in the victim of violence as well as those committing it. We strive for a world where no one feels violence is a solution. Our analysis of community-led violence interrupter programs compels us to advocate for robust funding to support these life-saving initiatives. Continue Reading
The Friends Publishing – Annual Report for 2023
Last year, 124 Quaker authors, artists, and poets brought their gifts to Friends Journal and our other sites to help deepen the spiritual lives of our audience: over 463,000 people, worldwide. Gifts from readers and viewers helped strengthen Quaker outreach this year by growing our ministry, particularly online. Their giving ensures that our staff writer, Sharlee DiMenichi, can report on news affecting Quaker communities in a relevant and timely manner—and that, as with all our publications, these stories can be read freely online. At QuakerSpeak, our new producer/ videographer, Christopher Cuthrell, brought a new look and feel to our tenth season of conversations with Friends. It was a year of substantial milestones, as the QuakerSpeak project surged past five million views on YouTube—as well as 30,000-plus subscribers! We were also able to produce Season 3 of Quakers Today with Peterson Toscano (and new co-host Miche McCall!). More than 7,000 monthly downloads show that people are engaging with this podcast to grow and deepen their Quaker faith and sharing it with friends.
Westerly Monthly Meeting – Discernment on where to focus work with the US Congress 2025-2026
Thank you for your input into FCNL’s priorities process. Your insights are valuable as we discern where to focus our work with the 119th Congress (2025-2026). – For your records: Report submitted by: David Madden
Priority A: INTERNATIONAL PEACE BUILDING by supporting nation partners to resolve conflicts peacefully. Hold governments accountable for human rights violations. Strengthen diplomatic efforts by providing technical and financial support.
Priority B: VOTING AND ELECTIONS Accessible voting for all US citizens is fundamental to democracy. In 2023, numerous states enacted restrictive voting laws threatening our democratic form of government.
Priority C: JUSTICE REFORM AND GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION As the number of mass shootings and resulting deaths continue to rise, federal legislation needs to enacted banning of military weapons and requiring gun licensing.
Priority D: SUSTAINABLE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT Climate change is an existential threat, without sound energy programs everything else becomes meaningless
Priority E: HEALTHCARE AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING Many American lack safe affordable housing, access to public transportation, grocery stores and public services and these challenges are directly linked to poor health outcomes.
364th Annual Sessions of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, August 2–7. at Castleton University. All of us are looking forward to welcoming Friends, new-comers and oft-comers, adults, children, youth, and their families.
Our theme for this year’s Sessions is “Let us faithfully tend the seed.” Rich with imagery, our theme both calls us to act in the world in ways that give voice to the Inner Light and also to let go of our individual truth and listen for the voice of God in others.
Lloyd Lee Wilson will be our Sunday afternoon plenary speaker. Lloyd Lee has been active in the public ministry since his youth on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, becoming a Methodist Certified Lay Speaker at age 14. He has been a recorded minister of the Gospel in four different monthly meetings and has written a great deal on Quaker faith and practice. He and his wife Susan presently live near Greensboro, North Carolina.
Genna Ulrich will present the Bible half hours. Genna (they/them), a member of Portland Friends Meeting, has a complicated relationship to the Bible. For a long time they didn’t touch it, but then they got curious about being in conversation with other people witnessing to God, including far back in time. Genna has found stories in the Bible which challenge and inspire them, stories which speak to Genna’s own condition and to our collective condition today.
Toussaint Liberator will lead an all-ages drumming circle event on Monday night filled with performances, audience participation, and dancing.
Brown University’s Costs of War Project found, “investments in infrastructure, healthcare, education, and emergency preparedness … have all suffered as military spending and industry have crowded them out.”
As a consequence, they warn that soaring military spending is undermining “meaningful human security rooted in good health, good living conditions, and a productive and well-educated society.” Military spending makes up a dominant share of discretionary spending in the United States; military personnel make up the majority of U.S. government manpower; and military industry is a leading force in the U.S. economy. This report finds that as a result, other elements and capacities of the U.S. government and civilian economy have been weakened, and military industries have gained political power. Decades of high levels of military spending have changed U.S. government and society — strengthening its ability to fight wars, while weakening its capacities to perform other core functions. Investments in infrastructure, healthcare, education, and emergency preparedness, for instance, have all suffered as military spending and industry have crowded them out. Increased resources channeled to the military further increase the political power of military industries, ensuring that the cycle of economic dependence continues — militarized sectors of the economy see perpetual increases in funding and manpower while other human needs go unmet. Costs of War Project
Patricia Stout Turner – May 12, 1948 ~ March 6, 2024 (age 75)
Patricia Stout Turner passed away on March 6th after a short but determined fight against pancreatic cancer. There will be a memorial service at 11am on March 8 at the North Stonington Congregational Church followed by interment at the Old Plains cemetery for family members. A memorial reception will follow in Hewitt Hall. Donations in memory of Patricia may be made to the North Stonington Congregational Church. For online condolences, please visit www.buckler-johnston.com. Continue Reading
France has become the first country in the world to put the right to abortion in its constitution.
Parliamentarians voted to revise the country’s 1958 constitution to enshrine women’s “guaranteed freedom” to abort. It becomes the 25th amendment to modern France’s founding document, and the first since 2008. Polls show around 85% of the public supported the reform. BBC News
New England Yearly Meeting – Newsletter March 2024
As Gaza Death Toll Mounts, the Peace Lobby Fights for Influence in Washington – Kate Kelly – New York Times, Feb 16, 2024
The Friends Committee, a Quaker lobbying group, has been pushing in Washington for a cease-fire, going up against more powerful and better-funded groups backing Israel.
Movie Review: A village in Bhutan learns about democracy and teaches us, too, in ‘Monk and the Gun’ – by Jocelyn NOVECK
Writing Opportunity: 400th Anniversary of George Fox’s Birth – Friends Journal
What does George Fox mean to you? What parts of his life or writings have inspired and buoyed your own spiritual path? But we don’t just want a figurehead: we also want to understand the context of Fox’s life—his flaws, his evolutions, the things that make him not a saint but a fellow traveler. Give us the nuance. How did a movement coalesce around him? What lessons does his life provide for those of us wanting to bring together today’s seekers? What pieces of his legacy have we been overlooking? Continue Reading
New England Yearly Meeting – Newsletter February 2024
Friends Journal – February 2024
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) approved a policy on abortion and other reproductive issues at its November 2023 annual meeting. The move came after a year of discernment by Quakers at FCNL and in monthly meetings across the country.
Quakers recognize that human life is sacred, and that Spirit can guide us individually and collectively. Based on these beliefs, members of the Religious Society of Friends have come to different conclusions regarding abortion. FCNL supports individual discernment in a spirit of love and truth in making reproductive healthcare decisions, as we do in other areas of conscientious moral choice. Government must ensure that people have the legal right to make these decisions. We oppose the criminalization of people seeking, undergoing, or involved in abortion services. We support equitable access to abortion services. FCNL also supports policies that reduce unwanted pregnancies by ensuring equitable access to contraception, sex education, family planning, fertility and adoption services, and support for all who decide to have children. Friends Journal
Memorial Minute: Jane Ortel – May 20, 1932 to October 13, 2023
When one imagines a life well-lived, it is likely that they imagine a life quite like the one lived by our dear Friend Jane Ortel. Her life was marked by intellectual curiosity, deep companionship, music, laughter, adventure, and lasting love. Continue Reading
Memorial Minute: Shelia Anne Lyons – May 22, 1931 to June 29, 2023
For many years, Sheila would attend our Meeting, and her life actions spoke to our testimonies. She was always seeking and questioning among Buddhists and Episcopalians, as well. She was a mother of six, widowed at age 48, who successfully raised them all to seek and question as well. Read More
Rustin – New Documentary By Netflix
Activist Bayard Rustin faces racism and homophobia as he helps change the course of Civil Rights history by orchestrating the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., dedicates his life to the quest for racial equality, human rights and worldwide democracy. However, as an openly gay Black man, he is all but erased from the civil rights movement he helped build. Movie Trailer
Quaker Contacts Newsletter
“This is a human crisis, and one thing is very clear: no one will win if this war continues to escalate… As an Israeli who also cares about Palestinian lives, [urging support for a ceasefire] is a meaningful, effective way you can take action to bring us closer to an end to this nightmare.” ~ Odeliya Matter, FCNL Program Assistant on Middle East Policy – FCNL – Quaker Contacts Newsletter
Friends Camp – Dear Friends Camp Community,
Happy fall! Registration opens in one month, and we are already excited thinking about another summer full of new friends, new skills, and new experiences. Registration will open at noon on Saturday, November 4th. Use the “Login/ Registration” button on the top right of the www.friendscamp.org home page.
Evelyn Kirby — Acting Camp Director; Anna Hopkins Buller — Camp Director (on maternity leave until February, 2024)
(207) 877-4302 – director@friendscamp.org
The Peace and Social Justice Committee
Dear Friends, At our last meeting of the Peace and Social Justice Committee, we agreed to forward this link for the video “I Am Not Yet Turned Indian” to the Meeting. This talk was presented by the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice on March 1, 2023. A few years after his official banishment from Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, Roger Williams wrote to John Winthrop, assuring the governor that he had “not yet turned Indian.” At first, it may appear that the statement constituted banter between friends and was written in jest. But Williams was making no joke because his “turning” Indian was not just a possibility; it was expected. This talk traces the interactions between the Narragansett and the English colonists who resided within their community and appraises how conflicting interpretations about the parameters of tenancy within the Narragansett Country informed the discord that created Rhode Island. At the present time, the committee has no plans to follow up on this presentation, but we hope to have a discussion based on it sometime in the late fall or winter.