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A quest for healing: Striving for a Win-Win between Muslims and Lowes

I have always admired Anya Cordell for her spirit, courage, and dedication to making our world a better place. When I received this link to her brilliant ideas as to how a new approach might be taken towards peace and understanding in the wake of Lowes Home Improvement pulling their advertising support from TLC’s “All American Muslims” – I just had to share. What do you think?

Read her post “Anya Cordell: How to Make This Situation a Win/Win for Muslims and Lowes”, read Comments shared, and learn more about this issue and how you might respond.

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FWCC Peace Pamphlets available online

Connecting friends, crossing cultures, changing lives

Through its programs Voices of Friends and The Wider Quaker Fellowship, Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) Section of the Americas works to express our common heritage and our Quaker message to the world. You’re invited to read the newest selection of contemporary Quaker writing on Voices of Friends:

   • An Ocean of Darkness, an Ocean of Light, y un Barquito Grande: Friends Ministry of Hope in a Troubled World. Bridget Moix’s message reflects on how peacemakers maintain a positive approach when facing a discouraging political scene.  Read the complete article.
   • The Transforming Power of the Psalms. Through her examination of the Psalms, author Elizabeth Meyer seeks to reassure us that although we may not be able to keep from feeling anger, we can turn that anger over to God, who understands it, and thus move toward loving our enemies. Read the complete article.

• Read the complete letter that introduces each of these articles from Judy Inskeep, Clerk of the Wider Quaker Fellowship.

Next April a  large ‘family reunion’ of Quakers from around the globe will meet in Kenya to consider questions that many in the Religious Society of Friends are asking: What is the Quaker response to global change? What are Friends called to do in a world that is broken? What is the relevant Quaker message for the 21st century?

FWCC invites you to join in learning what Quakers from Kenya, Russia, India, El Salvador, England,  Bolivia, Korea, the United States and more have to say about  these  issues.

Download the essays for personal use or purchase a hard copy of the Study Booklet for the Sixth World Conference of Friends. Learn more.

Voices of Friends aims to feed the souls of those who feel an affinity to the beliefs and  practices of Quakers and to provide an entry point to understanding Quakerism today in all its diversity.

The Wider Quaker Fellowship and Voices of Friends are programs of
Friends World Committee for Consultation Section of the Americas
1506 Race St.
Philadelphia, PA   19102
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FWCC Peace Pamphlets available online

Connecting friends, crossing cultures, changing lives

Through its programs Voices of Friends and The Wider Quaker Fellowship, Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) Section of the Americas works to express our common heritage and our Quaker message to the world. You’re invited to read the newest selection of contemporary Quaker writing on Voices of Friends:

   • An Ocean of Darkness, an Ocean of Light, y un Barquito Grande: Friends Ministry of Hope in a Troubled World. Bridget Moix’s message reflects on how peacemakers maintain a positive approach when facing a discouraging political scene.  Read the complete article.
   • The Transforming Power of the Psalms. Through her examination of the Psalms, author Elizabeth Meyer seeks to reassure us that although we may not be able to keep from feeling anger, we can turn that anger over to God, who understands it, and thus move toward loving our enemies. Read the complete article.

• Read the complete letter that introduces each of these articles from Judy Inskeep, Clerk of the Wider Quaker Fellowship.

Next April a  large ‘family reunion’ of Quakers from around the globe will meet in Kenya to consider questions that many in the Religious Society of Friends are asking: What is the Quaker response to global change? What are Friends called to do in a world that is broken? What is the relevant Quaker message for the 21st century?

FWCC invites you to join in learning what Quakers from Kenya, Russia, India, El Salvador, England,  Bolivia, Korea, the United States and more have to say about  these  issues.

Download the essays for personal use or purchase a hard copy of the Study Booklet for the Sixth World Conference of Friends. Learn more.

Voices of Friends aims to feed the souls of those who feel an affinity to the beliefs and  practices of Quakers and to provide an entry point to understanding Quakerism today in all its diversity.

The Wider Quaker Fellowship and Voices of Friends are programs of
Friends World Committee for Consultation Section of the Americas
1506 Race St.
Philadelphia, PA   19102
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Sharing the Stories of Quaker Youth “Walking the Walk”

I was recently contacted by Friend Greg Woods, wanting to know if I could help him to “tell some stories about young Quakers doing awesome things” as he prepares for an upcoming workshop with the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Middle School program.

Over the past decade I have attempted to help tell the stories of my generation, Quaker youth living their faith in inspiring contemporary ways. For a number of years, Friends Journal supported this leading by publishing a series of pieces that I’ll share again here in hopes that Greg can use them and that you, dear reader, might enjoy them too.

Walking the Walk: Greg Woods
Walking the Walk: Ian Fritz
Walking the Walk: Rainbow Pfaff

In my life now as a radio producer, I’ve attempted to bring those skills to benefit the telling of these stories as well. In 2005, ILYM hosted the annual “Quake that Rocked the Midwest” and invited me to come record the youth gathered there. Friends Journal published that effort as well. Presented as audio stories, you can learn more about contemporary young Friends and their ideas of Quakerism here.

But Greg’s request made me want to see what else might be available online today showcasing young Quakers doing awesome things. What have you found? Did reading the stories of Greg, Ian or Rainbow resonate with you or remind you of Quaker youth you know?  What does “walking the walk” mean to you? And is that harder to do when you’re young?

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Ending Solitary Starts With Your Signature!

TORTURE IS A MORAL ISSUE

Dear Friends,

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) has collected 3,000 nationwide endorsements of our Statement Against Prolonged Solitary Confinement.  Help reach 2,011 more by the end of 2011 by signing this statement today! 

Prolonged solitary confinement desecrates a person’s inherent dignity and denies the essential human need for spiritual community.  Inmates in solitary experience paranoia, delusions, and other long-term mental effects. Experts estimate that at least 36,000 people in the U.S. criminal justice system are currently held in solitary confinement, a condition in which they are confined alone in a windowless cell for 23 hours per day and exercise alone for the remaining hour.

Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, stated in his recent report on solitary confinement to the U.N. General Assembly that, “Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause… it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

NRCAT is working to end prolonged solitary confinement and you can help by signing the statement and then spreading the word.  If we reach 500 signatures in your state, we will send the statement and the signatures to your governor, state legislators and department of corrections officials.  You can learn more about NRCAT’s state campaigns to end solitary confinement and access other resources at http://www.nrcat.org/prisons.

Thank you for lifting your voice for the voiceless.

Linda Gustitus, President
Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director

Questions? Please email campaign@nrcat.org
National Religious Campaign Against Torture: www.tortureisamoralissue.org

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Occupy Movement – share your thoughts?

Author: Breeze Richardson

As I follow the news of “Occupy” Movements across the country I am curious to learn what Friends are hearing & thinking about, and being led to say and do.

Protesting economic inequality is honorable, and I wonder what personal actions the individuals gathered from Oakland, to Chicago, to Naperville, to Washington DC, to New York City are being led to think about in their own lives as contributors to that very economic inequality they are fighting against.

Or is their fundamental point – “we are the 99%” – bear witness to the mere fact that such a question is irrelevant: there is a super class of Americans, who are 1% of the population, who have a responsibility to contribute in a way that redistribution can take place.

And then my thoughts turn to the bigger question… is standing on the corner enough? What is the outcome of these people bearing witness to their beliefs? Are they asking individuals to change? Corporations? Asking the government to take a different attitude? Enforce their beliefs? And will the winter weather stand in their way or alert the nation to the conviction with which they are standing there?

Are there academics, intellectuals in the creative class, politicians, or others in positions of power, are those in the 1% working to figure out how they can help envision the way forward? Will their ideas have a brief moment in time where the nation will be looking? A better way could be proposed?

Last week Naomi Wolf was in Chicago to give a talk entitled: “Citizen Empowerment 101”  where she shared her personal experience getting arrested in New York while trying to intervene on behalf of protesters (who she believed “the details of the permit gave the protestors the right to be on the sidewalk as long as they did not obstruct foot traffic”) and was “subsequently arrested for resisting a lawful order after police told her to ‘leave,’ and she did not.”  She told her story during the talk, which has been edited for you to hear.

What has been your experience? What are your thoughts? What role should we be taking as Friends, as individuals?

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You agree to pay for the killing of one person. Just one.

The Committee on Conscientious Objection to Paying for War of New York Yearly Meeting is bringing this query before New York Yearly Meeting:

If I promised you a life of comfort, a good family, membership in a wonderful church, meaningful work, college education for your children and energetic defense of your human rights in exchange for one small thing:

You agree to pay for the killing of one person. Just one. Nobody you know.
And you won’t be the only one. Everybody is chipping in.
You don’t actually have to do it yourself, just make a small contribution.
Would you do it?

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Building a Sense of Community

Author: Dawn Rubbert

From the New York Times “”Humanitarian Design Project Aims to Build a Sense of Community” by Alice Rawsthorn, October 23, 2011.  Seems a good story of peace…

On her first day as a teacher at the Bertie Early College High School in Windsor, North Carolina, Emily Pilloton asked the students to name the last thing they had made themselves.

“It could have been something as simple as cookies for their moms, but some of the students couldn’t remember ever making anything,” she recalled. “They’d never held a hammer or taken an art class. Half of them didn’t even know how to read a ruler.”

There were 13 students in the class, all 11th graders. Some came from middle-class families, and others lived in poverty, including a 17-year-old who was struggling to raise a 4-year-old child. They had all signed up to spend three hours a day on Studio H, an experimental design course run from a converted car body shop near the school.

The course started in August last year and ended this month with the opening of the Windsor Super Market, a farmers’ market housed in a wooden pavilion that the students had designed and built themselves.

Click here to read the full article...

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The Pentagon is starting to get nervous

Author: Wilmer Rutt, Kevin Brubaker
Brad Ogilivie, Tom Simpson

Dear Friends,
As your ILYM General Committee members to FCNL, we urge you to prayerfully consider speaking Truth to Power. Please share with your Meeting if possible. And please hold us in the Light as we attend the National Lobby Day and the Annual Meeting starting Nov. 3 in Washington.

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The Pentagon is starting to get nervous.

Last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was on Capitol Hill telling Congress that the Pentagon can’t afford deep budget cuts by the congressional supercommittee. He found a receptive audience with the House Armed Services Committee, whose chair is also dismayed that curtailing federal spending would require cuts to the Pentagon. Military contractors have hundreds of paid lobbyists working against deficit reduction measures that would affect their financial interests.

What does all this mean? It means your lobbying is making a difference. Members of Congress are hearing from people like you that the Pentagon budget is too big, too bloated and too unaccountable to leave off the table when budgets need to be cut back. Some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters throughout the country are also vocal on these issues.

Next week, the Senate is out of session, and many senators will be back home for the break. This week, please make a plan to get in touch with your senators, or their offices, while they are home.

Protests covered in the media can help, but your lobbying as a constituent for cuts to Pentagon spending continues to be crucial. The congressional supercommittee will make its report to Congress by November 23, and then the full Congress will need to vote on this proposal by December 23. If the Pentagon budget is to be cut significantly, your members of Congress need to continue to see the support this issue has from you and others in your community.

Here are the steps we’d like you to take:

Print out a copy of the Sustainable Defense Task Force report.

Write a personal note that tells your senator why you want to give her or him a copy of this report.

Look up the location of your senator’s nearest office to you on our website. Put in your calendar a date and time you could drop by this office with the copy of the report.

When you visit the office, let the receptionist know that you are a constituent. Ask for a couple of minutes of time from a staff member who will carry your concern to the elected member and leave the report, along with your note.

Let us know how your visit went!

If you have the time, please consider trying to organize an appointment with your senator over the recess. We have advice and fact sheets on how to make your visit and what specific points you might use on our website or contact the FCNL office for more information.

Your emails and letters are important and can be influential, but surveys of congressional staff consistently show that the most effective way to influence your member of Congress is through an in person visit to his or her office.

Together we can convince Congress to cut $1 trillion from the Pentagon budget over the next ten years.

Sincerely,

Diane Randall
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation
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Travel to Burundi, Kenya & Rwanda with AGLI

Author: Dawn Rubbert


2012 African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) Workcamps:
BURUNDI, KENYA & RWANDA
Saturday, June 23 to Saturday, July 28

• AGLI accepts volunteers of all ages: workcampers have been as young as 8, as old as 84.
• Workcampers have included an entire family of five (the Amoses) and one with four from NY state; you can travel as an individual or with friends.
• The goal is for each team to include 6 international (non-African) and 6 local workcampers plus professional builders.
• Physical & Skill requirements: Good health and willingness to do manual labor.
• Construction skills and experience are not necessary.

1) Burundi Workcamp – Mutaho

Host Partner: REMA – A group of about 50 women (Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa) from Mutaho Friends Church led by Pastor Sara Gakobwa. The name means be comforted, do not get discouraged. Click here for more…
Location: Mutaho, Burundi – Northeast of Bujumbura near Gitega
(the second largest city in Burundi)
Objective:  The Workcamp Peace Team will build guest rooms for the Mutaho Women’s Group Center.
Housing: Workcampers will stay with local host families.

2)  Rwanda Workcamp – Gisenyi

Host Partner: Gisenyi Friends Church
Location: Gisenyi, Rwanda
(on the northern edge of Lake Kivu, just across the border from Goma, Congo)
Objective: Workcampers will complete work on the offices and bathroom.
Housing: Workcampers will stay in the Peace Center dormitory.

3)  Kenya Workcamp – Lugari

Host Partner: Lugari Yearly Meeting
Location: Lugari District is close to the Uganda border with Kenya with a perfect view of Mt Elgon. This is a 350 acre farm owned by Lugari Yearly Meeting and a former Farmers Training Center.
Objective: Workcampers will rehabilitate one or more buildings; cleaning, painting, minor repairs.
Housing: Workcampers will stay at the site which is much like camping. It is cold at night so there is usually a nightly campfire.

For More Info: contact Dawn Rubbert via dawn@aglifpt.org or go to www.aglifpt.org
Help spread the word!  Download AGLI 2012 Workcamps flyer here