NEYM Minute 2017-42 Response

As discussed in CMM Minute 2018.7.4 [1], Friends were asked to respond to the following queries and NEYM Minute 2017-42 [2].

2017-42 : Friends gathered at New England Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions at Castleton, Vermont, August 6-10, 2017, approve the following:  As members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), we believe that the human family is one family; that there is that of God in every member of this family; and that generosity of spirit toward all the members of the human family is of overriding importance.

As Quakers, we reaffirm our unconditional support for the wellbeing and protections of all threatened individuals in our community, including, especially at this troubled time, Muslims and undocumented immigrants.  We urge our government to reaffirm our country’s founding values, especially freedom of religion; to affirm our welcome to peaceful refugees and immigrants; to reject bigotry and xenophobia; and to adopt laws and policies that respect the humanity and dignity of all people.

We call on our fellow community members to join us in defending human rights for all, working toward nonviolent religious and civic sanctuary that protects all who are vulnerable, and striving together for compassion, dignity, and safety for everyone.

Queries:

Has your Meeting, or some of its membership, felt led to engage with immigrant neighbors, or with questions of immigration?  Did such a leading reach you as a whole meeting?  As a committee or interest group?  As individuals?  What have you been led to undertake?

Many members and attenders have been present at and taken leadership roles in the twice-monthly prayer vigils and Jericho walks in solidarity with immigrants around the Norris Cotton Federal Building in Manchester, NH.  When immigrants have gone into the building, we pray with them and offer spiritual comfort.  We have been active in supporting the “Keep Families Together” rallies and in the planning and support for the 42-mile “Solidarity Walk for Immigrant Justice [3]” from Manchester to Strafford County Jail in Dover from August 22–25, 2018.  These events are regularly discussed in announcements after the rise of meeting and have inspired messages and reflection during and after Meetings for Worship.

In 2010 (before the Meetinghouse was finished), a few of us began worshipping at Friday prayers of the local Muslim community.  Soon after building our Meetinghouse in 2010, we invited the local Muslim community to see if our Meetinghouse would be a suitable place for them to worship.  Although they felt it was not an adequate space for them, they invited us to worship with them in their temporary space in East Concord.  [CMM Minute 2010.9.7 [4], CMM Minute 2010.12.6 [5], CMM Minute 2011.2.4 [6]]

In Ninth Month 2015, we discussed how to support New American Africans [7], a local organization to support immigrants from African nations.  [CMM Minute 2015.9.6 [8]]

After months of working with the Granite State Organizing Project (GSOP) [9] and the American Friends Service Committee’s New Hampshire Program (AFSC-NH) [10], our Meeting agreed to join the New Hampshire Immigrant Solidarity Network as a ‘Level 2 sanctuary support’ faith community.  [CMM Minute 2017.1.4 [11], CMM Minute 2017.9.8 [12]]  We also offered a $1,000 interest-free loan to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, a ‘Level 1 sanctuary’ faith community, to help them install bathing facilities for those in sanctuary.  [CMM Minute 2018.2.7 [13]]  We have endorsed the Minute of Hanover Friends Meeting of 12/15/2016 in support of refugees and immigrants.  [CMM Minute 2017.3.5 [14]]

What spiritual preparation have you undertaken to begin and sustain your work?  Do you have inspirations or guides that you would like to share with others?  What challenges have you met?  What spiritual fruits have you found?

We have found it helpful to announce the events and support activities we are undertaking as part of our announcement process, so that they are visible to the Meeting community beyond those who regularly attend.

At least one member indicated that it is difficult to see the impacts of these support activities, and that this presents a challenge and obstacle to participating.  Some of us spoke of drawing spiritual nourishment from the activities, others of the tangible political effect we are having on behalf of those we are supporting.  Members have shared the biblical injunction to welcome the stranger [15] and other scriptural guides that have inspired their actions.

How do you see the way forward?

We intend to go on as we have been - welcoming those who are vulnerable and responding to the challenges and opportunities that present themselves as we are led, within the context of the interfaith community in Concord [16], corporately as a Meeting, and through the works of many of our members and attenders.