At our October Meeting for Business Putney Friends Meeting agreed to the following:
PFM will host a called Meeting on a date to be determined by the
Clerk and Social Justice and Peace committee before the next Meeting
for business of 11/15/15 to consider how the Meeting can support in
unity the planting of a “Black Lives Matter” sign in front of the
Meeting house and how PFM wants to proceed in addressing the issue
of racism in our culture
Here are queries from the NEYM Committee on Racial, Social & Economic Justice:
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How has the issue of white privilege touched your life?
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What are the spiritual consequences and brokenness related to living in a world that hasn’t achieved perfection in these justice concerns?
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What does that still small voice say to inform us of our responsibilities in this regard?
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How does your Meeting bear witness to this work?
This is now scheduled for Dec. 3 (a Thursday) at 6:30.
In preparation Friends are asked to consider the NEYM Query:
Minute on Racism
New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends affirms its commitment to
becoming an open, affirming, anti-racist Religious Society. Our understanding of racism is that
it is a system that accords advantage or disadvantage based on racial identity. Racism is
fundamentally inconsistent with the divine guidance that has led our Religious Society to
testimonies such as Equality, Peace and Community. We seek divine assistance and the help of
other friends of Truth to examine our individual and corporate complicity in racism. We aspire
to a more perfect union with the Author of all, who shows no partiality in the diversity of
creation.
Those of us who have grown up with a white identity in America have a particular challenge in
that we have been conditioned not to notice the system of racism and white privilege. Our well intentioned
attempts at color-blindness can have the unfortunate result of blinding us to the
system of racism in which we unwittingly participate. Let us remember Jesus’ admonition to
remove the log from our own eye before seeking to remove a speck from our brother’s or sister’s
eye. We all pray for clarity of vision so that in the words of George Fox, we may “be patterns,
be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage
and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk
cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a
blessing, and make the witness of God in them bless you.”
Approved at New England Yearly Meeting Sessions 2003
Also:
Visit the Black Lives Matter Site:
Here is an Article entitled: Please stop telling me that all lives matter
Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-craven/please-stop-telling-me-th_b_6223072.html
Putney Friends Meeting 