MINUTE REAFFIRMING QUAKER VALUES IN LIGHT OF CURRENT EVENTS
In light of current events in our country, Newtown Friends Meeting (Quakers) affirms basic truths that guide and support us in good times and in trying times. These truths we share with religious traditions around the world:
There is one human family without regard to nationality, ethnicity, religion, race, gender, immigration status, sexual orientation, or any other category. Truth, honesty, and love bind our human community together.
Connected with one another and the Holy Spirit, the source of all life, we value compassion, empathy and mutual respect above wealth and power. There is that of God in everyone. We humans are part of nature, not outside or above it.
For 350 years, Quakers have borne witness to these truths. Now, hindrances and barriers to truth are being systematized and legitimized.
We are called to respond by:
- bearing witness to truth in the face of dishonesty and false narratives,
- acting courageously and accepting risk in defense of justice and compassion,
- protecting the vulnerable and responding to threats to their safety,
- living harmoniously with the natural world that sustains us, facing head-on the challenge of a changing climate,
- connecting with others in a civic call to create and sustain a nation in which an inclusive community can flourish.
“We are not for names nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for this party nor against the other… but we are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom that these may be exalted in our nation… that these things may abound.” Quaker Minister, Edward Burrough, 1659.
