Minute to Support Lawsuit filed in US District Court by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting, Adelphi Friends Monthly Meeting, and Richmond Friends Monthly Meeting against U.S. Homeland Security and Kristi Noem.
In response to our testimonies of Inclusion, Community and Equality we have for 21O years created a space where human beings all the children of God could come and worship. We recognize that some of us have achieved citizenship, some have green cards, some visas and some in limbo or lacking official documentation. We believe each of us carries the Light therefore every individual who attends presents an opportunity for God to speak through them. Having a diversity and richness of human experience yields a fuller understanding of how God speaks to us, individually and as a community.
‘For Friends, members and attenders in worship in which any and every person are welcomed to join is a core tenet of our religious practice. The opportunity to engage in such communal worship is a long held and vital part of our expression of faith. The lawsuit against Homeland Security seeks to protect that opportunity for communal worship by ensuring no person attending a Friends meeting will be removed by agents of the agency. In addition, the Friends long standing’ testimony on nonviolence is threatened by armed agents disrupting Meetings for Worship for the forcible removal of immigrants.
We support the lawsuit and its Prayer for Relief which would protect places of worship from government agents carrying out immigration-enforcement activities which we believe are unconstitutional.
We take this position of support not from a spirit of pride or conflict, but in a soul-searching hope for an American future of harmony, peace on earth and goodwill toward everyone.
Adopted the 2nd Month, 9th Day, 2025 by
Cincinnati Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
8075 Keller Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45243
Jim Newby
Minister and Public Friend
