PYM meetings can support the lawsuit in a variety of ways. This suit is a single step in a march toward seeking justice in the current state in our country.
While the need for the lawsuit—and for many other suits—may be daunting and depressing, the opportunity it brings for practicing our faith is energizing. There are five sections below, each offering a starting point for meetings to think about their next steps.
The primary motion to keep in the forefront, regardless of the focus or activity, is being obedient to the Spirit, faithful in strengthening our community, and effective in supporting our neighbors.
Stay Centered in the Spirit
- Use our traditional practices to stay oriented toward living from the heart of God so that we go ever deeper into holy relationship at this time.
- Consider holding a meeting for worship with attention to everything related to this suit and the current world.
- Focus on relationships, community, and possibility. Let our actions and to-do lists flow from that.
- Remember! For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
Take action on the needs of people whose lives are impacted by the ongoing actions of our government.
- Connect with individuals and organizations serving immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, our planet, and others. Listen to what they say they need.
- Make your local and state governments responsive to needs created by our federal government.
- Work with AFSC, FCNL, and other organizations that have infrastructure in place to take action.
- Make yourself heard publicly so impacted people know they aren’t alone.
Consider how taking action can simultaneously strengthen other ministry:
- Committees
- Consider the support, resources, or direction that each committee or PYM governance group is already engaged in.
- How can those strengths and activities also address the new needs in our civic society?
- Consider what the monthly, quarterly, and yearly meetings may need from a long-range perspective. Where do we want to end up, and what needs to be put in place to get there?
- Strategic Directions
PYM Friends approved a set of five strategic directions for our community through a thorough discernment process. We can be faithful to that call in our response to the needs of our community.
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- Connect: Rely on connections among Friends and meetings. Create opportunities to connect people and meetings.
- Belong: Develop possibilities for deepening our practice of belonging as we welcome people to meeting and advocate for freedom of religion.
- Yearly Meeting-Wide Ministry: Identify ways that addressing racism and climate change are relevant.
- Communicate: Use this moment to tell the story of who Quakers and PYM are.
- Function: Note opportunities in the work related to the lawsuit to simplify and/or improve how you already function in your meeting and community.
Share information and resources with Friends and Meetings
- As Friends and Meetings take steps, they can share stories of their work and invite others to participate.
- Meetings’ stories can be shared on the PYM news feed.
- Events can be posted to the PYM calendar.
Knowing the path of others can be inspiring and motivating. Stories of missteps are also important because they allow others to avoid the same mistakes—or others might have ideas for redirection.
- Suggest effective resources for inclusion on the PYM website. Resources you need might be available at pym.org/resources.
- Attend events of other Meetings and PYM to learn, settle deeper into the Spirit, and take action with others.
- Accompaniment
- Find out what other meetings are doing and support them.
- Share with other meetings what you are doing so they can support you.
- Engage with other faith communities in your neighborhood.
Help current Quakers be seen and welcome seekers to Quakerism.
- Welcome and Outreach
- Provide support and encouragement to meetings to be welcoming of newcomers. Discover and provide the resources they need.
- Consider if there is a public-facing communication or resource needed.
- Check out resources shared in a PYM news story and on PYM and FGC’s websites.
- Local Media
- Make sure you know about the PYM lawsuit and share the information with local media.
- Publish your activity on your website, social media, and newsletters.
- Consider how you can share information about what you are doing with your neighborhood and community. This allows them to see who you are and can be an opportunity to welcome them in.
