On January 20th the president signed an executive order rescinding a 30+ year old policy of protecting “sensitive places” and allowing agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter places of worship to detain immigrants. As a result, people of various faiths may avoid attending their houses of worship out of fear of government enforcement. This harms immigrants who feel compelled to stay home and also damages houses of worship and their members, who lose the ability to gather in worship as a community. PYM’s general secretary, Christie Duncan-Tessmer, was invited in mid-January to an informational meeting about a lawsuit that was forming to challenge the decision.
Between Friday January 17th and Wednesday morning, the 21st Christie attended several meetings with attorneys and consulted with the general secretaries of other yearly meetings about a couple options that were emerging. The Clerks Group (PYM officers and council clerks) was informed and engaged through that period.
By midday on the 21st it was clear to the Clerks Group that a lawsuit to prevent ICE from raiding places of worship was in alignment with the testimonies of Friends and the direction the yearly meeting was heading. The council clerks called a meeting of the Joint Council for that evening where its members were briefed by the clerks, the general secretary and an attorney.
PYM has three councils that currently meet jointly (Joint Council). They are charged with caring for our community and making decisions on its behalf between the Sessions when all Friends come together for business. The councils are:
- Administrative Council which ensures a strong foundation to provide a healthy structure that is grounded the Spirit,
- Quaker Life Council which nurtures the space for our faith community to thrive,
- Nominating Council which names the Friends who have gifts to share.
A primary purpose of this governance structure is the ability to respond quickly on behalf of the yearly meeting when needed.
The decision to participate, or not, was unusual in that a response was needed immediately and that there was a legal requirement for keeping the information privileged and confidential. The Joint Council was in the position to support our yearly meeting by making this decision.
In the council’s discernment they recognized that the foundation of this case was directly in alignment with:
- our testimonies on peace and on equality,
- our commitment since Pennsylvania was founded on Quaker principles to provide people of faith the right to freely worship, and
- the movement of the spirit in our community in the last several years of discussing the importance of PYM taking a public stand on federal governance issues when appropriate.
Friends’ commitment to making decisions is to use a process of spiritual discernment and to seek unity in understanding God’s call to us. This can require that we move slowly as we gather a sense of direction from many experiences and it can be revealed in a moment. In this case the council experienced a deep sense of spirit moving and unity was found rapidly – Lightning fast!
The Joint Council approved joining the lawsuit with Democracy Forward.
The case was filed on Monday January 27th with PYM, New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM), Baltimore Yearly Meeting (BYM) and two monthly meetings in BYM as plaintiffs. On the evening of Sunday the 26th a zoom meeting of clerks of PYM monthly and quarterly meetings was held to inform them of the decision in advance. On Monday afternoon, when it became public information, PYM’s presiding clerk, Nikki Mosgrove sent an email to all PYM Friends informing them of the lawsuit and inviting them to an informational meeting on the following evening which was attended by over 300 Friends.
