God is our refuge and our strength,
an ever present help in distress.
Therefore, we fear not,
though the earth be shaken
and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea.
Psalm 46:1-2
To Friends everywhere:
Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers) gathered at James Madison University, Harrisonburg,
Virginia, 29 Seventh month to 3 Eighth month, 2003, for our 332nd
Annual Sessions. The
weight of the world’s violence lay heavy upon our spirits as we
were challenged by our theme, “Called to be Peacemakers.” During
the Yearly Meeting retreat, Fran and Ed Norton guided Friends
to reflect on the spiritual source of the peace testimony by posing
the query “What does it mean to ‘mind the Light’?”.
In small worship sharing groups, we spoke of remaining
faithful to the Light when darkness seems to prevail within our
Meetings or our world.
Our opening plenary speaker, Mary Lord, Director of the Peace Building
Unit of the American Friends Service Committee, strengthened us
in our calling by reminding us that the foundation of our peacemaking
is knowing that God is our refuge and strength. Therefore we are
not paralyzed by fear. In
stillness we hear the voice of God and find the place of refuge
from which we can act. Affirming
that lasting peace can come only through the transforming power
of God, Mary challenged us to discern what transformation we need
to make in our time.
Our yearning to live in “that Light and Power that takes away the
occasion of all wars” finds expression among us in how we treat
one another and how we bring up our youth. Peace and security
come from a culture of community, compassion, love, and faith.
Reports from directors of our four camps echoed this theme. In
response to a fire circle query, “What makes you happy?” one young
camper answered, “Knowing there’s a God to depend on.” During
these difficult times we take courage from the experience of our
youth that “doing hard things makes you feel really good about
yourself.” We endorsed
Young Friends’ decision to
embark on an electronic exchange with youth in Northern Ireland;
this project came about through the leading of a Young Adult Friend,
Leslie Keffer-King.
We felt the Yearly Meeting transformed by love as Michele Levasseur,
our departing Youth Secretary, expressed her gratitude to the
Yearly Meeting and our youth.
While more than forty Young Friends encircled us and held
us in the Light, we conducted our business.
Our Junior Young Friends (JYFs) program sponsors four weekend
conferences each year for our middle school age youth to address
their feelings of isolation in their schools, especially around
issues of war and peace. Junior Young Friends, while participating
in a peace vigil in Washington, D.C., were surprised to learn
that seasoned police could be frightened by the presence of a
large number of singing children. We were told of the powerful
worship sharing that happened right after the vigil.
We gave collective thanks to
Friend Pat Kutzner for her seven years of ministry, embraced
and supported by the Yearly Meeting, with our friends of the Torreon/Starlake
Chapter of the Navajo Nation. Three adults and three children
from Torreon joined us in our sessions, while seven children from
Torreon attended our camps this year.
Although our formal support of Pat’s ministry ends with
this yearly session, Pat intends to continue the work and we are
grateful for the friendships made, bonds established, and the
programs launched. The
new Torreon Working Group under the Indian Affairs Committee will
look for ways to continue the relationship that Pat has so effectively
started with the Chapter.
We experienced the power of laughter and play as all ages came together
in worship to sing and dance the Hokey-Pokey with new words that
expressed our Called to
be Peacemakers theme:
You
put the peacemakers in, you take the warmongers out
You put the peacemakers in, and you march and sing and shout
You
do the power shuffle, and you turn this world around
And
that’s what it’s all about.*
Our testimony of equality prompted the Working Group on Racism to
conduct a Listening Project that probed views and attitudes within
the Yearly Meeting on diversity among Friends. This was an effort
to understand our views as a preliminary step to becoming a more
open, welcoming, and diverse community.
We also approved the request of the newly renamed ad hoc
Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns to extend its
charge to include advocacy as well as education.
We continue to labor in love with Friends United Meeting
(FUM) regarding the impact of FUM’s policies and practices on
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons.
Our Friday night plenary session featured Lamar Matthew, presiding
clerk, and Frank Massey, General Secretary, describing their participation
in the February Friends United Meeting pastoral visit to Ramallah.
Members of Yearly Meeting heard the distress in our Friends’
voices as they recounted the violations of basic human rights
experienced daily by Palestinians and the continuing violence
experienced by both Israelis and Palestinians.
The rebuilding of the Ramallah Meeting house is a hopeful
sign that peace can come if hope remains.
We have to live in peace or we don’t live at all.
In the Carey Memorial Lecture, Paul Lacey, Professor emeritus of
English at Earlham College, centered on the connection between
making peace and telling truth.
Using Denise Levertov’s poem, “Making Peace,” as a springboard,
he reminded us “that peace is not something which is found
but something which is made….”
Peace grows from truthfulness, as “we find the right words
for the right deeds and put them together in right order” to “bind
ourselves to pledges we can keep.”
In Levertov’s poem, “a voice from the dark called out,
‘The poets must give us imagination of peace….’”
Paul called on us as Friends to dedicate ourselves “not
to slogans but to tasks” and to make “peace pulse out into the
world.”
We approved a minute supporting Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and its
member and employee Priscilla Adams for her refusal to pay military
taxes. For many years
we have similarly supported our General Secretary, Frank Massey,
in his family’s refusal to pay military taxes.
In the parable of the talents we hear of the servant who
was given a treasure and was afraid to use it.
The Peace Testimony is surely one of our treasures.
Our approval last fall of a minute reaffirming our historic
Peace Testimony led us in these sessions to approve the drafting
of a press release highlighting this reaffirmation.
The press release and minute are attached to this epistle.
We also attach a copy of our minute of encouragement and
support of Dominican Sisters Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert, and
Jackie Hudson for their courage and faith in committing acts of
civil disobedience and accepting prison sentences.
On Behalf of Baltimore Yearly Meeting
The
Epistle Committee
*“The
Power Shuffle” by Steve Schumacher, Ginny Frazier, and Paulette
Meier
