webspinner

Minute of Support for Lawsuit: PYM et.al. vs Department of Homeland Security (Approved February 9, 2025)

by

The Olympia Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) stands in support of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, and the individual monthly meetings in their 2025 lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security. As Quakers, we affirm that freedom to exercise religion is a crucial right of all people that is enshrined in the United States Constitution.

For decades, United States policy has prevented immigration enforcement, including arrests, investigations, and surveillance at sensitive places including houses of worship. The Trump-Vance administration’s new policy allows the government to conduct immigration enforcement in these areas. Fear of government enforcement may deter worshippers from attending services, infringing on their right to associate for religious exercise.

Quakers believe that a diversity of voices is essential to our spiritual experience and have a historic commitment to peace. When the government takes actions that reduce access to worship and potentially allows a violent encounter within a place of worship, it interferes with our ability to participate in our faith.

Minute Endorsing AFSC’s A different future is possible: Quaker organizations share a vision for peace in Palestine and Israel (Approved June 9, 2024)

by

Olympia Friends Meeting has endorsed AFSC’s A different future is possible: Quaker organizations share a vision for peace in Palestine and Israel. (Also here in PDF format.)

We ask that our Members, Attenders and F/friends read it, consider it, and take the actions in it to support peace.

Our Minutes and Statements

by

Quaker meetings have the tradition of adopting Minutes about areas of concern. These are statements of convictions that express the “sense of the meeting” on which the Meeting reached unity during a meeting for business. At times they also issue statements to the press or to run as a newspaper ad.

Below are links to some Minutes and Statements from Olympia Friends Meeting:

Minute of Inclusion – Welcoming Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People (Approved May 13, 2018)

by
We welcome all to share in worship and the activities of our common life. As part of our evolving struggle to live our testimony of equality, Olympia Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends minutes our commitment to being an open and affirming, safe and nurturing place for everyone to live fully that which the Spirit is leading them to be.

Olympia Monthly Meeting seeks to honor the gender identity and expression of each person, as understood by that person. We extend our loving care to people of all genders, including, but not limited to those who identify as: transgender, genderqueer, gender-fluid, agender, gender non-conforming, two-spirit, women, men, intersex persons, and their families and friends.

While we are at many different places in our understanding and comfort, we recognize that when we embrace the Light within the full spectrum of gender identities of our Meeting, our worship deepens and our community is enriched.

We will continue to educate ourselves, each other, and our communities and take appropriate action to bring about a more equal world.

—

Minute of Inclusion – Welcoming Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People (Approved May 13, 2018) (PDF format)

Regarding Uganda’s Passage of A Law Targeting Its LGBTQ Population (Minute approved on April 13, 2014)

by
Olympia Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends has noted with deep concern the Ugandan Government’s passage of a law targeting the LGBTQ population. This law has created a climate where the life, health, and freedom of all LGBTQ Ugandans and those who help them are at immediate risk. We are appalled at hearing about those who have already been kicked out of their homes, denied basic rights, abandoned, beaten, imprisoned, or killed, or who live in constant fear.

Olympia Monthly Meeting has been called to create a “New Underground Railroad” project – “Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund” to aid LGBTQ Ugandans who are fleeing their homeland for their lives and safety. We have been given an opportunity to provide direct assistance that will save lives. In the first few weeks of this effort we have helped 17 LGBTQ Ugandans get to safety and freedom. Many others remain at risk, and are trying to escape.

We call on all Friends, both individually and in their Meetings, Friends’ organizations, and all people of good will, to help us in this effort. For more information, contact Gabi Clayton, Co-Clerk, Peace and Social Justice Committee, Olympia Monthly Meeting.

###

You can make a donation to the Friends Ugandan Safe Transport project through PayPal:

PayPal-Donate2FriendsNewUndergroundRailroad

Or send a check to:

Olympia Friends Meeting
3201 Boston Harbor Rd. NE
Olympia, WA 98506-2800

Make checks out to “Olympia Friends Meeting” and put  “Uganda” in the memo line. Please let us know through the form below that you have sent a check so we can use that information to plan.

Thanks!

Note:  Contributions to Friends Ugandan Safe Passage Fund through Olympia Friends Meeting are tax-deductible. This Minute has led to a project:  “Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund” and we have  a separate website for it  here: http://friendsugandansafetransport.org/ where there is a lot more information.

 

 

If you have questions, use the form below or call Gabi Clayton, Co-Clerk, Peace and Social Justice Committee, Olympia Monthly Meeting: 360 888-5291.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]

Expressing Support for the pursuit of Peace and Solidarity with the American Muslim Community (Minute approved on November 11, 2012)

by

“There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath had different names. It is, however, pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what nation soever, they become brethren.” – John Woolman (1746)

As Quakers, and as Americans, we are saddened by the spate of violence and hostility being directed toward our brothers and sisters in the American Muslim community. During the past several months, they have experienced the burning of a mosque, attacks on religious schools, attacks on graves, violence and hostility directed at both children and adults, libelous and untrue charges, and intensifying abuse and discrimination.

Our testimonies of peace lead us to pursue measures to end the pain and suffering experienced by our friends and neighbors who have done us no harm. We believe that attacks on American Muslims are attacks upon all of us.

We call upon all Friends, all members of meetings, churches, synagogues, community organizations, and people of goodwill everywhere to stand alongside our Muslim brothers and sisters to pursue peace, answering that of God in all of us. We call upon our community to replace “tolerance” with understanding and respect, and sustained collaboration on issues of mutual concern.

We commit ourselves to renewed efforts to engage and embrace the difficult work of reconciliation, to help heal the wounds inflicted by ongoing trauma, and to stand in support of the Muslim community against this violence.

On the Illegal Use of U.S. Weapons by Israel (Minute approved in August 2006)

by
From its earliest inception, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has placed rejection of war as basic to our understanding of God’s will. We believe that human beings are capable of solving conflicts through reason, an empathetic understanding of the other’s point of view, and the courage to take principled, nonviolent action in the face of injustice.
 
In this spirit, the Olympia Friends Meeting urges all parties in the current conflict to declare a ceasefire and work toward a negotiated settlement of their grievances. As Quakers who are also U.S. citizens, we strongly object to the fact that tax-payer funded U. S. military equipment is being used illegally in this conflict. We are very concerned that Israel is using weapons supplied by the United States to target Palestinian & Lebanese civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in violation of the US Arms Export Control Act and the Geneva Conventions.
 
The Israeli air force fighter squadrons are composed of Lockheed Martin F-16I Fighting Falcons and Boeing F-15Is, which fire US-manufactured AMRAAM, Sidewinder, and Sparrow missiles. From 2000-2005, the United States licensed to Israel at least $1.062 billion of spare parts, engines, and missiles for its F-15 and F-16 fighter planes.
 
From 2000-2005, the United States licensed to the Israeli navy more than $572 million worth of patrol boat, ship, and submarine components and spare parts, torpedoes, and sonar equipment. From 2000-2005, the United States licensed to Israel more than $348 million worth of tanks, components, and spare parts. (Statistics for US weapons licensed to Israel are compiled from the State Department’s annual report to Congress pursuant to Sec. 655 of the Foreign Assistance Act)
 
By using US-supplied weapons to attack Gaza and Lebanon, Israel is violating the terms of the US Arms Export Control Act and Foreign Assistance Act. The Arms Export Control Act restricts the use of US weapons to legitimate self-defense and internal policing; US weapons cannot be used to attack civilians in offensive operations nor can they be used to destroy civilian infrastructure such as power plants.  The Foreign Assistance Act prohibits US aid of any kind to a country that routinely kills civilians as a result of its military operations.
 
The Olympia Friends Meeting urges the President and Congress to act immediately to halt Israel’s military attacks in the Middle East that are being conducted with U.S.-supplied weapons in violation of our laws. We urge the President and Congress to stop all foreign assistance and military equipment exports to Israel until it ceases military attacks outside of its internationally recognized borders.
 

This minute was adapted from the minute developed by the Atlanta Friends Meeting and approved by them on July 16, 2006

On Our Concern for the Christian Peacemaker Team Hostages in Iraq (Minute approved in February 2006)

by
Olympia Friends Meeting supports the continuing work and courage of the Christian Peacemaker Teams. We hold all involved in prayer, the peacemakers, Jim Loney, Harmeet Sooden, Tom Fox and Norm Kember, their captors, and the many people who cannot escape violence. We hope for a safe and peaceful resolution of this situation, and urge the United States government to resist the temptation to use violence.

In Support of Military Personnel Seeking Clearness About War Participation (Minute approved in February 2006)

by

“We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretense whatsoever. And this is our testimony to the whole world. ” — The “Peace Testimony”, George Fox’s Declaration to Charles II, 1660

For some 350 years, Friends have held the right of conscience – the following of the leadings of the Spirit, “the Light Within” – to be paramount. Central to our faith and practice, we are called upon to abjure all war, and to seek out the causes and seeds of war among us.

Today, the leadings of the Spirit are still working among some who, through whatever circumstance, find themselves called upon to kill, or otherwise participate in organized military efforts that result in the death of others. When faced with the possibilities of losing their homes, their freedom, and their personal security, and placing their families at risk, those who feel led to obey the dictates of conscience may seek those sharing similar leadings for clearness and assistance.

Friends have a unique history in assisting those who have made the difficult decision not to kill, even placing ourselves at risk in order to do so. Olympia Monthly Meeting asks that all Friends consider this calling in the light of our history and our continuing experience of the Spirit, and act as they feel called. Specifically:

  • We invite [Quaker] Monthly Meetings within North Pacific Yearly Meeting to join us as we consider adopting minutes affirming our historic commitment to assist those who, for reasons of conscience, can not participate in killing.
  • We invite North Pacific Yearly Meeting and other Yearly Meetings to consider affirming this commitment.
  • We invite individual [Quaker] Meetings and their members to consider and season how best to assist those who leave or consider leaving military service for reasons of conscience.
  • We invite [Quaker] Meetings in Canada and elsewhere outside the United States to consider how they can assist those who leave or consider leaving military service in the United States for reasons of conscience.
  • We ask Monthly and Yearly [Quaker] Meetings in the United States to work with and support Canadian and other Meetings outside the United States in this effort.
  • We invite both Monthly and Yearly [Quaker] Meetings to consider witnessing to our adherence to our historic calling publicly in any and all ways which seem appropriate.

Statement Regarding Invasion of Iraq (newspaper ad, October 2002)

by
The Olympia Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) opposes the current bombing and planned invasion of Iraq by the United States of America. We urge our government to work with the international community to seek diplomatic solutions to conflicts with Iraq. We join people of conscience, other faiths and churches who oppose this dangerous and misguided thrust toward violence. A U.S. attack on Iraq will destroy thousands of lives.

We must use America’s power to break from the past, reject violence and build international institutions of law and order, economic and political justice and environmental protection. Positive U.S. leadership would catalyze people of good will all over the world to effective action. The lives of our children and grandchildren can be liberated from the terror and hatred our own generation is enduring.

We oppose war, believing it is the ultimate rejection of God’s creation. We believe that the sources of violence can be exposed and transformed through creative, courageous and unexpected acts that restore justice, heal human relationships and untangle the deep roots of conflict.

We seek peace and justice through such nonviolent means as God would have for us all.