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.

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

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.

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“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.

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

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.

“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.

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.

Olympia Friends Meeting feels the deepest sadness and grief for the victims of the catastrophe of September 11, and all the victims across the globe, of war, ethnic cleansing, exploitation, terrorism, unjust imprisonment, torture, and all other horrific acts of violence. They and those that mourn them are in our daily thoughts, prayers and meditations.

In our lives and work we feel deeply connected with our country, and seek a similar connection with every nation of the world. The daily suffering experienced worldwide due to hunger, injustice and terror renews our commitment to a right sharing of the Earth’s resources and the nonviolent resolution of conflicts.

We have living experience of the transforming power of nonviolent response to violence. 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 this conflict.

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

For 350 years the Religious Society of Friends has refrained from taking part in war.

Do we search for and honor that of God in everyone?