Meeting Minute

At a called Meeting for Business, Greenwich Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends minuted support for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s recent corporate request to block the DHS federal policy that allows immigration enforcement officials to enter houses of worship.

Millville Meeting with this statement expresses its support for the separate lawsuits that our umbrella organizations, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and Friends General Conference, along with other Quaker, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, Jewish, and Sikh organizations have undertaken against the federal government’s new policy under this Trump Administration regarding ICE raids at houses of worship and other “sensitive places” that undocumented immigrants have used until now to meet essential religious and secular needs.

As Quakers, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting believes that there is that of God, the Light, Spirit, within every person. We receive the gifts of service and care from many of our members who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) and value all as beloved members of our community.

Medford Monthly Meeting has recently added an expanded social justice minute to our racial justice minute of 2021. During this process the Meeting made minimal changes to the original minute and decided to keep them as two separate minutes.

We of Wilmington Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) affirm a divine guidance to treat others with love and respect regardless of where they were born. Wilmington Yearly Meeting strongly opposes the U.S. government’s policy of mass deportations and ongoing harassment of undocumented immigrants in this country.

As Quakers, we believe in the sanctity of every human life. The latest escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine breaks our hearts and compels us to demonstrate our testimonies of peace, truth, justice and equality. We grieve for every life lost, and for every survivor suffering from the unspeakable violence in this troubled region.

The current presidential administration’s raids and deportation of immigrants harms families and communities and violates the values that we, as a country, profess.

Seeking and speaking truth motivates us to create the following statement of our deep concern with the current government’s stark disregard of Constitutional principles and laws, and the harm being done to the people of our country.

In response to the October 2023 attack by Hamas militants, the government of Israel launched what human rights organizations* have concluded meets the definition of genocide.** The Israeli military is rendering the Gaza Strip uninhabitable for Palestinians.

We cry out for the violence in Gaza to stop—for an end to the killing of Palestinians and for the Israeli hostages to be released.

The recent police raid on the Westminster Quaker Meeting House has strongly shaken the U.K. and the wider Quaker community.

The deportation of human beings from our country risks being crowded off the front pages by other events. But it is an urgent and critical issue that is being enforced in ways that violate our democratic values.

Quakers from Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas met in annual sessions April 13-20, 2025 and approved a Minute which enumerates ways in which Trump administration policies are in conflict with Friends’ testimonies.

Members and attenders of the Santa Fe Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) mourn all loss of lives, homes, and communities that are the result of violence in the Middle East, regardless of the nationality or politics of these victims.

As Quakers we believe in the sacred worth of each person and stand against violence in all its forms. We are deeply concerned about the suffering, death, and destruction that this conflict is causing. We call on our leaders to recognize that we are complicit in the devastation of Gaza.

We believe with moral clarity, and in line with the definition of the crime of genocide, that the current actions in Gaza perpetrated by the Israeli government constitute genocide.

Because of our testimonies of integrity and equality and our commitment to peaceful resolution to conflicts, Quakers from Austin Texas call on our US government to end American complicity in genocide as defined by the international Genocide Convention.

As Quakers we value Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, Justice, and Stewardship. We are called to search for the Truth and to recognize “that of God,” a divine Light, that is inherent in every person. We believe the policies of the current governments are in stark conflict with the values and holy guidance we believe we are called to follow.

The Northern Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers of the Upper Midwest of North America, wish to voice our opposition to the deliberate starvation and destruction of civilians’ lives and properties in Gaza by the government of Israel.

Because of our testimonies of integrity and equality and our commitment to peaceful resolution to conflicts, Quakers from Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas call on our US government to end American complicity in genocide as defined by the international Genocide Convention.