Meeting Minute

To our representatives, Through your action or inaction, you have permitted the intrusion of federal officers into our houses of worship to abduct our friends and neighbors. We cannot accept this transgression of the sacred; both the sacred stillness of our worship, and the divine human rights of our persecuted friends.

You have been pleased to send unto us a certain prohibition or command that we should not receive or entertain any of those people called Quakers because they are supposed to be, by some, seducers of the people. For our part we cannot condemn them in this case, neither can we stretch out our hands against them, for out of Christ God is a consuming fire, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

We write to you as a group of U.S. Quakers who formed the Quakers and ‘Indian Boarding Schools’ Research Network (QIBS) in late 2022. Our collective purpose is to thoroughly research 19th-century Quaker involvement in assimilationist boarding schools, and to make our findings accessible to Native American families and tribes and to the Religious Society of Friends.

As human beings we are all children of God and recognize that among us are many dear friends, family, neighbors, coworkers and others who are immigrants in this country or otherwise marginalized.

Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends is alarmed by the recent and growing actions of the U.S. government to infringe on freedom of speech and assembly, and intimidate institutions such as universities, media and law firms that encourage independent thinking and expression.

Hanover Friends Meeting urges the U.S. and all parties to work quickly for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

We are moved to speak plainly at this time, as we witness policies and rhetoric from the Trump administration that contradict our most deeply held religious beliefs.

We condemn the US government’s ongoing aid to assist the Israeli government’s military actions in Gaza and its failure to ensure the delivery of aid sufficient to meet the humanitarian needs of the inhabitants of Gaza.

Swarthmore Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends fully supports Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) for the courage and conviction shown in joining New England Yearly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Adelphi and Richmond Monthly Meetings as plaintiffs in their lawsuit to block the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from its abrupt shift in policy that enables federal immigration enforcement officials to enter houses of worship for their immigration enforcement actions.

To answer the call of the inherent worth and dignity of all people, members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) stand firmly in support of the safety, rights, and religious freedoms of everyone, including immigrant communities.

The Goose Creek Religious Society of Friends Meeting is concerned for the physical safety and humanitarian needs of undocumented immigrants and refugees in this country, especially in light of changing political priorities.

Members and attenders of the Burlington Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) deeply mourn the loss of all lives, livelihoods, homes, hospitals, schools, cultural histories and we hold out hope for self-determination and healing for the people who are victims of the escalating violence and war in the Middle East. As Quakers, we believe that all life is sacred, and that there is that of the divine in each person.

As faith communities inspired by a common sense of divine standards in goodness and compassion, we join in publicly stating our intent to peacefully yet determinedly defend the defenseless and vulnerable in their need.

As faith communities inspired by a common sense of divine standards in goodness and compassion, we join in publicly stating our intent to peacefully yet determinedly defend the defenseless and vulnerable in their need.

Minneapolis Friends Meeting asks for peace in Israel and Palestine. Our Quaker gathering has pursued peace and alternatives to wars since our beginning in the 1850s. We believe in the sacred worth of each being.

Red Cedar Friends (Quakers) in Lansing, Michigan, oppose the immigration policy allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to enter houses of worship in search of undocumented folks for potential deportation.

New England Quakers have become aware of the hardships to the Cuban people of the Embargo of the United States on the Cuban economy. Cuban Quakers are sensitive to the impacts on all Cubans, Quaker and non-Quaker. Cuban Quakers attempt to soften the effects on the people in their local communities.

As members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) we stand firmly in support of the safety, rights, and religious freedoms of everyone, including the immigrant communities we know, belong to, and love. We must respond to the particular insult of allowing enforcement officials to enter critical, sacred, and public places of refuge.

As Quakers, members of Boulder Friends Meeting believe in the spark of the divine and inherent worth of every person, no matter where they were born. We believe everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. The current presidential administration’s raids and deportation of immigrants harms families and communities and violates the values that we, as a country, profess.

Friends of Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting ask the US to prohibit the transfer of more weapons and military assistance to Israel and use its leverage in restricting the use of the already supplies weapons.