Quaker Updates

Sometimes advocating for preventing gun violence can seem challenging and, frankly, a bit lonely. So, the opportunity to spend time with more than 300 young and motivated people who came to Washington, D.C., to lobby for dedicated funding for Community Violence Interrupters was refreshing.

FCNL is a force for peace and justice. Our power comes from uplifting our prophetic mission and living into the world we seek. We must ask ourselves how Congress fits into our vision. Seeking an answer to that question, FCNL General Secretary Bridget Moix joined Sarah Freeman-Woolpert and me at the One America Movement Conference in Atlanta, GA, last month.

This week, a delegation of leaders from Saudi Arabia and Oman met with Houthi leaders in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. Their aim is to reinstate the truce in Yemen, which lapsed in October, and pave the way for broader talks to end the conflict entirely.

Amid calls for more weapons to win battlefield victories, we affirm the enduring power of building peace through peaceful means. We urge robust, persistent, and creative diplomacy and peacebuilding to bring about a just and durable solution to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

FCNL has hosted Quaker volunteers as Friends in Washington for more than five decades. Friends in Washington have strengthened FCNL’s expertise in priority areas, written resource materials, and cultivated relationships with lawmakers from their states.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Building a trauma-informed community that prioritizes the well-being of advocates is essential, even if that means examining and recalibrating business as it is usually done.

The only antidote to a failing government is the active engagement of its people. As the 118th Congress begins—no matter how it unfolds in the weeks and months ahead—I hope you’ll join us in reclaiming our democracy and continuing our work together to build the world we seek.

In recent months, the FCNL community has mobilized around the country for indigenous justice in solidarity with tribes advocating for the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444).  

In July, I joined the staff as FCNL’s associate general secretary for community and culture. In that position, I lead the new Community and Culture department made up of FCNL’s Quaker outreach, young adult, and human resources teams, as well as Friends Place on Capitol Hill.