Morningside Monthly Meeting Minute

Morningside Monthly Meeting
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Meeting for worship: First Days at 11:00 A.M.
Riverside Church, 10th Floor
90 Claremont Ave, NY, NY 10027

The Morningside Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) gathered on August 4, 2002 to create a Minute opposing the pending invasion of Iraq.

We know that vengeance, war and all forms of violence contradict the Quaker peace testimony. The horrific acts of September 11th made many feel anger, but we must not allow such feelings to direct us into acts of destruction and death.

Participating further in the continuing cycle of vengeance and revenge would be at great cost to our country in terms of our spiritual wellbeing, lives lost, and resources squandered. If the United States were to invade Iraq, the rest of the world would be less likely to work with us to remove the causes of terrorism.

While forgiveness and reconciliation are often difficult, they are imperative for peace to prevail.

In this Spirit, we call upon our government to redirect resources away from instruments of death and destruction toward peace-building work and toward humanitarian, educational and reconstruction assistance in Afghanistan, Iraq and other devastated or impoverished areas and to abandon the planned invasion of Iraq.