Worship and Action Update

Sepbember 18, 2002

Dear Friends in New York Yearly Meeting:

Some have shared their experiences of September 11th. The overnight vigil at Washington Square Park in New York City was attended by over 1,000 concerned persons of many faiths. One Friend reports: "The generous way people were sharing candles, food, etc., made me feel we were beginning to create Peaceful Tomorrows today." In the morning of the 11th, Friends from Philipstown Worship Group participated in an ecumenical service at Graymoor, a Franciscan Friars center in Garrison, New York, and that evening fifteen Friends gathered at Scarsdale Meeting for an hour and a half of sharing worship.

This past week has felt particularly frantic but concluded with reason to hope for peaceful international action to address crisis with Iraq. We are hearing of many opportunities for our voices to be heard in support of nonviolence:

  • Friends at Rockland Meeting suggest taking a few minutes during an evening to call congressional leaders or your congresspersons (or both) and leave a short message urging them to vote against preemptive invasion of Iraq and to allow the United Nations effort to resume inspections an opportunity to work. Congressional phone numbers can be found at www.fcnl.org or at www.commoncause.org or at www.lwv.org. Information on talking points is available from FCNL or the National Network to End the War against Iraq at www.endthewar.org.
  • Beginning September 12th, Voices of the Wilderness has joined with Pax Christi New York and others to conduct a Mirror of Truth Bus Tour. The "caravan campaigning for nonviolence and peacemaking" will be staging events around southern New York and New Jersey during the remainder of September and then will move south, ending at the gates of the School of the Americas during SOAWatch's annual vigil and protest in Ft. Benning, GA, in November. NY/NJ Itinerary includes NYU (9/20), Riverside Church (9/22), Malloy College, Rockville Center, NY (9/26), Picatinny Arsenal, NJ (9/27), United Methodist Church, Ridgewood, NJ (9/29), Monmouth University, NJ (9/30).
  • Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) is leading an emergency lobbying day in Washington, D.C., on September 30. Information and registration online at www.epic-usa.org/lobbydays/.
  • A Not In Our Name rally is planned for October 6 from 1-5 P.M. in the East Meadow of NYC's Central Park (enter at Fifth Avenue and 96th Street).
  • Growing out of a forum on it offered, Ithaca Meeting has organized an interfaith group to publish an ad for peace in the Ithaca daily newspaper.
  • Rockland Meeting is organizing a workshop/discussion on how to deal with political hostility in the workplace, heckling at vigils, or general criticism of pacificism, to be held at its meetinghouse on a Saturday in October to be determined.
  • Summit Meeting is offering a training program for counselors on conscience and war on October 26th, featuring Bill Galvin. People are requested to register by October 1st, and teenagers are particularly encouraged to participate.

"Quakerwanda" is not a rumor, a hoax, or a joke. It stands for "Quaker Worship & Action" and it is a functioning e-mail discussion group of Friends in New York Yearly Meeting for exchange as we seek grounding in shared worship, action for peace, and company along the way. Detailed information on many of the actions noted above has been distributed to participants of Quaker Wanda. You can subscribe by sending a message from the e-mail address at which you want to receive Quakerwanda messages to quakerwanda-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You don't have to do anything else.

In continuing care,

Linda Chidsey, Vicki Cooley, Fred Dettmer
NYYM Worship & Action working group

The September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were deeply shocking and very sad. I regard such terrible destructive actions as acts of hatred, for violence is the result of destructive emotions. Events of this kind make clear that if we allow our human intelligence to be guided and controlled by negative emotions like hatred, the consequences are disastrous.

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In today's reality the only way of resolving differences is through dialogue and compromise, through human understanding and humility. We need to appreciate that genuine peace comes about through mutual understanding, respect and trust. Problems within human society should be solved in a humanitarian way, for which non-violence provides the proper approach.