Do Minutes of Concern Matter?
I left Pacific Yearly Meeting’s annual session this summer with
a feeling of joy that I haven’t felt for many years. What made my heart leap
for joy was that we approved a minute of concern on Israel/Palestine calling
for:
1. A permanent ceasefire.
2. End[ing] complicity in human rights
violations and war crimes by the United States and other countries, and impos[ing]
a universal arms embargo.
3. Release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian
political prisoners.
4. Expedited humanitarian aid and protection of
aid workers, including American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) staff.
5. A lasting peace that guarantees safety and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.
It wasn’t just approving a minute of concern
that made me joyful, it was also connecting with Friends who feel as outraged
and upset as I am about the genocidal acts taking place in Gaza and the West
Bank. My concern for the plight of Palestinians goes back many years and is
personal. In 2014 I was arrested and spent a night in jail protesting Israel’s
attack on Gaza that killed over 2,300 people. Ever since October 7, I have
taken part in a faith-rooted vigil on Mondays from 5:00-7:00 pm in front of the
office of Representative Judy Chu in Pasadena calling on her to support a permanent
ceasefire.
During these interfaith vigils, which were
started by the Mennonites and Episcopalians, I befriended Gazans who have lost numerous loved
ones and stood in solidarity with Muslims, Jews and other people of conscience.
We successfully convinced the Pasadena City Council to support a ceasefire
resolution and our Congress member Chu not to sign on to more military aid to
Israel. I proudly carried the AFSC banner calling for a ceasefire even though
my monthly meeting didn’t support a ceasefire until April. How I yearned for
the support of my meeting during these terrible months when women and children
were being massacred on an unimaginable scale! I can’t describe the relief and joy
I felt when my meeting finally came to unity to support a ceasefire and also donated
$10,000 to the AFSC for humanitarian aid to Gaza. (It is my fervent hope that
other meetings will follow this example and give as generously as they can.)
I was hoping and praying that Pacific Yearly
Meeting would similarly rise to the occasion and take a stand. For this reason,
I was thrilled (and deeply grateful to God) that on the first day of annual
session twenty Friends gathered for a lunch meeting to discuss Gaza and this
minute, and over a dozen showed up for an evening meeting to craft it. I was
not alone! I was among Friends who cared!
For the past eight years or so, Pacific Yearly Meeting has
not taken a public stand on issues of peace and justice, not even when George
Floyd was killed by a police officer, sparking world-wide protests, while
Quaker organizations like FCLCA, FCNL and AFSC made public statements in
support of Black Lives Matter. This silence has deeply grieved me since I know
that Friends at our Yearly Meeting care deeply about justice and peace as I do.
We have approved minutes of concern each year since I moved to California and
started attending annual sessions in 1989. During this recent period of
quietism I have not felt supported by Yearly Meeting in my efforts to be a
Quaker activist and have had to turn elsewhere to find the emotional and
spiritual support I need to do the work that I feel Spirt calling me to do. This
year was so different I feel incredibly grateful.
I know that many Friends have what they feel are good
reasons not to consider minutes of concern. Here are some reasons why I feel
that minutes of concern are important.
1) Considering
minutes of concern is time-consuming and often leads to “wordsmithing,” but
it’s worth the effort. Approving a minute of concern can be messy and takes
time. It is easier to remain silent. But is that what Spirit is calling us to
do as a religious society? Since its inception, Quakerism has been a prophetic religion,
and Quakers are known for having taken a collective stand on controversial
issues like slavery and women’s rights before other religious groups. “Wordsmithing” is often used in a pejorative
sense to describe what may seem like nitpicking, but I feel it is healthy for a
body to struggle to find the right words to express its commitment to justice
and peace.
2) Some
feel that minutes of concerns don’t matter since they don’t lead to action. I
agree that simply approving a statement doesn’t in and of itself change the
world. A genuine minute of concern should reflect action already taken by
Friends and lead to further action. And there are many examples. Ten monthly
meetings in Pacific YM approved minutes of concern on Israel/Palestine and many
individual Friends have been active in protests, letter writing and meeting
with elected officials. Our minute validated these actions and encouraged other
meetings to do likewise. We also invited monthly meetings and individual
Friends to read and take to heart the recommendations in a statement called “A
Different Future is Possible: Quaker Organizations Share a Vision for Peace in
Israel and Palestine.” This statement, published in April 2024, was crafted by eight
prominent Quaker organizations: American Friends Service Committee, Canadian
Friends Service Committee, Friends
Committee on National Legislation, Friends
World Committee for Consultation, Quakers in
Britain, Quaker Council on European
Affairs, Quaker Peace and Social Witness,
and the United Nations Office. It has also been endorsed by over
100 Quaker bodies and reflects serious Quaker thinking about how to resolve the
conflict in Israel/Palestine.
3) Minutes
of concern matter because they proclaim to the world where we stand as a
religious body. When the AFSC or FCNL or any religious body takes a public
stand, they can lobby public officials more effectively. The larger and more
prestigious the body, the more significant its influence on decision makers. That’s
why a minute by a yearly meeting has
more clout than a minute by a monthly meeting. And that’s why Joyce, Ajlouny,
General Secretary of the AFSC, asked us to support the statement “Towards a
Different Future.”
4) Minutes
of concern can deepen our connection with the Divine. If our minutes of concern
are truly Spirit-led, and that should always be our intention, then coming to
unity about issues that matter brings us in harmony with the Divine. Coming to
unity with the Divine empowers to speak and act more boldly because we are
acting not as isolated individuals, but as a community seeking to do the will
of God.
While I feel that minutes of concern are important, they
should not become a routine. They should always arise from a deeply felt need
and a leading of the Spirit. When we seek to do the will of the Divine and
unite as a religious body, we can become instruments of Divine justice and
peace. For me, this is a source of joy and solace in a broken world urgently in
need of healing. I believe that being a prophetic voice, and taking action to
embody our faith, is our calling as the Religious Society of Friends.
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