The Anti-Racism Working Group (formerly the Uprooting Racism committee) was formed to help NPYM live into its commitement in the minute passed in 2019 (click on this link to read the full text):
... We commit individually and as meetings to take action that dismantles oppressive societal attitudes and institutions, creates equity, and constructs multiracial movements to solve the pressing problems of our times. We accept the challenge to co-create Beloved Community with equality of opportunity, respect, and spiritual and economic well-being for all people everywhere. We will create a team of Friends who outreach to quarterly meetings, monthly meetings, and worship groups to assess what assistance they would like in uprooting racism, offer resources and/or provide experiential workshops that allow for deep listening and work toward removing barriers. ...
The group meets monthly, on the second Monday of the month, at 6:30 pm Pacific / 7:30 pm Mountain, by Zoom. Meeting ID: 833 7927 5840. Passcode: 667801. Direct join link: here. To call in, find your local number by going to https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kLMgdM2qC.
To join (or be removed from) the mailing list for the working group, contact Lori Patterson (mamaknitty@gmail.com).
Agendas for our meetings are built collaboratively. The agenda for the next meeting is linked here.
We share clerking responsibilities, using a volunteer list that can be accessed here.
Our current projects include:
- Helping NPYM become an anti-racist community, including helping to design intervention on microaggressions in Annual Session
- SOAR (Sharing Our Anti-Racist Journeys). This informal group meets on the third Monday of the month at 6:30 Pacific/ 7:30 Mountain. Meeting ID: 836 0426 0320. Passcode: 664132. Register here. The group supports anti-racist work among European Americans in NPYM meetings or committees by providng a venue to share experiences and advice. Shared resources for the group are available here.
- Follow through on the Reparations Minute passed by Yearly Meeting in 2021.
- Minute of support for Indigenous people (can be found on the NPYM home page. It was adopted at Annual Session 2022.)
NPYM Friends may want to note that Friends General Conference has a Ministry on Racism, which offers gatherings and support for Friends of Color, advice for meetings on anti-racism actions, and a worhip group for White Friends Confronting Racism.
Note that extensive materials supporting Meetings in anti-racism are available from Friends General Conference.
Salmon Bay
South Seattle
- Minute supporting federal action on reparations (HR 40) [adopted by Annual Session July 2021]
- Minute supporting an end to hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans or Pacific Islanders
Past Events
Corvallis Friends Meeting offered "Six Conversations about Race, Culture, and Equity with Dr. Johnny Lake," co-sponsored by Corvallis Friends Meeting in Fall, 2021.
South Seattle Friends Meeting hosted NPYM discussion sessions following each film in the Black Quaker Lives Matter film series, which was offered by the Black Quaker Project in the spring of 2022.
Eugene Friends Meeting co-sponsored weekly worship sharing on Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth by Randy Wooley in the spring of 2022. See the flyer for more information.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Becoming Rooted EFM Flyer_contact email.pdf | 240.5 KB |
| NPYM draft Minute of Support for Indigenous People.pdf | 207.28 KB |
 NPYM draft Minute of Support for Indigenous People.docx | 30.01 KB |