The NPYM Peace and Social Concerns Committee exists to “Support Peace and Social Concerns of Meetings, Worship Groups, and Individuals in NPYM.” Our Clerk is Susan Cozzens (Eastside) and our members for 2021-22 are Susan Cozzens, Jessica Bucciarelli (Bridge City), Leslie Hickcox (Multnomah), Lucinda Hites-Clabaugh (Multnomah), Verna Lilly (Tacoma), and Robin Whyatt (MGOF). Our official NPYM job description is here. Our report to Annual Session from last year is here.
We maintain a list of PSC contacts for monthly meetings and worship groups (MWGs). About half of the NPYM MWGs have designated contacts. If you want to check on whether yours is on the list, contact your clerk or our committee (peace_and_soc_concerns@npym.org). We welcome new, updated, or additional contacts.
Last year, we began offering Sharing Sessions to give MWGs a place to share their experiences and resources in social concerns areas. For 2021-22, we held two sessions:
- Native American Support, April 25. Notes are available here.
- Policing and Prisons, September 27. Notes are available here. Western Friend magazine hosted a follow-on session on prisons and detention centers for Quakers in the West on October 25. The Quaker State-level Legislative Action Network followed in February with a national-level dialogue focused on prison-related action in state legislatures.
These topics were chosen based on a survey among Meetings and Worship Groups in the Fall of 2020 to see what issues they were working on, as meetings or individuals. Last year, we held Sharing Sessions on three other issues: Earthcare, Immigrant Support, and Racial Justice. Notes from those sessions appear in our Stored folder in the NPYM Google Drive. We have also started resource pages there, where individuals or meetings can add references to resources they have found useful in specific social concern areas.
All are welcome to join the Sharing Sessions. On request, Susan is happy to set up additional Zoom sessions on other issues on which Friends would like to share across NPYM the actions they are taking.
NPYM-affiliated national PSC organizations
Our charge from NPYM includes convening NPYM's representatives to national peace and social concerns organizations. These are currently AFSC, FCNL, Friends Peace Teams, and QEW. Notes from our meeting with those representatives in September 2020 are in the PSC Stored folder.
AFSC (American Friends Service Committee): https://www.afsc.org. Regular Wednesday briefings on action in specific AFSC programs appear on its Facebook page.
FCNL (Friends Committee on National Legislation): fcnl.org. Look for their regular events, which include Thursdays with Friends and Quaker Changemakers.
Friends Peace Teams: https://friendspeaceteams.org/. FPT offers regular online training sessions on right relationships with Native people and on spiritual nurture, and is beginning some in-person workshops. See Upcoming Events – Friends Peace Teams.
QEW (Quaker Earthcare Witness): https://www.quakerearthcare.org/. For actions you or your Meeting might take, check the section of their web site on Fossil Free Friends.