Peace and Social Concerns Committee
Peace and Social Concerns helps put our Quaker principles into action in the areas of peace and justice. Peace and Social Concerns also supports the leadings of individuals: for example, some among us have been led to visit prisons, while others have traveled to areas of international conflict. Recent activities of the Committee include co-sponsorship with other religious communities of International Day of Peace activities on Boston Common; holding a monthly Meeting for Worship at Textron Industries, maker of cluster bombs; organizing the yearly Good Friday Witness for Peace on Boston Common; holding informational gatherings with guest speakers; and organizing fundraising events.
Meets monthly on 1st Tuesdays at 7:00 pm. For more information contact office@fmcquaker.org with subject “attn. Ghanda DiFiglia or Kim West”.
Meeting for Worship near Raytheon
On the third Sunday of every month, Friends hold a Meeting for Worship in front of one of the many Raytheon offices and laboratories in the Boston area. Raytheon (“Light of the Gods”) is the nation’s and the world’s fourth largest defense contractor, and the leading manufacturer of guided missiles including the Tomahawk cruise missile used recently in Syria and the weapons dropped by Saudi Arabia on Yemen. The facility on Concord Avenue is one of their premier research and development sites.
The worship is open to everyone, and is a clear opportunity to embody our Beneficial Cycle by deepening worship, strengthening community, and increasing our witness in the world.
We gather in front of Raytheon on Concord Avenue, Cambridge (intersection at 10 Moulton Street), from 10:45 am to 11:45 am. The Meeting for Worship continues the seven-year tradition of gathering at Textron Industries in Wilmington, makers of the infamous cluster bomb. They have discontinued cluster bomb production.
Why do we worship at Raytheon? Each person has some responsibility for the root of war. A loving Spirit would not have weapons made that kill hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. How do we contend with the evil that humans do, and the love that we long for? One response is to go to Textron to pray, asking ourselves, and encouraging others to ask, “Where do wars come from?” We stress that this is not a protest, vigil, or demonstration; nor is this a politicization of our spiritual faith, but rather honoring our Testimony of Peace, and taking our practice to a very dark area of cruelty and barbaric war making. It is, we think, a very faithful way to enact the Beneficial Cycle of deepening worship, strengthening community, and increasing our witness.
Carpools leave FMC at 10:30 am. You can park on Wheeler Street, two blocks east of Raytheon. For more information, contact John Bach at 970-209-8346 or johnmbach@yahoo.com. The following link provides more information on Raytheon: Facts about Raytheon.
Meeting for Worship near Textron
For seven years, Quakers met for worship every third Sunday of the month from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm next to signs reading Quakers Praying for Peace adjacent to the grounds where Textron Defense Systems manufactures an especially gruesome “cluster bomb,” used by our military and also sold to other countries. Textron ceased producing and selling cluster bombs in March of 2017. We continued our Meetings for Worship until then. Textron also makes components for nuclear weapons.
(Un)fair Harvard
No matter where you go, there are lessons to be learned—especially on university campuses. One lesson that Harvard teaches through its actions [“Housekeepers vs. Harvard,” Sarah Leonard, April 10] is the primacy of profits over ethics. One lesson that the striking DoubleTree housekeepers enflesh is the nobility of struggle for decency and fairness. Which lesson is worthier?
As the Nicaraguan poet Giocanda Belli says, “Solidarity is the tenderness of the peoples.” The Harvard community is indebted to the workers for reminding us of that lesson and giving us the opportunity to act like truly educated and compassionate people.
JOHN BACH
Quaker Chaplain at Harvard University
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
Good Friday Peace Witness
For more than 50 years, Quakers and friends from other groups have stood in silent vigil on the Boston Common at Park St. from 11:00 am to
1:00 pm on Good Friday, witnessing to the power of peace in a broken world. For more information contact office@fmcquaker.org with subject “attn. Kim West or Ghanda DiFiglia”.
On Friday, April 3, 2015, Quakers and friends from other groups stood in witness to the destructive force of thermonuclear weapons. We handed out this leaflet describing our purpose.
On Friday, March 25, 2016, we witnessed to Black Lives Matter and handed out this leaflet.
International Day of Peace
In 2002, The United Nations established September 21 as the International Day of Peace (IDP), which provides a date for individuals, organizations, and nations to share in celebrations and acts of peace. Special activities and celebrations take place all over the world in over 150 countries. Locally, members of FMC plan a celebration with numerous religious and peace organizations. As it has for the past few years, the 2017 event will feature music, art, dance, poetry, song, stories, and messages of hope on September 24 (the Sunday closest to the actual IDP) from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm on the Boston Common near the Park Street MBTA Station.
For more information, contact office@fmcquaker.org with subject “attn. Ian Harrington”, or visit www.idpboston.org
Bolder and Deeper Group
The well-being of all lives are threatened by climate disruption. At the Bolder and Deeper Group we are called to Non-violent daring action in our communities that seeks to transform our human interactions. Our goal is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels as a primary energy source. For 2 years in 2014 and 2015 we met monthly to pray and act. We listened to Spirit, so as not to do actions out of anger and dismay. Many of us got arrested resisting the Spectra pipeline in West Roxbury. In December 2014 we held a prayer meeting and public attention to the Brayton Point coal plant in Fall River. We gathered to support other Friends doing actions such as EQAT in PA and pilgrimages along the proposed gas pipelines. We listened for god’s calling to witness to the truth.
Revelations 22:2.
On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing
twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Friends Committee on National Legislation
A national Quaker lobby group consisting of tens of thousands of people who lobby Congress in matters for peace and justice. For more information or to join, visit the FCNL website.