Challenging Racism / November 16, 2021

Community, News, Social Concerns

From a recent post of The Black Quaker Project: The BlackQuaker Project celebrates Benjamin Banneker (9 November 1731 – 19 October 1806), a legendary almanac publisher, astronomer, surveyor, farmer, and friend of Friends, who notably petitioned Thomas Jefferson to acknowledge African Americans’ inalienable right to liberation. Born of Senegalese descent and free from slavery, Banneker was briefly educated by a Quaker at a small, one-room, interracial school in his youth, while he worked on his…

Covid Advisory / November 9, 2021

Community, Covid-19, News, Social Concerns

The COVID  Advisory Group last  met 11/8/21, and protocols for New Garden Friends Meeting  will continue mostly the same through the Holiday season. Specifically, we will continue semi-programmed Meeting for Worship (MFW) outdoors and/or by Zoom and Facebook Live, now back to 11 am.   Friends will be notified if weather does not permit in-person outdoor worship.  Unprogrammed MFW may take place outdoors or indoors, in accordance with current masking and distancing protocols.  Other small…

Anti-Racism Work Group Query / November 9, 2021

Community, News, Social Concerns

The Antiracism Work Group is sharing queries to support our community in learning to view our processes and actions through an antiracism lens. Friends are invited to use these queries in their prayer, meditation, and contemplative practices, and may wish to share their responses and experiences of sitting with these queries in their interactions with other friends. Antiracism working group Query #1; How does the interior of New Garden Friends Meeting house — the pictures,…

Challenging Racism / November 9, 2021

Community, News, Social Concerns

A quotation from Amhara Powell, in “Discovering Fellowship among African American Friends,” Friends Bulletin, Vol. 74, No. 1, January 2003, pp. 3-4: “Unprogrammed worship spoke to my condition like no prior religious practice. I thought of myself as having always been a Quaker without ever having known it. . . When I joined the Religious Society of Friends. . . I had sensed early on that on some level, my African American culture might be…

Share Your Proposal for Funds / Due Date: November 12, 2021

Community, News, Social Concerns

The Peace and Social Concerns Committee seeks proposals for funds to support organizations, programs or projects that are in-line with our Quaker testimonies and our commitment to becoming an antiracist faith community. Our meeting provides small grants (usually $250 – $500) through the Peace and Social Concerns Committee’s Broader Concerns budget. If there is a cause you would like to see benefit from one of these grants, you or a representative from the organization can…

Challenging Racism / November 2, 2021

News, Social Concerns

The September 29 entry in this space offered a quotation from Harold Weaver, Jr.’s Pendle Hill Pamphlet #465 – Race, Systemic Violence, and Retrospective Justice (2020). In that pamphlet he mentions The BlackQuaker Project, which “(1) celebrates the lives and contributions of Quakers of Color worldwide and (2) documents and addresses their concerns. It is an outreach and in-reach ministry of Wellesley Friends Meeting, guided by the Quaker testimonies of Truth, Peace, Equality, Community, and…

Alternatives to Violence Project / December 3-5, 2021

News, Social Concerns

We’re doing an Online Basic Workshop on December 3-5, 2021 and Online Advanced Workshop on January 8-10, 2022  Join us and/or share with others who may be interested! While we aren’t able to offer traditional weekend workshops in person, we’ve come up with a way to offer a similar experience online using Zoom. Many of you have participated with us in one or more workshops – others have expressed an interest in our program. Here’s…

Challenging Racism Discussion Group / October 27, 2021

Community, News, Social Concerns

The North Carolina Fellowship of Friends Antiracism Discussion Group will meet again Wednesday, October 27, at 7 p.m. We will look at how systemic racism may be present in our monthly meetings using a worksheet called the Continuum on Becoming an Antiracist, Multicultural Institution. Our discussion leaders will be CH Holcombe of New Garden Friends Meeting and David Smith of Deep River Friends Meeting. We will meet in the full group and also have breakout…

Challenging Racism / October 17, 2021

Community, News, Social Concerns

A message from the interracial Social Justice Committee recently formed with St. James Presbyterian, First Presbyterian, Westminster Presbyterian and New Garden Friends Meeting regarding the next local school board meeting: “They have an in person meeting next Tuesday, October 19, and I think there will be some people from the Guilford Antiracism Alliance standing outside the Administration building on Eugene St. in support of the board and the superintendent (starting at about 5:10-5:15). Since it…

Lobby Calls Needed by Friday, October 15, 2021

Community, News, Social Concerns

Call Sen. Burr & Tillis’ office this Friday, October 15 and ask the Senators to co-sponsor or publicly endorse S.J. Res 10 to repeal the 2002 Iraq Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF)! The phone numbers are: Burr – 202-224-3154; Tillis – 202-224-6342 Can’t call? Submit an email here. Friends across N.C. will be calling both of these offices on Friday. Friends, through Friends Committee on National Legislation advocacy efforts, have been lobbying for…