The New Story Group (Zoom)
Topic: “Changing Systems of Power from the Inside” with Alicia McBride (she/her), Senior Director for Quaker Leadership, Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). We seek a world free of war and the threat of war. We seek a society with equity and justice for all. We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled. We seek an earth restored. Advancing this vision, which drives the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s work, requires challenging the assumptions and accepted truths of the very systems of governmental power that FCNL operates within. How can we both use these systems and work to transform them? How do we stay grounded in our spiritual center and our own values in an environment operating from different rules? In this session, we’ll explore the many aspects of working to shift paradigms and influence policy from within the very systems we endeavor to change.
Background material:
- The World We Seek: FCNL Statement of Legislative Policy
- Issues FCNL works on and our current legislative asks to members of Congress
- Discussion paper on Dismantling Racism and Militarism in U.S. Foreign Policy, as an example of defining the need for a paradigm shift in policy approach.
Alicia McBride has worked with FCNL for more than 20 years at the intersections of faith, advocacy, and policy change. She currently serves as Senior Director of Quaker Leadership, where she helps our grassroots network, governors, and staff connect Quaker principles and practices to FCNL’s legislative work. She also teaches hatha and restorative yoga and finds it fascinating to consider these practices in conversation with Quakerism. She is a member of Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting (Baltimore Yearly Meeting) and lives in Takoma Park, MD with her husband and their two teenagers.
The FMC New Story Group meets on Zoom from 7:00 to 9:00pm on the fourth Monday of the month. Come at 6:30 for fellowship. First timers are always welcome!
To participate in this event click this link or call 1-646-558-8656 and provide the Meeting ID 875 6881 1869 and passcode 101225.
For more information and list of resources, please visit the New Story web page here. To be placed on the email list for New Story News and program announcements contact Cornelia Parkes new-story@fmcquaker.org.
