The deadline for returning the FMC witness Survey has been extended to Sunday, November 6, at midnight. We are using both a paper version, available in the FMC Office, and an online version available here.
Sunday, October 16, at the Raytheon anniversary, the Peace and Social Justice Committee of Friends Meeting at Cambridge launched the paper version of our long-in-process (13-month) FMC Witness Survey, Tikkun Olam. It’s purposes are to provide information about who does what in what realm— military, prison ministry, climate, gender rights, etc—allowing people to discover more about each other’s witness actions and possibly work together. And to inspire more witness among our congregation. Our launch moment is auspicious: Building on a long tradition of Quaker social and political activism, the survey launches at Raytheon (“Light of the Gods”), a major weapons manufacturer in our own neighborhood. Raytheon is the world’s largest manufacturer of guided missiles; audio research with reference to the weapons industry is conducted less than 3 miles from our meeting house, near Fresh Pond Shopping Mall, within view of Fresh Pond.
Thirteen months ago we began designing our survey. Gestating something valuable takes time. For a human being, from inception to birth, about 9 months. For a somewhat controversial witness survey in a community that practices widespread participation—some might term it “radical democracy”—a little longer. For a body of Quakers agreeing to a call for abolition, the first religiously-based declaration, by a group of 4 Quakers in Germantown meeting in 1688 to a unified yearly meeting-wide statement in 1776, it required 88 years. The enslaved people are freed. War will eventually be abolished. We can all help.
We shall prevail.
Contact: Skip Schiel at peace@fmcquaker.org
