Also see: Our Minutes and Statements
Activities of the Peace & Social Justice Committee
The Peace and Social Justice Committee of Olympia Friends Meeting is charged with helping Friends to respond to the spiritual leadings for peace and social justice as they are experienced by individuals as well as by Meeting as a whole. The committee encourages the Meeting to participate in various social justice and political causes that are in line with Quaker testimonies, and may make recommendations to the Meeting about donations to and sponsorship of organizations and individuals working toward peace and social justice.
In the past, these leadings have led us to:
- Sponsor events educating ourselves and the community about active peace and reconciliation work being done in Palestine, Vietnam, El Salvador, and Iraq.
- Actively support expanding the Washington State equal rights laws to include protection, including the right to marriage, for people who are gay, lesbian. bisexual, or transgender.
- Work to end the death penalty and establish equal justice for all in the criminal justice system.
- Actively support efforts to protect immigrants.
- Make the need for nuclear disarmament visible.
- Find ways to assist those in our local community who are homeless, in danger of becoming homeless, or in need of medical care.
- Lobby our state and federal representatives to write laws and develop budgets that support peace and social justice at home and throughout the world. Because we are located in the Washington State capital, we host the annual Quaker Voice Lobby Day each year.
- Created and manage the Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund project beginning in 2014.
See Minutes adopted by Olympia Friends Meeting which this committee was involved in creating.
Some specific recent activities of the Peace and Social Justice Committee (formerly Faith in Action) can be found in the Meeting’s State of the Meeting Report.