Approved July, 2008, at North Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Annual Session in Corvallis, OR.

As an expression of our belief in nonviolence and the value of each person, Friends have throughout our history sought compassionate and effective answers to social problems.

One of the most problematic federal policies for decades has been the federal government’s failed War on Drugs campaign. Its stated purpose has been to reduce the production, sale, and use of targeted drugs, the abuse of which can be devastating to individuals, families, workplaces, and communities. Yet, criminalization has failed to reduce drug abuse, has created a major illegal drug and secondary crime network, and has filled our prisons and courtrooms with individuals charged with drug-related crimes, whose drug use would be reduced more effectively with a public health model instead of a criminalization model.
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Published due to popular demand!

Approved at North Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Annual Session in July 2008.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
–Psalm 24:1

The psalmist reminds us of the sacredness of the Earth and all its inhabitants. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirms climate change and its devastating impacts to the earth’s human and nonhuman inhabitants. Noting that global climate change is increased by human-produced greenhouse gases, we wish to bear witness against abuse of the earth and our environment.
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This is part of an ongoing series of article reprints from the Friends Bulletin/Western Friend archives. They are selected at random from the boxes in the editor’s garage. The theme for this issue was, “The Hurt of One is the Hurt of All.”

The Permanence of Matter
by Sally Bryan, San Juan Worship Group

“What perplexes the world is the disparity between the swiftness of the spirit, and the immense unwieldiness, sluggishness, inertia, the permanence of matter. “-Thomas Marm

In our reflective moments, most of us are only too willing to acknowledge that we are involved with mankind. We have believed poets who say we are lessened if a clod washes into the sea, and we have read physicists who say that a butterfly that moves its wings in Japan will affect forces, unknown though many may be, in Chicago. In a few tender and near-incommunicable moments, we may have experienced this all-inclusive relatedness. Truly we know that we are participants in a participatory universe.
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As many of you know, Anthony Manousos, recent past editor for Friends Bulletin/Western Friend, has been busy supporting his wife, Kathleen, as she undergoes treatment for lymphoma. Both are in very good spirits, and feel wrapped up in love and support by their community.
Friends who wish to hear more about their journey together through this illness are welcome to visit Kathleen’s blog. Please leave them a message in the guestbook on her website, and keep sending your loving thoughts and prayers in their direction.

The rest of PYM was taken up with activities ranging from a tabling fair for Friends’ groups, an all-ages dance featuring a lively limbo contest, to weighty plenaries. On Friday, Friends were asked to consider a range of queries relating to joy in their morning worship groups. In the afternoon, Friends had the opportunity to take part in round two of interest groups.

The weighty plenaries engaged Friends for many hours on both Friday and Saturday morning. PYM was asked to consider hiring a youth coordinator to assist Young Friends and Junior Yearly Meeting in planning community-building activities. Alyssa Nelson, hired as a trial youth coordinator for the two months prior to Annual Session, reported on her activities, and the youth expressed their enthusiasm for her support and engagement with their programs. Over the course of the two days, Friends wrestled mightily with concerns over cost, details of the job description, and a sense there was insufficient seasoning time. PYM youth worked hard to make clear their support and deeply-felt need for such a position.

After laboring together as a community, Friends determined they would minute their support in principle for a youth coordinator position, and that Young Friends and Junior Yearly Meeting Friends would spend the months between Annual Session and the Reps Committee meeting conducting visits with monthly meetings around PYM to explain their perceived need for and gather information to shape the nature of such a position. A an ad-hoc committee under the care of Ministry and Counsel was tasked with supporting this intervisitation, as well as generating a job description and detailed budget, to be brought to the Reps Committee meeting.

In the closing moments of PYM’s session, Friends came together to approve a minute against Proposition 8, a proposed amendment to California’s constitution that would define marriage as a purely heterosexual arrangement. Three monthly meetings in PYM brought minutes forward to PYM; the final minute was a compilation of these minutes. The full text of this minute is likely to someday appear on PYM’s website.

Saturday evening, Friends had fun at the community night well into the evening. Many talented Friends sang, played music, shared poetry, stories and skits; others told banjo jokes. The evening concluded with a brief show of fire juggling despite the extreme fire danger in the area. (Good thing the juggler could catch what he threw.)

In all, a rich and full session. PYM Friends will next gather at Walker Creek Ranch in July 27th-August 1, 2009!