Published: July 13, 2024
An Interview with Mary Hansen,
Conducted and Edited by Gabriel Erstgaard
Mary Hansen is a member of Bellingham Friends Meeting and serves on the Western Friend board of directors. They also served as the primary author of the board’s new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement.
Mary was interviewed by Gabriel Ertsgaard, in July 2024. Gabriel is also a member of the the Western Friend board of directors and is a member of Salem Friends Meeting.
Gabriel Ertsgaard: How did the Western Friend board of directors decide to draft a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement?
Mary Hansen: A few times over the last couple of years, fellow board member Molly Wingate had brought up whether we’re really diverse and really connecting with marginalized groups. We’re a group of white, somewhat privileged people. This has come up over and over.
GE: How did you become the person assigned to write the first draft of this statement?
MH: I wasn’t really assigned it. The topic came up in a committee meeting, and we were supposed to think about what would be good. I was getting frustrated with that, so I decided to set it aside. Then suddenly, it came to me as a whole. So I think it was very spirit led. Of course, there are elements of things that have been on my mind for quite a while.
Then I took it back to the board at our last Zoom meeting. What I wrote was pretty general, so we edited it to speak for us. I also felt that parts of the statement were overly dramatic, so we smoothed it out.
GE: How did Quaker values or a Quaker way of thinking influence your work on this statement?
MH: I feel so integrated with Quaker values. I think I’ve been a Quaker since I was born, but didn’t know it. There’s a hymn set to the Finlandia tune that basically says: We here are just like you there. We like our country, just as you like yours. That doesn’t make us better than you.* A lot of things are integrated into that. It’s my style of thinking, so it’s hard for me to separate it out at this point.
George Fox wrote of answering that of God in everyone. I think this is what keeps us in community together, and it affects our interactions with people who don’t see things the same way that we might. There’s a touchpoint when talking with someone who doesn’t share your views—it’s a spiritual touchpoint. It’s hard to explain, but when you really listen to someone, there’s something that happens.
GE: The statement addresses respecting all living beings, an ecological vision. How does this reflect your perspective?
MH: I’ve learned a lot from my friend Mary Ann Percy about how alive the world is. I took a workshop from her at Ben Lomond, maybe it was three years ago now. I also asked her to accompany me to take my wife’s ashes up into the Cascades to find a maple tree to put them under. As we were coming out, she was telling me about the communication among the trees. Even different species are accepted in that web of nourishment. That’s not just a spiritual metaphor, it’s literal. I was really fascinated by that. I began to listen and look at what was going on around me. So I really have a feeling about the living world that I don’t think I had before. Frankly, it seems healthier than a lot of our relationships as humans. It’s important to understand that we’re connected.
GE: What do you see the role of this statement being in the future?
MH: For me, when I set out to do something, it always evolves. If I plan to do exactly this, it doesn’t happen that way. But adopting this statement feels like a settling and centering about social justice. Rather than doing something for others, it calls us to do something with others.
There’s the idea of getting out there and digging potatoes with the people in the field. There’s the idea of marching in protest. I think people who are on the board of Western Friend are very active in some of those things.
There’s also writing. Now, we on the board don’t decide which articles get published, but as a community of support, I think we may have some effect on our editor. Or maybe our editor (Mary Klein) has had some effect on all of us.
*Editor’s note: The hymn alluded to is “This Is My Song.” It sets words by Lloyd Stone and Georgia Harkness to music by Jean Sibelius.
As a Quaker organization, Western Friend staff and board of directors believe in the inherent dignity and equal worth of each person and their voice, and in each person’s unique access to the Divine. We honor and uphold all living beings, regardless of differences. We are committed to the peaceful existence and expression of a full creative and healthful life for all. This commitment goes beyond nondiscrimination to include active participation in empowerment and laboring along with diverse communities to resist and transform the forces of diminishment. We do this through our connections and publications.