Peace and Social Concerns Committee meeting, July 20, 2015 

Present: Susan C, David G, Jane J, George M, Dan G, Carol L, Beth A, Roger C 

1.Beth, clerk of this meeting, read a passage from Faith and Practice and invited us to share thoughts on it.

2.Race and Class discussion group: Dan attended and reported that there did not seem to be clarity in that meeting about the group going forward. It may be that in the group’s meeting on the coming Sunday those present will consider it more. We are happy to provide support for the group if it can find ways for us to do so.

3.Andrea will lead letter-writing on August 9. Roger has volunteered for September 13.

4.David spoke of his hope for interfaith cooperation and his vision for getting people together in the fall to come to know one another. We spoke of our experiences in working with others on issues of peace and social and environmental concerns. For some of us this worked best when there was a definite purpose or goal in view. David and Beth may work on the draft of a letter expressing David’s vision, to be considered at a future meeting.

5.Dan has been volunteering regularly at the Not Bread Alone service project at Amherst’s First Congregational Church, but the dates for our participation have been problematic, with various conflicts. The second Saturday 9:30-2:00 is and will be the regular time from now on, and Dan will let Friends know about this opportunity for service.

6.Jane continues to be interested in finding a good use for the home where the Nelsons lived. It is hard to get an investigation of this going during the summer, but we are interested in pursuing it.

7.Mass incarceration, from a letter sent to us by Sandi Albertson Shea: there is no doubt that our culture has a big problem with this issue, which is spelled out well in Michele Alexander’s article on our website (http://www.mounttobyfriends.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Incarceration-Nation.pdf ) but we did not discern a way to work on it.

8.The BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), : Roger pointed to http://quakerpi.org and its page about this issue at http://quakerpi.org/Q-Action.shtml with many Friends’ statements about it. He proposed that we present an 11:40 Hour in the fall on the topic. Friends approved, and Roger will contact the 11:40 committee to request an hour in the fall.

9.P&SC retreat: We considered whether our committee should have a retreat. It did not appear that at this time there was much enthusiasm for it.

10.George would welcome assistance or replacement in tending the bulletin board. We commended him for his interest in it.

11.We will not meet in August. Our next meeting will be September 21 and we hope that Diane, who had intended to clerk tonight’s meeting but could not, will offer to clerk that meeting.

12.When the Pope addresses Congress, the address will be telecast at 7pm on 9/24 at the Amherst Unitarian Universalist Meetinghouse, to which all are invited.

13.The Source to Sea river cleanup will be on September 26, though that is the same date as Sylvia’s memorial service. The CT River Watershed Council ( http://www.ctriver.org/ ) will have information on its website.

We closed with a time of silence.