Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 2nd July 2023

Dear Friends,

Peace is a process to engage in, not a goal to be reached.

Sydney Bailey 1993 Qf&p 24.57 

A group of us gathered the other day to explore our testimony to peace. What words are associated with peace? What generates peace? Can there be peace without justice? Do you have to be a pacifist to be a Quaker? Is it OK to feel conflicted at times? What is the Quakerly response to the war in Ukraine?

We looked at previous wars: while a few Quakers felt duty bound to sign up in both world wars, others set up the Friends Ambulance Unit and served as non-combatants, and others served prison terms as conscientious objectors. We wondered why those in power thought that by attacking Iraq they could make the world a better place, and we considered alternatives – how to remove injustice, how to build a culture of peace.

Quaker peace work, as described in Quaker News and other BYM publications, includes working for a just peace in Palestine and Israel, peace education, campaigning and networking on economic justice and climate justice, challenging militarism and the sale of weapons.

We read a minute from German YM 1948 which urges us to be bridges linking those elements which promote truth, justice and peace. 

In Friendship,
Patricia Cockrell

On behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (David Hitchin, Chris Lawson, Tim Pitt-Payne, Caroline Pybus, Theresa Samms and Nancy Wall)