Report from Warren Hoskins, clerk of the committee, to the Southeastern Yearly Meeting of Friends (SEYM):

Eight Friends, six of us of the committee, met this afternoon [4/23/2011] at SEYM, in a process of discernment grounded in worship regarding received concerns. Our agenda was long, our time was short, and we prayed for guidance in our proceedings. We have five minutes of specific requests directed to SEYM, printed out on the following pages.

First, as a preliminary matter, we call attention to the requests formulated earlier this year and presented to the Winter Interim Business Meeting of SEYM in Orlando, Florida. As stated in our report of 1/15/2011, after our committee meeting, “We see rampant militarism, news media consolidation and control of information, mistreatment of workers and a collapsing local economy, and continuing pollution and waste, and widespread violence afflicting women and children disproportionately.”

1. Knowing that a query asks that of God in you to reflect, to seek and to face truth, and that preparing queries arises out of worship, we ask for a process to begin to provide new queries for our times from SEYM, specifically to assist Friends in discerning how to engage with our concerns for peace and social order.
2. We ask for an SEYM workshop on proposing new queries, and discernment of queries to be asked.
3. We ask SEYM to send this forth to our monthly meetings, that each may begin to form queries connected to their conditions as to Peace and Social Concerns.
4. Matching Advices are needed; we are in need of an updated list of recommendations for life practices, for discernment [regarding our engagement in spending and support for wars, and regarding our commitment to greening our meetings]:
   • What are we buying?
   • What are we wearing?
   • What are we eating?
   • What are we doing?

In addition to the five minutes on the following pages, the Committee acknowledges receipt of the Historic Peace Churches report of the 1/29/2011 gathering in Sarasota, FL. We also acknowledge receipt of an undated minute from Inter-Mountain Yearly Meeting, a “Minute on Recent Immigration Legislation and Comprehensive Immigration Reform.” Our committee had insufficient time, although we appeared to be much in sympathy with it and as concerned as they are about legislation of which western Friends complain, and to which they pledge steadfast opposition. The committee also acknowledges receipt of the undated letter from Scott Breeze, a Quaker confined at the Federal Correctional Institution at Marianna, Florida, and urges its reading to the Plenary as if it were an epistle. Copies of these documents are included.

Peace and Social Concerns Committee

Yearly Meeting Minutes, April 23, 2011

Minute 1:

The Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Southeastern Yearly Meeting asks our Yearly Meeting to stop doing business with Bank of America and transfer its checking and any other accounts to a community-based bank or credit union that reinvests capital in the local economy. We also urge our Monthly Meetings to review their banking and other financial services to assure that Friends' capital is at work in our local communities. We believe that this is an important issue for Friends, in light of our strong tradition of socially responsible investment.

Minute 2:

The Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Southeastern Yearly Meeting asks our Yearly Meeting to review its printing and mailing expenditures with regard to paper use, production costs and postage costs. We request that documents be transmitted electronically in PDF format wherever practicable, and in particular that routine hard copy mailings be limited to documents addressed to our Members (and attenders) and Meetings. Hard copy mailing to organizations and individuals outside Southeastern Yearly Meeting shall be available only at the express request of the organization or individual.

Minute 3:

The Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Southeastern Yearly Meeting urges our Monthly Meetings and Worship Groups to become well informed about the work of these political and social action groups in the wider community, and to support their work to the fullest extent as Friends are led:

• Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty http://www.fadp.org/
• Amnesty International http://amnesty.org
• Coalition of Immokalee Workers http://ciw-online.org
• Jewish Voice for Peace http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
• Interfaith Worker Justice http://www.iwj.org/

Minute 4:

The Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Southeastern Yearly Meeting requests that SEYM name a representative to the annual Historic Peace Churches in Florida gathering, a conference attended by Mennonite, Brethren and Friends to share skills and information, and inform one another of our present activities in the sphere of peace and social order work. We request that Warren Hoskins, clerk of SEYM Peace and Social Concerns, be named as the initial representative to this body.

Minute 5:

The Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Southeastern Yearly Meeting unites with the Quaker Earthcare Witness Committee in its Minute on nuclear power.

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