Testimonies & Concerns Issues
11/18/ 2006 Epistle from Called Session on Peace
To Our Brothers and Sisters Around the World:
Greetings in Love from a called session of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers). We bring you good news of a process beginning with us to share the transforming power of God's Love. Peace is possible – it is possible to end all forms of violence. We invite all who read this to gather in worship and prayer to test how God is calling us to live a testimony of peace more fully in the world.
We see how violence tears apart individuals, families, communities, nations, and the world. We acknowledge that our own experience of this is most often from a distance. We humbly seek the leading of the Spirit in a renewed engagement with all our neighbors. We want to move beyond the comfort of our safe meetings and communities to reach out to a suffering world.
If we are to move forward in the way of Peace, we need to move forward in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We must choose not to do this by ourselves. We must hear God's call to us to share our ministry beyond our Meeting house walls. We must actively seek also to witness to those who do not share our views. We need to do this because we want to share a vision of the Kingdom of God which we experienced in worship today.
We believe that Peace begins with each of us through personal accountability, responsibility, and witness. But we can not stop there. We must love one another. We must work for justice and nonviolent solutions to conflict.
We rejoice that we are being led to a new commitment to Peace. We know that we have a lot to learn about how to turn conflict into an opportunity for healing. We commit ourselves to the spiritual foundation of our testimony which is the transforming authority of Love. We have been called to reclaim the spiritual roots of our testimony as it was first witnessed by early Friends. Scripture told them and tells us still: Go you into the world to share the good news with all you meet.
To our brothers and sisters across the world in all faith communities, in fact to everyone regardless of your perspectives, we send you these greetings of Love. We invite you to join us in prayer and a discovery of personal and corporate action. We ask your help to find ways to heal the wounds that divide us and to learn together how we might end all forms of violence and coercion.
Signed on behalf of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Thomas Swain, Clerk