The Ad Hoc Committee on Race and Racism has been researching the history of our meeting through a racial lens. We will present our findings on Saturday, August 24, in the community room at the Meetinghouse. Coffee beginning at 9:30; program from 10:00 to 11:30. This is the second of three educational programs intended to help us discern ways forward.
We, the members of the Richmond (VA) Friends Meeting are heartbroken and stricken with horror and grief at the recent renewed eruption of violence in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. We call for an immediate ceasefire by both Israel and Hamas, the prompt release by Hamas of all hostages, and the release of all uncharged prisoners by Israel. We call on the U.S. to urge Israel to expedite the flow of humanitarian aid to relieve the tremendous suffering that has been created in Gaza with the immediate provision of food, shelter, water, and medicine. We strongly urge the United States to no longer provide Israel with weapons or funding for weapons.
As Quakers, we believe that each life is sacred, and we know that the use of violence as a means of settling conflict is unacceptable and leads to further violence, which we see happening around the region.
We strongly condemn Hamas’ horrific deadly October attacks on Israeli civilians, the inhumane treatment of civilians, and the taking of hostages, many of whom are still being held and are in danger. We also condemn the ongoing unrestrained and violent response by Israel in its siege of Gaza, which has left tens of thousands of civilians, including elderly, women, and children, dead or wounded and caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. People are suffering, dying, and being displaced in Gaza as a preventable humanitarian crisis worsens. Also, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are increasingly endangered by escalated violence by settlers and the military.
We hold in our hearts and in the Light all those in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and beyond, who grieve and mourn the deaths of their family and friends. We hold in the Light those who await the return of their loved ones who are being held by Hamas or who are held in Israeli prison without charges or trial. This ongoing violence continues to rip the hearts of those who grieve and leads to fear and hatred of the “other.” We condemn Antisemitism and Islamophobia and their accompanying rhetoric which dehumanizes the “other.”
We further call for Israelis and Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank to undertake a meaningful dialogue, with the support of international powers including the US. All must use every available resource to support a diplomatic rather than military resolution to the conflict - a resolution that prioritizes safety for all Israelis and Palestinians and which accords equal human rights to the Palestinians and respect for all.
We ask that Friends hold in the Light this urgent concern for peace and, if you are so led, to join us in calling for what we have set forth in this Minute.*
*Thank you to Virginia Beach Monthly Meeting for the template used for this Minute.
Approved at Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, May 19, 2024
Richmond Friends Meeting recognizes that inequality and injustice on race are deeply rooted in our society. Our faith community continues to deliberatively examine this cruel history and to face the on-going realities of systemic racism. We are committed to work with other groups who promote racial healing and seek to dismantle some aspect of structural racism.
We stand with others in calling upon Virginia Union University, an HBCU (Historically Black College and University), to abandon plans to demolish Richmond Community Hospital and instead explore plans to restore and repurpose this building.
Richmond Community Hospital stands as a witness to the harsh reality of segregation that necessitated its construction when Jim Crow laws prevented black citizens from being treated in white hospitals. This brick building also stands as a monument to the struggles and triumphs of the people who came together to care for each other. Historic restoration of this 1932 Art Deco structure is the best way to honor this legacy of determination.
Virginia Union University plans to raze the building for parking and apartments. An unspecified offer to “memorialize” the structure has been offered. The Historic Richmond Foundation has twice offered to convene a group of engineers and architectural historic preservation specialists to independently assess the state of the structure, but Virginia Union has not replied to their offer.
While we appreciate the financial challenges now facing VUU, we are called to add our voice to the chorus calling for preservation of the Richmond Community Hospital building.
Approved at Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business, May 19, 2024
Adult Spiritual Education invites all members and attenders, those new to Quakerism as well as seasoned Friends, to learn more about our history. Mark your calendars and plan on joining us on Saturday, June 22 at 9:30. Our topic will be Quaker History: Evolution and Revolution. Kelly Kennedy will get us started with a Zoom-easy introductory activity. Dan Shaw will cover early history from the 17th to the 19th centuries, and Scott Selby will address Virginia and Richmond history.
While no reading in advance is needed, some may want to brush up on Quaker history in preparation. Attached is an excerpt from Faith and Practice focusing on Quaker history. Feel free to read all, part, or none of it.
This session is ALL on Zoom. Please look for the link in the coming days as well as the day before June 22. We look forward to seeing many of you on the morning of June 22nd!
Please mark your calendar for the first of three educational programs to be sponsored by the ad hoc Committee on Race and Racism as we move forward on developing an action/implementation plan for Richmond Friends Meeting.
Ana Edwards, a public historian and faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University who has been in the forefront of efforts to build a memorial park in Shockoe Bottom, site of one of the nation’s largest slave markets, will be our guest speaker. Edwards is chair of the Sacred Ground Reclamation Project and a founding member of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice, and Equality, which focuses on prison reform, education, and social justice.
She will speak and answer questions on Saturday, May 11, from 10 - 11:30 am at the Meetinghouse with light refreshments to follow. The program will be available on Zoom and in person.
Edwards subject is “Progress and Pushback: The Challenges of Changing a Race-Based Society.” Here is its description:
Richmond was founded as another trading center during Virginia's colonizing era and began to come of age as a southern political center following the Revolutionary War. Slave labor and race-driven social policies were well established and controversial enough by the start of the new nation in 1783 to be hotly debated at the legislative level--even as Black people hoped and struggled for freedom--from then until slavery's abolition in 1865. This session will use the event known as Gabriel's Rebellion to explore Black life and aspirations in the new republic's entrenched slave society, and the impact of this era on life today.