PJ&E Interest Groups
Interest Group Discussions on Peace & Justice and Earthcare
LEYM is going to be graced with another full season of informative presentations and discussions organized by Friends interested in Peace and Justice and our Environment. Our plan is to host monthly Zoom Sessions on the 2nd Saturday of each month in the afternoon, generally alternating the theme each month between issues related to the Environment and those more focused on Peace and Justice. Rather than offering multiple presentations each time as we’ve been doing, this round we’ll focus instead on one main topic each month, hoping to attract Friends from across LEYM who might want to learn more about said topic or share current activities in their region related to it. We’d appreciate your help spreading the word about the upcoming events with your members and attenders. Friends with ideas for future workshops in this series can share their thoughts with Joann Neuroth [jneuroth@gmail.com] for Peace and Social Justice themed sessions and with Richard Tucker [rptucker17@gmail.com] for sessions focused on Earthcare and Environmental Issues.
Note: If you are an event organizer from one of our affiliated groups and want to get your event onto our calendar and/or you are seeking Zoom hosting for an event, please visit the LEYM Events Planning page to get started.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Saturday, June 11 2:00-3:30pm
What can we say together?
Friends are invited to join us on Saturday, June 11th from 2-3:30pm in consideration of anti-racist work and minutes from across the Yearly Meeting – we’ll read what has been recorded, seek to pull out common threads, and identify patterns. We’ll bring a summary of this work to the annual meeting, where we will further it with prayerful discernment – seeing what we might be led to collectively both in faith and practice.
Here’s the Zoom Link to join in.
Zoom Meeting ID: 826 7274 6215
Passcode: leympje
PREVIOUS SESSIONS
Saturday, April 9
Michigan’s First People’s Social and Environmental Justice Campaigns
A spokesperson from the Anishinaabek Caucus discussed their environmental campaigns, including opposition to the Enbridge Line 5 across the Mackinac Strait, other legislative campaigns for clean water, and the campaign to protect native species of plants (manoomin or wild rice).
Stacey Ettawageshik of Uniting Three Fires Against Violence presented the campaign to stop sexual assault against women in Indian Country, including by workmen in natural gas pipeline camps.
Small group discussions followed with time for a brief review of Quaker resources for supporting our Indigenous neighbors’ justice campaigns.
Saturday, March 12
Food Security, Food Justice
The speakers provided an informational overview of the larger issues around food sovereignty, food security, food justice, etc., before discussing concrete strategies for advocacy and action, including community-based as well as broad-based movements seeking to ameliorate food insecurity and/or effect systemic change. Here are the slides used in the presentation.
PRESENTERS
Timothy White, Advocacy Manager, Mid-Ohio Food Collective
Ilana Warner, North Columbus Friends Meeting; Intern, Cleveland Food Bank
Hallie Carrine, Grassroots Gov’t Relations Specialist, Mid-Ohio Food Collective
Useful Links Shared During Session
Michigan Bill Search
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/
Pennsylvania General Assembly
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/
Food Bank Council of Michigan
https://www.fbcmich.org/
Feeding Pennsylvania Network
https://www.feedingpa.org/
Food and Nutrition Service USDA
https://www.fns.usda.gov/ – recipes and other suggestions for fresh food can be found here too
Pittsburgh Food Bank Recipes
https://pittsburghfoodbank.org/recipes/ – Pittsburgh food bank was also very much on the fore-front of recipe development with items typically found in food distribution!
Root Cause Coalition – Focus on Health Equity
https://www.rootcausecoalition.org/
Second Harvest Food Bank Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/secondharvestfoodbank/
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Michigan’s Anishinaabe People’s Environmental and Social Justice Campaigns
For February, the Interest Group session was offered as part of the Green Pastures Quarterly Meeting Winter Program. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the program as originally planned was adapted and shortened, but a rich sharing still occurred. Andrea Pierce of the Anishinaabek Caucus joined Friends for worship-sharing on our connections to First Nations peoples and concerns, and we reviewed resources for learning about and supporting our Indigenous neighbors’ justice campaigns.
Saturday, Jan 8, 2022
Learnings and Hopes for Anti-Racism Work
Our January LEYM Interest Group turned our attention to a Peace and Social Justice topic. LEYM peace and justice advocates exchanged information about our learnings and hopes for anti-racism work in 2022. We shared examples of activities done by various Monthly Meetings and did some exercises to explore microaggressions together and how people are working to notice and combat them.
Learning Resources Shared
Teenagers Discuss Microaggressions and Racism (video link)
Your Black Friend (animation – video link)
Interrupting Microaggressions Guide (pdf document)
MTV Decoded Video Series (Short, sometimes humorous, videos exploring topics related to bias and racism. Eight seasons now available online.)
Saturday, Dec 11, 2021
Coffee and Climate Chat – 2021 Earthcare Actions Among LEYM Friends
Wondering what other Quakers in Lake Erie Yearly Meeting have done to care for the environment in 2021? Hearing about the efforts of others can give you new ideas and encourage you and your meeting to keep doing this important work in 2022. The pandemic did not mean that the urgency of working to mitigate climate change and promote environmental justice was lessened, and we know we have work to do.
Friends brought a cup of coffee and joined an informal and informative chat. We shared stories of what Friends in our meeting or worship groups have been doing to care for the Earth in 2021.
Saturday, November 13, 2021
Healthcare, Healing and Anti-Racist Standards – LEYM Peace and Justice Session
In this interactive presentation (see video recording below) we had the opportunity to understand how racism impacts the healthcare setting; how anti-racist standards prevent racism in the healthcare setting and beyond; and how we can employ anti-racist standards in our everyday lives to promote advocacy, activism, and healing.
Our Knowledgeable Presenters were;
Valencia P. Walker, MD, MPH (She/Hers/Ella)
Associate Chief Diversity & Health Equity Officer
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Associate Division Chief for Health Equity & Inclusion | Division of Neonatology
Vice Chair, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Department of Pediatrics | The Ohio State University College of Medicine
Rev. Carrie Finegan, M.Div., BCC, ACPE Certified Educator
Director Of Pastoral Care
Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Saturday, October 9 2021
The 3rd Battle for Lake Erie – LEYM Environment Session
This online LEYM Interest Group session (see video recording below) was presented on October 9th, 2021 by Mike Ferner, coordinator of Lake Erie Advocates. The Zoom presentation provided a close up look at the causes of pollution in western Lake Erie and some of the efforts underway to address it. Slides from the session are available here. Mike has been a Toledo activist for decades. He is a member of Veteran’s For Peace and has served on city council and run for mayor. Mike’s home is along the shore of Lake Erie and he sees the pollution every day. Learn more at the Lake Erie Advocates website – http://www.lakeerieadvocates.org
May 1, 2021 Session Topics
| Session Topics | Discussion Leaders | Meeting |
|---|---|---|
| 1) How to Make Your (Meeting) House Carbon Neutral The presentation will provide an overview on the definition of carbon neutrality and how Friends Meeting houses can work towards and ultimately achieve carbon neutrality as part of our planetary stewardship. The IPCC (United Nations) and many cities, businesses and NGOs have called for reaching carbon neutrality but in fact we ultimately need to start reducing CO2 in atmosphere (drawdown). Meeting Houses produce greenhouse gases (GHG) by combustion of fossil fuel (Scope 1), by use of electricity largely made off site by burning fossil fuels (Scope 2) and by purchase of food, consumer goods and transportation for members to get to Meeting (Scope 3). If we can replace Scope 1 and 2 emissions by use of renewable energy we will bring down our emission of CO2 by well over 50%. John Williams (Ann Arbor Meeting) will describe how they have been working towards this goal over the last 5 years. He will describe their efforts to conserve energy, purchase clean electricity, educate members, and establish an Environmental Improvement Fund to financially support the projects. Dave Goeddeke (Detroit Meeting) will describe how they are planning to build a new Meeting House and to make it as low energy as possible and generate some energy from solar panels. Others attending will be given the opportunity to present what they are considering or doing as a meeting or as individuals. Much of what is discussed will also be relevant to individual houses. | John Williams | Ann Arbor |
| 2) Gerrymandering – Reforms passed in 2015 & 2018 by the people of Ohio The program will look at gerrymandering, reforms passed in 2015 and 2018 by the people of Ohio, new rules for drawing districts in 2021 and grass root efforts for accountability and transparency of the Ohio Redistricting Commission/General Assembly. | Paul Helbling | Broadmead |
| 3) Sexism is so Yesterday – or is it? Becoming anti-sexist What is the impact for you of internalized masculine images of God and male religious authority? How does this affect both male and female spirituality? What is the effect of patriarchal culture on Quaker practice? What does it mean to be anti-sexist? Was the God you grew up with male? How might your faith and life be different if you grew up with a feminine face of God? Is exploring this valuable for you today? What does it mean to you to be anti-sexist? Are men and women equally represented in all areas of our Meeting (e.g. committees, vocal ministry, care for children, etc.)? Please tell us your story. | Ann Sprague, Ruth Ann Wilhelm, and Joel Ottenbreit | Detroit |
Topics from Feb 6, 2021 Sessions
| Session Topics | Discussion Leader(s) | Meeting |
|---|---|---|
| 1) Quaker Values in Business How Quaker business owners integrate their faith into their work growing and maintaining business. | Susan Loucks | Pittsburgh MM |
| 2) Bridging Divisions The division in our country runs deep. How can we bridge the divide, and help move our country (and the world) towards peace? | Karen Tibbals | Rahway-Plainfield MM |
| 3) Decolonizing & Angelic Troublemakers Quakers seeking to learn and act upon the truth of Quaker history with Indigenous Peoples. Handouts: Session Slides and Social Impact Assessment Principles guide | Beverly Ward | Tampa MM & Deland WG |
| 4) Abolition as a Quaker practice In this breakout session we will talk about prison abolition, how it connects to the Quaker Peace Testimony, and how to work towards abolition in our Meetings and lives. | Megan Mueller Johnson & Megan Wilson | Ann Arbor MM |
Topics from December 2020 Session
| December 5th Session Topics | Discussion Leader | Meeting |
|---|---|---|
| 1) Anti-racism Red Cedar Friends Meeting is finding the act of minuting our collective intention to become an anti-racist faith community to be deeply helpful in stimulating our exploration of next steps, and nudging us into new discernment about what exactly that means to us all. Lee and Carolyn will discuss what steps were helpful in getting to this point, and what questions are being raised. Other meetings are invited to share their process and learnings as well. | Carolyn Lejuste and Lee Sayles | Red Cedar |
| 2) Prison Abolition, Defunding the Police and Related Issues Note: Topic POSTPONED TO A LATER SESSION | ||
| 3) Letter Writing as a Witness In September, Red Cedar undertook a “letter writing witness” patterned after Amnesty International’s letter-writing campaigns. In fulfillment of our minuted intention to “notice, mark, mourn and protest” acts of racial injustice when we see them, we are now supporting individual Friends to write letters in response to news reports of unarmed Black people being murdered by police across the country. Come hear what we’ve learned and consider whether/how others in LEYM might want to join us. | Joann Neuroth | Red Cedar |
| 4) Climate Change and Social Inequality (DEC 5 SESSION IS FULL) We will examine how low-income communities, people of color, indigenous people, people with disabilities, older or young people, and women can be more susceptible to risks posed by climate impacts. A discussion will also focus on the fact that victims of climate change have disproportionately low responsibility for causing the emissions responsible for climate change. | Joel Ottenbreit | Detroit |
| 5) Open Youth Discussion Youth will provide their individual perspectives on politics, the environment, and other issues of concern | Jonah & Ellerie Brownfain | Birmingham |
| 6) Foundations for Many Generations Inspired by Isaiah 58:6-12 as we endeavor to be/come “repairers of the breach”, this circle invites listening to Spirit’s leadings, naming how our concerns are linked to one another, and bridging generations. | Mey Hasbrook | Kalamazoo |
Questions can be directed to Joel Ottenbreit at joelottenbreit at gmail.com
