Listening Session: What should our Faith & Practice say about Prejudice and Discrimination
Sunday 10/11, 12:15-1:30(ish) hybrid on FFM’s meeting link
Meeting ID: 856 9975 4686
Passcode: 105891
The Faith and Practice of Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends is a document containing statements that express our faith and how we practice it in our lives today. With continuing revelation and new life experiences, our faith and our practice evolve.
BYM’s Faith & Practice Committee is currently working on revisions to section I.B.18 Prejudice and Discrimination, and they seek our input. They ask that we conduct a listening session and then share what we feel our Faith & Practice needs to say.
Queries
The Committee has queries to suggest, though Friends are free to consider other queries as led. See how they speak to you and consider what you feel led to share. Do not feel you have to respond to all the queries, but they would especially appreciate your thoughts on the last one.
For the queries that follow below, please consider:
- What do we want the Faith & Practice to say with authenticity and integrity?
- What do we say about how we put our faith into practice regarding the following concerns?
- What would we want a newcomer to read?
- As you look at the differences between the (revised) 1988 section “Prejudice and Discrimination” and the 2013 Resource section “Diversity,” are there pieces that speak to you and/ or pieces that concern you? Why?
- How do we address issues of discrimination and other forms of oppression, both historically and going forward?
- How do we create a community where everyone feels a sense of “belonging” or “connection?”How would doing this deepen and strengthen our faith communities?
- How do we help people in our communities feel appreciated for all that they bring?
- How do we address issues that make people feel excluded or less than whole?
- How do we learn from and treasure our differences?
- Finally, Where in the Faith & Practice does a discussion of prejudice, discrimination, and systematic oppression fit? Under Equality? Under Peace & Justice? Under Community? Does this discussion get its own section because of its cross-cutting nature? Where? Take a look at the tables of contents and the indexes of the (revised) 1988 and 2013 documents to see where they have been put in those documents.