San Jose Friends Meeting

Getting in the Holiday Spirit? Please join for some Cheer.

75 years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the weapons that led to such vast destruction are #stillhere and so are the survivors. . As Friends, one of our shared values is peace. As we commemorate this day, we hope you will join us in committing to peaceful action. You can learn more at: https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org

San Jose Friends Meeting supports BLACK Lives Matter

Christina will be representing our Meeting for a year of service in Portland Oregon!

After our last Meeting for Worship on Sunday, members of our meeting discussed the book "White Fragility: Why it's So Hard For White People to Talk About Race" by Robin Diangelo. This was the beginning of a continuing conversation we will be having about white fragility, privilege, and racism in our community. You can purchase the book from your local Book Seller or by using this link from bookshop.com: https://bit.ly/2NlLd1I... Robin Diangelo also has a huge bank of resources you can find on her website, to help continue the conversation: https://robindiangelo.com/resources/

The Live Oak Friends Meeting in Salinas, published a Letter to the Editor in the Friday edition of The San Jose Mercury News. They are calling on leaders of all faiths to demand substantial reforms to policing. You can read the article here: https://mercurynews-ca.newsmemory.com/

Today, we would like to invite you to celebrate Juneteenth! "Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day that Union Army General Gordon Granger entered the city of Galveston, Texas and informed the last slave holding state that indeed all of the enslaved peoples were freed. This was 2+ years after the Emancipation Proclamation. 1865 was also the year that the Thirteenth amendment to the US constitution was passed." - Paula Champagne Quakers have a history of supporting th...e abolition of slavery. We invite fellow Quakers, and members of the community, to closely examine the legacy of slavery that still exists today and actively fight against it. Below we have included a link for Juneteenth celebrations throughout the Bay Area, including virtual options. https://www.nbcbayarea.com//event-round-up-junete/2312246/

June is Pride Month. Work on the Quaker tract "Towards A Quaker View of Sex" began in 1956. It was the first religious text to positively explore same-sex relationships, stating: It is the nature and quality of a relationship that matters The same criteria seem to us to apply whether a relationship is heterosexual or homosexual." https://www.quaker.org.uk/blog/quakers-and-same-sex-marriage In 1957, eleven British Friends began meeting to explore problems and perspectives on human sexuality, particularly homosexuality. They produced Towards a Quaker View of Sex in 1963, the first report by a religious body that espoused a positive understanding of homosexuality. http://exhibits.lgbtran.org///towards-a-quaker-view-of-sex

As we continue to see police and citizen violence on black and brown folks, most recently with the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, we ask what is our work- what is my work? This violence and white supremacy is not new, it must end. Our silence maintains a status quo which does not allow us to honor or value that of God in every person- which Quakers understand as a spiritual truth. We stand in solidarity with all oppressed people and particularl...y Black people whose oppression is at times very visible and other times taken for granted. We invite you to do your own work, to identify your own unconscious racial biases, bring this work to your community, and spiritual communities, and to call for justice for George Floyd. Below you will find links to support the BLM movement with petitions and places to donate: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ Additionally, here are ways to contact our city council members to make your voices heard for change in the City of San Jose: https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-gov/departments/city-council

Memorial Day thoughts: "Some spiritual traditions teach that we all share in each other’s suffering, and I can’t think of a more fitting time for practicing this teaching than with our veterans on Memorial Day. Rita Nakashima Brock, who works with veterans and moral injury, spoke about her move from pacifism to active support of vets: 'whether or not I agree with an administration and the wars it chooses to fight, I feel that as a citizen, I have a responsibility to restore ...the people who’ve fought, to return them to our communities. It’s nothing wrong with them individually. It’s what we owe them as a society.' There it is, that shining notion of common suffering and the responsibility we share tor each out and help everyone come home... So, this Memorial Day every Memorial Day consider reaching across the civilian-military divide to bear witness to the unseen burdens our veterans carry. To the veteran standing next to you at the barbecue, picnic, or parade, reach across that divide, shake their hand and gently ask, Who are you remembering today? It’s one way we can let them know: We want to help you come all the way home." https://onbeing.org//elizabeth-heaney-the-unseen-burden-/

Sunday morning, The New York Times published a front page article of 1,000 names of of people who have died because of COVID-19. 1% of total people. In following many other Monthly and Yearly Meetings, we will be having Meeting with Attention to Healing on Tuesday at 1:30PM to honor the 100,000 people who have perished. Zoom details can be found in the event. We hope to see you there! https://www.nytimes.com//coronavirus-new-york-times-front-

"As for Ehrhardt, the Vietnam veteran, was it possible to gather with God over Zoom? Let me think for a minute before I speak, he said. We sat in silence. I think so, he continued. Most of us are quiet enough to hear the gentle voice. Recently, The New York Times published an article about the Quaker/Zoom experience. Join us this First Day (Sunday), to see how Meetings for Worship have changed and grown over Zoom. Link in the Event Page. ... https://www.nytimes.com//05/22/a/quaker-meeting-zoom.html