17 November 2001

The Permanent Board of New England Yearly Meeting met in worship and concern of how to faithfully respond to the destruction and aftermath of the events of September 11th. We heard the November 11th letter from the General Committee of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and approved endorsing the following parts of their letter. We join with Friends across this country and around the world in seeking strong and relevant responses to these acts.

We grieve with those who lost loved ones at the Pentagon, at the World Trade Center, and in the aircraft that crashed in a Pennsylvania field. And in our grief, we feel a new empathy with those who have lost loved ones in the terror and violence in the Middle East, in Northern Ireland, in the African Great Lakes region, in Central America, in Southeast Asia, in the Balkans, and in places all over the world. We grieve also for the new casualties who are being added daily in Afghanistan.

We are witness to the bewilderment and new-found vulnerability of many in our country who have been isolated from the world's realities and wonder why the United States is hated by so many in the world. We believe that true justice addresses all nations and individuals, including our own behavior as a nation and a people.

In our lives and daily work we feel deeply connected with our country, with all its foibles, its remarkable accomplishments, and its amazing potential. We seek a similar connection with our brothers and sisters in every nation of the world. The daily suffering that some of them experience due to hunger, injustice, hopelessness, and terror renews our commitment to a right sharing of the world's resources, to the nonviolent resolution of conflicts, and to the full participation of all people in decisions affecting their welfare.

We oppose war. War is the ultimate rejection of God's creation. We have living experience of the transforming power of nonviolent response to evil. We support alternative actions that our government, with the international community, can take to respond to the attacks and to prevent further violence. We believe that the sources of the violence that hurt us all can be exposed and transformed through creative, courageous, and unexpected acts that heal human relationships, and untangle the deep roots of this conflict.

We stand in a different place than we did before September 11, with our hearts torn and our eyes opened in new ways to the realities of the world. Yet we stand in the same place we have for hundreds of years, seeking peace and justice through peaceful means as God would have it for us all.

The body of Friends gathered at Permanent Board November 17, 2001 affirms that there are many and various ways that we understand the Quaker Peace Testimony, especially at this time of extreme acts of violence. We are grateful for many Friends who are: seeking ways to continue or enter into dialogue with Muslim and Jewish communities locally and internationally to increase mutual understanding; raising money and materials for relief work; called to articulate pacifist views in our schools and communities; seeking the meaning of our historic peace witness in this new situation. We affirm that our true security comes not from swords and shields but from resting in the abundant love of God and committing ourselves anew to live under the constant guidance of God. We are confident that God's Spirit will lead us forward in joyful hope, no matter what material circumstances surround us.