Minutes of Meeting for Worship for Business

6 November 2003

Hamilton Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
www.quaker.ca/hamilton
quakers@hwcn.org

Present: Harriet Woodside, Don Woodside (clerk), Chanda Chevannes, Helen Paulin, Rex Barger, Helen Brink, Tamara Fleming, Darlene James, Beverly Shepard, Carol Leigh Wehking, Susan Wortman (recording clerk)

  1. Meeting began with open worship.

  2. The Minutes of October 5, 2003 were read and accepted with the following correction and addition:

  3. Matters Arising
    1. Dunford Bequest (Darlene)
      Darlene, who is our representative to Hamilton's Ecumenical Support Committee for Refugees, submitted a report (see attached) recommending where we might allocate funds from the Dunford Bequest. We agreed that we would direct the whole of the interest from the Dunford Bequest for this year (approximately $550) to the Columbian woman, a Convention refugee, referred to in the report, towards the goal of bringing her children into Canada. We ask Darlene to find out the total amount needed, in order to give individual Friends the option of contributing directly to this goal.

    2. Insulation Fund (Helen B.)
      HMM expressed the intention to insulate the Meeting House at a specially called meeting on August 8, 2001, and at a regular M4W4B (item5.1) on September 4, 2003. We were informed that the Roger's Trust would welcome an application from HMM for the balance of the funds required to insulate the Meeting House, over and above what we have accumulated in the Insulation Fund to date. We agreed it would be timely to make this application, which would include an update of the cost estimates for the job. Helen B. offered to organize the letter and estimates needed for this application. We will make every effort to get the application to the Roger's Trust for their fall meeting on November 15, 2003.
  4. Reports
    1. Canadian Yearly Meeting report was not available at this time.

    2. Report of the Clearness Committee for John Milton(Beverly)
      Beverly presented this report, which we accepted, and adopted the following minute:

      We extend our spiritual and moral support for John Milton in the important political work in which he is presently engaged. Since the beginning of August 2003 he has been actively and deeply involved in non-violent protest activity at the site of the proposed Red Hill Valley Expressway in Hamilton. While his activism is not on behalf of the Meeting, we spiritually unite with him in his efforts. He has made a strong commitment to non-violent activism both against the City of Hamilton's implementation of the Expressway and for the preservation of the Red Hill Creek Valley as a natural habitat. We warmly commend John's work to Friends in Hamilton Meeting with the faith that the Meeting will desire to keep itself updated as to the progress of the Red Hill Creek situation and that we will continue to offer John our support, both for his continued efforts in this leading, and for his concern to keep a healthy balance between the demands of a leading and the maintaining of a harmonious domestic life. We recognize that one cannot pursue something deeply and passionately without that having an effect on other parts of one's life. We ask Ministry and Council to offer John a Committee of Care, and encourage John to accept this offer.

  5. New Business
    1. We have received an invitation to be listed in the Hamilton Pride Pages as a Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered friendly space in their Resource Listings. We agreed to have our Meeting so listed.

    2. Canadian Yearly Meeting Minute on Anti-Terrorism Legislation (see attached)
      Monthly Meetings have been asked to read the CYM minute on Anti-Terrorism Legislation, and consider how we may wish to respond. We discussed several ideas and decided to schedule a potluck to consider these various suggestions. We will seek a resource person for this event to be held either Thursday, November 21, if Roy Adams is not available, or in January.

    3. Potlucks
      • Thursday, November 21 - either Human Rights and Employment with Roy Adams, or Anti-Terrorism Legislation, see 5.2

      • Wednesday, December 31 - New Year's Eve party - Don and Harriet offered to once again co-ordinate HMM's New Year's Eve party, and we accepted with thanks!

  6. Correspondence
    1. Canadian Yearly Meeting's Minute on Same-Sex Marriage
      HMM has previously minuted (some ten years ago) that we would consider a request from any couple who wished to marry. We ask Ministry and Council to consider this minute, and the current CYM minute, and reflect on how we wish to proceed.

    2. We received an email from CFSC acknowledging HMM's contribution to CFSC, doubled from 2002, and thanking us for this contribution.

    3. Friends United Meeting has invited Monthly Meetings to participate in their chain of prayer, known as "Bound in Love", where each Meeting agrees to pray for another Meeting. This letter will be posted on the bulletin board. Friends are invited to read this, and consider whether they have an interest in pursing this. If so, they can bring it to the attention of the Clerk.

    4. We have received a letter from the Hamilton Culture of Peace Network, asking if we would like to participate in an exploratory discussion with the goal to establish an informal alliance of different peace groups. Several members of HMM attended this meeting, and will continue to participate in this venture.

  7. Next Meeting for Worship for Business will be on Sunday, December 7, at 1:30pm.

  8. Meeting closed with open worship.

Minute of Record from Canadian Yearly Meeting on Same Sex Marriage

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick McCutcheon" 
To: "CYM Office" 
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 1:52 PM
Subject: Minute of Record on Same-Sex Marriage

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Hamilton!

The attached Minute of Record on Same-Sex Marriage was adopted 
by CYM on August 8, 2003. Friends felt strongly that it is 
important for us to speak out on this issue in a time when so 
much that is hurtful and unjust is being broadcast in the press. 
I am sending this out now in the hope that your Monthly Meetings 
and Worship Groups will be aware of its contents if it reaches 
your local press. If you have any questions, please contact Jo 
Vellacott ministryandcounsel-clerk@quaker.ca or myself clerk@quaker.ca.

In Friendship,
Rick McCutcheon
Clerk, CYM

A Minute of Record by Canadian Yearly Meeting

Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has laboured for many years over the issue of the recognition of the marriage of same-sex couples.

Friends have a long history of supporting human rights and witnessing against injustice. Individual Quakers have often provided leadership in movements for social change such as the abolition of slavery, civil rights movements, and equality for women. Many religious groups have already declared strong positions on this issue on both sides of the public debate.

For the right joining in marriage is the work of the Lord only, and not the priests or magistrates; for it is God's ordinance and not Man's; and therefore Friends cannot consent that they should join them together; for we marry none; it is the Lord's work, and we are but witnesses. [George Fox (1669)]

In a Quaker Meeting, couples whose marriages have been approved by a local Meeting marry each other in the presence of the community without officiating clergy. Our usual practice is only to approve the marriage of those couples where at least one of the partners has membership in our Religious Society.

Whether or not to support same-sex marriages is decided at the local Meeting level. Some Meetings have chosen to recognize marriage as open to both opposite and same-sex couples, and several have taken same-sex marriages under their care, even when these relationships were not recognized in law as marriages.

Our experiences and discernment on this issue have been partly shaped by the presence in our community of wonderful, loving, committed same-sex relationships. We have experience of couples in same-sex relationships that are bringing up children in the same loving way we would expect any family we know to do. "Love makes a family." We strongly object to statements by some religious groups that it is harmful to children to be brought up in same-sex families. Whether a family is a loving and supportive place, or is a harmful place to bring up children, does not depend upon the gender of the parents.

We support the right of religious groups (including individual Quaker Meetings) and clergy, to consent to or to refuse to perform same-sex marriages. We also support the right of same-sex couples to a civil marriage and the extension of the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples.

Approved by Canadian Yearly Meeting in session, August 8, 2003.

Minute of Record from Canadian Yearly Meeting on Anti-Terrorism Legislation

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick McCutcheon" 
To: "CYM Office" 
Cc: "Gale Wills" 
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2003 2:08 PM
Subject: CYM Item: Minute on Anti-Terrorism Legislation

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Hamilton and Duncan!

The days go by fast. It is now two weeks since we sent to you 
a copy of the Same-Sex Marriage Minute that was approved by CYM
in session this summer. We hope that you have found it of use to
your Monthly Meeting or Worship Group.  Today we write to you 
about another weighty Minute that also was approved this summer 
-- our Minute on Anti-Terrorism Legislation.  The Yearly Meeting
was deeply moved by information received regarding the grave 
effects on civil liberties of anti-terrorism legislation proposed
 or in effect in Canada and elsewhere. During the Tuesday morning
session we heard from Roch Tasse of the International Civil Liberties 
Monitoring Group based in Montreal, after which we had a deep 
silence filled with rich sharing of testimony and concern by Friends 
present. 

We were united in our approval of the attached minute and ask that 
you -- individually and in your Monthly Meetings and Worship Groups -- 
take up this concern. The minute reflects the historic and present 
day experience of Friends' struggle for human rights and social 
justice. Although we sensed that Friends themselves are potentially 
threatened, both individually and as an organization, we recognized 
that Friends have never allowed fears of persecution to keep us from 
speaking truth that affects all of humankind.

Please read this minute in your Monthly Meetings and Worship Groups 
and give prayerful consideration to how you might respond. CFSC is 
taking responsibility for providing coordination and assistance to 
Canadian Friends' efforts to speak out on this matter. They have 
prepared an excellent briefing paper on the Anti-Terrorism Legislation 
which can be found on their web-site. If you cannot get to the 
web-site, contact the CFSC office directly for a copy. Watch for 
further information and mailings from them. 

Also attached to this message is our letter to the Prime Minister  
(copied to all MPs and appropriate persons holding public office). 
We will contact Friends' organizations in the United States to 
advise them of our concern and to let them know that our prayers 
are with them.  (Ed. note: the letter to the Prime Minister has 
not been included in this newsletter.)

In Friendship,
Rick McCutcheon and Gale Wills
Clerk and co-Clerk, CYM

Statement Regarding Canada's Anti-Terrorism Legislation

Approved by Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) during its annual sessions, 2-9 August 2003 at Montebello, QC.

We have more than one reason to concern ourselves with the anti-terrorism legislation now in process. There is an historic and continuing connection between our belief in that of God in everyone, and our traditional work to ensure the equal treatment of all persons. Secondly, as a people engaged in publishing Truth, Friends themselves have experienced their share of arbitrary arrest, and detention without due process. Lastly, state legislation, because it deals with our relationships with one another and with the social frameworks that support those relationships, is a spiritual concern appropriate to Friends.

We believe that the new Canadian anti-terrorism legislation was developed to appease the anxieties of the present US Administration rather than to answer any evident need within Canada; and that pre-existing Canadian and international law was already more than sufficient for purposes of reasonable security.

The new legislation, both through intention and poor drafting, is likely to have damaging effects. It can be used to criminalize dissent. It disproportionately threatens those already vulnerable as members of minority groups: immigrants, naturalized Canadians, refugees, Muslims and Indigenous peoples. By the threat of unjust surveillance, harassment, deportations, wrongful conviction, denial of charitable status, and seizure of assets, it can hinder and discourage the humanitarian work and social witness to which Quakers and many others are called by the Spirit. Of particular concern is the lack of due process for the accused, and the lack of adequate accountability on the part of those given authority under the legislation.

We ask ourselves, "At what point do people lose the power to challenge their government's misuse of authority?" Learning from history, we must have the courage to act despite fear, and call our government to account while it is still possible to do so. We approve, therefore, that Canadian Yearly Meeting (CYM) undertake the following actions:

1.The Clerk of CYM write of our concern to the Canadian Government; and also to Monthly Meetings asking Friends to take up this concern individually and together;

2.Ask Canadian Friends Service Committee (CFSC) to undertake work on this concern for CYM.

We record our concern regarding the particular weight upon our neighbours in the United States who are resisting both infringement on their civil liberties and an encroaching vision of their country as an all-powerful global empire. We hold them in the Light.