On Saturday, February 21st from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM, Members of the Menallen Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers) gathered in the Square in Gettysburg, PA for one hour of Silent Public Worship. We were joined by Friends from other Meetings, as well as by clergy and congregants from other Faith traditions, for a total of over two dozen worshippers. Under the auspices of the American Friends Service Committee, we gathered to bear witness and to show resistance to growing authoritarian actions in our country, especially as these are focused upon our most marginalized and vulnerable neighbors, most particularly innocent immigrants who continually seem to be the objects of vitriolic rhetoric and oppressive state-sanctioned violence.
We are called as Quakers to show Love for our neighbors without exception, and we celebrate the Light within each and every one of us. This includes those with whom we disagree, regardless of how passionately; we are even called to Love those who hate us. Therefore, we emphasized to all gathered in the Light on Saturday that our Vigil was a Worship Service of Love and Support for the immigrants amongst us. It was not a political protest against hate; instead, it was a public and worshipful act of Radical Love.
As much as we certainly revile unjust and inhumane policies of the government targeting immigrants, we are not called to hate those who devise and implement such evil, however much we rightly condemn the resulting vile acts. Ours is a Faith of Love, rather than one of hate, and so we came together in a positive gathering of this Love rather than in a negative reaction to hate. We felt called to show public Love and support for those currently vilified and progressively more marginalized by inhumane policies and horrific violence against—as well as growing immoral detention of—our least powerful brothers and sisters. After all, in the Gospels Christ explicitly commands us to show unqualified Love for our most vulnerable neighbors and to offer tangible support to the oppressed (Matthew 25:40, etc.). Leviticus also unequivocally demands that we love the immigrants living amongst us (19: 33-34).
There are no exceptions to these commandments.
Our hope is that our presence gave hope to all who saw us. We sought to show that one must make the conscious decision to choose to act in Love and to resist against hate. It was likewise our purpose to remind everyone who witnessed our Worship that each of us has powerful moral obligations to everyone else in our world, regardless of what they look like, what language they speak, or where they were born. Friends revere and seek “That of God”—what we call the Light of Divine Spirit—in each and every Soul. Quakers therefore are called to Love everyone equally and without reservation. Quakers thus are by definition both Pacifists and are called to work actively for just treatment of all without exception. A central tenet of our Faith is that the manner by which we best may manifest that we Love the Lord Our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength (in the terms of the Gospel), is to Love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31).
As we noted Saturday before settling into Silence for an hour of Worship in the Manner of Friends:
“There is a lot of intolerance, hate, and violence in our country today, and much of it has been focused upon our immigrant neighbors, who are least able to defend themselves, legally, politically, or physically. We stand for them and we stand with them.”
By Chris Fee
Member, Menallen Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Co-Clerk, Northeast Regional Group of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)