Baltimore Yearly Meeting Proposed Queries on Diversity

Does your vision of a just society include people living their lives without fear of discrimination based on who they are, what they believe, and whom they love?

Are we willing to be in communion with each other, open to our differences yet secure in the one Spirit that calls us all to be Friends?

Do my decisions reflect the voices of people of color, people of different sexual identities, people of different ages and economic conditions? Do I take the risks that right action demands?

Do I seek out and listen to perspectives that promote equal access, inclusion, and welcome for people of all cultures and backgrounds?

How do we work toward creating a community of different people, rather than being a community that just lets different people in?

Do we take the time to see what we want to become as people and as a global community, and do we humbly acknowledge that we have some work to do?

 Diversity: Voices

By getting beyond our differences, we dare to believe that we can bring about a Kingdom of God on earth, where we transcend our differences, not ignoring our disagreements, but finding a way to go through them and beyond our fears. We recognize that this is not easy work, but have faith that this is our work, and it is work that we cannot rightly lay down.

Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Concerns (FLGBTQC) 2007

Each of us inevitable,

Each of us limitless—each of us with his or her right

upon the earth,

Each of us allow’d the eternal purports of the earth,

Each of us here as divinely as any is here.   Walt Whitman, 1900