Committees
Peace and Social Justice
Ministry and Care
Our members’ commitment “to nonviolence, peace and seeing that of God in all of us” leads the Peace & Social Concerns Committee to find ways to counteract injustice. Two or three Friends typically seek the committee’s help in seasoning their leading, and P&SC then recommends items for the Meeting to study—these concerns have ranged from all forms of systemic racism in local schools & prisons, or the weaponization of antisemitism to our more recent examination of ways to support local immigrants.
The most sustained concern began in 2019 when the Meeting embraced American Friends Service Committee’s “No Way to Treat a Child” campaign. The Peace & Social Concerns committee provided leadership for our Meeting to encourage Friends throughout New England to seek justice for Palestinians.
Friends' peace testimony from 1660, is the root of our opposition to war in all of its forms: “We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons for any end or under any pretense whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world.” Toward that end the committee has nurtured weekly peace vigils in Hardwick and Newport against genocide in Palestine and subsequent wars.
The Ministry and Care (M&C) committee is the quiet, beating heart of the NEK Meeting. Since its inception in 2020, M&C has held the wellbeing of everyone in the Meeting by holding Friends’ pastoral care needs in many ways. We navigated from in-person to virtual Meetings for Worship during the pandemic; we have centered Meeting in a variety of ways, cooperatively working through challenges that faced the community in Spirit-led worship sharing; and we have created new, improved methods of communication.
M&C upholds Friends’ Testimonies related to our community and the wider world. We provide food, financial, logistical, and spiritual support for Friends who are struggling. We have held wood-stacking parties to help Friends with winter preparedness, and have gained from the resulting community building. We follow our leadings and support one another, as we have felt called, to involve ourselves with: Palestine Justice; Immigrant Justice; LGBTQ+ Justice; peace/anti-genocide activism; and efforts to address End-of-Life concerns.
We organize outdoor Meetings during the warmer months and arrange seasonal potlucks to bring Friends closer together on a personal level. We have shared our thriving community’s activism with Quarterly Meeting programs and advocacy and have nurtured Minutes at the Yearly Meeting Meeting level, specifically for Palestinian rights.
We hold monthly committee meetings for the care and concerns of the Meeting and occasional, special called worship sharing gatherings when the Meeting considers pressing issues. While pastoral care remains confidential, our efforts on behalf of the community are open and shared monthly during Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business.