Peace
"We repudiate war because it violates the primacy of love, destroys lives that God has given, and tears the fabric of society. " — NYYM Faith and Practice
We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever; and this is our testimony to the whole world. The spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.
Peace Testimony | George Fox, Declaration of Friends to Charles II, 1660
Quakers are probably best known for our peace testimony. We oppose all wars and violence. For decades the Quakers of 15th Street Meeting have held a silent monthly peace vigil at the arch in Washington Square Park.
January 2024 Statements On the Conflict in Israel and Gaza
New York Quarterly Meeting (representing the Quakers in NYC) agreed with and approved Peace Statements from December 2023 on the conflict in Gaza brought by three of our meetings. Some excerpts:
“As members of Brooklyn, NY Friends Meeting, and in keeping with our peace testimony, we are horrified by the killing on all sides in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and the larger Middle East. We support a lasting cease fire, instead of violence and revenge, as well as peaceful action by the United States and other world powers to bring about lasting peace, with justice and freedom, between Israelis and Palestinians.” — Brooklyn Meeting
“Adhering to our three-hundred-year-old peace testimony, we resist the use of our tax dollars for killing, destruction, and violence. “We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.”” — 15th Street Meeting
“As Friends, we are committed to our Peace Testimony, not only because, given that we are asked to honor the Inner Light within each person, we feel it is wrong to humiliate, hurt or kill, but also because acts of violence create a cycle of continuing and escalating violence” — Morningside Meeting
