Note: Sandy Branam, a member of Savannah Monthly Meeting of Southeastern Yearly Meeting, created a painted journal of the 2013 AFSC Corporation Meeting including her trip to Philadelphia and back via the train. She passsed it along to me saying that we could publish it here.  I had a real sense of a gathered meeting as Friends participated in staff presentations, engaged in meeting for business, and came together to learn how AFSC and Friends can partner in Spirit-guided action, and these images capture that spirit. - Lucy

Fair treatment of all residents of Denver is the focus of the grassroots immigrant rights movement that has built up over the past few decades. 

by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb

As we approach the Jewish holy days, we are reminded of the phrase that initiates the Telling of the Story: Let all who are hungry come eat, let all who are oppressed, join us at the table of liberation. Unfortunately, if they are Palestinians living in the West Bank, they may need a special security clearance. That is the case for Palestinian workers who are employed by SodaStream, the increasingly popular home carbonation product sold in 39 countries in 35,000 stores worldwide. 

When I think of well-known figures of AFSC’s past, I think of men—Rufus Jones and Clarence Pickett, more specifically. I’m sure much of this has to do with the fact that I have spent numerous hours sitting in rooms named after them at Friends Center in Philadelphia. But I have little doubt that their familiarity is also due to the general attention that our society pays to men with big ideas and big voices, particularly the society in which the organization was founded. 

As we enter Hatcliffe Extension outside of Harare, Zimbabwe via a dirt road marred by deep ruts and washed out areas with more than a 12-inch drop-off, I wonder if our Toyota four wheel drive will survive with shock absorbers intact. We park and walk toward a grassy area where several men and a woman are repairing a metal wheelbarrow using the only welding machine available. Several others watch the process. Homes surround the workspace.