Around the web, Quakers are responding to the massacre of innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Friday:
Another way of life is possible: Reflections on the shootings in Newtown, Conn., by Max Carter, Director of Guilford College’s Friends Center:
“While the reality of tragedies such as the recent gun violence and death tolls from war and the violence of poverty, disease, and intolerance is what seems to be our fate, I know that another way of life is possible – and that this season is one in which that reality ‘is made flesh.’ I hope we can all, in our own ways, embody that reality.”
Grief, Bewilderment and Shock, by Diane Randall, Executive Secretary of Friends Committee on National Legislation:
“Can this unimaginable carnage of dead 6 and 7-years-olds in a public school in Newtown help us understand violence and our response to it in new ways? Most immediately, we offer our mutual support and care. And we offer FCNL’s vision for a society with equity and justice. It is my hope that we might all be ‘cracked open’ to reorder our lives daily with a dedication to create a culture of peace and communities free of violence.”
Friends of New York Yearly Meeting:
“In the face of this latest horror, what can we do but turn toward that Light within, join hands with those beside us, and offer ourselves to God’s work for peace, in prayer and with renewed determination? We invite Friends everywhere to join us in prayer for those who lost their lives, for those who love them, for our nation, and for God’s guidance.”
Love all the children: Disarming our hearts after the shootings at Sandy Hook School, by Lucy Duncan, Friends Liason for American Friends Service Committee:
“A love broke open in me that day, a big love that was for me the closest to what I imagine God’s love might be like. That love has called me to transformation, to work to overcome my habits of anger and hurt and to understand that loving him isn’t enough, that I am called to love other people’s children and try, often haltingly, to do what that love requires of me.”
Slaughter and Love: A Poem In Response to Sandy Hook, by Brent Bill
“In this time of darkness following the senseless slaughter of the innocents in Sandy Hook (and other children whose bodies are ripped apart by war and disease and hunger around the world), I am grateful that Love still takes the risk of birth.”
The Shootings, With a “What?,” and a “Yes” – Luke 3:10-17, by C Wess Daniels
“I think we have to come face-to-face with some very difficult questions. One of the questions is “what does it mean to be safe?” This week we saw that we only enjoy an illusion of safety. We think that we’re safe doing the normal things, but we are not.”
Dear members of FRIENDS JOURNAL
My name is LEON MKANGYA ALENGA, Quaker Peace Maker in Uvira, South Kivu, Republic Democratic of the Congo, member of Quaker Peace NetWork Africa”QPN AFRICA”,
I have a local NGO called OPOD asbl” Organisation de Paix pour les OpportunitĂ©s de DĂ©veloppement or Peace Organization and Development opportunities”. My Organization OPOD asbl works in Peace, Non Violence and Reflexion on Peace Practice; Promoting Human Right, Women Rigth and Child Rigth; Relief; Promoting Health:VIH/Sida and Diabete, Promoting income generation and Development.
For this time, the members of OPOD asbl like to begin the Friends Journal in Democratic Republic of Congo in Uvira, South Kivu. We hope your experiences and advices are very kind for us to continue for this activities. You should begin to support a local RADIO and so on.
Friendship
LEON MKANGYA ALENGA
Presisent of OPOD asbl
Uvira, South Kivu, Republic Democratic of the Congo
P.O.Box: 2383 Bujumbura Burundi
Telephone: +243811607052
Skype: leonalenga