Atlanta Friends Meeting is mindful of the fundamental Quaker testimonies of equality and integrity. What draws individuals to the Quaker experience does so without regard to color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Racism has been a concern of Atlanta Friends Meeting since the 1940s when Atlanta Friends found a place to hold integrated meetings in a segregated city. During the 50s and 60s, Atlanta Friends were active in working to end segregation. In subsequent decades, antiracism work included support for community projects, workshops on personal racism, and the formation of the group, Our Role as Individuals in America’s Racial History (ORAIIARH). In 2000, AFM business meeting recorded its commitment to becoming a safe and welcoming spiritual home for all. It asked all committees and groups in the Meeting to regularly prayerfully reflect on how their activities contribute to being more welcoming and to make any necessary changes. Since then, the Committee on Undoing Racism in Atlanta Friends Meeting and the Quakers for Racial Equality group have been formed. We recognize the pervasive effects of racism and white privilege on our lives and the need for whites to take an active role in ending racism.
Atlanta Friends Meeting is sensitive to the concerns of ending discrimination and defending the civil rights of people identifying with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer communities, and has support group to help address LGBTQ issues.
We are committed to having Atlanta Friends Meeting be a safe and welcoming spiritual home for all.
Quakers for Racial Equality (QRE) works to increase equity and racial justice at the individual, institutional, and societal levels, both within the Meeting and in the wider community. QRE holds monthly online meetings on 4th Sundays at 1:00 p.m. ET and sponsors forums, some of which are hybrid. Links for the online meetings/ forums appear in the AFM weekly announcement sheets. QRE offers a “Virtual Literature Table” on race and racism on a regular basis and staffs the monthly “Listening Ear for Concerns about Racism.” QRE also works with Social Concerns on giving scholarships for anti-racist education and contributing to local or national racial justice groups.
Contact: Susan Firestone
The Committee on Undoing Racism in Atlanta Friends Meeting (CURAFM) meets monthly on 1st Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. ET. Links for the online meetings appear in the AFM weekly announcement sheets. CURAFM helps Atlanta Friends Meeting become a more equitable anti-racist multicultural spiritual home for all. CURAFM, with the help of the Ad Hoc Anti-Racist Policies group, developed the Interpersonal Racist Incident Policy. CURAFM also provides educational opportunities on addressing individual and institutional racism, working with restorative circle practices, and building multiracial community in the Meeting.
Friends of Color in Atlanta Friends Meeting gathers periodically to share food, fellowship, and conversations. To learn more and be added to the contact list,
Contact: Folami Prescott-Adams.
Fellowship of Friends of African Descent is a national Quaker group to nurture and respond to concerns of Friends of African Descent within the Religious Society of Friends. Contact via fofad.org: Website or Facebook Page
Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer Concerns of Atlanta (FLGBTQC of ATL) is a support organization within Atlanta Friends Meeting for the queer community and our allies. We are deeply appreciative of the support that we have continued to find in this Meeting. Another visible sign of this support is the small pink triangles or rainbows (both symbols of LGBTQ identity) and the small blue, pink and white stickers (the trans flag and a symbol of trans identity) that many members and attenders have chosen to wear on their name tags each Sunday. Additionally Friends can note their gender identity with appropriate pronoun stickers if they wish.
— For more information, please see Equality Testimony
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