Faith and Practice Committee

Letter from the Faith and Practice Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting
Re: Update on Process to Review Faith & Practice (Nov 2024)

Dear BYM Meetings, Committees, and Working Groups,

The BYM Faith and Practice Committee needs your help. We are eager to get feedback on a new section “Care of the Earth,” which will replace “Humankind and the Environment” (existing Part 1, Section B, 20).  We are sending this section to each of you both electronically and by postal mail.

We ask that responses come from some grouping of BYM Quakers and not individuals.  We welcome participation from all, both long-time Quakers and newer attenders; we especially welcome participation of the BYM youth and young adults, as care of the earth will impact their lives much more than the lives of their elders.

Please consider the proposed section and share your sense of whether its inclusion in Faith and Practice will make it a better document. If you have suggestions for improvements, they are welcomed. We’re asking for responses by March 1, 2025, at the latest, so that we can reflect on the responses, revise as necessary, and produce a document for a first reading at the June 2025 interim meeting.

A suggested method of review by a group is to schedule a 45-60-minute session to consider the section “Care of the Earth.”  In advance of it, we encourage you to provide the text to all and identify a recorder for the session.  Please use the BYM anti-racist queries in your work, read the text aloud as a group and consider the following queries:

• What resonates for you in this text?
• What, if anything, causes resistance?
• What challenges you?
• What suggestions do you have for improving the document?

Following the session, summarize the responses and have the group approve them before sending them on.

Group responses can be sent the Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice Committee in one of three ways: 

• Via F&P Read and Comment Form (preferred method to facilitate tracking of responses)
• Via email: fandp@bym-rsf.org
• Via Mail:  17100 Quaker Lane, Sandy Spring, Maryland, 20860 (marked to the attention of Faith and Practice committee)

Thank you for your help in this effort.

In love and service,

The BYM Faith and Practice Committee

Listed below are the current members of the Faith and Practice Committee.

Recent Committee Report

Faith and Practice Committee Annual Reports

Faith and Practice Committee Interchange Reports