Social Justice
“One has to fight for justice for all. If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is strengthened.” -Bayard Rustin, Quaker Civil Rights Activist
Raising Our Voices for Peace
As Friends, we seek to be faithful to our peace testimony,
opposing violence and oppression in all their many forms.
Often individual members will feel led to speak out against such violence and oppression and will invite others to participate in this work of peacemaking. Whether sponsoring Camas Pride, in anti-violence marches, hosting candlelight vigils, supporting interfaith projects, hosting domestic violence training seminars, or participating in the annual Peace and Justice Fair, we recognize our call to speak out for peace. Let us know how you are feeling led to promote the cultivation of peaceful relationships and communities and to stand against oppression and violence.
Earth Ministry Greening Congregation Mission Statement
Prepared by the CFC Earth Care Committee and shared with the business meeting on Sunday, July 11, 2021
As a Greening Meeting, we seek to express our love for Creator by showing reverence for Mother Earth and all of Creation: soil, elements, water, air, wind, creatures, and humans. Toward this end, we will seek a deeper understanding of our relationship with Creation and commit to steward Mother Earth’s resources more justly and sustainably. We will promote action through personal, tiny radical steps, as well as by joining with neighbors in local, state, national and international communities taking big steps, speaking out for change. A commitment to these steps will lead us to live in harmony with our neighbors and all Creation, and demonstrate our love for The Divine.
Minutes of Concern
The following minutes of concern have been approved by the Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends (SCYMF). Camas Friends is a member congregation of SCYMF, a network of inclusive, Christ-centered, Quaker meetings on the West Coast. CFC is in alignment with these minutes.
Minute on the Rights of Transgender and Gender-Expansive People
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends, February 2025
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends (SCYMF) rejoices in the presence, participation, and Spirit-guided leadership of transgender (trans*) people in our communities. In this minute, we use the term “trans*” to refer to all people whose gender identity is not the one assigned at birth. The asterisk helps recognize the term trans* often includes people who identify within a gender binary, as well as those who are nonbinary or otherwise gender-expansive.
We honor the gender identity and expression of each person, as determined by that person. We understand that gender expression and identity may be fluid and changeable, and we will joyfully embrace each change. We recognize that when we welcome the Light within the full spectrum of gender identities in our world, our worship experience deepens and our community is enriched…
Minute in Support of Immigrants and Refugees
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends, February 2025
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends believes in the inherent sacredness of every person, from every place. As members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), love of neighbors and enemies and the imperative to care for immigrants, widows, and children is central to our faith tradition. Our testimony of peace leads us to do what we can to help heal harms from war, including creating safe communities and building relationships with those whose lives have been upended by militarism, violence, and imperialism, such as those seeking refuge. We also hold concern for those displaced by the climate crisis. These values of care are particularly important because it is our own country that has caused many of these harms due to war, imperialist extraction, exploitation, and emissions leading to climate change, which are causing harm the world over.
Immigrants, refugees, and displaced people should be treated with dignity and have their human rights respected. We condemn the raids across the United States and plans for mass deportation that put families and beloved community members at risk of separation, violate human and civil rights, and expand detention and deportation…
Minute on Ongoing Devastation in Palestine
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends, February 2024
Quakers believe in the sacred worth of each person and testify against all wars, terrorism, imperialism, hostage taking, and unjust imprisonment. We recognize active peacemaking requires interrupting antisemitism and Islamophobia wherever we see it, and we pledge to show up in solidarity alongside our Jewish, Muslim, and Arab neighbors.
As people who live in the United States of America, we feel it is necessary to speak up and take action on this matter because our tax dollars continue to support this decades-long violence, settler and military occupation, and displacement, and the people we put in power with our votes are making these decisions on our behalf. In solidarity with ally groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now, we say not in our name and never again…
Minute for Right Relationship with Indigenous Peoples
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends, June 2022
We of the Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends (SCYMF) repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, by which church leaders authorized the original sin of European Christian settlers: the enslavement of Africans and the genocide and land theft of the Indigenous people of Turtle Island (also currently known as North America). Africans were kidnapped as slaves to do the hard labor necessary to extract economic wealth from what is now known as the United States. European colonists stole Turtle Island from its rightful inhabitants, the many sovereign Indigenous nations still present here. The Doctrine of Discovery justified European Christians in claiming this land and making it their own, through means including waging war, rape, destroying people and their lifeways, stealing children, forcing people to use English as their language, and requiring them to renounce their spiritual ways, coercing them to profess Christianity. This was done violently.
The United States has created a sweet origin story about how we became a nation. This collective narrative has been drummed into us until the ugly reality was suppressed. We of SCYMF are convinced that we must learn and bear witness to the truth of our complicity in the harm of what happened. We recognize the unequal burden Black, Indigenous, and people of color have suffered historically and presently. We will make restitution to Indigenous and African American people. We will renounce white supremacy and learn to live in peaceful ways with our environment. This is not going to be easy. We will look to our Indigenous relatives each step of the way to make amends to them, and we will also make amends to people of African descent, taking their requests as being right and just.
Minute for Black Lives
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends, June 2020
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends approves this Minute for Black Lives, noting that some of us are challenged by the language it uses. Still, we lean into it, knowing that we have empowered the Equity and Inclusion Committee to be a prophetic voice. Acting as Christ’s Body to engage in the work of justice will often be uncomfortable for those of us with privilege.
Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends witnesses the current people’s uprising for police accountability and for racial justice and we take a stand for Black lives. We urge all Quakers, in our Yearly Meeting and beyond, to do the same in word and action. Neutrality is not an option if we are to fully embrace our underlying Truth as Friends: to recognize God in all people.
George Floyd is only the most recent police murder to be made public. Just the day after Floyd’s killing, Black trans man Tony McDade was shot and killed by police in Tallahassee, Florida. We honor the memories of these two men, as well as Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and all those killed by police, other state violence, and organized white violence throughout the centuries back to the slave trade that is a backbone of the founding of this nation. We grieve and we feel prophetic rage.
We, as individuals and as a Yearly Meeting, especially as a body of mostly white people, are implicated in the system of white supremacy. We have the opportunity to step into this moment with our hearts wide and with humility, calling on God’s support and guidance, to listen to Black leadership. We must be willing to make mistakes, to commit to the movement for the long haul, and to be part of the transformation of our communities: “on earth as it is in heaven.” There is a place for all of us, whether in the streets or behind the scenes, making donations or making phone calls. We join our voices with our Quaker ancestors of all races who have worked for the abolition of slavery and for Black civil rights throughout the generations — and who have also made mistakes.