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Report: Ottawa Monthly Meeting Retreat by Sybil Grace____________________________________Speaking Truth to Power was the theme OttawaMonthly Meeting explored at our annual retreat.We had assumed this concept was as fixed in Quakerhistory as the testimonies.A bit of research revealed it was first expressedby American Quaker, Bayard Rustin in 1942, as theprimary function of a religious society to speak truthto power. The phrase next appeared in 1955 as the titleof an American Friends Service Committee pamphleton the Vietnam War. A bit more exploration in ourQuaker library led to the conclusion that speakingtruth to power is a transitory experience and to makean impact, words must be turned into action.A breakout group discussed occasions where ourwords have resulted in significant initiatives and change.Perhaps there are publications that already identifysuch actions. I would love to hear of any additions tothe list below. Sybil Grace, Ottawa Monthly Meeting.––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––________________________________________________________• George Fox setting out to be an apostle of reformation for the Christian church in England• George Fox speaking to Charles I and later to Cromwell• Prison reform in the seventeenth century• The Pennsylvania experiment• John Woolman on the ownership of slaves• Underground railway to bring slaves to safety• Late eighteenth century loyalists and Quakers refusing to take sides• Relief work during the Irish Famine (1846-50)• Mediation and community reconciliation in Ireland during worst period of sectarian violence (’69-’98)• 1832 Irish potato famine, with help from English Quakers and an island hospital near St. Andrews, NB• Mid 1800s three UK members met with the Czar in St. Petersburg to stop the Crimean War• Subsequently working with the war victims• Elizabeth Fry educating women in prisons• Organizing in 1914 for the peace that would follow the war• Helping German and Austrian prisoners of war following declaration of war in 1939• Friends Ambulance Service in Asia• QUNO offices in Geneva and NY brought together mid-level diplomats• Same happened at Grindstone Island ON• Initiating worker and consumer cooperatives in the 1950s• AFSC economic committee explored issues of: employment, housing, education, health, justice, naturalresources. Sharing of power is essential to economic well-being• 1970 CYM: Support of indigenous logging barricades in northern Ontario; Concern over mercury poisoning;The beginning of the Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC)• Alternatives to Violence begins in NY prisons• Goatman Corbett in Texas, led to safety Mexicans who crossed the border illegally• QIAP Quaker International Affairs Program working on seed patenting and protecting the Commons• Skye Faris red-X project for 110,000 Iraqis killed following “Desert Storm”• Kenya and Uganda: recent election / post election work• HROC Healing and Rebuilding our Communities – Burundi and Rwanda Yearly Meetings____________________________________________________________________________Volume 109, Number 2 15