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2024 Witness Fund Donations

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Each year the budget for Ithaca Monthly Meeting (IMM) allocates sums of money to be used by the Peace & Social Justice and Earthcare committees to contribute to causes, projects, or organizations that align with the committee’s charge and Quaker testimonies. The Friends on these committees carefully consider where to donate their witness funds. 

Perhaps you would like to take advantage of the discernment done by these committees and also contribute to these projects and organizations! This page lists where these donations went in 2024.

Local

Catholic Charities: Interfaith Assistance Fund
324 W Buffalo St
Ithaca, NY 14850

Ithaca Catholic Worker: Peter DeMott Peace Trot
411 Plain St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
The Peace Trot occurs on Fathers’ Day each year, with fundraising happening in the weeks leading up to it.

Cayuga Lake Watershed 
PO Box 348
Aurora, NY 13026

Farm Sanctuary
P.O. BOX 150
Watkins Glen, NY 14891

First Congregational Church of Ithaca: Sanctuary Ministries
309 Highland Road
Ithaca, NY 14850

Friends Center for Racial Justice 
227 Willard Way
Ithaca, NY 14850

Friendship Donation Center
1013 West Martin Luther King Jr. / State Street
Ithaca, NY 14850

Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC): Robin Fund
301 W Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850

Ithaca Monthly Meeting: Project Abundance
To donate online, click Donate in the menu at the top of this page, then select the button for “Donate to the Ithaca Monthly Meeting General Fund”. Add “Project Abundance” to the section to write a note.
Read more about Project Abundance here.

Open Doors English
Ithaca, NY 14850

Village At Ithaca
401 West Seneca St.
Ithaca, NY 14850

National Connections

American Friends Service Committee 
1501 Cherry St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102

AFSC U.S.-Mexico Border Program 
3850 Westgate Place 
San Diego, CA 92105 

Earthjustice
Earthjustice Gift Processing Center
P.O. Box 96346
Washington, DC 20077-7953

Indigenous Environmental Network
PO Box 485
Bemidji, MN 56619

Nonviolent Peaceforce
U.S. Main Office
2143 Lowry Ave N, Suite A
Minneapolis, MN 55411

Our Children’s Trust
P.O. Box 5181
Eugene, OR 97405

Quaker House
223 Hillside Ave
Fayetteville, NC 28301

International

Bolivian Quaker Education Fund
PO Box 6847
Ithaca, NY 14851

Friends International Bilingual Center (FIBC): Food Security Project
For sending a check, contact centrobilingueamigos7bo@gmail.com

Friends International Bilingual Center (FIBC): Right Sharing of World Resource
For sending a check, contact centrobilingueamigos7bo@gmail.com

Public Citizen
1600 20th Street NW
Washington DC 20009

United Palestinian Appeal 
2461 Eisenhower Ave 
2nd Floor, #035 
Alexandria, VA 22314

Via La Campesina

Ithaca Friends Meeting Discernment for FCNL Priorities

by Ruth Yarrow

On Sunday March 17, eleven Friends from our Meeting gathered and discerned priorities they would like to see Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) address in the 2025-2027 Congress. Below is the list we have sent to FCNL. The four sections of the FCNL legislative policy statement are in bold italics; our priorities are capitalized, with specific issues listed under them.

We seek a world free of war and the threat of war.

1. Cut Military Spending

  • Sign the Non-proliferation Treaty.
  • End military support for Israel.
  • End the Korean war.
  • End production and upgrading of nuclear weapons.
  • Analyze effects of US military on the climate crisis.

We seek a society with equity and justice for all.

2. FUND NEEDS OF OPPRESSED PEOPLE

  • Reinstate guaranteed income. (Research shows it’s used for basics – food, housing – and better future.)
  • Legislate maximum income. (e.g., limit ratio of worker to CEO salary.)
  • Federal support for low-income areas, rural and urban, especially health care.
  • Lower the age of edibility for Medicare.
  • Federal funds for education at all levels.

3. CHANGE ECONOMIC POLICY

  • Tax the rich.
  • Prohibit privatization of health care by insurance companies.
  • End Citizens United.
  • Mandate public identification of candidates’ income sources.
  • Cut out loopholes in corporate tax evasion.

We seek a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled.

4. FEDERAL/LEGISLATIVE SUPPORT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

  • Pass the ERA; uproot patriarchy.
  • Push for national reproductive rights.
  • Prohibit book bans.
  • Provide citizenship for Dreamers.
  • Support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
  • Prohibit privatized prisons.
  • Replace mass imprisonment with restorative justice.
  • Protect freedom of religion and speech.
  • Legislate humane border policies.

We seek an earth restored.

5. FEDERAL WATER PROTECTION BECAUSE WATER IS LIFE.

  • Prevent crypto mining, fracking and other over-use of water.
  • Ensure equitable water access and quality. Prohibit all water pollution.

Report from the March to End Fossil Fuels

by Betsy Keokosky

On Sunday September 17, I was lucky enough to find myself on a chartered bus driving to New York City through very early morning sunlight with people from Extinction Rebellion (the bus organizers) sitting in front of me, and students from Cornell climate action groups in the rows behind me. The March to End Fossil Fuels was one of the most diverse marches I have ever been on. As their website said, it was “a broad-based collaboration among New York grassroots organizations; Black, People of Color, Indigenous and frontline communities living next to oil and gas facilities and infrastructure; youth, elders, workers, people of faith, and people of all backgrounds impacted by fossil fuels and climate disasters across the U.S.” Climate Change is affecting us all now.

Besides the diversity, I was also struck by how this march was connecting environmental protest to spirituality, across all faiths, in a way that I hadn’t seen much before. Many people were there to ask President Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop incentivizing fossil fuels, but I felt we were also there because we were reshaping our religious and ethical beliefs to recognize and engage with the sacredness of life on this planet we share.

I stumbled across a wonderful religious rally before the march started that I later learned was a multi-faith Invocation of Spirit:

Invocation of Spirit

People of many diverse faiths and spiritual communities will gather for an Invocation —inviting the spirit of the divine within our traditions, as well as the spirits of our ancestors, of future generations, of nature, plants, animals, elements, and all the places of the earth affected by what happens in NYC (the UN, Wall Street, etc) to march with us and help us to have the love, strength and courage we need to create a just and thriving world. People of all ages and cultural traditions are invited!

GreenFaith
A speaker at the rally

I listened to these religious leaders as, one by one, they took the podium and spoke to the surrounding crowd. It was a moving experience to stare up to the blue sky between NY City skyscrapers and hear people of all faiths acknowledge our dependence on Earth.

This event was organized through two interesting organizations: GreenFaith, a coalition of faith-based grassroots climate justice movements; and The Center for Earth Ethics located in Union Theological Seminary.

The Center defines Earth Ethics as “The discernment of how to live in relationship with the living planet. … [it] reminds us that we are connected to the Earth and that our moral obligations extend across space, time and even species.”

They further elaborate that Earth Ethics:

  • acknowledges that those who are least responsible for pollution and depletion of the natural world are the most harmed by them,
  • extends moral concern to future generations,
  • extends moral concern to nonhuman life, and
  • recognizes the planet as a living whole.

They also noted that “We amplify and engage with Indigenous wisdom to reorient society back toward nature and shape a more eco-centric world.”  (source: https://centerforearthethics.org/what-are-earth-ethics-tk/)

Three Quaker Earthcare Witness Events During May

by Margaret McCasland

Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) is a North American organization that is coordinated by people from all over North America. They have a very small staff (currently 2 people), and much of their work is done by volunteers on their very large (up to 50 people) Steering Committee. I became a member of the QEW Steering Committee last year when New York Yearly Meeting named me as a representative to QEW.

The Steering Committee meets twice a year for 4 days, and we had our most recent gathering the last weekend in April. While I have attended portions of Steering Committee gatherings for quite a few years, this was the first gathering where I attended nearly every session.

QEW asks all Steering Committee people to either be or to recruit a liaison to their Monthly Meeting. I will serve as liaison until I find someone else who is interested in keeping up with what a liaison does. With this newsletter article, I am fulfilling the major duty of MM liaisons: letting you know about events QEW is sponsoring this month. Each month I will also introduce one of the many resources they offer. This month I am going to highlight QEW’s monthly Worship Sharing.

NOTE: Full descriptions of these events (and other events) are available at the QEW website. The text in italics is quoted from the QEW website. The text in regular font is from Margaret.

No Faith in Fossil Fuels: A Climate Finance Summit

with GreenFaith and Quaker Earthcare Witness
May 8 @ 12:30 pm – May 12 @ 1:30 pm EDT

Hurricanes. Excessive Heat. Crop failure. The loss of biodiversity and human life around the world. All of it is horrible – and could have been avoided.

Climate destruction is being bankrolled by large corporations and their executives who choose to act against what is right and good, at the expense of our planet’s future. The climate crisis is a crisis of greed.

From May 8-11, people of faith will gather to learn about how banks and asset managers continue to invest in the fossil fuel industries that are destroying communities in the U.S. and around the world – and then find out how to hold these financial institutions accountable. Together, we can commit to taking the bold steps necessary to effect real change.

This year’s three day summit will amplify the voices of frontline leaders of Turtle Island (what we now call North America) and the Global South, whose communities bear the direct brunt of financial decisions made by Chase Bank, Bank of America, Vanguard, Black Rock, and others who invest in harmful oil and gas extraction.

This summit is for you if you’re just making the connections between faith, finance, and climate, if you’re a money manager rooted in just climate values, or if you are part of a community wrestling with these questions.

We will build on the momentum sparked with the 2022 launch of GreenFaith’s Climate Finance Campaign. This year we have a lot to celebrate, and the work continues! We hope you will join us and a growing number of partner organizations as together we:

  • Root in our faiths for resilience, inspiration, and joy for the journey ahead
  • Learn more about Indigenous-led campaigns in the U.S. and East Africa
  • Find out how to move your money
  • Take action in our closing Action Hour

Click here for more information and/or to register.

A Holistic Approach to Earthcare Along the Blue Ridge

May 8 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia, Friends Wilderness Center and the China Folk House Retreat are aspiring toward bridging divides in humanity, building community with nature, and lifting all toward the Light and a brighter future. Join Kimberly Benson and John Flower for a conversation on redefining conservation to include cross-cultural connections and building compassion and respect for all life, and how they’re making this happen on the ground. They write, “Humans have a tremendous ability to rationalize and justify exploiting what we ‘other.’ We need to remove the illusion of separation among people and between people and nature.”

Click here to register.

About the presenters:

  • Kimberly Benson is a scientist, naturalist, climate and environmental activist, member of Annapolis Friends Meeting, and the general manager of Friends Wilderness Center. Learn more by reading Kimberly’s BeFriending Creation article.*
  • John Flower is Director of the Sidwell Friends School Chinese Studies Program. Since 2017, he has worked on rebuilding the “China Folk House Retreat,” to serve as a site for experiential learning, environmental sustainability and people-to-people cultural exchanges focusing on traditional agriculture, folkways and craft. 

*”BeFriending Creation” is QEW’s quarterly newsletter, available in print or digital form. To subscribe, read back issues, or learn how to submit material, click here.

Last but not least, Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship sharing groups: 

May Worship Sharing with Quaker Earthcare Witness

May 23 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT

In worship sharing, we gather in small groups to focus on a particular question (or questions) to explore our own experience and share with each other more deeply than we would in normal conversation. It seeks to draw us into sacred space, where we can take down our usual defenses, and encounter each other in “that which is eternal.” We welcome all to join us!

Together we are creating more opportunities for Friends who care deeply about the Earth and each other to be in spiritual community with one another. We hope you can join us.

I attended my first QEW monthly Worship Sharing this April and found it “spoke to my condition” and was very heartening because of the deep sharing. A new query is offered every month. Here is the info I was sent when I registered for the April Worship Sharing:

This event usually runs about an hour. For those who may be joining this worship sharing for the first time or would like a reminder, our usual structure is: 

  1. Welcome & Introduction
  2. Read Worship Sharing Guidelines, Reading & Queries
  3. Worship Sharing in Breakout Rooms of 5-6 people (45 minutes)
  4. Reflection, closing, announcements

As an example, this was the April query: We’ll be sitting with Mary Annaïse Heglar’s quote, “The thing about climate is that you can either be overwhelmed by the complexity of the problem or fall in love with the creativity of the solutions. If you feel inspired, you can read this article of hers beforehand.”

[The link goes to an article that is behind a paywall. If there is interest, I will print out a few copies for our library.]

The Amazing New York Climate Bill

Letter from Earthcare

The spirit is leading the many thoughtful people in New York through the difficulties of shaping one of the most progressive policies in the union in regards to climate change.  We in Ithaca Monthly Meeting, who advocate stewardship and respect for the Earth, can only be very excited and encouraged by the historic clean energy transition now underway, unfolding largely unnoticed by numerous people until recently.

The driver for this transition is the 2019 NY Climate Act – official name: the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.  This bill sets the most ambitious goals in the nation for emissions reduction – 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and then to 85% below 1990 levels by 2050.   Not only are these goals impressive, but also the commitments made to achieve them will be enforceable and written into law.

The methods and processes set into motion by this bill have been painstaking and deliberate.   The bill authorized a ”Climate Action Council” to be formed by a diverse set on NY Departments, people, and organizations, representing a political spectrum of opinions from multiple sectors of the economy – renewable energy, transportation, fuels, buildings, agriculture, and waste sectors – to come up with the policies and actions to make the climate goals happen.    Over the past 2 years the Council has been formed and has been working on how and what to implement.  Just this past December they completed a draft “Scoping Plan,” which is now open for a 120 day period of public comment.  See:

https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/About/Newsroom/2021-Announcements/2021-12-30-Climate-Action-Council-Releases-Draft-Scoping-Plan-for-Public-Comment

The “Scoping Plan” is a huge financial commitment, but at this point funding is unclear, especially since federal aid from the “Build Back Better” legislation has collapsed. Both a tax on the rich and a carbon tax have been proposed. Like all such large projects projected into the future many of its figures are based on estimates and unknowns. Practically minded accounting people are asking for more transparency, which is entirely understandable and important, yet how do you estimate what climate inaction will cost NYC or what affect the bill itself will have on the economy?  Even the authors of the “Scoping Plan” admit this aspect needs more work, and it will be one of the major talking points in the public hearings ahead.

Expectations are that moving from fossil fuels will initially raise costs and money will have to be transferred to those who cannot afford to meet them.  Expectations are also to create 160,000 new jobs – as well as lose some old ones.  Economic justice is a serious consideration of the bill and there a requirement to direct at least 35-40% of the program’s benefits to historically disadvantaged communities

The Climate Action Council and it’s advisory panels include two people from the Ithaca area: Bob Howarth, Ecologist & Earth system scientist from Cornell, and Suzanne Hunt, a strategist and a seventh gen­er­a­tion farm and Finger Lakes winery owner.  Suzanne serves on one of the advisory panels to the CAC, “The Agriculture and Forestry Advisory Panel”.   The new proposed laws will require updated accounting for methane emissions, a strong driver of atmospheric warming. That updated accounting was recommended based on Howarth’s research. There are seven advisory panels covering everything from energy efficiency to land use to waste, as well as a “Just Transition Working Group”.

Looking into the “Scoping Plan” and trying to understand it requires some investment in time, but the impact on New York (it will set into a motion a whole shift in energy use to electric vehicles, heating pumps, and off-shore wind energy, for one) is so great that it is well worth your time.

Earthcare will be reporting occasionally as this bill progresses.  A few links and sources of education:

https://www.nysfocus.com/2021/12/22/build-back-better-failure-new-york-climate-leadership-community-protection-act/