Spring Assembly 2024

This event is over. Dozens of FOR members and friends participated in this lively event. You may access recordings of the main speakers below.

Supporting Movements
for a Just and Peaceful World

Saturday May 18, 2024, 8:45 a.m. – 12:45 pm Pacific time

Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation announces its 26th Annual Spring Assembly. 

Video-Conferencing event.

Click to scroll down to info about:

Event Flyers for Viewing or Download:
* with colored floral background
* with white background

New! Resources on Social Movements and Nonviolence
a list of books related to our theme, compiled by planning committee Chair, David Lambert

OVERVIEW

Keynote speaker Kathy Kelly
Discussion groups and Q&A with Kathy
Mike Yarrow Peace Fellow youth activists
Music

SCHEDULE (subject to change)

  • 8:45 am Zoom space opens, Music.
  • 9:00 Welcome, Land Acknowledgement, Introduction of Keynote Speaker
  • 9:15 Keynote Speaker: Kathy Kelly
  • 10:00 Discussion Groups
  • 10:30 Q&A with Kathy Kelly
  • 10:55 Break.
  • 11:00 Youth Activists in Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship Program & Q & A.
  • 11:40 Comments on Event
  • 11:45 Music
  • 12:00 End of formal program; Informal Sharing begins.
  • 12:45 Informal Sharing ends.

KEYNOTE TALK & PRESENTER BIO

Keynote Speaker Kathy Kelly
“Ring the Bells that Still Can Ring:
Movements, Worldwide, to End the Scourge of War”

Following Kathy’s presentation, we will break into smaller discussion groups to continue consideration of the issues. We will then gather into the full group of attendees for Q&A with Kathy.

Kathy Kelly is board president of World BEYOND War and a co-coordinator of the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal.  Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, she has volunteered with an international network to assist young people forced to flee from Afghanistan.

Kathy has been incarcerated in federal prisons for nonviolently resisting militarism and war. As a war tax refuser, she successfully avoided payment of federal income taxes for the past four decades.

With Voices in the Wilderness companions, she broke economic sanctions against Iraq 27 times. The Iraq Peace Team then remained in Iraq throughout the Shock and Awe bombing and the initial weeks of the invasion.  Having lived alongside ordinary people during wars in Iraq, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Nicaragua, she believes women and children enduring such conflict have been her finest teachers.

Photo by Abdulhai Darya of Kathy with a child taken in a refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, the day after their tents had been destroyed by a fire.

A special donation to a special cause. WWFOR will make a donation in Kathy Kelly’s honor to a cause dear to her heart. For many years, a group of young Afghan peace activists met online with other activists from around the world. After the Taliban re-took Afghanistan, these young Afghanis were in danger, and through international solidarity, some of them were able to migrate to Portugal working with InPulsar. Kathy and others are working to help other Afghan peace activists join their colleagues in Portugal. Members and friends of WWFOR are encouraged to support this cause with checks made out to AJ  Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, with InPulsar written in the memo section. Send to AJ Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, 55 Exchange Pl. Suite 405, New York, NY 10005. Donations may also be made online with InPulsar listed in the fields that become available when you specify “in honor.”

YOUTH ACTIVIST PROGRAM

Youth activist presenters are participating in the WWFOR Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship (MYPF) program for high school and college age youth, ages 14-23. The program includes a Grant to work on a nonviolent social change project of their choice. Fellows receive training and support throughout the year. We will hear from 4 interns in the 2023-2024 MYPF program who are nearing completion of their year-long projects.  

The 2024-25 MYPF program will include online training this summer in Kingian Nonviolence.  Participants will then plan and carry out a project in their school or community from September 2024 until January 31, 2025.  They will receive a stipend of $500.  Applications are due online by June 10. Please see our MYPF web page at https://wwfor.org/mike-yarrow-peace-fellowship-4/ for more information and a link to the application.

Vindhya Adamala is working as tech host for this Assembly. She is a student at Olympia High School. Her MYPF project will be in the area of Food Justice and Anti-Racism.

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Justin Yang  (He/Him) is a student from Woodinville, WA., a senior at  Innovation Lab High School. His MYPF project is working as part of his school’s Climate Action Club to push for the declaration of a state of Climate Emergency in Washington State.

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Anela Auwae attends high school in Seattle.  Her MYPF project is in the area of Native American Organizing and Decolonization.

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Anoova Sattar is a current sophomore at Olympia High School focusing on bringing awareness to eating disorders in different cultures; specifically in South Asians. In the future, she would like to pursue a career in psychiatry and health disparities, but also find time to continue with her hobbies, which include playing the piano, reading, and dancing. .

Dwija Adamala is the moderator for the MYPF portion of the Spring Assembly this year. She is a recent graduate (2022-2023) of the MYPF program and is currently an undergraduate at Stanford University studying Computer Science. Dwija is deeply passionate about thinking critically about systemic inequities and combining disciplines to solve these problems. At Stanford, she’s involved in a number of service organizations and leads awareness campaigns while conducting research in genetics and autoimmune issues. Her training as a MYPF has remained something that she utilizes to continue to create social impact in the communities she belongs to..

MUSIC & MUSICIAN

Sadly, singer, songwriter, activist Holly Gwinn Graham passed away in February 2024. She worked for many justice causes, including environmental protection, indigenous rights, and abolishing nuclear weapons, and she generously shared her time and talent at many Fellowship of Reconciliation events. We listen to some of Holly’s topical songs during the spring assembly.

REGISTRATION

ONLINE REGISTRATION SITE https://wwfor2024sa.brownpapertickets.com/. You can select a donation of $0 to $20 according to your means and you can also make an additional donation of $1-$50 at any of these registration levels. You will need to provide name, email, and phone number and you will receive the Zoom link by email.

OTHER WAYS TO REGISTER.  You can register by phone 206-789-5565, email wwfor@wwfor.org, or postal mail WWFOR, 225 N 70th St, Seattle WA 98103. We just need name, email (if available)l, and phone number for each registrant.  We will provide Zoom connection information.

Checks can be made to WWFOR with Spring Assembly on the memo line.

MORE INFORMATION:

You can reach us at 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

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Information and select recordings of presentations from previous spring assemblies:

2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020