Minute of Reconciliation 

Those gathered for the Discernment for Unity session on May 4, 2021 carefully considered the rewording of our minute and came to unity on the wording below. This minute of reconciliation was approved by Abington Friends Meeting on May 10, 2021:
 
After considerable reflection and discernment, Abington Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) believes that if we are to truly uphold our Testimony of Equality, Equity and Justice and honor the legacy of Quaker abolitionists and equal-rights activists such as Benjamin Lay and Lucretia Mott, we must also acknowledge and take active steps to redress the evils they fought against. We wish to engage in racial reconciliation and healing through acknowledging, apologizing, and atoning for wrongs our Meeting has committed in the past that influence the present. We acknowledge that the land our meetinghouse and school currently occupy was once home for the Lenni-Lenape. We also acknowledge that early members of our Meeting were members of the white settler population which benefited from the takeover of land and from the violence committed against Indigenous Peoples as a result of such actions as the Doctrine of Discovery, the Walking Purchase and Quaker Indian Boarding Schools. We acknowledge that some early members of our Meeting were enslavers and that the enslavement of Africans contributed to the accumulated wealth we have today. We apologize for these truths not being fully acknowledged by us sooner and because these actions have contributed to the physical and emotional trauma still being experienced today. We wish to atone for these past oppressions and injustices in the hope of bringing healing through retrospective justice to African Americans and Indigenous Peoples. To this end, we have set up the Bothwell Reparations Fund to which members and attenders may contribute. Also, we will continue with our deeper education to better understand and seek a renewed and ongoing right relationship.