Norristown Quaker Meeting will hold a public witness to the lives lost to gun violence in Montgomery County this June. Over 40, 000 die from gun violence every year in the United States. The first event, installing a visible memorial, will take place on June 15, 2024, at 10:30am at the Quaker meeting house at 20 Jacoby Street, Norristown, PA. All are invited to attend and join the interfaith prayer vigil and singing afterwards.
Norristown Friends Meeting, part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, is partnering with Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence to install a Memorial to the Lost on the meeting grounds. Each person killed by gun violence in Montgomery County will be honored with a t-shirt with their name, birth and death dates, and age at the time of death. The Memorial is a visible representation of the harm that is done to our communities through gun violence.
On the following Saturday, June 22, at 10:30, Norristown Friends Meeting will host a community event to provide more information and education about gun violence and what people can do to help enact commonsense gun laws and promote safe gun ownership. There will be speakers, testimonials, singing and messages from local organizations. Refreshments will be served. These programs and activities are designed to engage people of all faiths and all meetings, churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques.
“We seek to energize communities of all faiths into activism using positive messaging and inspiring local activities, intended to mobilize and organize”, says Mary Green, organizer for the event.
Norristown Quaker Meeting opened its doors at in 1853, welcoming Friends including Lucretia Mott, a widely known Quaker preacher and leader in the anti-slavery movement. Norristown Friends continue to practice the Quaker values of peace, equality, and community out in the world and gather for the rich silence of unprogrammed worship at the corner of Jacoby and Swede Streets in Norristown, PA.
Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence is the outgrowth of a peace conference organized by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Quakers and two other historic peace churches, the Mennonites and the Brethren, in 2009.
In 2023 PYM launched the Friends Ending Gun Violence Collaborative, a network of concerned Quakers that work with partners to support local meetings to take action to reduce gun violence through public witness and education.
