I-HELP PROGRAM

I-HELP (Interfaith Homeless Emergency Lodging Program) recently celebrated the First Anniversary of helping the people living on the street.

I-HELP offers safe housing, meals, and connections to community services to homeless people in Tempe. The program is administered by Tempe Community Action Agency (a private, non-profit, charity). There are now seventeen Tempe Faith communities involved with I-HELP. Some of the congregations host the program in their buildings, some supply the meals, some do both. Tempe Quakers provide evening meals the first Friday of each month.

We've been so busy putting the program together this first year that we have done too little to invite others to join this Tempe-based compassionate response to homelessness in our community. Consider this your invitation. We would like to make you a part of the I-HELP family. If you have an interest in our efforts we invite you to "come and see." Steven Sparks is Director of Operations and can be reached at 480-350-5893, or Ruth Kearns, Tempe Quakers at 480-248-7575 or rskearns"nospam"@gmail.com (You need to remove the "nospam" from the address above for it to work)

Financial Contributions

Friends do not "pass the hat" for donations, or request a financial pledge, but we welcome any contributions.

If youd like to make a contribution to the Meeting, you can (1) drop it in the small wooden box in the Library (labeled Contributions: Tempe Friends Meeting), or (2) put it in an envelope in the Treasurers slot in the Mulit-Purpose Room, or (3) send it by mail to the Treasurer, at the following address:

Tempe Friends Meeting
318 E. 15th Street
Tempe, AZ 85281-6612

Your contributions to Tempe Monthly Meeting could support the following:

I-Help
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
American Friends Service Committee
Ramallah Friends School in Palestine
Prisoners Visitation and Support
Juan Pasco Fund for Lawful Temporary Workers
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
Friends House Moscow
Paz de Cristo Community Center
WHEAT
Tempe Emergency Assistance Ministries
Arizona Ecumenical Council

Planned Giving

If you have some assets that you would like to contribute to the Meeting, there’s a way to do that, and earn yourself some money. With a Charitable Giving Annuity, if you make a gift through Friends Fiduciary Corp. with the Meeting as a beneficiary, you can earn a high interest rate and get federal tax benefits. At your death, whatever remains goes to the beneficiary. The interest earned is a function of age, with a minimum age of 50, and a minimum gift of $5,000. At age 60, as of 7/22/10, for a $10,000 gift, the interest earned was 5.2%; at age 90, it was 9.5 %. For more information, contact Ed Kearns, 480-831-3351.

MINUTE ON SB 1070

Tempe Monthly Meeting Friends:

During Fifth Month Meeting for Business, the following minute was approved for distribution by the Clerk with support from P&SC to identify additional places to send the minute, but including AEC (Arizona Ecumenical Council), our political representatives (Legislators & Governor), local police and city, IMYM and other AZ meetings.

Gretchen Reinhardt, Minute Clerk,
Tempe Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Minute on Senate Bill 1070 adjusted by House Bill 2162

Senate Bill 1070 among other things makes it a crime to house men, women or children who lack legal authorization to be here as well as transport them whether it's to school, a doctor, or even church.  As modified by House Bill 2162, police will have wide latitude during a stop, detention or arrest while enforcing any law or ordinance to arrest anyone they suspect might be in the country without legal authorization. In light of it becoming law, the Tempe Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends considers the needs of our fellow human beings for medical care, shelter, food and education a higher priority than observance of this unjust law.  This law creates an unjust climate of fear for those whose area of residence, line of work, complexion, spoken language or accent deems them suspicious, even if they are citizens or legal foreign residents or visitors.

People come to this country to improve their lives, but unfortunately at this time, many impoverished people, especially from Mexico and Central America, face a cruel choice of waiting for years with little hope of gaining legal entrance or risking their lives crossing the border, often leaving loved ones behind.

It's unconscionable that the United States, with its great wealth and resources, has refused to come up with a more adequate immigration system, and that the United States and Mexico have failed to address underlying issues pushing people out of Mexico.  But this response in the state of Arizona we find immoral and inconsistent with Quaker testimonies on Community, Equality and Peace.   Senate Bill 1070 will not deter us from providing shelter to those who need it or assisting with the transport needs of others.  We urge police to use discretion and restraint in their interpretation of this law under the United States Constitution, and will stand for humane treatment of immigrants and bear witness to any activity by police to aggressively enforce onerous provisions of this law.

Our Statement About IRAQ

The following Minute, regarding hostilities with Iraq, was approved by a Meeting for Business held on February 13, 2005.

The late Kenneth Boulding stated, "Those who love their country in the light of their love for God express that love by endeavoring to make their country respected rather than feared, loved rather than hated. But those who love only their country express that love by trying to make their country feared and succeed too often in making it hated."

The Tempe Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends calls on the Congress to attach a resolution to the Iraq war spending bill that states that the policy of the United States is to "withdraw all military troops and bases from Iraq."

We deplore the continued bloodshed that has taken the lives of thousands n Iraq. We hear that two thousand "enemy combatants" are arrested or killed each month, as if it makes no difference whether they are arrested or killed. In meantime, scores of innocent Iraqis are bombed each month and too many of our own military service people are maimed and killed. Continued violence and the use of violence to combat it doesn’t heal, but creates the seeds of resentment that leads to more violence. Military force will not kill a movement based on martyrdom. Martyrdom arises from a desire to regain control amidst a feeling of vulnerability due to poverty, inadequate public services, and foreign occupation.

As the Israelis and Palestinians hopefully take steps toward ending their mutual bloodshed, we call on the United States and new Iraqi governments to seek dialogue with those disaffected as well as those who rely on violence by working to overcome their sense of poverty and hopelessness to develop a road map to peace that might be embraced by all Iraqis.