Bethesda Friends Meeting has sponsored various Forums and Workshops, both at the Morella Library in downtown Bethesda and, more recently, via Zoom.

Upcoming events
Action in Montgomery
Emphasis in 2023: Participation in Action in Montgomery (AIM) events. BFM was a founding congregation of AIM and remains very active.
- AIM is planning a major in-person "accountability action" on Sunday, March 12th at 2:30 p.m. to meet with County Executive and County Council members.
- The location will be Peoples Community Baptist Church in Silver Spring.
- AIM's key issues are affordable housing, safer neighborhoods, climate justice and racial equity through electrification and weatherization, dental care access for low-income adults, and free pre-K for all.
- Would you consider joining us at this event? AIM wants to fill the church to make our constituent power visible. If you have any questions, please ask us using our Contact Us form.
- Click here for the link to register for the event.
- You can get more information on the issues AIM will be championing at this event at this link. More information about AIM itself is at www.actioninmontgomery.org.
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Past events
Safeguarding Our Elections
In 2020, the focus of the Peace & Social Justice Committee was on "safeguarding everyone’s right to vote and getting everyone’s vote counted."
This involved supporting the work of four nonpartisan organizations that have been active in this field.
The four organizations are:

Monday, October 5 & 6, 2020: A White Historian Explores Black Voting Rights --with Susan Strasser
- American voting has historically been restricted on the basis of many things other than race, including gender, class, ethnicity, religion, age, and personal history. But race stands out. Only African Americans have had the right to vote granted and repeatedly taken away. Voting has been one aspect of a larger system of racist laws and customs, and the right to vote has been intertwined with the rights to good education, housing, and jobs, with that system being backed by violence, terror, and intimidation.
- Using nearly sixty images and maps, Ms. Strasser surveys this history, with emphasis on two moments of possibility—Reconstruction and the early 1960s— and on recent attacks on the right to vote. This is the third of a series of her illustrated talks, "A White Historian Reads Black History."
Monday, June 10, 2019: Workshop on "Reversing Global Warming: Introduction to Drawdown"
- Project Drawdown is a coalition of more than 200 researchers and other experts from 22 countries led by author, environmentalist, and entrepreneur, Paul Hawken.
- Over the course of 5 years of rigorous scientific research, they identified and modeled the 100 most substantive, already existing solutions for addressing global warming and revealed astounding news: that it is possible not just to slow global warming, but to actually reverse it by 2050.
Links to the handouts (click to see and print)
- Drawdown Descriptions of 100 Solutions, listed by their group Sectors
- Drawdown Solutions, listed by their group Sectors and their Ranking
- Drawdown Suggestions on how an individual can get started with reversing global warming
March 18, 2019: Forum on Climate Change Policy in 2019: What Citizens Can Do at Federal, State & Local Levels.
- How we can make a difference regarding the climate crisis from organizations like Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Chesapeake Climate Network as well as local activists and Jamie Raskin's office.
February 2019: Carbon Footprint Training
As dire warnings abound regarding the threat of global climate change, have you stopped to examine your household’s carbon footprint?
Calculating your carbon footprint is simple, and we’ll show you how. It’s sure to be an eye-opener!
- This document gives a list of our Carbon Footprint Resources (choose PDF or Word).
- Here are our Training/Presentation slides (choose PDF or PowerPoint).