Is there a place at the UN for faith-based organizations? What does it mean to represent a values approach in the realpolitik world of international affairs? How can a "still, small voice" make itself heard? These and many other questions will be under discussion on Sunday, October 17, at the Chatham-Summit Quaker Meeting in Chatham, NJ, where Andrew Tomlinson, United Nations Representative for the Quakers and Director of the Quaker UN Office in New York (QUNO) will be speaking. The program is 9:30 am-10:30 am and the public is warmly invited.
Tomlinson, who is a member of Chatham-Summit Meeting and a resident of Montclair, NJ, assumed his current position at the UN in February 2008. He will be sharing his experience moving from a career in international finance in London and New York with S.G.Warburg and Citigroup, to several years of managing a socially responsible investment business, and eventually into a life of facilitation and quiet diplomacy in the UN community.
Quakers have been active at the UN since 1947(longer than many member states), working quietly with diplomats, members of the secretariat and UN agencies, and non-governmental organizations, on issues of peace, justice and prevention of violent conflict. Much of QUNO's programmatic work takes place at Quaker House, a four story brownstone close to United Nations Headquarters, which has served as a location for informal, off-the-record discussions at the UN, away from the cameras and microphones, since 1953.
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Tomlinson's talk is the fifth program in a year-long series of programs and events at Chatham-Summit called "Inviting the Spirit," developed to celebrate the completion of work done to expand and renovate the 40-year old meetinghouse which is located at 158 Southern Boulevard in Chatham, NJ. For more information or directions call 973-635-2161 or consult www.chathamquakers.org.
