New booklet from Cambridge (Mass.) Friends: Quakers and the New Story

"Science today seems to be telling a `new story'—one that no longer stands in tension to core Quaker convictions." So writes the Quaker Philip Clayton, visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Harvard Divinity School, in his introduction to a new booklet, Quakers and the New Story, published by the New Story Study Group at Friends Meeting at Cambridge, Cambridge, Mass. This change in science, resulting from unexpected discoveries made largely in the last century, is of great significance for Friends, since this change will help build a strong spiritual and intellectual foundation for an effective Earthcare witness.

Many people, including Friends, have been under the pervasive influence of a worldview from Western science that has in the past objectified nature, reducing it to lifeless matter. This has supported the commodification of the natural world, and served often to reinforce a theological dualism that separates the sacred realm from the physical world. It supported the strengthening of a consciousness that relates to the natural world as an object "out there" (a subject/object consciousness) thus isolating human consciousness from the natural world around us. While the highly developed individual consciousness has an important role, it urgently needs to be balanced by a developed participatory consciousness. This participatory consciousness includes experience of the Light within the entire natural world.

With the changes in worldview now available we are emboldened to explore, nourish and develop participatory consciousness as individuals and as a group and to honor and learn from cultures where it has been developed and from our own where it has been repressed or forgotten. This will greatly empower and transform our witness. We are encouraged to enter into a felt knowledge of being fundamentally at home as Earthbeings, awakening and deepening our capacity to love and care more deeply and energetically for our home wherever we may live. As Philip Clayton writes,

"We are bone and sinew, breath and soul, of an ever-evolving Whole that is like us because it includes us as an intrinsic part of itself."

The booklet includes the sidebar, "A Personal Journey into the New Story" by Mary Coelho, and an essay about the work of the New Story Study Group of Friends Meeting at Cambridge. It is available for $3.00 plus 87 cents postage from Mary Coelho at <mccoelho@earthlink.net>.

New edition of Healing Ourselves and the Earth

This updated booklet is based on a talk, "Mistaken Beliefs that are Helping to Destroy the Earth," that the late Elizabeth G. Watson presented at the FGC Gathering in 1990.

Her challenging insights about the spiritual toots of humans' ecologically destructive behavior are as relevant —and urgent—today as they were then.

After surveying the many fronts on which the earth's ecological integrity is seriously threatened, Elizabeth outlined five common beliefs that need rethinking if we are to live sustainably as part of the family of life on this planet. In the process, she demonstrated that Earthcare requires not only a new manner of living on the earth but a transformed consciousness about our place in Creation.

Copies may be ordered for $4.00 + $1.00 S & H from the QEW office or from <www.quakerearthcare.org>.

Steering Committee to meet April 26–29; YM activists invited

QEW's Steering Committee will gather for its annual spring work session at the Cenacle Retreat & Conference Center in Chicago, Ill., from Thursday evening, April 26, through noon Sunday, April 29, 2007.

Although this is a time for committees and interest groups to conduct face-to-face business, QEW is also encouraging other Friends who are working on Earthcare in their Yearly Meetings to join in. Registration forms are available from the QEW office or <www.quakerearthcare.org>. •

Sale! Now only $5.00*

Population Is People A Friends Perspective

Edited by Stan Becker, Louis Cox, and Lisa Gould
ISBN 1881083-06-3, 216 pp., $5.00 + $3.50 S&H

BETWEEN 1950 and 2004 human population exploded from 2.5 billion to 6.4 billion.

In Population Is People, 23 Friends draw on their professional, academic, or life experiences as they reflect on a wide range of social and ecological issues that are affected by rapid population growth.

The emphasis is on compassion, understanding, and responsible sharing of world resources as we work together toward population stabilization and well-being for everyone. Copies may be ordered
directly from the QEW office.

*while supplies last

Northwest Earth Institute discussion courses
educate and help build eco-community

Thousands of people who are concerned about peace, justice, and ecological integrity have been informed and brought together as informal eco-communities through discussion courses offered by the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) of Portland, Ore.

Institute co-founders Jean and Dick Roy say their self-guided courses are dedicated to "motivating individuals to examine and transform personal values and habits, to accept responsibility for the earth and to act on that commitment."

NWEI courses include "Choices for Sustainable Living," "Voluntary Simplicity," "Exploring Deep Ecology," "Globalization and Its Critics," "Developing a Sense of Place," and "Healthy Children."

The eight to nine study sessions in each series are based on provocative and informative excerpts from recent publications, such as Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures. There are also questions to stimulate discussion, as well as suggestions for setting up and facilitating regular meetings.

After completing one course, many groups have elected to continue together on other courses.

To get started, contact NWEI at 506 Sixth St., Suite 1100, Portland OR 97204; 503/227-2807. E-mail them at info@nwei.org or visit their web site at www.nwei.org. •