BeFriending Creation
BeFriending Creation
BeFriending Creation. Newsletter of Quaker Earthcare Witness. ISSN 1050-0332. Published bi-monthly.
We publish BeFriending Creation to promote Quaker Earthcare Witness goals, stimulate discussion and action, share insights, practical ideas, and news of our actions, and encourage among Friends a sense of community and spiritual connection with all Creation. Opinions expressed are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect those of QEW, or of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The editor is responsible for unsigned items.
Submission deadlines are February 7, April 7, June 7, August 7, October 7, and December 7.
Contents of BeFriending Creation copyright ©2007 QEW, except as noted. Permission to reprint BeFriending Creation material must be requested in advance from the editor.
"Membership" in QEW is open to all who demonstrate commitment to support QEW's goals and who support QEW's work at the Monthly or Yearly Meeting levels, or through other Friends organizations. FCUN is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation; contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
QEW Vision and Witness
WE ARE CALLED to live in right relationship with all Creation, recognizing that the entire world is interconnected and is a manifestation of God.
WE WORK to integrated into the beliefs and practices of the Religious Society of Friends the Truth that God's creation is to be respected, protected, and held in reverence in its own right and the Truth that human aspirations for peace and justice depend upon restoring the earth's ecological integrity.
WE PROMOTE these Truths by being patterns and examples, by communicating our message, and by providing spiritual and material support to those engaged in the compelling task of transforming our relationship with the earth.
QEW Clerk: Barbara Williamson, 2710 E. Leigh St., Richmond, VA 23223. Phone: 804/643-0461; e-mail: barbaraawmson@juno.com.
Address subscription and membership correspondence to: QEW General Secretary Ruah Swennerfelt, 173-B N. Prospect St., Burlington, VT 05401-1607. Phone: 802/658-0308; e-mail: ruah@QuakerEarthcare.org
Address editorial correspondence to: BFC Editor: Louis Cox, 173-B N. Prospect St., Burlington, VT 05401-1607. Phone: 802/658-0308; e-mail: louis@QuakerEarthcare.org.
In this issue
- 'Eco-spirituality & Action' course shows Quaker Testimonies are in tune with ecology.
- Summer: A good time to begin a low CO2 /H2O diet.
- UN sustainable development talks end without full agreement—but on a hopeful note, perhaps.
- From designing creative jewelry to defending the jewel of Creation.
- Spring program shows QEW Steering Committee is being faithful to its job.
- QEW aims for fragrance-free meetings.
- Reinventing the world at `rightly ordered' Gaviotas.
- Two books that fill us with hope!
- Letters.
- Designing Sustainable Futures— Quaker Earthcare Witness Annual Meeting & Gathering.
`Eco-spirituality & Action' course shows how
Quaker Testimonies are in tune with ecology
For eight weeks, from January through March 2007, I helped lead a course called "Eco-spirituality & Action" that was designed through the Friends in Unity with Nature group of 15th Street and Morningside Friends Meetings in Manhattan.
Attended by adults from New York Quarterly Meeting at Friends Seminary, the course was based on the outline of Planetary Perspectives, a book in progress that is an outgrowth of my art series, "Conscious Evolution: The World at One." The course also draws from my experience in applying the principles of the creative process observed in nature and art to daily life.
My particular interest in offering "Eco-spirituality & Action" to Friends has an ulterior motive: to identify key corporate actions Friends are willing to take in order to respond creatively to the plight of our Earth. I know that when Friends get behind an issue, they themselves become a force of nature. I feel it coming—a growing synergy within the corporate body of Friends, a groundswell among us who know deeply that the earth is our larger self, in whom we live and move and have our being. We know that we cannot glorify God while continuing to heap contempt upon His creation.
Being fairly new to Quakerism, I discovered over the eight weeks how uniquely primed Friends are for the materials I had put together for the course. The Quaker principle of "continuing revelation" resonates with the premise of Eco-spirituality that we live in an evolving, creative Universe. The wisdom, order, beauty, and creativity displayed in the Cosmos are powers that each individual possesses. We are now called to use these powers to protect the earth (which includes humanity).
One evening we wrote on the blackboard the principal values of ecology that we'd identified through the readings (accessed at www.funquakers.org) and looked for their corresponding Quaker Testimonies. Every one of them had a match. Here are a few (see if you can find their corresponding Testimony): Holism, Interdependence, Non-Zero-Sum Games, Reciprocity, Unity in Diversity, Inter-generational Responsibility, Synergy, Biocentricity, and No Waste in Nature. This led to a discussion on whether we could expand our love beyond the human community to embrace the whole of the Natural World.
Thomas Berry put this succinctly in his Schumacher lecture, "Every Being Has Rights": ". . .The real revelatory experience is in the air we breathe, in the birds that fly and the flowers that bloom." Not in words, he says, but in realities.
Aware that as Friends we fundamentally embrace most of these ecological values (I'd go so far as to call them virtues), we used them to guide us while we explored our inherent creativity and leadings towards healing the Earth Community. We employed exercises from Joanna Macy's book Coming Back to Life, as well as a number of evocative visioning techniques.
One of the most powerful was an exercise to determine our highest vision for Quaker action in this time of crisis (see the next page for the exercise and a sample of one participant's vision ). The importance of the spiritual journey and contemplative tradition was also stressed as the necessary preparation for leadings that can well up from the Ground of Being itself.
The final results were not only a deep sense of our belonging to this vast, beautiful Cosmos, but a set of priorities for proper nourishment, healthy habitat, and clean renewable energy. Each individual also identified his/ her own individual leadings.
At the last session, we incorpo- rated the traditional Quaker practice of worship sharing, with some startling results: It was truly a gathered meeting, in which the Spirit spoke to us of a true metanoia, a New Covenant forming between humanity and the earth. Peace vigils have begun in Manhattan that include witnesses for the earth. A Minute was generated calling us to work to nurture both peace on Earth and peace with Earth. Another leading called for a process of "Truth and Reconciliation with the Natural World."
continued on page 2>>
