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What can my State do? – A Quaker Roundtable on State-Level Climate Advocacy

Join Quaker Earthcare Witness for a dynamic virtual roundtable exploring the critical role of state-level climate advocacy in advancing environmental and climate justice. As national policies falter and environmental protections erode, state-level action emerges as a vital arena for meaningful change. This gathering will bring together Quaker leaders, advocates,…

Forest Assisted Migration w/David Abazs (QEW Fellowship Hour)

Join us for QEW Fellowship Hour on Dec 13th, where we’ll explore the inspiring and practical work of David Abazs and the Forest Assisted Migration Project in northeast Minnesota. Forest Assisted Migration: A Call to Action w/ David Abazs Friday, December…

Bathing in wood air

Photo by Kathy Barnhart Bathing in wood air by Pamela Haines We all know that a walk in the woods refreshes– great trees, bird calls and breezes pungent scents of earth and pine. Yet our senses fail to name the greater forces here at work. Mushroom threads—mycelia—…

Simplicity: A Call to Return to Unity and Harmony With Earth and Its Inhabitants

Simplicity: A Call to Return to Unity and Harmony With Earth and Its Inhabitants By SJM and Lee Hall Climate Action Committee, Radnor Quaker Meeting It’s often said that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. There is an inherent simplicity and ease in smiling. To love, likewise,…

A Fight for the Heart of the Everglades: The EAA Reservoir and Big Sugar

A Fight for the Heart of the Everglades: The EAA Reservoir and Big Sugar by Scott Virgin Growing up amidst the ecosystems of South Florida is a blessing. Exploring mangrove channels, spearfishing coral reefs, climbing coastal islands, hammocks, and swamps, and observing the vast wildlife connects the young mind…

The Un-Quaker Practices of TIAA

The Un-Quaker Practices of TIAA by Laura Hulbert Imagine you smell bleach when you take your class out to the school yard. It’s not a faint smell. The tag-players are short of breath. The kids on the monkey bars are coughing and sneezing, and one girl is dry…

Freeing Ourselves From Possessions

Image by Kathy Barnhart Freeing Ourselves From Possessions By Tom Small If you want to make small changes, change the way you do things. If you want to make major changes, change the way you see things. –Gabe Brown, quoting Don Campbell Burley Coulter is, to…

From COP29 to DC: Climate Advocacy and the Future We Need w/Daren Caughron

Join Daren Caughron, FCNL’s Legislative Manager for Sustainable Energy and Environment, for an in-depth discussion on the challenges and opportunities in advancing climate justice in both the international and U.S. legislative arenas. Drawing from his on-the-ground experience at COP29 in Baku and his work mobilizing faith-based advocacy, Daren…

Rising Together: Resilience and Action for Trying Times w/Daniel Hunter

Summary: In a time of political upheaval and escalating challenges, Daniel Hunter offers a timely and urgent call to action. As communities grapple with the realities of Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, Daniel will guide us in exploring how to organize powerfully, build resilience, and take…

The Road Ahead – Becoming Hope in the Trump Era

Join Keith Runyan, General Secretary of Quaker Earthcare Witness, for a timely and inspiring conversation on how Quakers can step into the role of moral and spiritual leadership during this turbulent era. As the challenges of the Trump Era continue to unfold, Keith will share a bold…

Post-Election Worship Sharing with Quaker Earthcare Witness

In times of great grief and fear in facing the work ahead, gathering together can be a way to hold and process the grief, helping us move from isolation to a sense of shared purpose. As we move forward in this post-election period, we invite you to join a…

QEW Book Group

Join QEW in reading Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira. This QEW eco-book group will be led by avid reader and devoted educator Ethan Smith. This series will delve into discussions on how we can face the challenges of our time…

Health, Relinquishment, and Planetary Care with Ranae Hanson

Join us for an engaging evening with award-winning author Ranae Hanson as we explore the intertwined themes of Health, Relinquishment, and Planetary Care. Together, we’ll reflect on the profound connections between personal well-being and planetary health, guided by stories and insights from Hanson’s book Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth…

Winter Solstice Worship Sharing

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. Join us for a special worship sharing to honor the winter solstice. We’ll gather explore our Earthcare callings, nourish our sense of community, and explore queries to draw us into a shared sacred space. Together we are creating more opportunities for…

November Worship Sharing

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. This month, we will meet from 7-8 pm Eastern time/4-5 pm Pacific time on Tuesday, November 19th. Our worship sharing seeks to explore our Earthcare callings, nourish our sense of community, and explore queries to draw us into a shared sacred space.

October Worship Sharing

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. This month, we will meet from 7-8 pm Eastern time/4-5 pm Pacific time on Tuesday, October 22nd. Our worship sharing seeks to explore our Earthcare callings, nourish our sense of community, and explore queries to draw us into a shared sacred space.

Bolivia Food Security

Food Security for Bolivian Families – w/Emma Condori Join us for a crucial event that highlights the Food Security Project, a vital initiative by the Friends International Bilingual Center (FIBC) aimed at supporting indigenous families in the Bolivian highlands who are facing severe food insecurity due to climate change. The…

Victory for the Youth-Led Constitutional Climate Case Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation!

Last month, Hawaiʻi officials announced a groundbreaking legal settlement to fully decarbonize Hawaiʻi’s transportation system by 2045. Thirteen youths from across Hawaiʻi brought the case in June 2022, arguing that their state’s transportation policies and practices contribute significantly to climate change, thus violating their constitutional rights to a clean…

Deepening Community: Eco-Book Group Returns This Fall!

This past spring, Quaker Earthcare Witness hosted a vibrant and deeply engaging book group focused on Jennie Ratcliffe’s transformative book, Nothing Lowly in the Universe. From February through May 2024, participants gathered every other Monday to delve into the intricate weave of ecological, spiritual, and moral issues Ratcliffe…

QEW on the Road

By Nora Lisette Cooke In June 2022, I was in a house in Calvisson, France, house sitting for local Friends who lived just down the road from the Maison Quaker, where my parents were the amis-résidents (Friends in Residence). I had been on the Zoom call for close…

Upholding Truth, Democracy, and Environmental Justice

“Loving your enemy is manifest in putting your arms not around the person but around the social situation, to take power from those who misuse it— at which point they can become human, too.” – Bayard Rustin Quaker Call to Action We see that truth, democracy, equality,…

Pathways to Peace: Linking Disarmament and Climate Action

by Molly McGinty The ongoing climate crisis and escalating threat of nuclear war pose the most acute threats to human and planetary survival. These twin existential threats to life are closely linked and mutually reinforcing, each requiring urgent action. In 2023, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) once…

Restoring Earth Connection

Wednesday, October 16th, 7pm ET / 4pm PT After over 16 years doing climate work, founding 350Seattle.org, cofounding Faith Action Climate Team (of Seattle), Lynn Fitz-Hugh took a new direction. In founding Restoring Earth Connection she chose to work on paradigm shift – and rebuilding our relationship to Earth, as…

Growing Universalism w/tom kunesh

Growing universalism — decolonizing/decentering our humanity w/tom kunesh As nations around the world expand their definition of personhood to include whales, bees, turtles, rivers, & nature as a whole, – what effect do these legalistic inclusions of other ‘things’ as beings have on our a/theology of ‘soul’ ? Are…

July Worship Sharing

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. This month, we will meet from 7-8 pm Eastern time/4-5 pm Pacific time on Tuesday, July 23rd. Join QEW for our monthly worship sharing on Tuesday, July 23rd. Our worship sharing seeks to explore our Earthcare callings, nourish our sense…

From Warheads to Windmills

Wednesday, August 21st, 7 p.m. Eastern/4 p.m. Pacific Climate catastrophe and nuclear war are two existential threats we face as a species. The issues are also connected. They are human-engineered problems that reinforce each other, and there are already solutions for us to implement if we can overcome the…

Earthcare Center at the FGC Gathering

This schedule is subject to change. DAILY 7:00 AM Early Morning Outdoor Worship (Mon-Fri) convened by QEW supporters. Monday, July 1 1:30-3.00 Sharon Gunther – Transformative Origin Stories: Becoming Kindom – Origin stories transform our sense of who we are. Looking at lessons from history and anthropology towards understanding our…

August Worship Sharing

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. This month, we will meet on Tuesday, August 27th, from 7 to 8 pm Eastern time/4 to 5 pm Pacific time. Our worship sharing seeks to explore our Earthcare callings, nourish our sense of community, and explore queries to draw…

July Worship Sharing

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. This month, we will meet on Tuesday, July 23rd, from 7 to 8 pm Eastern time/4 to 5 pm Pacific time. Our worship sharing seeks to explore our Earthcare callings, nourish our sense of community, and explore queries to draw…

June Worship Sharing

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. This month, we will meet from 7-8 pm Eastern time/4-5 pm Pacific time on Tuesday, June 25th.Join QEW for our monthly worship sharing on Tuesday, June 25th. Our worship sharing seeks to explore our Earthcare callings, nourish our sense of…

2024 UN High Level Political Forum Virtual Side Event

11 July (Seventh Month) 2024 Quaker Earthcare Witness United Nations Working Group 2024 UN High Level Political Forum Virtual Side Event 1:30 – 3:00 PM (EDT) In recognition of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015 – 2024) and the International Decade for Action on Water…

Peacemaking & Earthcare: A Dialogue with Lindsey Fielder Cook & Joyce Ajlouny

As we witness the escalation of warfare worldwide, QEW has been called to deepen its engagement and ministry regarding the intersections of Earthcare and Global Peacemaking. We strongly believe that there can be no Peace on Earth without Peace with Earth and, conversely, that there can be no Peace with…

Navigating the Storms – Prophetic Witness for an Earth Restored

We live in a time of great change. Since 1945, the fate of Life on our tender planet has hung in the balance of human choice. If humanity does not soon develop wisdom and global solidarity, we will, through technological hubris, vain ambition, and age-old rivalries, unravel the thread of…

Eco-Justice Webinar: Climate and Money

In this program hosted by the Eco-Justice Collaborative of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, we’ll hear from a panel and together explore the role of finance in the climate crisis: how our money currently flows to support fossil fuel projects, and a variety of campaigns that Friends across the country are engaged in…

Keynote: A Civilizational Rite of Passage with Daniel Schmachtenberger

On Friday, April 26th at 7pm ET/4pm PT, we’re delighted to invite you to join QEW for a Keynote Dialogue with Daniel Schmachtenberger as we examine the spiritual gravity of our times and how this calls to us today. Daniel is a visionary and social theorist,…

Fund Grassroots Earthcare Projects: QEW Mini-Grants

0 Our Goal 0 Donors So Far 0 Amount Raised So Far Double Your Donation! Thanks to the deep generosity from a…

Mini-Grants: Cloud Forest Regeneration Project

Support our Mini-Grant Program Quaker Earthcare Witness offers grants each year to diverse Friends meetings, groups, churches, and organizations to support their community’s vision of caring for the Earth and each other through our Mini-Grants Program. Please help us continue this work. Right now, the first $4,000 in donations will…

Book Group – Reading Nothing Lowly in the Universe

Join us for a 6-part series of in-depth discussions on the book Nothing Lowly in the Universe by Jennie Ratcliffe. This QEW eco-book group will be led by avid readers and devoted facilitators/educators Ethan Smith and Nathan Kleban. We will provide a space for reflection on the ecological crisis we find…

May Worship Sharing with Quaker Earthcare Witness

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. This month, we will be meeting from 7-8 pm Eastern time/4-5 pm Pacific time on Tuesday, May 28th. In worship sharing, we gather in small groups to focus on a particular query to explore our own experience and share with each…

March Worship Sharing with Quaker Earthcare Witness

Quaker Earthcare Witness hosts monthly online worship-sharing groups. This month, we will be meeting from 7-8 pm Eastern time/4-5 pm Pacific time on Tuesday, March 26th. In worship sharing, we gather in small groups to focus on a particular query to explore our own experience and share with each…

Spring Gathering

Welcome Friend! This Spring, the Steering Committee of Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) will gather for its Spring Gathering, where we’ll discuss the Future of QEW. Our steering committee meets twice a year to discern the business of Quaker Earthcare Witness, engage in fellowship, and set direction for our path ahead.

Our Own Worst Enemies: An Apostolic Exhortation on the Climate Crisis

by Shelley Tanenbaum In 2015, the Pope’s message to the world, Laudato Si, amazed many of us, myself included, with his blunt comments about people, economics, and climate change. (QuakerEarthcare.org/Laudato-Si) He called for a radical restructuring of how we relate to each other and to the more-than-human world. This…

See How They Love One Another

Referring to the Romans’ view of early Christians, Tertullian wrote, “It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See how they love one another, they say.” This idea that our QEW community is rooted in addressing climate change through…

Humans and Nature – The Yellowstone Model

by Peter Husby To many people, the concept of “natural” is equivalent to a lack of human presence or measurable human influence. For example, the late ecologist E.O. Wilson believed that the only way to save our planet was to remove humans from half of the earth’s land surface! (Who…

Community Choice Aggregation: Pennsylvania Boroughs are Ready for 100%

Join a webinar sponsored by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Environmental Justice Collaborative on Community Choice Aggregation on January 18th, 7pm Eastern. Presenters from the CCA for PA team will provide an overview of CCA, introduce participants to local leaders from the five boroughs that have already signed an MOU, and explain…

Attention to True Climate Stewardship: Worship at Vanguard

by Lina Blount On November 15th, I sat in a wooden folding chair on a grassy corner outside the Pennsylvania headquarters of the investment company Vanguard. I was surrounded by dozens of others, all of us in worshipful, contemplative silence. We had taken Quaker meeting for worship out of our…

To Kneel and Kiss the Ground

by Keith Runyan, Incoming General Secretary at Quaker Earthcare Witness In the fall of 2019, just after founding my podcast, A Future on Waxen Wings, I was invited to be a keynote panelist for the College Park Quarterly Meeting with Mica Estrada,…

No Faith in Fossil Fuels

by Miche McCall On the second day of Rosh Hashana, the faith hub at the March to End Fossil Fuels was full of celebrations of Life on Earth. Last September, 75,000 people poured into the streets of New York City to call for our leaders to protect our communities and…

Climate and Money: A Guide to Fossil Fuel Divestment & Reinvestment

Created by Friend Jennie Ratcliffe and members of the Earthcare Witness Committee of Durham (NC) Friends Meeting. This guide provides resources on the what and why of divestment, which banks or funds to divest from, how to go about divesting, and how to reinvest in a more livable whole earth…

Fall Gathering

Join us at our Fall Gathering at the Norbertine Spirituality Center at Santa María de la Vid Abbey in the beautiful high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico, from Thursday, October 3rd to Sunday, October 6th. Here in the heart of the desert, where water is a precious and often…

Earth Awareness, Earth Activism

This is an excerpt from QEW’s Earthcare for Friends: A Study Guide for Individuals and Faith Communities. You can find this curriculum, as well as our Earthcare for children curriculum for your First Day or Sunday School at QuakerEarthcare.org/Resources. Written by Bill Cahalan and Ruah Swennerfelt…

Young Friends for a Fossil-Free Future

All photos by Sebastian DiMino With the local temperatures soaring to 96 degrees during the Friends General Conference Gathering and the global average temperatures breaking records, Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) gathered an intergenerational group of Friends from across the country in an action against JP Morgan Chase and Vanguard.

Cold-Climate Horticulture and a Freed Bee

Photo by Kathy Barnhart A Year as a Quaker Voluntary Service Fellow By Elsa Hoover I just finished as a Quaker Voluntary Service Fellow in Minneapolis Through QVS, I worked at the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, aka “The Hort”. To say I did not know what I was getting…

The 2023 Farm Bill: Advocate for a Just and Faithful Bill

Every five years, Congress takes up a massive piece of legislation called the Farm Bill. Right now, the 2023 Farm Bill has an expected budget of $1.5 trillion, which determines how food is grown, what food is grown, and who can afford it. The bill wields immense power in shaping…

A Living Economy for a Livable Earth

By Pamela Haines Most of us are intimidated by economics, made to feel too ignorant to understand, question, or challenge its system. But, just as we do with peace, we can step boldly into that arena with our faith and values intact, daring to imagine a living economy for a…

The Sacred Depths of Nature

Both Ancient and Modern Traditions Are Held Together by Mary Coelho We are invited to continually seek to discern the ways in which we are alienated, often without conscious awareness, from the sacred nature of the natural world. Considering two unexpected sources helps us become more aware of our…

Smarter Planet or Wiser Earth?

New Quaker Institute for the Future (QIF) Book on Human Ecology and Artificial Intelligence Current breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence (AI) need to be evaluated holistically as part of serious, systematic threats to our human ecology. These threats are intimately related to the economic, political, military, technological, and ethical flaws…

Big tree in front of blue sky and green grass

Looking Past the Great Dying to the Next Great Living

by Allen McGrew. Six months before I joined Quaker Earthcare Witness Steering Committee, I was stricken by a nasty infection that got into my blood and precipitated a near-fatal cascade of platelet death, septic shock, that plunged my blood pressure to 35/50, overwhelmed my kidneys, and induced a heart attack…

Conscientious Objection, Conscientious Protection

by Jennie M. Ratcliffe. There are multiple interconnections between conscientious objection to militarism and what we can call the conscientious protection of all life on Earth. Conscientious objection, both to war-making and to militarism that seeks to maintain and assert our so-called national security or “interests,” has long been advocated…

Friends Cut Up Credit Cards with Third Act

On Tuesday, March 21, 2023, thousands of people across North America—led by older Americans who are Third Act supporters—gathered inside and outside branches of big banks and at climate-impacted sites as part of Third Act’s 3.21.23 Day of Action to demand that banks stop financing the expansion of fossil…

ChatGPT: AI Writes 600 Words on Human Survival

by ChatGPT. We asked ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, to “give us a 600 word article that answers this question: will humans survive the climate crisis?” This is what it wrote: The climate crisis, also known as global warming, is one of the most pressing issues facing humanity today. The…

Incentives for Green Energy: Practical Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act

by Liz Robinson. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), people in the US finally have the tools necessary to rapidly decarbonize our lives and help accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. The law provides $369 billion dollars for climate action and clean energy, and is…

Moving Money Publicly to Move Vanguard

by Eileen Flanagan. In response to right-wing pressure, Vanguard, one of the world’s biggest investors in fossil fuels-, announced in December 2022 that it was backing away from one its few public climate commitments, the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. This was disappointing for Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), which…

Show your support for BeFriending Creation

Support BeFriending Creation

Contribute to the Campaign We did it! Thanks to everyone who gave this April! We had a goal of raising $4,000 this month to support the creation, printing, and distribution of our newsletter, BeFriending Creation, which reaches thousands of friends and hundreds of meetings each quarter. Help create…

We're Hiring : Communications & Outreach Coordinator

Job Opening: Communications & Outreach Coordinator

Passionate about environmental justice and faith-based social change? Are you a storyteller committed to inspiring action in your community? Quaker Earthcare Witness is hiring! Communications & Outreach Coordinator Download Job Announcement & Description Position Summary Quaker Earthcare Witness is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, lifting up ecological integrity and…

Flipping the Narrative to Earth Regeneration

by Sheree Cammer. On a train trip back east last year, my cousin and his wife introduced me to the Wild Winds Buffalo Preserve in Fremont, Indiana. Bill “Three Paws” Elias drove our tour in a pickup truck. I had the best seat: front seat passenger. The herd was placidly…

Ode to a Coast Live Oak

by Carl Grant. Bark of alligator skin, moss laden Your strong, contorted arms spread wide What faith you have in dropping Your children to the earth Where brother squirrel buries some To grow up down the road And of others makes a feast. Bark…

What We’re Reading (And Listening To)

We asked our QEW network about their favorite books, podcasts, and media from 2022. Here’s what they said. Multiple Friends recommended The Nutmeg’s Curse by Amitav Ghosh about abusing nature’s bounty and colonization, and also Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm by Isabella Tree. Pamela shared, “I loved Healing Grounds:…

New Jersey Meetings Organize To Stop Export of LNG From Gibbstown

by Ruth Darlington. When Priscilla Adams and Maria Esche learned about the plans of New Fortress Energy to export Pennsylvania fracked gas from a terminal in Gibbstown, NJ, they took notice, and then they took action. It all started when organizers at Food & Water Watch (FWW) asked Medford Friends…

How to Host a Climate Potluck

by Pamela Haines. As I was pondering how to release more energy for addressing climate and environmental justice issues in our Quaker meeting, I had the idea of setting up an informal gathering where we could hear what others were doing and support each other to take a next step.

Holding Space for Ecological Grief

by Hayley Hathaway. In fall 2022, QEW launched its first 10-week course on ecological grief. The course came after organizing two popular online workshops on the topic: over 200 Friends registered from across North America. At these workshops, Friends shared about feeling alone with their emotions of dread, fear, and…

Waking Up

by Nan Fawcett. Imagine a future where we are all heard, where we all listen to each other, not only to our human siblings but to everything, the large and small inhabitants of our home planet, listening to everyone’s voice. Imagine a life where we are…

Taking Collective Action with Third Act

by Kathy Barnhart. At the beginning of each Meeting for Business at Strawberry Creek Meeting in Berkeley, California, a committee responds to one of the Advices and Queries in our Pacific Yearly Meeting’s Faith and Practice. Last month our Communications Committee responded to the advices and queries on “Harmony with…

The UN’s COP27 : Where Are We Now?

by Shelley Tanenbaum. After 27 United Nations Climate Conferences, and even earlier conferences and agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the Rio Earth Summit (1992), why are we so far behind in dealing with climate (and biodiversity and desertification)? That is the question that hovered over Quaker Earthcare…

Green grass on the left with a strip of dirt in the center and then black charred ground on the right

Regeneration: A Matter of Life and Breath

by Tom Small. Breath is what unites us. It unites us with the “other.” With all of creation. Breath is the rhythm, the flow of life itself. Call it Ch’i. Or ruah. Or spiritus. Or rta. The universal breath, life force, or rhythmic pattern of all being. When we interrupt…

Minute on Native American Boarding School Healing

Southeastern Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, meeting as Winter Interim Business Meeting, approves adding a line item to the budget for a recurring annual donation to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition of a minimum of $300.00 with the hope of increasing that amount in…

Minute of Support for Indigenous People

The North Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends repudiates the Doctrines of Discovery: the religious basis for European colonization around the world. We acknowledge and regret Friends’ role in the ensuing genocide, land theft, and forced assimilation of the peoples indigenous to this continent, including Friends’ role…

The Legacy of Quaker Boarding Schools for Native Americans: On the Debts We Owe the Past and the Ghosts of Our Becoming

by Allen McGrew. Convinced Friends may wonder why they should accept responsibility for the abuses of Quaker boarding schools that received native Americans over a century ago. If so, they might also ask whether they can claim the heritage of John Woolman, George Fox, Margaret Fell or other historical Friends.

Family Planning Helps the Planet

by Susan F. Newcomer. Addressing population growth in human terms, not as the bugbear “overpopulation,” necessitates addressing sexuality and childbearing, two particularly sensitive topics. Over the years, Quakers have addressed “episodes of sexual activity” as “sacred, as an expression of a couple’s love for each other” and addressed contraception by…

World Population Reaches 8 Billion

by Stan Becker, Tom Cameron, Dick Grossman, Roy Treadway. As ecological disasters of all kinds threaten our planet-—disasters worsened by increasing population—the number of humans on the Earth reached 8 billion in November, according to the United Nations Population Division. This marks the continuation of the very rapid growth of…

Inspiring the World to Come Together Along the Blue Ridge

Introducing the Friends Wilderness Center & the China Folk House Retreat by Kimberly Benson. About 300 million years ago, the Earth demonstrated that unity is physically possible. Laurasia and Gondwana merged, forming a world with one continent and one ocean. The convergence uplifted the Central Pangean Mountains, raising the depths…

Prioritizing Environmental Justice as We Transition Into A Green Economy

by Jus Tavcar. With the historic passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August, a significant amount of funding has been issued for developing green technologies that are set to advance the U.S. economy. We join with the rest of the environmental community in celebrating this monumental legislation, which…

Faces of 11 people with green background

Quaker Earthcare Witness in 2022

This year, the effects of climate change and ecological collapse have been more than evident. Starting in June, torrential rains flooded Pakistan, with many areas still under water leaving tens of millions at risk. In September, Hurricane Fiona devastated Cuba and Puerto Rico (with Puerto Rico still recovering from Hurricane…

Worship with Attention to Climate Finance

Quakers Join Across Continents to Call on Vanguard to Stop Funding Dirty Fossil Fuel Projects On Friday, October 7, 150 Quakers gathered in-person and virtually to “worship in action” at strategic locations to call on Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment companies, to make better on its commitment to…

Almost 50 Quakers & allies are preparing to hold meeting for worship outside the home of Vanguard CEO, Tim Buckley, as dozens more are simultaneously worshipping outside Vanguard’s London office and joining in virtually from across North America.

Quakers Concerned with Climate Change Worship Outside the Main Line Home of Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley

Quakers Concerned with Climate Change Worship Outside the Main Line Home of Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley British Quakers held their own worship service outside Vanguard’s London offices, while Quakers across the United States joined both groups over Zoom. WAYNE, PA – On Friday, October 7, almost fifty…

Quakers Campaign for Ethical Investing

“As people of diverse faiths and spiritualities, we call on the world’s asset managers to stop financing the profoundly immoral destruction of our climate.” -the rev. abby mohaupt, GreenFaith People of faith, environmental groups, and frontline communities and organizations are uniting to call on financial institutions to “stop the money…

Two teenagers point at solar inverter with text "Support QEW Mini-Grants

Fund Grassroots Earthcare Projects: QEW Mini-Grants

We did it!! Thank you so much for your help raising over $3,000 to fund grassroots projects! Quaker Earthcare Witness has distributed dozens of “mini-grants” over many years to Friends meetings, churches, and groups to support creative projects that foster earthcare and address environmental justice, climate change and involve young…

Cityscape as seen through a broken, rusty fence

Moving Corporate America Toward a Sustainable Economy

By David Ciscel. How do we get to a livable and sustainable world, starting from the economy that we are living in? That is an incredibly difficult job for many reasons. But one issue rises above the many others. The key institution in the modern global economy is the large,…

Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation

Oil, gas and coal are the root cause of the climate crisis and despite the destructive reality of fossil fuels, as well as the constant warnings of the scientific community, there is no binding mechanism to limit their production. The Paris Agreement, important as it is, does not reference fossil…

New Jersey Friends Take Action At Home

by Alice Andrews and Laird Holby. The idea for Medford Meeting’s Earth Day workshop “Green Your Life: Where to Start” came from a member of our Climate Change Group who, only too aware of the bad news, wanted to learn about changes she could make in her own life immediately.

The Climate Justice Movement Must Be Anti-War: Notes from Antiwar Organizers

by Jasmine Butler, Power Shift Network. Power Shift Network is an intergenerational network of organizations and campaigns that center the diverse young people most impacted by the climate crisis. They generously let QEW reprint this article. No matter your specific organizational or ideological affiliation, anyone who cares about…

Hands digging in dirt with plants and roots visible

Simplicity and Right Relationship

by Bill Cahalan. I agree with Wendell Berry, who wrote in his 1977 book, The Unsettling of America, that the United States is an unsettled country. We, not only in North America but in all the industrial world, are disconnected from our natural sources. So most of us only vaguely…

Following Spirit, Despite Fear: Remembering John Woolman in the Vanguard Campaign

by Eileen Flanagan. On October 7, Delaware Valley Quakers and other members of Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) will gather on a suburban street in front of a large white home with black shutters and a manicured lawn. One of us will be designated to assure the waiting police that…

A Native American Land Reparation Pledge

by Gail Melix and Lewis Randa. Reparations to Indigenous Peoples can take many forms. Through our work with Massachusetts’ Peace Abbey, we have developed one action that might work well for others, the Native Land Reparation Pledge (NLRP). The pledge states one’s intention to donate 1% of the sale price…

August Earthcare Engagement For Your Community

Dear Friends, Please join us in August for our monthly workshop and see additional resources below. Thank you! Hayley Hathaway, Director Quaker Earthcare Witness ____ ONLINE WORKSHOP Ecological Grief: Engaging with the Emotional Impacts of Climate Change with Gayle Matson & Hayley Hathaway Thursday,…

Beverly Ward Interview on Northern Spirit Radio

Co-Clerk Beverly Ward Interviewed on Northern Spirit Radio! Beverly Ward is Field Secretary for Earthcare of SEYM, doing all kinds of work to motivate, inform, & unite around work for care for the planet. She offers a range of tailored Earthcare workshops, including topics like Angelic Troublemaking, Climate Equity/Climate Justice, Racial…

June Earthcare Engagement for Your Community

Dear Friends, As Shelley wrote to you earlier this week, “Our strength and stamina come from our spiritual connection with the living world, and with each other.” Thanks for being part of this community. Here are a few June updates: UPCOMING EVENTS More on…

Cause & Effect

By Christopher Haines. Rhyme and Reason There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children. She didn’t know what to do. But try as she would…

Flying fighter jet with blue sky background

Military Jets & Environmental Restoration

By Katherine van Wormer. An issue of immediate concern to the Madison (WI) Friends is government’s selection of our airport as home for the notorious F-35 fighter planes. The Madison Friends’ Minute begins: As Quakers, we seek to remove the circumstances that foster war, based on…

Photo by Kathy Barnhart. She writes, “Chinese Houses, California Poppies, Lupines, Tidy Tips amidst the oak trees make such a wonderful palette. This area in Shell Ridge Open Space Preserve [CA] is tended by a large group of volunteers, encouraging native flowers and plants and weeding out invasives. What a gift they have given to all!”

Spring is Here: Time to Plant Native Plants

By Jim Kessler. Native plants are adapted to the local area and its climate. Unfortunately, many of our beautiful non-native garden flowers provide little or no food for honeybees, native pollinators, songbirds, and other wildlife. Non-native plants have the potential to become invasive species, weeds that spread rapidly…

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What can my State do? – A Quaker Roundtable on State-Level Climate Advocacy

Forest Assisted Migration w/David Abazs (QEW Fellowship Hour)

Bathing in wood air

Simplicity: A Call to Return to Unity and Harmony With Earth and Its Inhabitants

A Fight for the Heart of the Everglades: The EAA Reservoir and Big Sugar

The Un-Quaker Practices of TIAA

Freeing Ourselves From Possessions

From COP29 to DC: Climate Advocacy and the Future We Need w/Daren Caughron

Rising Together: Resilience and Action for Trying Times w/Daniel Hunter

The Road Ahead – Becoming Hope in the Trump Era

Post-Election Worship Sharing with Quaker Earthcare Witness

QEW Book Group

Health, Relinquishment, and Planetary Care with Ranae Hanson

Winter Solstice Worship Sharing

November Worship Sharing

October Worship Sharing

Bolivia Food Security

Victory for the Youth-Led Constitutional Climate Case Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation!

Deepening Community: Eco-Book Group Returns This Fall!

QEW on the Road

Upholding Truth, Democracy, and Environmental Justice

Pathways to Peace: Linking Disarmament and Climate Action

Restoring Earth Connection

Growing Universalism w/tom kunesh

July Worship Sharing

From Warheads to Windmills

Earthcare Center at the FGC Gathering

August Worship Sharing

July Worship Sharing

June Worship Sharing

2024 UN High Level Political Forum Virtual Side Event

Peacemaking & Earthcare: A Dialogue with Lindsey Fielder Cook & Joyce Ajlouny

Navigating the Storms – Prophetic Witness for an Earth Restored

Eco-Justice Webinar: Climate and Money

Keynote: A Civilizational Rite of Passage with Daniel Schmachtenberger

Fund Grassroots Earthcare Projects: QEW Mini-Grants

Mini-Grants: Cloud Forest Regeneration Project

Book Group – Reading Nothing Lowly in the Universe

May Worship Sharing with Quaker Earthcare Witness

March Worship Sharing with Quaker Earthcare Witness

Spring Gathering

Our Own Worst Enemies: An Apostolic Exhortation on the Climate Crisis

See How They Love One Another

Humans and Nature – The Yellowstone Model

Community Choice Aggregation: Pennsylvania Boroughs are Ready for 100%

Attention to True Climate Stewardship: Worship at Vanguard

To Kneel and Kiss the Ground

No Faith in Fossil Fuels

Climate and Money: A Guide to Fossil Fuel Divestment & Reinvestment

Fall Gathering

Earth Awareness, Earth Activism

Young Friends for a Fossil-Free Future

Cold-Climate Horticulture and a Freed Bee

The 2023 Farm Bill: Advocate for a Just and Faithful Bill

A Living Economy for a Livable Earth

The Sacred Depths of Nature

Smarter Planet or Wiser Earth?

Looking Past the Great Dying to the Next Great Living

Conscientious Objection, Conscientious Protection

Friends Cut Up Credit Cards with Third Act

ChatGPT: AI Writes 600 Words on Human Survival

Incentives for Green Energy: Practical Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act

Moving Money Publicly to Move Vanguard

Support BeFriending Creation

Job Opening: Communications & Outreach Coordinator

Flipping the Narrative to Earth Regeneration

Ode to a Coast Live Oak

What We’re Reading (And Listening To)

New Jersey Meetings Organize To Stop Export of LNG From Gibbstown

How to Host a Climate Potluck

Holding Space for Ecological Grief

Waking Up

Taking Collective Action with Third Act

The UN’s COP27 : Where Are We Now?

Regeneration: A Matter of Life and Breath

Minute on Native American Boarding School Healing

Minute of Support for Indigenous People

The Legacy of Quaker Boarding Schools for Native Americans: On the Debts We Owe the Past and the Ghosts of Our Becoming

Family Planning Helps the Planet

The UN’s COP27 : Where Are We Now?