Category: Volume 29

  • Hundreds of people with red sign that says "Defend the Sacred"

    Reflections on Standing Rock

    Sacred Stone, Clean Water, Gathering People By Shelley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secretary. The gathering at Standing Rock, with more than 280 indigenous tribes represented, is historic and has been an inspiration to all of us. The ongoing gathering is being held to block construction of the Dakota pipeline that threatens…

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  • Bright green spring flower about to blossom with dew

    Live in Possibility: A Voluntary Carbon Tax

    By Alan Eccleston, Mount Toby Friends Meeting. In meeting for worship four years ago I was meditating on climate change and what I was called to do about it. Words rose up, “I live in possibility,” which I attribute to Emily Dickinson. I had a deep realization this is a…

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  • Photo of light shining in forest

    Reflections on Translating the Resistance in Brazil

    By Meg Kidd. Recognition by QEW of the re-emergent sense of the Divine in light of the resistance at Standing Rock continues to breathe air into the indigenous struggle to share millennial wisdom of peoples throughout the world. Noted on October 3 is this struggle from Standing Rock to Bagua…

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  • Photo of Solar Array above parking lot

    Quakers’ Solar Canopy

    By Don Vessey, San Diego Friends Meeting. America is fast realizing the importance of solar energy. Switching to solar power is not only an environmental necessity, but it makes financial sense as well. It reduces global warming not only by reducing the use of fossil fuels, but potentially in other…

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  • Alaskans Demand Climate Justice and Clean Energy

    Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition’s Next Step

    By Cathy Walling, Chena Ridge Friends Meeting, Fairbanks, AK. “I love to feel where words come from.”  I have long loved that quote from our Quaker heritage story of the indigenous man Papunehang hearing John Woolman preaching. He didn’t know what Woolman was saying, but he knew it was coming…

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  • Ecological Guidance and the Sense of the Divine

    By Keith Helmuth. The fate of the human now hangs on our engagement with ecological guidance; the task Thomas Berry calls “the Great Work.” The sense of guidance provided by the ecological worldview is not unlike a new revelation, perhaps even a new sense of the Divine. We may not…

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  • Reverence and Right Action

    By David Jaber I was not raised Quaker, but instead came to Quakerism after having developed an environmental conscience that has very much shaped my life and how I spend my time. You might take that as one indicator of the compatibility of deep earth ethics with Quaker practice. Let’s…

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  • Light Pink Dahlia

    What’s Emerging?

    By Sara Wolcott. What is it that Quakerism contributes to my ecological journey? I am vexed by this question. Five years ago, when my primary sense of religious belonging was nestled deep within the Religious Society of Friends, it would have been easy for me to answer. My confidence that…

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  • Cogs on Blue Background

    A Blueprint for Climate Action

    By Paul Klinkman Friends are encouraged to expand their carbon handprint.  Increasing Friends’ involvement can have considerably more impact on the world’s climate than if they simply shrink their carbon footprint.  I see Friends acting in four somewhat distinct directions: Personal and corporate witness:  Abolitionists wouldn’t own slaves and wouldn’t…

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  • Our Birthright: The Night Sky

    By Shelley Tanenbaum. I’m not one to believe that the universe owes me (or anyone) anything.  But, after spending five nights camping in semi-remote places between Denver and San Francisco, seeing what appeared to be an infinite number of stars and the Milky Way every night, I am moved to…

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  • Six cows

    Friendly Farmers & Earthcare

    By Suzanne Lamborn, Little Britain Monthly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting My husband and I can trace our roots for each generation from the beginning of the colonies in agriculture. Being farmers we were aware that our nation went from over 90 percent farming to the present 1 percent owning farms…

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  • Picture of Peace Pole

    What I Did with My Summer Vacation

    By Katherine Murray. The last week of June, I took four days off with the intention of enjoying a quiet “staycation” full of gardening, hummingbirds, and long walks with my dogs. I envisioned this break as a time of silent retreat, with plenty of room for relaxing into the quiet…

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  • QEW Poetry and Prayer

    Eternal Journey: A Poem

    By Chris Roe As the crimson flame of life Breaks slowly Above the horizon, The white, frosted meadows, With trees and hedgerows Of sculptured ice, Speak loudly Of your presence. Once more Upon this journey, As another day begins, Without…

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  • Long highway in marsh

    Young Faith Leaders Rising During GreenFaith Convergence in New Orleans

    By Sara Wolcott. Myself and the other 60 young (aged 20-35) faith leaders from across Canada and the United States who were partaking in GreenFaith’s 2016 North American Convergence eagerly peered out of our bus windows as it turned onto the road leading to Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana. We…

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  • People on stage

    Reckoning the “Other”

    By Shelley Tanenbaum. Two dynamic and challenging speakers stood out for me at the 2016 Friends General Conference (FGC) gathering in St. Joseph, Minnesota this July. Nekima Levy-Pounds, law professor and leader of the Black Lives Matter movement, came to us after sitting-in at the Governor’s mansion in the immediate…

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  • Florida from Space

    Later Will Be Too Late / Plus Tard Ce Sera Trop Tard*

    By Shelley Tanenbaum. In December 2015 world leaders committed their countries to significantly change the ways that they are contributing to global climate change, they agreed to share resources to support countries most vulnerable and most in need, and they pledged to increase their commitment every five years. However, the…

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  • Group of cheering people in suits

    Youth and a Landmark Climate Case in Court

    By Shelley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secretary. How often do you hear people complain (or rant, scream, and shout) that the U.S. government is not doing enough about climate change, but they don’t actually do anything about it? Last year, twenty-one young Americans and their famous scientist partner joined together to…

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  • Tree in Altiplano Bolivia

    Mini-Grants in Bolivia and Nicaragua

    Mini Grants in Bolivia By Mary Gilbert   TREES IN THE ALTIPLANO The city of El Alto in Bolivia sits at an elevation of 13,600 feet. Specific native trees can actually grow at that altitude in Bolivia. Ruben Hilare—inspired by what he learned at a UN meeting in Cancun that…

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  • Book Review: Our Life Is Love

    By Judy Lumb. I have admired and been inspired by the writing of Marcelle Martin in Friends Journal, so I was very happy to learn that her book was released. It is a very effective juxtaposition of vignettes from the lives of early Friends and contemporary Friends. She divides the…

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  • Image of QEW Logo and Poetry

    Runway A-K47

    By Marjorie McKelvey Isaacs Through the squarish portal Upright in night-dark grass Stand matrices of most beautiful blue lights Shining at attention, Electric English garden in adoration of my benevolent metal bird.

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  • Group standing with "No Pipeline" Sign

    Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Against the Mountain Valley Pipeline

    By Vicki Tolbert As a member of the Blacksburg, VA Friends Earthcare Committee reminded us, we have been “thinking globally, acting locally” as we take on a global issue confronting our local area: the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline. Appalachia has historically been a target for those…

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  • QEW with Friends World Committee for Consulation in Pisac, Peru

    By Mary Gilbert and Judy Lumb The Friends World Committee on Consultation (FWCC) brought Friends from all over the globe together in a loving and somewhat challenging mix. From January 19-27, 2016, more than 300 of us gathered in Pisac, Peru. Do you wish you had been there?…

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  • Yellow fruit in mesh bag

    Walking Cheerfully Over the Earth: Step by Step to a Greener Lifestyle

    By Marjorie McKelvey Isaacs, Psy.D. FWCC has approved a minute asking everyone to personally make green lifestyle changes. All change, even desired improvements, creates some stress. My psychology clients and I, working together for more healthy lifestyles, discovered research, strategies, and viewpoints that can make change easier. Thanks also to…

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  • Climate Justice—from Katrina to Paris and Back to New Orleans

    By Shelley Tanenbaum. When we talk about how global warming will affect the poorest and most vulnerable people on the planet, or when we talk about how countries that have historically emitted the most carbon have a greater carbon debt than those with smaller carbon footprints, or how polluting industries…

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  • Paddle to the Future

    By Shelley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secretary. You’ve probably heard that saying, “Up a creek without a paddle.” Just a few years ago, when it came to climate change, we were all up a dead-end creek in a leaky little boat without a paddle. Post-Paris and the “historic” Agreement, where are…

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  • A Global Climate Insurgency

    By Bob McGahey After years of fraught negotiations, we have a climate accord. Just getting 195 countries with different, sometimes conflicting, interests to agree was a miracle of sorts. The document breaks new ground by aiming to hold the average temperature rise below 2C, to 1.5C, and reaching…

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  • Group of four people with sign

    In Solidarity with Those at COP21

    By QEW Friends Some QEW Friends weren’t in Paris but were participating in events in their local areas in support of change for the planet. In this section several Friends share their COP21 experiences with you. = = = = = = = = = =  “I…

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  • Group at COP

    Reflections on COP21 and the Paris Negotiations

    By Philip Emmi, QEW-Accredited COP21 Observer How can one describe an event designed to accommodate 40,000 attendees and reach an agreement among 195 countries on how to protect against catastrophic climate disruption? Dante’s circles of Heaven and Hell may be a useful image. The venue was…

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  • The New Climate Agreement: The Real Work Begins Now

    By Lindsey Fielder Cook, QUNO. COP 21 ended on a Saturday night, and on Sunday, I went to the local Quaker Meeting in Paris for worship. I gave thanks for the previous night’s achievement, when nearly 200 countries (except Nicaragua) supported what their representatives described as a “balanced” agreement. After…

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  • Vermont Farm landscape in fall

    Rising to the Challenge: The Transition Movement and People of Faith

    Transitioning Times: An Interview with Ruah Swennerfelt Ruah Swennerfelt, QEW’s former General Secretary, has just published a new book with Quaker Institute for the Future, entitled, Rising to the Challenge: The Transition Movement and People of Faith (QIF Focus Books, 2016). As part of the research for her…

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