Category: New & Exploring
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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…
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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…
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FWCC Asks: What’s Happening in Spirit-Led Climate Action Among Quakers?
Epistle from Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas (FWCC). To all Friends Everywhere: On Saturday, 19th day of the 3rd month, a Consultation was held by FWCC entitled: Spirit-Led Climate Action Among Quakers: What’s Happening? This Zoom event was attended by approximately 40…
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QEW’s 2021 Annual Report
A Life Giving Future For All We’d like to share with you Quaker Earthcare Witness’ most recent annual report. We’re pleased to say that we are growing steadily and building momentum. And we couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you for your generous support of Quaker Earthcare Witness.
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Witnessing the Sacred Depth of Nature
by Mary Conrow Coelho. There are remarkable discoveries now offered to Quaker Earthcare Witness that can greatly strengthen its work and witness. One evening in the early 1990s, a small group gathered to listen to a talk in a video series describing the changes in worldview brought by discoveries in…
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Wildfire Lessons: QEW’s Work in 2021
By Shelley Tanenbaum. Dear Friends, Last year’s wildfires were different than in years past. In California, forests have evolved to not just live with fire, but to thrive because of it—fires clear brush and release seed for the next generation. Mature trees survive mostly intact. Yet this past…
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Where’s the Hope in That? A Message from Quaker Earthcare Witness
My name is Mary Jo Klingel, and I am a member of Quaker Earthcare Witness and have served as clerk. I want to share with you about a forum I facilitated on earthcare for my meeting in Charlotte, NC. Near the end of the forum, a man who had been…
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QEW’s Favorite Books
We asked QEW members to share their favorite books. Happy reading! Books to Read for These Times: Climate: A New Story by Charles Eisenstein. “How changing the ‘climate’ of our thinking and rhetoric can influence how we deal with physical climate change.” The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. “About…
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So You’re Ready to Take Action Against Climate Change
Josephine Ferorelli created this flow chart—a helpful resource for anyone who doesn’t know where to start. Josephine is the co-founder and co-director of Conceivable Future, a women-led network bringing awareness to the threat climate change poses to reproductive justice, and demanding an end to US fossil fuel subsidies. Click…
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To Address Climate Disruption, Start Here.
Concrete Steps from Quaker Earthcare Witness’ Sustainability, Faith & Action Working Group Many of these suggestions are based on the work of Paul Hawken and his team of scientists in their book DRAWDOWN and their website, www.drawdown.org. ENERGY Individual/Meeting: Install solar panels; buy 100% clean and renewable electricity wherever…
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Engaging in Earthcare at Yearly Meetings
DO YOU KNOW who is your Yearly Meeting representative to Quaker Earthcare Witness? DO YOU KNOW who is your Yearly Meeting representative to Quaker Earthcare Witness? Our 31 Yearly Meeting Representatives serve as liaisons between QEW and their Yearly Meetings, sharing information about what is on the hearts and minds…
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Money & Soul: Bringing Our Faith Values to the Economy
By Pamela Haines. TO THEOLOGIAN WALTER WINK, Spirit is at the core of every institution. These institutions, or Powers, are created with the sole purpose of serving the general welfare of people, and when they cease to do so, their spirituality becomes diseased. The task of the church is to…
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Potential Surprises
By Shelley Tanenbaum. A LARGE GULF EXISTS between those who understand the magnitude of the environmental crisis we are facing and those who, willfully or not, remain unaware and disengaged. Just look around your community or your meetinghouse. Most people are not necessarily climate deniers or uncaring about the environment.
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A Call for More Radical Witness
By Tom Small. “THERE’S A CALL, from both within and beyond FCUN, for a more radical witness.” That’s the first sentence of an article I wrote twenty years ago for BeFriending Creation. What was true for the Friends Committee on Unity with Nature in 1996 holds true again for the…
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Advice for These Times
By Shelley Tanenbaum. TWO OF MY RECENT READS have made a strong impression on me as I ponder how I as an individual and how Quaker Earthcare Witness as an organization can best use our resources in these times. Van Jones succinctly sums up the two opposing world views we…
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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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