Category: Resources
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Book Review: “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate”
By Tom Small. PETER WOHLLEBEN TELLS THE STORY of a professional forester’s awakening from calculations of board feet to realization of a forest as an intelligent, feeling community. Sharing information and resources through what Wohlleben calls the “wood wide web,” the forest community cooperates so as to ensure that “each…
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Bringing Light to the Dark: Environmental Violence
By Brad Stocker, Miami Friends Meeting. ONE OF THE MORE POIGNANT things to have affected my earthcare work was 2016’s QEW table and display, which had a darker element than in the past as it focused attention on those who have been killed for their involvement in environmental justice. We…
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Talking about Climate Change: A Practical Guide
This article is part of our Pamphlets for Sharing series produced by QEW’s Publications Committee. Download the PDF here or order print copies by emailing info@quakerearthcare.org. The way we communicate our message is critical so that the vast majority of people not only grasp what we are trying…
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Talking about Climate Change: A Call for Dialog
“It is good for thee to dwell deep that thou mayest feel and understand the spirits of people.” —John Woolman (1) “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” —Colossians 4:62 (2) “Whoever says Thou does not…
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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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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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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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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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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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Letters to Share, November-December 2016
To Quaker Earthcare Witness, I just received your September-October issue of BeFriending Creation, and I was kind of concerned and curious about the article on page 6, “Friendly Farmers & Earthcare.” The article contradicts a number of statements I had read as fact for a long time and from many sources.
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In Quaker Silence: Reflections on QEW’s Recent Week in Washington DC
Russ Adams, North Columbus (Ohio) Monthly Meeting In Quaker silence, do I hear our humanitarian ancestors, our abolitionist ancestors, our pacifist ancestors, crying out to us to pursue full sustainability for ourselves and our children and all folks yet to come…while there is time? Perhaps an…
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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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Letters to Share, September-October 2016
Letters to Share, September-October 2016 July 29, 2016 To Quaker Earthcare Witness As a means of raising our and others’ awareness of the issue of global climate change, our meeting has created a voluntary carbon tax for those members wishing to participate. Adopting the idea from the Mt. Tobey,…
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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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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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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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Stewardship of QEW
Your year-end gifts matter a great deal! Please donate here, and thank you! DONATE We QEW Friends are becoming better environmental and eco-justice stewards. In 2015, our projects and activities supported fossil fuel divestment, promoted native landscaping, worked toward the Paris climate agreement, financed local sustainability projects, and emboldened…
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Are you the next QEW publications coordinator?
By Katherine Murray A note from Katherine: After four great years as the QEW Publications Coordinator, I am sad to say that I’ve felt led to resign my position. As many of you know, in addition to my half-time role at QEW, I am also a hospice chaplain, and I have…
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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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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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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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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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Letters to Share, July-August 2016
By Jane Telfair Stowe Dear Friends, I recently attended the QUIP conference and wanted to send along some information from organizations dealing with the issues of neonicotinoids or neonics killing bees and glyphosate (which is in Roundup) killing milkweed that Monarch butterflies depend on. Friends of the Earth (…
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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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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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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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Calling All Friends!
Whether you consider yourself a liberal Friend, a conservative Friend, an evangelical Friend, a Buddhist Friend, a non-theist Friend, or another kind of Friend altogether, we invite you to submit a 500-word, personal essay for our upcoming Special Edition of BeFriending Creation, “Friends on Earthcare.” We’d love to hear how…
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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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QEW Mini-Grants and ProNica
By Brad Stocker In Mary Gilbert’s article in this issue, you learned what QEW Mini-Grants are, but you may be less familiar with ProNica. ProNica is a Quaker-founded NGO that currently works in solidarity with nine Nicaraguan projects. The organization began under the guidance of Southeastern Yearly Meeting (SEYM) in…
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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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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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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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Cement and Climate Change
By Judy Lumb Riding in a mini-bus in Guatemala, Mary Gilbert and I were noticing that most of the construction used concrete blocks as building materials. I commented that was because many of the trees had already been cut down, and using concrete saved trees. Mary said the…
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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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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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Friends News to Share: FWCC Sustainability Minute
FWCC World Plenary Hundreds of Friends from around the world (including several QEW Friends, as you’ll read in this issue) gathered recently in Pisac, Peru, for the Friends World Consultation Committee (FWCC) World Plenary. One of the planned goals for this meeting was to consider “furthering the Kabarak Call for…
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Friends News to Share: FWCC Sustainability Minute
FWCC World Plenary Hundreds of Friends from around the world (including several QEW Friends, as you’ll read in this issue) gathered recently in Pisac, Peru, for the Friends World Consultation Committee (FWCC) World Plenary. One of the planned goals for this meeting was to consider “furthering the Kabarak Call for…
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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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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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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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Post-Paris Impressions
By Jose Aguto, FCNL Last December, through the generosity of Lindsey Fielder Cook and Jonathan Wooley of the Quaker UN Office, I was blessed and accredited to participate in the “Blue Zone” of the UNFCCC negotiations in Paris (COP21), during the second week. To thoroughly encapsulate the experiences,…
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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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Letters to Share, Jan-Feb 2016
By Mary Jo Klingel “What canst thou say” about spirit-led efforts on behalf of Earth, about your own stirrings toward care for the planet, in relation to the vision and thoughtful action of Quaker Earthcare Witness as a whole? We’d like to hear from you. Send your letters…
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Post-Paris Impressions
By Jose Aguto, FCNL Last December, through the generosity of Lindsey Fielder Cook and Jonathan Wooley of the Quaker UN Office, I was blessed and accredited to participate in the “Blue Zone” of the UNFCCC negotiations in Paris (COP21), during the second week. To thoroughly encapsulate the experiences,…
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Letters to Share, Jan-Feb 2016
By Mary Jo Klingel “What canst thou say” about spirit-led efforts on behalf of Earth, about your own stirrings toward care for the planet, in relation to the vision and thoughtful action of Quaker Earthcare Witness as a whole? We’d like to hear from you. Send your letters…
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Reflections on COP21
By Sara Wolcott It was not so long ago that the cobblestones of Paris were red with blood. November 2015: terrorism. 1940: WWII. 1914: WWI. 1871: Prussians (post Napoleon). 1789: Revolution. One could keep going: 1479: Joan of Arc. With such a history in mind, and…
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Fixing (Healing) a Broken Vase (World)
Shelley Tanenbaum Editor’s note: Shelley wrote this article prior to participating in COP21 in Paris. You can find out more about her experiences there by checking out her blog posts at http://www.quakerearthcare.org/news/qew-cop21-paris. Events are surely unfolding anew as you read this article. I wrote this on November 20,…
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“I Hear Your Cry”: Joining the Lamentation of the Earth
Samuel Mahaffy, Olympia Friends Meeting The quiet of the summer night is shattered by an eerie wail. It is a plaintive and distressed cry. It is distinctively different from the usual night sounds on our three acres in the country. Absent tonight is the hooting of the two…
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Encounter with the Wild
By Harold Branam, Savannah Monthly Meeting As we walk out in blooming Sunday heavy with azaleas, dogwoods, and wisteria, the vaulted sky looms purplish-blue like a backdrop behind our neighbor’s house. Down along the marsh a hawk…
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River Spill Is a Signal to End Business as Usual
Richard Grossman In Colorado, our Animas River received a serious insult in August of 2015. Fortunately the river seems to be recovering, but we cannot predict what the long-term effects will be. Contractors working for the United States Environmental Protection Agency recently released a huge amount…
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Using Right Language in Our Earthcare Conversations
People of faith all over the world care deeply about climate change, and a group called Our Voices, which is a campaign for global multifaith climate action, asked UK-based nonprofit group Climate Outreach to design a study that would help us learn more about the type of language…
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What the Pope Said
Mary Gilbert, QEW Representative to the UN On the morning of Thursday, September 24, 2015, Pope Francis addressed the Congress of the United States, speaking slowly in English. On the morning of Friday, September 25, he addressed a “high-level” meeting of the UN General Assembly, speaking rapidly in his native…
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QEW Gives Thanks for the Encyclical Laudato Si’
QEW Steering Committee, October 2015 Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) gives thanks for the papal Encyclical, Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home. We share the conviction that all life is sacred and interdependent, and that the natural world is an infinite source of awe, wonder and wisdom. We…
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Letters to Share, Nov-Dec 2015
Jim Kessler Dear Friends, FCNL is doing great work to shift the political environment and get Republicans to cosign a bipartisan resolution that climate change is real and that we must act to reduce carbon emissions so that other important climate change legislation can happen. They…
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What We Want from COP21
Shelley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secretary Editor’s note: Shelley wrote this article prior to participating in COP21 in Paris. You can find out more about her experiences there by checking out her blog posts at http://www.quakerearthcare.org/news/qew-cop21-paris. Greetings, Friends! As you read this, I am in Paris along…
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Share Your Quaker Witness for Climate Justice!
Send us your short, selfie video and lift your Quaker voice for the environment! We have started a new video project, called “What Canst Thou Say?” and we’re asking Friends to send us short (3-minute or less) selfie videos that answer two questions: (1) What is…
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Podcasts from Friends
“DOING THE WORK OF NOAH: GROWING THE ARK” Tom Small, co-clerk of the Publications committee, was interviewed on Northern Spirit Radio in August, talking about responding to species extinction and creating habitats with native fauna. You can listen to the interview here: http://www.northernspiritradio.org/episode/doing-work-noah-growing-ark “NICARAGUA INTER-OCEANIC CANAL – NO!”…
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Creating Campaigns: EQAT’s Process of Discernment
George Lakey, Earth Quaker Action Team On March 2, 2015, PNC Bank said it would give up financing mountaintop removal coal mining. The New York Times and the Guardian joined other media outlets in announcing the outcome of EQAT’s campaign demanding that PNC “Bank Like Appalachia Matters!” (BLAM!)…
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A Path to Changing Hearts–An Interview with Alan Burns
By Jeff Meyer, Charlotte Friends Meeting Quakers have joined with many other groups and people of good will in the effort to do something about climate change. We want to be better stewards of the environment, combat global warming, stop poisoning the environment, reduce our use of fossil…
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My Time in Washington
Mary Gilbert, QEW Representative to the UN On Wednesday night, with the Pope to speak the next day, QEW Friends participated in the interfaith program and the overnight vigil organized by the Franciscan Action Network (https://franciscanaction.org/). Can you imagine a gathering of Jews from differing communities, Muslims,…
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Over planned and under organized: On target but missing the mark
Roy Taylor, Clerk of QEW The release of the Pope’s Encyclical earlier this summer set the stage for his historic visit to the United States and his address to both houses of Congress. What a perfect opportunity for the interfaith community to respond with multiple corresponding events in Washington DC…
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Expectant Waiting–Expectant Doing
Shelley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secretary It feels like the entire state of California is holding our collective breath as we wait for El Nino to water our thirsty crops, reservoirs, shrunken lakes, and trees. In the city, trees deprived of winter rains for the past four years are dropping leaves…
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NEYM’s Public Response to Pope Francis
New England Yearly Meeting [Editor’s note: This statement is posted on NEYM’s website at: http://neym.org/news/public-statement-climate-change-response-pope-francis] In his address to the U.S. Congress and to our nation, Pope Francis invited us to pray for him, and to pray together. On behalf of the Quaker faith communities in the…
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Canadian Happenings
CYM SIGNS INTERFAITH DECLARATION ON CLIMATE JUSTICE Canadian Yearly Meeting has signed on to an interfaith declaration seeking action on climate change, poverty reduction and justice for aboriginal peoples. The seven-page declaration “On promoting Climate Justice and Ending Poverty in Canada; Faith Communities in Canada Speak Out,” was…
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Podcasts from Friends
“DOING THE WORK OF NOAH: GROWING THE ARK” Tom Small, co-clerk of the Publications committee, was interviewed on Northern Spirit Radio in August, talking about responding to species extinction and creating habitats with native fauna. You can listen to the interview here: http://www.northernspiritradio.org/episode/doing-work-noah-growing-ark “NICARAGUA INTER-OCEANIC CANAL – NO!”…
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Creating Campaigns: EQAT’s Process of Discernment
Creating Campaigns: EQAT’s Process of Discernment George Lakey, Earth Quaker Action Team On March 2, 2015, PNC Bank said it would give up financing mountaintop removal coal mining. The New York Times and the Guardian joined other media outlets in announcing the outcome of EQAT’s campaign demanding that…
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A Path to Changing Hearts–An Interview with Alan Burns
By Jeff Meyer, Charlotte Friends Meeting Quakers have joined with many other groups and people of good will in the effort to do something about climate change. We want to be better stewards of the environment, combat global warming, stop poisoning the environment, reduce our use of fossil…
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In Quaker Silence: Reflections on QEW’s Recent Week in Washington DC
Russ Adams, North Columbus (Ohio) Monthly Meeting In Quaker silence, do I hear our humanitarian ancestors, our abolitionist ancestors, our pacifist ancestors, crying out to us to pursue full sustainability for ourselves and our children and all folks yet to come…while there is time? Perhaps an…
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My Time in Washington
Mary Gilbert, QEW Representative to the UN On Wednesday night, with the Pope to speak the next day, QEW Friends participated in the interfaith program and the overnight vigil organized by the Franciscan Action Network (https://franciscanaction.org/). Can you imagine a gathering of Jews from differing communities, Muslims,…
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Over planned and under organized: On target but missing the mark
Roy Taylor, Clerk of QEW The release of the Pope’s Encyclical earlier this summer set the stage for his historic visit to the United States and his address to both houses of Congress. What a perfect opportunity for the interfaith community to respond with multiple corresponding events in Washington DC…
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Expectant Waiting–Expectant Doing
helley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secretary It feels like the entire state of California is holding our collective breath as we wait for El Nino to water our thirsty crops, reservoirs, shrunken lakes, and trees. In the city, trees deprived of winter rains for the past four years are dropping leaves…
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Thanks, Friends!
QEW wants to thank Friends at Ann Arbor Friends Meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan for their wonderful hospitality and participation during the QEW Spring 2015 Steering Committee meetings at the end of April. New friendships were formed, ideas were explored, and plans were made…
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Quakers and the New Story
Quakers and the New Story By Mary Coehlo It was only in the last century that scientists have been able to connect their many discoveries in astronomy, geology, evolutionary biology, and other subjects into a continuous story of the origins of human beings, the earth, and all its…
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Soot
By Shelley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secetary Cleaning up soot is the perfect counter example to the outdated concept that we have to choose between slowing climate change and economic development. Do you want to dump your despair about climate change along with getting rid of all that black…
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Get Resources for Your Meeting
Newly posted! Two new topical website sections for your reference and reflection: Fracking 101, a new section providing information about fracking Friendly Landscapes for Birds, Soil Organisms, Pollinators, and People, a new section exploring ideas for creating and cultivating healthy landscapes for Earth…
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Finding Our Inner Activists–with Humor and Heart
Finding Our Inner Activists–with Humor and Heart By Katherine Murray Are you an armchair earthcare activist? Do you have a growing concern for the planet that you aren’t sure what to do with? If you feel a gentle stirring (or a more insistent inner nudge) in your life,…
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Is This Your Year? Apply for a QEW Mini-Grant!
Has your meeting been dreaming of creating a community garden, harvesting rainwater, relandscaping to make use of native plants, putting in a low-flush toilet, or otherwise improving the energy efficiency of your meeting house or neighborhood? QEW makes grants available for Friends’ organizations who want to…
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SEYM Breaks New Ground with Field Secretary for Earthcare
SEYM Breaks New Ground with Field Secretary for Earthcare By Barbara Letsch and Brad Stocker This April, Southeastern Yearly Meeting gathered and among other decisions Friends took a huge leap of faith. They established a new, full-time position under the care and guidance of SEYM and its Earthcare…
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Measuring What Matters
By Mary Gilbert, QEW Representative to the UN Measure what you treasure…or you might just treasure what you measure. Imagine for a moment that you are the chief statistician of your country. You regularly generate data on everything your nation asks for, along with the statistical…
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Don’t Google That!
By Brad Stocker If you’re searching for something online, you can find what you need and donate to your favorite cause at the same time by using Goodsearch as your search tool. Goodsearch is a search engine that donates a penny per search to the cause of your…
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An Earth Testimony
By Adrian Ayres Fisher. Once during Meeting for Worship, a member spoke of how she had always heard the saying that Friends should walk cheerfully over the earth…speaking to that of God in everyone. Then she read what George Fox actually wrote: that we should “walk cheerfully over…
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Northern Yearly Meeting Lights Up
By Shelley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secretary Northern Yearly Meeting (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and a bit more) meets on a lake in central Wisconsin to deepen worship, conduct business, and nurture connections among Friends in the upper Great Lakes region. This year, they boldly chose the challenging theme: Climate Change: Turning Awareness into…
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Book Review: The Community-Scale Permaculture Farm
Book Review: The Community-Scale Permaculture Farm By Katherine Murray As I began to read The Community-Scale Permaculture Farm: The D Acres Model for Creating and Managing an Ecologically Designed Educational Center, by Josh Trought (Chelsea Green Publishing, March 2015), a favorite quote from George Fox rang in my head: “Be patterns,…
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Being a Player
By Mary Gilbert, QEW Representative to the UN I’ve been attending meetings at the UN for more than 15 years and have often been asked “Do you ever get to ‘speak’ at the UN? What do you say?” I’ve explained that representatives from organizations like QEW may at times collaborate…
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Divesting from Fossil Fuels in Cincinnati and Beyond
By Marjorie McKelvey Isaacs, Community Friends Cincinnati Cincinnati…is always ten years behind the times. —Mark Twain When our Earthcare Committee clerk at the time, Bill Cahalan, first suggested that Community Friends in Cincinnati divest from coal, oil, and petroleum stocks, it sounded like a foolish waste of the Cannon Fund,…
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Video Resources to Share
On a recent visit to North Palm Beach Meeting, Mary Jo Klingel discovered that Palm Beach Friends are creating YouTube videos of their adult learning sessions. She discovered a wealth of video resources on a range of earthcare topics. A few representative samples: Backyard Beekeeping 1 & 2 Prisons and…
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Letting Your Life Speak: Quaker Earthcare Begins at Home!
Anthony Manousos and Jill Shook In 2014 we decided to adopt some major new green initiatives in our home that would inspire our friends and neighbors to do likewise. In doing so, we followed the injunction of George Fox: Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever…
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Praise Be!
By Rachel Findley and Shelley Tanenbaum In this Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home. [3] 1 Laudato Si’, the letter Pope Francis wrote to us all, surprises us with its overarching emphasis on how “everything is connected,” including justice in human societies,…
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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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What Is Your Elevator Pitch?
Shelley Tanenbaum, QEW General Secretary Suppose that you are sitting next to your second cousin at a family function or you bump into your neighbor from down the street in a coffee line, and they ask, “What’s up?” How do you convey (in two minutes or less!) all…
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Many Thanks to Long-Time Supporters!
Some of you have been supporting Quaker Earthcare Witness for many, many years—possibly starting when we were called Friends Committee on Unity with Nature (FCUN). I marvel when I receive a donation to QEW and see a long history of support, both in financial donations…
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QEW Spring 2015 Steering Committee Meeting
Where: Ann Arbor Friends Meeting 1420 Hill Street Ann Arbor, MI 48104 www.annarborfriends.org When: Thursday, April 23, 2015 1:00 pm to Sunday, April 26, 2015 1:00 pm Registration is now open for our April 23-26, 2015 Steering Committee sessions in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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Courage for Creation
By Minga Claggett-Borne The Bolder and Deeper Action Group formed at Friends Meeting at Cambridge partly to discern strategic action and partly to act as an affinity group as more Friends were considering breaking the law, so as to follow God’s law. BDAG consists of 15…
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IPBES: A Rosetta Stone for Nature’s Benefits to People
Mary Gilbert, QEW Representative to the UN The UN is like the city on a hill with its ideals gleaming in the sunlight. But up close, you can see that the city’s silhouette is defined by acres of canvas draped over the whole thing. If you lift the…
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Young Friend Asks Quaker School to Take Climate Seriously
Young Friend Asks Quaker School to Take Climate Seriously On February 13 and 14, Friends in many parts of the world participated in Global Divestment Day. Creative actions took place in some 60 countries ranging from concerts, rallies, marches, artistic projects, teach-ins, and more. (For photos and videos,…
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4 Asks: Recommendations for All Friends
4 Asks: Recommendations for All Friends By Sophie Quest and Paula Kline If you’ve been fortunate enough to attend Pendle Hill in Pennsylvania, you’ll remember all of the amazing trees planted there over many years. Caring for these acres as people studied Quaker testimony together was a strong…
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Fasting for the Climate: Two Reflections
Jim Kessler & Judy Lumb In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines, killing more than 6,000 people and destroying homes and livelihoods all across the country. Climate commissioner Yeb Saño was at the UN climate talks in Warsaw when the typhoon struck, and his own family was…
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Congratulations and Many Thanks for Direct Action
In March, PNC bank announced that they will limit their funding for mountain-top removal coal mining. This is a particularly egregious form of coal mining—laying waste to large areas and contaminating local water supplies. Earth Quaker Action Team (eqat.org), Rainforest Action Network (Ran.org), and the Ohio Valley Environmental…
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