Joy at the Intersection of Earthcare, Gospel Ministry, and Community
Unintentional Earthcare: Finding Quaker Activism in the Simple Life
Jonny Costello
For the past two months, I’ve been doing outreach for the Quaker Earth Action Map. I’ve sent many emails, made many phone calls, left many voicemails, and had the pleasure of speaking with a few Quakers about their meeting’s Earthcare work. For this first portion of my outreach, I’ve focused on meetings in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, emailing and calling 121 meetings and worship groups. As you might expect, emails and phone numbers listed on websites are often inactive, infrequently checked, or belong to whoever the clerk was when the website was last updated.
With such a large sample size, I have been able to reach meetings that are eagerly participating in inspiring Earthcare projects.
In my outreach, I have also encountered some serious Quaker modesty. Of the meetings that I do reach, I often hear something along the lines of, “our meeting doesn’t do any Earthcare work” or “we’re not doing anything right now.” When I hear these things, I get instantly skeptical. Many Quakers are quick to hold themselves to high standards, considering the Earthcare work they do as a baseline, or not doing any Earthcare work at all. It takes creativity to spot all the Earthcare that we do unintentionally.
When I reached out to Elklands Friends Meeting, all I had was a phone number, no email. I was delighted to find that the phone number was active when a woman named Dorothy picked up the phone. She informed me that Elklands Friends Meeting is a tiny, rural meeting made up of retired folks who only meet in the summertime when their meetinghouse is warm enough.
Naturally, Dorothy let me know that their meeting doesn’t have the capacity to do environmental activism or work like they have in the past.
Thankfully, Dorothy didn’t hang up the phone then because when I asked her how much water and what sort of energy their meetinghouse uses, she told me it doesn’t use any of either. The reason they only meet in the summer is that their only heating is a woodfire stove that they haven’t used in years. Talk about energy savings! Here is a group of Quakers practicing their faith in a far more environmentally sustainable way than many of us, and not even they consider themselves to be doing Earthcare as a meeting.
Over the course of my conversation with Dorothy, I also learned that their meeting’s parking lot and driveway are unpaved, allowing rainwater to permeate the soil. They have two accounts with Friends Fiduciary–one for the meetinghouse and one for the cemetery–that endeavors to keep money out of the fossil fuel industry, and several of their meeting members have personal gardens and heat pumps installed in their homes.
I don’t mean to suggest that every meetinghouse should cut off the water and power. I bring up Elklands Meeting to inspire you to recognize the Earthcare efforts your meeting is already undertaking. Sometimes, it takes a fresh perspective to see the good work we’re doing; it reminds us that we are not starting from scratch.
After recognizing the work we already do, it takes creativity to envision our future Earthcare work. That’s where the Quaker Earth Action Map–that we hope to publish our new version of by the end of the year–comes in. We are breaking down Quaker modesty around Earthcare to inspire and collaborate with other Quakers on what can be done.
Some meetings have installed solar panels on their meeting houses, or in cases where their meeting house isn’t suited for solar, some have financially supported local Friends Schools to install solar panels. Meetings support bikers with bike racks out front. First-day programs that are environmentally focused allow future generations to learn to love the Earth. And I haven’t been to a meeting in recent memory that didn’t offer a hybrid Zoom option, so not everyone has to drive their cars to the meetinghouse.
I invite all readers to think creatively about what their meeting is doing for Earthcare and contribute to the Global network we are endeavoring to foster through our Map.
After discussing with your meeting, follow this link to share about your collective work.
If you would like to share personal stories of Earthcare work independent of your meeting, you can follow this link.
