Publications for Sharing

Introduction to Quaker Earthcare Witness

This is our introductory brochure. Share with those who want to learn more about what we do! Read, print, and share with your communities.

Freeing Ourselves From Possessions

We dream many selves during our lives. We accumulate objects, images which make these dream-selves visible; thereby we gain status, a kind of false identity. It’s difficult, then, to part with the image, even if the self for which it stands has always been only a dream. What might it mean to walk through your own home slowly, and ask each thing you own who it really belongs to?

Written by Tom Small

Holding Every Thing in Common

We’re all connected—not just to people, but to the land, the trees, the things we keep in our homes. We rush around so much, always chasing something better, and we forget that staying still and caring for what’s around us matters too. Maybe the things we own aren’t really ours. Maybe we just get to take care of them for a while, alongside everyone who came before and everyone yet to come.

Written by Tom Small

Ode to Water

Just as the crises are all connected—water crisis, biodiversity crisis, climate crisis—so are the solutions: restore natural flow and cycles of water; revegetate barren and degraded land; recognize water as a local and global commons, shared by all beings; and restore the sacred being of water herself, with the same rights as all persons—to health, autonomy, and integrity.

Written by Tom Small

Contemplative Action in the Time of Climate Change

We live in the time of The Long Emergency, and the Age of Unintended Consequences. Every morning brings evidence of loss: extinction of species, loss of traditional cultures, loss of freedom. Are we, as a civilization, losing our souls?

Written by Tom Small and the QEW Publications and Spiritual Nurturance Committees

Divestment as Lived Faith

Friends around the world are taking steps to make their lives reflect changes crucial to the survival of life on Earth. Many consider divesting from fossil fuels as one such step that is consistent with Quaker values and
testimonies.

Friends are not alone in this consideration; other religious denominations have divested, along with colleges, universities, foundations, and even city and county governments.

About QEW’s Mini-Grant Program

Quaker Earthcare Witness offers matching grants (Mini-Grants) of up to $500 each to support projects consistent with QEW values. We’ve created a pamphlet that can easily be printed and shared with your community with details about the program.

Soil: Begin with the Beginning

It begins with the land. And the land begins from the
soil. Soil that lives.

Living, breathing soil is more than dirt and more than just earth. She embraces all the elements: space, air, water, earth, and fire. She comprehends multitudes.