Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Minute on Relationship to God's Creation
(approved at the January 1998 Session of Interim Meeting)
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting website: http://www.pym.org/
The world is God’s creation. How we treat the earth and all its creatures is basic to our relationship with God, and of fundamental religious concern to the Society of Friends. What we are learning about the destructive effects of affluence and technology in our society gives new urgency to Friends historic testimonies on peace, simplicity, equality and stewardship. Reducing negative human impacts on the earth’s air, water and soils, and right sharing within the human family and with all God’s creatures, have become ecological necessities.
We unite in urging individual Friends and monthly meetings to seek Divine Guidance in considering the limitations and actions this concern requires of us. We encourage the Environmental Working Group to pursue, with other Friends’ organizations and other faith communities, ways of bearing witness to the ecological and spiritual imperative that our society transform its relationship with the earth.