What’s Up With QEW – Mid-Year Report

Our world is heating up, quite literally—and QEW is ramping up our activities and enlarging our network to address this challenge. More than ever, our network of Friends carrying concerns for Earthcare is needed to share information and stories, provide support, encourage spiritual growth and inspire action.

We are increasing QEW-sponsored visits to Meetings. All representatives are encouraged to bring QEW informational displays and publications to their Yearly Meetings. One of our representatives, Mary Jo Klingel, reported that her yearly Meeting, Southeastern, just completed a year-long process of seasoning a minute on climate change: “As it was approved we were challenged by our Clerk to begin the actions needed to support the minute. One action is discernment about a position of released Friend to work within the Yearly Meeting on climate issues. All of us who worked on the minute felt affirmed, proud and very grateful.” We’ve started posting information for QEW displays on our website at http://www.quakerearthcare.org/article/take-qew-your-yearly-meeting. Please send your stories to Katherine (katherine@quakerearthcare.org) so we can let folks know what is going on in your region.

Our clerk, Roy Taylor, and I, your General Secretary, have a busy schedule of visits this spring, summer and fall. Roy did a workshop on “Living our Values, Interconnections of Friends and Our Living Planet” at Durham Friends Meeting and he served as an elder at the June Young Adult Friends Pendle Hill conference. His new workshop, “Transformation & Healing Creation” was first presented at SAYMA and he is scheduled to present it again at Baltimore Yearly Meeting in August. I was well-received as the plenary speaker at SAYMA (Southern Appalachia Yearly Meeting and Association), with a probing and challenging exploration of eco-spirituality and the Society of Friends. I am currently assisting with planning for the Alaska Gathering and will facilitate workshops there and do an interest group on divestment at Pacific Yearly Meeting. I will also be visiting several monthly meetings this year. Both Roy and I are available to visit your monthly or yearly meeting. Please contact us to plan for next spring and summer (mailto:%20shelley@quakerearthcare.org).

Hundreds of Friends attended our presentations and viewed our displays at this summer’s Friends General Conference Gathering in California, PA. Our presentations showcased the range of Earthcare activities amongst Friends. Talks included divestment from fossil fuels, permaculture, indigenous rights, transition towns, direct action, and young Friends.

QEW is lifting up climate change as a crucial issue of our times. In 2013, we dedicated our November issue of Befriending Creation to divestment from fossil fuels and we have added a section to our website to promote information exchange on this topic (http://www.quakerearthcare.org/article/fossil-free-friends). Also, the QEB included in this issue focuses on the issue of climate change. Internationally, our United Nations Working Group is closely following the construction of a set of Sustainable Development Goals that will be part of the “Post-2015 Agenda. ” We also support QUNO’s “quiet diplomacy” in spirit, as well as providing practical help attending climate negotiations through our UNFCCC accreditation.

QEW is a co-sponsor of the large People’s Climate March, September 21, in New York City, aimed at demonstrating an outpouring of public support for international action on climate change–read more at http://peoplesclimate.org. Check the QEW website and Facebook for information about where to meet so we can march together. This march precedes a UN summit that will be held on the 23rd. In addition, I will also be attending an interfaith forum at Union Theological Seminary during the march weekend, which will culminate in a statement from 200 faith leaders to the UN. We are coordinating our efforts with both FCNL and QUNO.

This fall our Steering Committee will be meeting at Pendle Hill, PA, October 2-5 (register here). You don’t have to be on the Steering Committee to be part of this gathering: come meet members of our network, hear presentations by featured speakers, and help us plan for next year.

Our activities are on the rise, but our income is not. Like most non-profit organizations, we are experiencing a plateau in donations this year, when we should be seeing a rise to keep up with our growing network. Please consider making a mid-year donation. Here are ways you can promote Earthcare:

Distribute QEW information at your monthly and yearly Meetings: Spread the Word!

Tell us what you are doing, so we can share your stories and inspire others

Contribute to QEW—consider becoming a monthly donor

Invite our Clerk or our General Secretary to visit your monthly or yearly Meeting, give a workshop, or speak at a plenary

Thank You!

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