Although individual Friends and Friends Meetings, past and present, have
been concerned about our need to care for creation on such a way that we
preserve this God-given web of life, as well as about the ecological issues
involved and the way in which we use or abuse natural resources, we believe
that now is the time that Friends everywhere should speak out on this issue
and consider it a testimony on an equal footing with the testimony on peace
and social justice.
Given the scale and possible even the irreversibility of the changes that
humankind is inflicting upon creation (depletion of non-renewable resources
pollution, climate change, rapid extinction of endangered species) "there
is no time but this present."
At our Yearly Meeting we were reminded that our Friend John Woolman "looked
upon the works of God in this visible creation" and learned that "as
the mind was moved on an inward principle to love God as an invisible, incomprehensible
being, on the same principle it was moved to love him in all his manifestations
in the visible world; that as by his breath the flame of life was kindled
in all animal and sensitive creatures, to say we love God as unseen and
at the same time exercise cruelty towards the least creature moving by his
life, or by life derived from him, was a contradiction in itself."
(Journal)
In this, Woolman's testimony we may recognize one of the Psalms " To
the Lord belongs the earth and everything in it, the world and all its inhabitants
. . . " (Psalm 24) And indeed, throughout Friends history we were reminded
not only of the "Words of God" but also of the "Works of
God." Both may inspire us and fill us with awe and respect.
Who are we to put these works of God at serious risk? They do not belong
to us! Rather, we belong to them, we are part of this God-given web of life
we call Creation. We are called to sound stewardship on order to care for
its integrity!
We live in a society where political and economical choices are more often
dictated by greed than by need. What choices do we make as individual Friends?
If the dominate life-style, if the dominate economic model, is causing the
above mentioned detrimental effects, even the extinction of many of God's
creatures, should Friends not question it? How do we let our lives speak
in answer to the love of God? We asked ourselves these questions at our
Yearly Meeting. The keyword for a solution seems to be sustainability. If
we live by our traditional testimonies as a God and truth-loving people,
seeking justice, peace and simple life-styles, "living simply, so that
others may simply live," adopting sustainable development as an additional
testimony seems to be the necessary next step. Isn't it a living tradition,
we take part in?
If we consider sustainability a testimony, we must confess, however, that
we very often fail to live up to it. But we have committed ourselves to
come back to these questions and explore ways to let our lives speak more
effectively in this respect.
-1998