In 1985, Pacific Yearly Meeting provided initial leadership which has helped
shaped the quest among Friends to examine the spiritual basis of our concern
for the Earth. This seeking has spread widely throughout North America,
Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Here in North America, we have an independent
organization, Friends Committee on Unity with Nature (FCUN), with an office
and General Secretary in Burlington, Vermont. There are two Quaker-based
publications on the concern, EarthLight (total subscriptions and
sales of 2,500) and BeFriending Creation (total subscriptions approaching
2,000).
Many Yearly, Quarterly, and Monthly meetings across North America have Unity
with Nature committees. A Philadelphia Yearly Meeting minute of January
1998 "encourages 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." Quaker United Nations Office is deeply
involved in work on the environmental concern at the United Nations, and
the Friends Committee on National Legislation gives increasing attention
to environmental concerns as part of its work.
The concept of "unity with nature" is still unsettled in Friends'
minds. Our committment to the exploration of this concept, made at Pacific
Yearly Meeting in 1985, is alive and growing. But how to nurture it? Where
will it lead us? Is it an aspect of our deepest spiritual selves, to be
integrated into our whole being by quiet contemplation of wilderness and
the fascinating intertwining of God's living Creation? Is it the motivating
force behind our action to preserve the wilderness and to adopt sustainable
lifestyles? Or is it both at once, like most Quaker Testimonies?
Unsettled as we are, we are not without direction - in fact, a number of
directions are being pursued simultaneously, as our time and resources permit.
A major activity by Committee members and ad hoc
members is education, aimed at increasing the Nature-awareness of children
and adults who have not yet considered the question "What is our spiritual
relationship to the non-human world?" A first day school curriculum,
EarthCare for Children developed within PYM has been published by
FCUN (the national Friends Committee on Unity with Nature) and is now available
for purchase. For adults, a curriculum entitled "Deep Ecology and Creation-Centered
Spirituality: The Interdependent Web." curriculum is ready, as is,
for sale through EarthLight Magazine.
We are concerned that people working in the environmental movement not lose
touch with the spiritual foundation that can motivate and renew their efforts
to bring about secular change. To this end, a conference called "EarthVision"
was held June 6-8, 1997, at Ben Lomond Quaker Center, with the stated purpose
of "...inviting members of nature conservation and environmental organizations
to meet with people whose witness for the earth is an essential component
of their religious faith. " It was organized by PYM-CUN with the help
of EarthLight, the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, Bay Area Action, Silicon
Valley Toxics Coalition, Peninsula Conservation Center and World Stewardship
Institute. In addition to attenders from environmental organizations and
Friends Meetings, there were participants from Presbyterian, United Methodist,
Evangelical Lutheran, United Church of Christ, Episcopal, and Unitarian
churches. In small groups and in a Saturday evening session on "What
Inspires Us to Witness and Action?" all participants shared what moves
us to care deeply about the earth, what moves us to action. A number of
attenders agreed to continue working together, focusing on1998 Earth Day
programs and activities throughout Northern California.
PYM-CUN has sponsored backpacking trips for groups
of teens and adults. Opportunities exist not only for recreational experience
but also for Quakers to participate in perservation and restoration of the
natural world. PYM-CUN recommends that meetings become familiar with local
organizations that arrange tree planting, wildlife habitat restoration and
creek, lake and seashore clean-up days. Individuals and groups of Friends
who join in such activities will find themselves being healed as they try
to undo some of the harm done by human inattention to the health of our
world.
EarthLight's
mission consists primarily of publishing a magazine, but potentially could
expand into a whole spectrum of communications media. EarthLight
endeavors to convey the message that "Spirituality is not divorced
from the world ...", drawing ideas and inspiration from a broad range
of human experience: "...indigenous traditions, the world's great faith[s],
... contemplative practice, eco-feminism, ... science and the new cosmology."
PYM-CUN hopes that Friends will make greater use of EarthLight as
a vehicle for stimulating thought within PYM as well as in the larger community
of "spiritual ecologists."
As we work for peace in the world, we search out
the seeds of war and destruction in ourselves and in our way of life. We
refuse to join in actions which lead to human death or to destruction of
the fragile web of life on earth. We seek ways to cooperate to save life,
to strengthen the bonds of unity among all people, and to live in unity
with nature.
If we believe that there is that of God in all living things, what actions
can we take that are consistent with this, especially in relation to creatures
that we kill, whose habitats we appropriate, and those that kill or harm
us (i.e., cattle, endangered species, malarial mosquitoes)?
Can we apply concepts such as simplicity and right sharing to other living
things while continuing to apply them to people?
What does spiritual relationship to the earth mean?
What does Quaker spirituality have to do with our relationship to creation?
If we sense that of God in all creation, how do we consciously and deeply
live?
From a Minute approved by Netherlands Yearly Meeting (1998):
We live in a society where political and economic choices are more often
dictated by greed than by need, and powerfully shaped by corporate power.
What choices do we make as individual Friends?
If the dominant life-style, the dominant economic model is causing.detrimental
effects, even the extinction of God's creatures, should not Friends question
it?
Throughout Friends' history we are reminded not only of the "Words
of God" but also of the "Works of God". Who are we to put
these works of God at risk?
We are called to sound stewardship in order to care for the integrity of
Creation. How do we let our lives speak in answer to the love of God?
"I am in wonder, awe and joy at the possibilities for experience with
God in All; I feel I have become open to a beginning awareness. Training
and discipline helps. Seeking helps. Life's gifts help. Death's gifts help.
Teachers help. ... Grace and love pervade everything. I know God this way,
although I seem to forget this sometimes in particular situations. It is
also a faith and a core teaching. Would I have set myself on the path to
know God when I was 8 years old if I hadn't been heard some wonderful teachings?...
Would I have heard the teaching if my soul wasn't already open to the possibility?
What inspires openings to possibilities? .."
"It takes years of sitting with trees to hear their voices and discern
their personalities (there are cranky ones, and warped ones as well as noble
and serene). But the underlying of all creation is Love. In talking with
people about mystical experiences over the years, it has been interesting
to see the number of people who felt closest to God in the presence of trees,
animals or beautiful sunsets. There are times when we feel unity with other
humans and times when we feel unity with non-humans."
From an attender at 1998 PYM Junior Yearly Meeting, illustrative of the
cross-generational concern and the thoughtful consideration of young people
about their future world:
"For me, the key word is 'creation.' We wake up in life and the more
we look at it, we see we're part of this ongoing creation. I stand in awe
of this whole process and wonder how I fit into it all."
"To say that we feel a sense of stewardship toward the world does not
convey the depth of our concern. Friends have long felt that war and oppression
anywhere in the world afflict each of us, and demand personal action of
us. Just so are we coming to feel that exploitation or disrespect of the
natural world wherever it is happening is a matter of personal concern.
We are beginning to be able to feel as our own the pain felt by the land,
the air, the water and all that live therein.
"As in the case of individual action prompted by the testimonies of
peace and equality, not everyone feels the disharmony of human life with
the nonhuman world to the same degree. Some of us will feel that this is
the central issue of our lives, and will spend all the time we can to promote
environmental wisdom and to reduce the harm we do. Others will support such
people as their representatives, while devoting themselves to other causes.
It is no small part of the discipline of being Friends for those of differing
priorities to be patient with each other, while still remaining one community.
"As belonging to a community conflicts with self-determination, and
living in simplicity conflicts with the demands of society, and achieving
peace within oneself as well as between nations requires control of innate
violent tendencies, so also does harmony with the natural world entail resolution
of inner conflict. The human drive to be a unique individual makes it difficult
to consider the non-human world as anything but subordinate. Most of us
will resolve the conflict only temporarily and partially, before we revert
to placing ourselves first. To be always aware that the rest of creation
is equally loved by God is the mark of sainthood.
"The proper place of mankind in the universe is one of the great Questions,
unanswerable either by purely rational or purely intuitive reasoning. We
have become aware that we are not so separate from nonhuman Creation that
we can justify a place in dominion over it. We sense that modern civilization
has exaggerated our separation to the point that both we and Nature are
suffering. Neither are we mere biomechanisms, subject to unalterable rules
that absolve us from responsibility for the welfare of other species inhabiting
our home planet.
"What does it mean to be human? It is a Friends' tenet even deeper
than the testimonies that we are part of God's continual creation, that
we have direct access to God which is perceptible through our practices
of life and worship, that there is Light within us."
-letter to PYM-CUN, 1999
From a letter to the FCNL General Committee from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's
Environmental Working Group, November 8, 1999:
We write you out of deep concern about what human activity is doing to Earth's
communities of life and the contributing role of US government policy. ...
Seeking "an earth restored" will soon become the overriding task
of the rest of our and our children's lives. The human activity that damages
Earth's communities of life is still increasing. This cannot continue. The
question is not whether it will be reversed, but how. Will humans do it
by choice or will it happen to us? The longer it takes us, as Friends and
as a society, to understand the need to change direction and begin work
to make this happen, the more difficult it will be for us to succeed. As
one Friend put it, this is not just another concern for Friends that may
break the camel's back; it is the holy ground on which the camel stands.
An initial suggestion for revising FCNL's statement of legislative policy:
Part IV. "We Seek an Earth Restored. . ."
We recognize the intrinsic value of the natural world as God's creation,
beyond its use by humankind. We belong to the intricate web connecting all
that is natural. We are grateful for the blessings of this earth, and bound
to respect purposes not our own. We are also bound to be faithful stewards
of the means of human survival and well-being. To peoples of other nations,
we owe a commitment to curb our own production, marketing, and consumption
of material goods, and the pollution and waste that ensues. We are mindful
of Friends' historic testimonies regarding simple living and right sharing.
These are urgent responsibilities, in both local and global settings.
The health of the earth's ecosystems and their ability to support life have
been seriously impaired. It is now well understood that human activities
are having cumulative effects. We are urgently called to promote the creation
and improvement of policies, laws, and institutions that respond to these
problems. Restoring balance between natural and social systems requires
us to recognize that Earth is a finite planet with a finite carrying capacity.
Human enterprise cannot continue to expand without continuing to devastate
the community of life on which it depends. To prevent this, we must learn
to:
* Limit the accumulation of ecologically disruptive substances in the biosphere
...
* Stabilize and then reduce human numbers, and shape our social and economic
structures to accomplish these purposes.
* Limit the amount of land we expropriate so that we preserve the biological
diversity and productivity of ecosystems.
* Limit and manage our use of natural resources so our technologies and
economies are more sustainable and compatible with the earth's biological
and geological cycles.
What must be accomplished will require both an unprecedented degree of international
cooperation and equity, and a restoration of greater self-reliance and responsibility
to regions and communities. Little of enduring consequence will be accomplished
if we do not address the extremes of wealth and poverty within the human
family, or if we try to manage environmental problems without regard for
both local and global ecological limits.
From the New England Friends in Unity with Nature
(NEFUN) Committee letter of Nov.1, 1998:
The call to reconsider the truth of our work in the light of new changes
and conditions in our world is urgent and challenging, but this is also
a joyful opportunity to grow in truth. Our concern is spiritual....
We also look to John Woolman's words: "...to impoverish the earth now
to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age."
(John Woolman, 1772, as quoted in
Britain Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice
25.01, from "Conversations on the True Harmony of Mankind")