Quaker Earthcare Witness Vision & Witness statement

Approved 5th month 2003

WE ARE CALLED to live in right relationship with all Creation, recognizing that the entire world is interconnected and is a manifestation of God.

WE WORK to integrate into the beliefs and practices of the Religious Society of Friends the Truth that God's Creation is to be respected, protected, and held in reverence in its own right, and the Truth that human aspirations for peace and justice depend upon restoring the Earth's ecological integrity.

WE PROMOTE these Truths by being patterns and examples, by communicating our message, and by providing spiritual and material support to those engaged in the compelling task of transforming our relationship to the Earth.

At the 2003 QEW Annual Meeting, several months after this Vision and Witness Statement had been adopted, an ad-hoc Long Range Planning Committee shared its ideas about QEW's future in more practical terms— i.e., what do we want to see happen that could be called success? It was suggested that we could consider ourselves a success when every Yearly Meeting and every Quaker organization affirms in its Faith & Practice and programs that Earthcare is an integral part of the Quaker Faith. And then what? We would declare our work finished and lay ourselves down, of course. (There are precedents of Yearly Meetings who have laid down programs and committees that seem to have run their course.)

The ad-hoc Long Range Planning Committee also proposed some kind of deadline for attaining this goal, as an incentive for QEW members to get out and do the necessary field work. The year 2012 was suggested, being the 25th anniversary of the founding of the organization. Since the current QEW staff have been talking about retiring about then, this also would eliminate the need to search for replacements.

(It is not clear how many Friends at the discussion took these suggestions literally and how many understood them more as challenges to stimulate more productive work in the years ahead.)

Since then, the discussion has continued in terms of Earthcare functions that could—and most likely should—continue if the formal organization known as QEW is ever dissolved. Publication of BeFriending Creation and Quaker Eco-Bulletin could be placed under the care of other Quaker organizations. Earthcare projects like legislative lobbying and sustainable Quaker communities could continue to be coordinated out of a central office like Friends Center in Philadelphia, where many other Quaker organizations are headquartered. Yearly Meetings would, of course, carry on Earthcare outreach to their Monthly Meetings.

But at all times we must be mindful that it is not simply human-crafted goals and timetables that guide our work. Our success as a movement within the Religious Society of Friends ultimately depends on our response to the leadings of the Spirit in all Creation, which calls us to be not just faithful defenders but awakened co-creators. •

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