EarthQuaker Issue 102
We gathered “to explore how our Quaker faith and communities can help us to meet the Earth crisis with hope, strength, and compassion.” (1)
I was amongst 114 Friends all striving with our deep concerns for the future. It was a time of great turmoil and joy.
Some Friends expressed themselves by drawing.
The spiral swirl sums up a feeling of confusion and energy. It is like a whirlpool or storm.
I drew a swirl like this early in 2020. Covid soon became a worldwide physical battle for our health. The world’s scientists and medics pulled together, and communities proved their strength in many concrete practical ways. Some gave their lives to help others.
Now we face a “polycrisis”- multiple interrelated crises at a global level. Ecosystem destruction is linked with war, political division, injustice and financial instability. Vanessa Machado de Oliveina in Hospicing Modernity talks about collective denial, which is not a lack of physical knowledge but a failure to see. This is a moral and spiritual problem which darkens the path to a better future. It requires a different approach to Covid. If the root causes are not directly physical, then faith organisations have a big role to play.
Meeting the Earth crisis with hope
“active” hope – that faithfulness in which we do the right thing without attachment to outcomes. “radical” hope – seeking to nourish a future beyond the loss of everything that is currently meaningful to us. (2)
Both forms of hope are about letting go, they’re about giving, not about giving up. There is truth in saying that “in giving we receive.”
At the Earthcare gathering we were asked “what is mine to do?” (1). This seems a very individualistic way of seeing. At times during the gathering I found myself lost and confused in a sea of voices without a sense of harmony. I felt upheld as an individual, but I wanted to feel the strength of unity.
Our Quaker strength is in our core values and our faith has respect amongst many leading organisations. Can we find the unity to give to others with confidence?
Can we hold on to the “spiritual core of Quakerism” whilst letting go of anything which divides us from other faiths? Can we be a force which helps other organisations to unite around a new moral and spiritual way of seeing? These are challenging questions for a challenging time.
At the start of the Covid pandemic communities came together. They let go of their fears for the future and gave without counting the cost. The recent Future of British Quakerism conference focused on what Quakerism needs if it is to survive - simpler structures and a strong spiritual core. Perhaps we need another conference looking outwards and asking what the world needs from Quakers.
Bernie Jordan
Bolton Meeting
1 Epistle from Earthcare Gathering October 2025 https://livingwitness.org.uk/gathering-2025/
2 Editorial Issue 99 EarthQuaker https://livingwitness.org.uk/earthquaker/99/
3 Issue 99 EarthQuaker report by Catherine Tylke & Laurie Michaelis on ‘The Future of British Quakerism’ https://livingwitness.org.uk/earthquaker/99/the-future-of-british-quakerism/