Many meetings are thinking deeply about the twin Earth crises of climate breakdown and loss of biodiversity. Our area meeting decided to adapt the Quaker Quest format to help structure these discussions.
The purpose of our Quaker Earth Quest sessions was to ‘enable us as individuals and meetings to have deeper and more fulfilling conversations about the Earth and our relationship to it, than we normally have’. We have held two events: a 90-minute online Quaker Earth Quest in May which around 28 people attended and then a one-day in-person meeting in October which 11 people attended.
Guided by the original Quaker Quest format, both sessions began with three speakers each talking for no more than six minutes on the following themes:
How has my life spoken in relation to the Earth?
What have I done about these issues in my life?
How has my Quakerism helped?
This worked very well both online and in person. The speakers’ introductions grounded the event and showed how everyone’s journey in relation to Earth issues can evolve and deepen. The shared stories also illustrated the feelings of grief, fear and anger that we all experience around what is happening, and how the speakers dealt with these feelings at different times in their lives.
Following the three speakers, we broke into groups of three for 20 minutes to discuss how our own lives had spoken in relation to the Earth. The online session concluded with worship sharing on where we had each got to. With more time at the in-person whole-day event, we went on to discuss what we wanted from Quakerism in these times and completed the Seventh Generation guided meditation from Joanna Macy. We ended by sharing what changes we wanted to make both as individuals and as meetings.
These Quaker Earth Quest sessions worked well and helped Friends have the deeper conversations about climate breakdown that we all wanted. They were straightforward to organise and were led by local Friends, not outside facilitators. Themes that emerged included:
• Tensions around hope – is hope realistic? Truthful? How can we live without automatically reaching for hope?
• How do we reconcile the smallness of our actions with the hugeness of what is needed?
• Palliative care as a useful metaphor: ‘It is our civilisation that is in palliative care; Earth itself is just embarked on a massive transformation brought on by us’.
• Grief for our children and grandchildren
• The importance of community, and of place, in facing these Earth issues.
We plan to continue Earth-focused meetings for Friends within the area meeting. If you would like to know more about what we learnt and share what you are doing with us, then see these resources on the Living Witness website or email Paul Hodgkin via info@livingwitness.org.uk.
Paul Hodgkin
Ipswich and Diss Area Meeting