Issue 99 | Winter 2025

Contents

Equipping for Tomorrow by Paul Hodgkin

The Future of British Quakerism by Catherine Tylke & Laurie Michaelis

What are Quakers called to do? by David Saunders

The Stubborn Optimist by Ali Wallace

What the Bee Sees (Nasturtium) by Tom Brown

Food for Thought by Ruth Jones

Quaker Property by Wendy Pattinson

Yearly Meeting by Kathryn May

Editorial

Living Witness exists to sustain a community of Quaker worship, discernment, mutual support, action and witness in the context of the Earth crisis. There are many opportunities in 2025 for our community to connect. Closest to our heart is the Quaker Earthcare Gathering, scheduled for 24-27 October in Swanwick, Derbyshire. Bookings are now open! Britain Yearly Meeting in May has Quaker peace testimony as a focus. Kath May’s article in this issue encourages us to work with the preparation materials which make connections with sustainability and Earthcare, as well as conflict in our communities.

It may feel to many Quakers as if our work and witness for peace, sustainability, equality and truth has failed. The loss of hope that the world might be fixed connects with a sense of our own ageing and decline, and the challenges of sustaining our worshipping groups. So how can we cultivate “active” hope – that faithfulness in which we do the right thing without attachment to outcomes? And what about “radical” hope – seeking to nourish a future beyond the loss of everything that is currently meaningful to us?

In EarthQuaker 98 I mentioned the tension between hospice work in the dying order, and being midwives (compost might be more fitting) in the birth of something new. We’ve talked a lot in Living Witness lately about Margaret Wheatley’s “two loops” model. The first “loop” or curve is the rise and fall of the dominant, now dying system. The second loop is formed by people who drop out to form new communities and initiatives. Paul Hodgkin draws on the model in his article in this issue. He celebrates the new opportunities for worship, community and witness afforded by Zoom, including our own Living Witness meetings for worship.

Catherine Tylke and I offer our reflections on the Future of British Quakerism conference, which focused on trying to stem our decline. Paul Hodgkin offered an impromptu workshop at the conference, drawing again on the two loops model and asking how we might give expression to Quaker testimonies in the context of the Earth crisis.

Several articles in this issue represent initiatives and ways of being that might stem societal decline or form seeds of new life. David Saunders has co-founded a ‘Resilience Network’ in Bristol, providing solar panels and energy storage for low-income households. Ali Wallace writes about a presentation by climate scientist Emma Woolliams, finding hope in living our Quaker testimony of simplicity and truth. And Ruth Jones invites us to be more adventurous in our approach to food.

The creative arts including music, poetry, dance and more are vital to being connected to ourselves and other life in new ways. We hope they will be an integral part of the Quaker Earthcare Gathering in October. Tom Brown offers the sacrament of a bee’s-eye view of a nasturtium.  

And finally, Wendy Pattinson takes us back to the question of how we might let go of our dominant-system attachments, in her case to her house, and what opportunities might be opened up as we do so.

So where are we called to put our energy in 2025?

Laurie Michaelis
on behalf of the EarthQuaker editorial team