Ecological Sustainability as an FCUN
Witness
Friends have long-standing testimonies on Peace,
Simplicity, Equality, Community, and Integrity. These
testimonies have been proclaimed not in words but by the way
Friends have lived out the details of their lives: in plain
speech and plain dress; in refusal to do hat honor, swear
oaths, or gamble; in the avoidance of violence as a means of
dealing with conflict; and in prison ministry and myriad
other ways.
In this century, rapid growth in population, technology,
and industry have been accompanied by resource depletion and
environmental pollution. These societal changes lead us,
members of FCUN, to express our deep concern for Ecological
Sustainability, or sustainable living, as an emerging
testimony, and to seek the Light as to how to carry it out
in the details of daily life.
There is overlap in the meanings and practices of our
Quaker testimonies. FCUN believes that Sustainability is a
concept that relates to all our Testimonies, relates each of
them to the future, and helps to weave them together in our
lives. Peace without Equality...or Community without
Sustainability...or Sustainability without Simplicity, tend
to become meaningless; each enriches the others in a
prophetic way that challenges our work in society and our
care for the Earth.
On a spiritual level there is abundance to sustain us:
abundance of compassion and love, abundance of giving,
healing, and thanksgiving. On a physical level, we can start
moving toward a recognition of this by working toward
Sustainability.
Sustainability as a concept has recently acquired new
spiritual depth of meaning to include a resolve to live in
harmony with biological and physical systems, and to work to
create social systems that can enable us to do that. It
includes a sense of connectedness and an understanding of
the utter dependence of human society within the intricate
web of life; a passion for environmental justice and
ecological ethics; an understanding of dynamic natural
balances and processes; and a recognition of the limits to
growth due to finite resources. Our concern for
Sustainability recognizes our responsibility to future
generations, to care for the Earth as our own home and the
home of all that dwell herein. We seek a relationship
between human being and the Earth that is mutually
enhancing.
Let us ask the Spirit for the clarity to recognize the
ways we may be nourishing the seeds of ecological
destruction, and for the strength to make the choices that
will nourish seeds of change, so that Sustainability and the
Integrity of Creation will be a visible aspect of Friends'
testimony everywhere. We encourage Friends to proceed with
Divine guidance, with love, and with a commitment for action
on the above principles in our daily lives. Let us be called
to take meaningful steps to respond to the disproportionate
distribution of the Earth's resources; to minimize the
effects of cultures of affluence and over-consumption; and
to strive for ecologically and economically regenerative
communities with a creative simplicity: to be a Peace in
this sacred place, our Earth. With humility, we invite
Friends and their Meetings to join in this transformation.
"Let our lives speak..."
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