All change! A call from the Living Witness Gathering

‘This is the great, holy work of our time.’

We are sixty-three Quakers gathered from across Britain, with a sense of urgency and under concern. We have heard clearly, with hope and excitement as well as fear and grief, an acute sense that this is an extraordinary time – a time of enormous challenge. This is the great, holy work of our time; it is our privilege to be part of it and we must prepare our spirit for what is coming.

The climate and ecological crisis changes everything.

We value the work which is being done by Yearly Meeting staff and Woodbrooke on climate justice, and encourage Friends to participate. We also see clearly that there is a need for a grassroots response to the ecological crisis.

Meetings are aware of the urgency and much is happening within Quakerism and beyond. Meeting for Worship isn’t just a place to feel comfortable, but a crucible in which we scrutinise our lives and see how they can be aligned more closely to our faith.

Arising from this gathering we know that there isn’t one right thing to do; the important thing is to do our best, and not give up. We each commit to listen to each other, love and support each other, work and worship together. We will find ways to ground ourselves and heal ourselves, and build resilience and inclusion wherever we can.

We carry forward many strands of work, large and small. We recognise that injustice in the ownership and control of resources raises questions about our political and economic system. We commit to work with children and young people; we have a concern to address the cost-of-living crisis, including offering our Meeting houses as warm refuges; we make a commitment to support those taking direct action; we will respond to promptings to work more on food and biodiversity; and we are led to support local communities in becoming carbon neutral.

We believe faith groups can take a lead; Quakers must play our part. We want to see an interfaith commitment to climate justice leading up to the next general election.

The last time Quakerism renewed itself was the 1895 conference, which became the basis of liberal Quakerism. Quakers had to reorientate their faith. Today, we are in a similar position. Rather than evolutionary science tearing up our sense of the past, we hear the prophetic voice of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tearing up our sense of the future, ending the inevitability of growth. The science and the events it chronicles, together with our awareness of the legacy of colonialism, are once again calling on us to renew our faith. This is the context of our gathering. We open ourselves to this sense of the present. Quakers and Living Witness can be midwives of the spirit.

The universe is participatory, there are no bystanders. Our commitment to climate justice encourages us to see everything we do as something which is of god or against god. We are called to be whole with creation and act on the Truth which we find.

Edited from the closing minute of the gathering, 29 August.

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