Wind turbines in the Irish Sea Photo: Trish Carn
Costing not less than everything
Martin Smith reflects on the 2011 Swarthmore lecture book
‘I want to see us living our testimony in such a way that other people think not just, “Quakers – peace” but also, “Quakers – peace – the environment”.’ Pam Lunn
In the Swarthmore lecture this year, delivered at Yearly Meeting Gathering in Canterbury, Pam Lunn invited us to play our part in a great adventure: to make this world fit for future life in all its abundance. Already this invitation has been accepted by Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) – as the lecture was influential in its decision to become a ‘low carbon, sustainable community.’ But it needs to be widely accepted by individual Friends as well, if we are to move forward powerfully and in unity.
The published lecture, Costing not less than everything: sustainability and spirituality in changing times, is a ‘good read’ – and spending three to four hours going through it passes quickly. It glitters with information, observations and quotations that are new and interesting – even for those hardened to climate change literature. We find ourselves thinking differently. Its author tells us, for instance, that ‘we are a deeply social species, to a degree that challenges fundamentally the western notion of individualism’ and that Friends’ ‘calibration of simple living’ is far above the global average.
‘Good reads’ don’t necessarily move us. But this one has for me – partly because, from the outset, Pam establishes the awesome gravity of our world situation. We exist, she says, connected as ‘cousins,’ one to another, on a planet currently at a crossroads, facing the ‘biggest challenge’ in human history. In the scheme of things, our lifespan is fleeting but for now we have power to influence the future world order for good or ill. We have a choice. This is compelling.
Also, a way forward is being offered that can be joyous, exciting and purposeful. Indeed a new sense of mission for British Friends is being created that has been lacking. ‘This is potentially a moment in history,’ says Pam Lunn, ‘when Quakers are needed.’ I feel moved to seize the moment.
Dear reader, see or read this lecture for yourself – and find your thinking changed.
Callings
What does love require of us? Pam Lunn gives nearly thirty answers. But, in summary, she calls us:
• To live simply, consume modestly, waste little and make do and mend – and find the joy in doing this
• To actively build and work through community, in our Meetings, localities, internet networks and so on, knowing that this demands effort and accountability one to another
• To expand our time horizons, thinking and working for the good of future generations, accepting that we are engaged in a long-term endeavour
• To take responsibility for playing an active part in resolving our planetary emergency and becoming trained for this
• To become connected to, and aware of, the whole of creation and to be good stewards of it
• To act, with increased vigour and imagination, in the ‘social and political sphere’
• To give time regularly to spiritual practice and so build resilience for the testing years ahead.
Reflections
This agenda has a traditional Quaker look, with its emphasis on themes such as simplicity and spiritual practice, and I think, in general, early Friends would be at ease with it. But, for us, it is radical. All these actions run counter to contemporary consumer culture in one way or another and implementing them risks going against social norms – and some Quaker norms as well. But there is no easy course – following the ways of the consumer culture fails to satisfy us and will, in time, lead us into great difficulty.
Overall, living in the spirit of this lecture will challenge Friends individually, in local communities and nationally. As Pam says: ‘we will need to move out of our various comfort zones.’
At the personal level we will face dilemmas, for example over air flight, and will need to acquire knowledge and learn new skills. We will have to invest in our houses, change the way we travel and much else. But there is good evidence to show that, for people in the affluent west, turning to a simpler life of modest consumption is not a path to misery but can be a road to wellbeing. In my limited journey, I have found it so.
There is opportunity and challenge here for Friends locally. A large body of research tells us that personal change is best achieved in collaboration with others – rather than going it alone. Weight Watchers and Alcoholics Anonymous are examples of this. There is, therefore, as Pam argues, a potential role for local communities – including Meetings – in assisting the process of change through collective endeavour. But this demands appropriate attitudes, application, and persistence to build our communities and operate effectively in community. Friends need, for instance, to abandon the widespread notion, which is deeply rooted, that living simply is entirely a personal matter – it needs to be seen as a matter for community as well.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of all faces BYM. I believe reform of the economic system that is propelling us to environmental calamity is essential for creating a sustainable world order and here there is paralysis and governments seem powerless. Achieving change at this level is not a task for Local and Area Meetings – although they have an essential contributing role in being ‘patterns and examples’ in sustainable living. Nor can this be done by working from Friends acting alone. But I believe that BYM can – by mobilising its intellectual resources and working with others – make some difference. I think this task will be very difficult for Friends House with its very limited staff resources – able though they are. We need to bring in expert volunteers to take this on; and I hope Meeting for Sufferings and Britain Yearly M trustees will make this happen.
This year Friends have moved boldly, but this is not a time for cautious consolidation. We need to keep a steady pace. I hope that in doing so, people will come to see us, in time, as the ‘people of peace – and the planet.’
Costing not less than everything: sustainability and spirituality in changing times by Pam Lunn. Quaker Books. ISBN: 9781 9071 232 14. £8 + £2.75 p&p from the Quaker Centre Bookshop.
A DVD of the lecture will be sent to all Local and Area Meeting clerks in the November 2011 mailing.
