Imagining a different world
Jane Harries was uplifted and challenged by her experience of Britain Yearly Meeting
Can you imagine a different world? One where society is seriously grappling with the main challenges that face us today: climate change, corporate greed, poverty? Now, imagine that you are able to do this in an environment where everyone is swimming in the same direction, not vying for accolades or who is reaching the best targets, but gently challenging, supporting and inspiring one another. This just about sums up my experience of Britain Yearly Meeting 2012. The main themes were ‘economic justice and sustainability’ and ‘what it means to be a Quaker today’. These themes helped us to reflect on our faith and what it means to us, but also what this faith leads us to do in the world.
In terms of sustainability, we were reminded of the size of the challenge – for instance, that the carbon emissions of the average British household is 14.5 tonnes. This needs to be reduced to a tenth of that by 2050. We were also reminded that we need to avoid both smugness and despair. We are all crew in our efforts to live more sustainably in order to safeguard our planet for generations to come. And Quakers in Britain have made a start. In the past year 198 Quaker Meetings have completed a Climate Impact Calculator, measuring their carbon footprint. This enables us to establish a baseline and to see where we can improve. Meetings have also started sharing their success stories.
Turning to the theme of economic justice, we were challenged to imagine what a ‘good economy’ could look like, and what principles and values it would be based upon. This is such a huge question, and our present economic system is so broken, that it can be difficult to know where to start. In dealing with this topic, however, and throughout the Yearly Meeting, some clear pointers for the right way forward emerged: the responsibility of us all to be well-informed, as a basis for good judgement; the importance of pressing the ‘pause’ button, of ‘waiting in the Light’ rather than rushing in to ‘fix’ things; the need to work with others and to share solutions as much as possible; the importance of being patterns and models in our own lives, and of starting here and now, where we can.
We all went away with questions and challenges – a website to look up, a book to read, a determination to get rid of some clutter or to join with other local groups to work for sustainability and economic justice. Above all, we were reminded that the basis for our actions should, at all times, spring from love for one another and for the Earth – without which our actions are meaningless and empty. This point brings us back to the question of ‘What it means to be a Quaker today’. Empathy for others and a vision of how the world might be are born out of our Quaker stillness, and send us back to our communities with purpose, and a desire to be patterns in our own lives, even if that only takes us a small way towards the ‘Kingdom’. Look out for some eager Yearly Meeting Quakers near you!
Originally published on janeharries.wordpress.com
