January 2013 Queries

LEYM ADVICES AND QUERIES: EARTHCARE

If we better studied and understood God’s creation, this would do a great deal to caution and direct us in our use of it. For how could we find the impudence to abuse the world if we were seeing the great Creator stare us in the face through each and every part of it?--William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (paraphrased).

When we walk upon Mother Earth, we always plant our feet carefully because we know the faces of our future generations are looking at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them.--Oren Lyons, Chief of the Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Federation. 

We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the people of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.--Preamble to the Earth Charter, Earth Summit, 1992 (endorsed by LEYM in 2009).

Seek reverence for life and a sense of the splendor of God’s continuing Creation. How might we develop and express a deep sense of belonging, a sacred kinship with all of nature? In what ways are we promoting a social order that can be sustained in harmony with the rest of the world?  

Do we inform ourselves about the effects of our style of living on the world around us? What are we doing about our disproportionate use of the world’s resources and the attendant impacts on global climate change? What do we choose to ignore or not to know?  

How might we honor the Earth’s resources by using them sparingly and humbly? Are we careful to spend and invest our time and money in ways that avoid depleting the Earth, but rather sustain and restore it? 

From Advices & Queries, for Use by Individual Friends, Meetings, and Worship Groups (Lake Erie Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends: Ann Arbor, 2012). Find the whole document online at http://leymquaker.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/aq3f2.pdf or in printed form in the GRFM library at the Browne Center.