by Lee H. | Mar 10, 2025 | Meeting Life
Here is a four-minute video (presenter: Beverly Ward, via YouTube; editor Cai Quirk) about art as joyous inspiration to live a climate-conscious life.
The understandable anxiety related to climate crisis can cause people to avoid information, and thereby miss opportunities for lifestyle changes. In this short clip, we hear how Beverly Ward draws on an already-existing love for improvisational Playback Theatre to find joy in the challenge to “work on the world we seek.”
“It is a fantastic idea,” says James (attender of Radnor Meeting), “to lean into our passions and frame climate crisis through them!”
Asking people for their first memory of being outdoors hit home for James. “Mine came to me quickly and very vividly, including smells.”
That sensory connection touches people at a different place than facts about temperature and sea level rise do. Instead of overwhelming people, Beverly begins with what we want to save—what gives us joy.
How can we live fully, and fully accept the challenge of living on our planet’s terms? From under the weight of climate reality, what joy can we tap into? How can we channel doing what we love into saving what we love?
by Lee H. | Nov 23, 2024 | Meeting Life
It’s often said that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. There is an inherent simplicity and ease in smiling. To love, likewise, is simpler than to create distractions from love. Peace, too, is the simple way. Simpler than war, simpler than hate, simpler than the endless desire to dominate that humanity so often displays.
In a world entangled with complex human systems that introduce increasing levels of chaos into our lives, it’s simplicity that offers an appealing path forward. There is wisdom in simplicity, and it calls us to live a life aligned with it.
Instead of structuring our society on tiered systems of wealth or clout, simplicity calls us to seek out ways of living in harmony with our planet and all who inhabit it. We’re interconnected – not only as members of our communities, but also as part of Earth’s broader ecosystem. Our individual and collective actions impact not only our immediate lives and communities, but our planet as a whole. Consumerism – the quest for the newest, the best, the most – diminishes planetary resources while simultaneously increasing pollution and global warming. It also oppresses communities around the globe who struggle under the pressure of exploitative economic systems that prioritize profits over people.
“The Earth is what we all have in common.” That’s Wendell Berry, the farmer and author, speaking to finding unity in the power of each other and our Earth. We are interdependent; no one is complete apart from the rest. How often and how deeply do we acknowledge our beautiful, sacred connections?
Buildings may crumble into the rising seas or human wars. Yet nature endures – a powerful force striving always to regenerate and heal. When we side with the power of nature, the effects can be impressive. One vivid example is the resilience of mangrove forests. After deforestation, corridors of mangroves along a river can regenerate fully within mere decades. This is a testament to the Earth’s ability to renew and heal itself. When we listen closely, we hear Earth calling us to follow its lead and do the same in our communities.
Continuing Revelation
We have come to understand the importance of native gardening. We appreciate all that happens when nature thrives on its own terms.
And we have come to understand that some people are not to be owned, controlled, resocialized, or exterminated by others. We now know the Doctrine of Discovery was a profound mistake, advanced by European settlers who misused religion to justify it. Continuing revelation brought us to understand and support reparations for those our ancestors have exploited.
Will we similarly come to rue humanity’s systematic exploitation of living communities beyond our species? Given that we have no b
iological need for this habit, is it, too, relinquishable? Imagine how different, how much freer, our living Earth would be if we stopped chasing, confining, and commercializing other beings—and if we simply grew food, not feed. This would support a resurgence of biodiversity and help us coexist with Earth’s climate system. It would also relieve some of the least privileged among us from the work of repetitive killing, along with the resultant injuries and traumatic stress.
As inhabitants of Earth, we are given a sacred calling – to sustain our world and all its living beings. As Earth itself teaches us, the best approach is not domination, but simplicity.
We’re part of this society, yet also of Earth’s web of life. We imagine how much better we could be at sensing this, and how soon the results could be observable, and what a relief it would be to see the transformation.
We imagine the type of world we could inhabit if we, both environmentally and socially, truly embraced simplicity, solidarity, and love. By treating all living communities and our planetary systems with respect, we could foster societies where division, war, and strife are replaced by peace. For peace is a principle that promotes love over division, and solidarity over hierarchy.
We thank you so much for reading this far, and look forward to connecting with those who feel called to contribute to the urgent work of our time. Our Climate Action Committee is advancing dialogue to inspire actionable commitments to a more sustainable and equitable humanity. We’re eager to explore our transformative potential together.
By SJM and LH
Climate Action Committee
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Photo credit: Vincent M.A. Janssen (Pexels/Canva).
by steve.olshevski | Feb 3, 2023 | Meeting Life
Working with Temple University – Engineers Without Borders (EWB), fellow Quaker Christopher Fantozzi is currently working on an important sanitation project for the small indigenous community of Nueva Jerusalen, Ecuador. The community has no sewage facilities and is forced to rely solely on open defecation, which is causing contamination of the nearby stream and river they use as their drinking water source. The Temple team is evaluating several options including the installation of compost toilets in each home, which would be a sustainable, appropriate technology that could significantly improve the quality of life of the entire community.
All of these efforts are completely volunteer based and funded, and additional financing is greatly needed to cover the project’s costs for travel and materials. Please consider supporting these efforts with a tax-deductible donation if you are able.
For more information, please contact Christopher Fantozzi at: [email protected]
Tax deductible donations can be made at:
https://support.ewb-usa.org/give/84031?#!/donation/checkout
by steve.olshevski | Mar 25, 2022 | Meeting Life
EQAT (Earth Quaker Action Team) presented on Wednesday, April 20th at Radnor Meeting on how Vanguard is driving the Climate Crisis. They explained the links between large financial banks and the investments that drive Climate Change, with Vanguard being a major investor in fossil fuels. That same week, EQAT conducted their monumental week-long march from Chester PA to Vanguard Headquarters in Paoli to draw attention to this issue.
EQAT has been an iconic Quaker Group that embodies our values through direct peaceful action. Since their founding in 2010 by George Lakey and other committed Quakers they have focused on direct action campaigns that connect the changes we need to make in the world with those Corporations that can make those changes. After a 5-year campaign, EQAT convinced PNC Bank to stop funding the environmentally devastating mountaintop removal mining practices in West Virginia.
by steve.olshevski | Jan 17, 2022 | Meeting Life
Many members of the Society of Friends worship God in places that have been appropriated by force from indigenous peoples. What challenges arise when they try to do that, and how do Friends respond to these challenges? This forum was led by Cherice Bock and gave us a chance to reflect on these issues. Cherice Bock is a Friend who lives in Oregon on the traditional lands of Kalapuya (now part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde). She is an adjunct professor of eco-theology at Portland Seminary and she leads Oregon Interfaith Power and Light at the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. Cherice holds an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. She is a doctoral candidate at Antioch University of New England. The forum was held on April 3rd.
by steve.olshevski | Mar 3, 2020 | Meeting Life
The Peace and Social Concerns Committee presented a forum February 23 on “Taking Action to Protect Our Environment,” attended by approximately 25 Friends and Attenders. Jamie Lockard and Burt Dallas led the forum and noted the rise of environmental issues and awareness over the past 60 years. The degradation of our resources and climate change have reached a crisis stage in the current era. The focus of the forum was to identify ways in which Radnor Monthly Meeting and its members and attenders can become more aware of environmental issues and take concrete action to improve and protect our environment.
Burt noted that caring for the environment is consistent with our Quaker values, including integrity, community, equality and stewardship. He cited as one important example and action each of us can take is to consider eating a plant-based diet due to the massive resources required to raise animals for food, especially cattle. Articles were provided highlighting these facts. For example, it takes 660 gallons of water to produce the beef in one hamburger.
Jamie then led us in breaking into four sub-groups to discuss addressing environmental issues at concentric levels: (1) individually, (2) at the Meeting level; (3) locally (township and county); and (4) nationally and globally.
Each break-out group brainstormed about ideas and items for action, summarized as follows (with apologies if any of the wonderful ideas and themes not captured here):
- Individual Actions
- diet-based reduction of carbon footprint: less meat/more plants
- consult “Better World Shopping Guide,” which evaluates vendors and their focus on ecological issues
- buy locally
- choose business and products that use less packaging
- take your own reusable shopping bag, versus using disposable plastic bags
- recycle
- home composting
- switch to eco-friendly energy suppliers
- green burials
- carpool
- energy efficient appliances/lightbulbs
- turn down the thermostat
- use clotheslines to dry laundry
- use websites such as Nextdoor for recycling objects/furniture etc. rather than tossing them
2. meeting Actions
Focus on the green space that we have at Radnor Meeting, including enjoying and respecting our grounds, making more use of the grounds, sharing our grounds with the community or other faith-based groups, having an inter-faith progressive garden tour, and cleaning up a stream in our area (first day school activity?).
3. Local/Governmental level
Begin to work with other local faith-based organizations on environmental action, lobbying and legislation, including addressing such issues as maintaining open space, planting trees, recycling, better use of energy, charging stations for electric cars, litter pickup, stream cleanup, better public transportation and supporting efforts to adopt rules at housing developments to promote better environmental practices.
- National/global level
- Improving public transportation to reduce the need for cars and imagining our area with less congestion
- Supporting students from Radnor Meeting with scholarships to attend lobbying events (training the next generation)
- Providing coordination/access to national efforts such as Friends Committee for National Legislation
The entire group then reconvened and reviewed the thoughts and ideas submitted. One theme that emerged is that members of our Meeting want more information and resources to educate themselves about environmental issues so that they can act. Those at the forum strongly supported updating the Meeting website to have more information and resources about the environment and actions we can take.
We will discuss the suggested items for action at the next meeting of Peace and Social Concerns and hope to be returning to the Meeting with plans for further action in the near future. We appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and support at the forum, and especially thank Jamie, Burt and Steve Olshevski for their hard work, insights and energy in preparing for this forum and leading our environmental efforts. We hope this will be an ongoing commitment of the Meeting.
