On Saturday, 16 May at 1 – 2.25pm (eastern US time), join our meditative exploration of EMERGE—a spirit-led ministry via Zoom, from Quaker Earthcare Witness and the Climate Action Committee of Radnor Friends Meeting, with collaboration from the PYM Eco-Justice Collaborative.
This work invites Friends to deepen into a new set of ecological values during this time of great change.
Co-working on the May session are Lee Hall of Radnor Monthly Meeting; beverly g. ward, who clerks the Quaker Earthcare Witness United Nations Working Group; and Ruth Darlington, who clerks the FCNL and Environmental Policy working group at Quaker Earthcare Witness. Our host is Keith Runyan, General Secretary of Quaker Earthcare Witness.
AN EXPERIMENT WITH LIGHT
This meditation is based on the early Friends’ practice. Quaker theologian Rex Ambler wrote the book Light to Live By to explore how early Friends gathered in the Light, gained resolve, and endured the harrowing tests they were put to. Because they did, we’re here together today.
In this space, we’ll spend close to an hour and a half:
Opening the Experiment (10 minutes)
Settling into guided meditation (20 minutes)
Spending a brief time alone, keeping the silence (15 minutes)
Sharing as led in breakout rooms (25 minutes)
Concluding (a farewell of 5 – 10 minutes, including an intro to our gathering planned for June)
We began this journey into Light at the winter solstice in December and will continue through the summer solstice.
THE EMERGE VALUES
The Climate Action Committee first met in November 2021—then and now, Radnor Friends’ most recently formed standing committee. We sensed a strong leading to engage. And we set out to form a sense of the key values that speak to our purpose. Together, we began to name these values. As it happened, we found that the acronym EMERGE fit our emergent set of six values. The acronym EMERGE signifies a transformation from our current state to a new way of living as we take each letter and progress from Empathy, Mindfulness, and Ecological Integrity, to Right Action, Growth, and finally, Endurance.
We reached out to Quakers beyond our local congregation, including those active in the Eco-Justice Collaborative of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. We integrated the group’s feedback into a working document that became the material for a booklet and a website, and a basis for presentations and online gatherings including the one coming up on the third Saturday in May, focused on Endurance.
Register at the Quaker Earthcare Witness events page for 16 May and/or our grand finale on 20 June.
Photo by Michael Zager.