NPYM Sharing Session on Earthcare Action

The announcement slightly cleaned up from the layers of forwarding that arrived in RantWoman's Inbox: 

The NPYM Peace and Social Concerns Committee invites you to a Sharing Session on Earthcare Action, hosted jointly with NPYM’s representative to Quaker Earthcare Witness. The goal of the session is to allow Friends throughout NPYM to share actions they are taking that grow from their spiritual concern for the Earth, whether those actions are individual or meeting-wide. Our goal is to support what you are already doing and spread good ideas for doing more, in the context of ongoing discernment around the minute on Earthcare* that has been proposed for yearly meeting adoption.

Text of proposed minute:

 * Proposed minute. We recognize that the Light pervades creation: shines not just in humans, but in all other beings, and the spaces around us all. We bear witness to  the continuing revelation coming through the living world. As we see our place in the web of relationships that make up creation, we release any sense of domination. We act to restore and maintain the relationships and  processes that allow life on Earth to thrive.   

The session will be January 12, 7 – 8:30 pm Pacific Time. Anyone in NPYM is welcome to join, but we will expect only one person per meeting to share. Please pass this announcement on to anyone who might be interested.

Please Register in Advance

RantWoman hopes someone she knows will be interested enough to participate and then chat it up with RantWoman.

As long as RantWoman is already in trouble for telling too much of the truth though, please hold in the Light further commentary.

RantWoman's first reaction: only one voice? Sure, one person should do the best they can and speak as led, but RantWoman can think of a lot of earthcare happening by Friends she knows in at least two publications. Then there is earthcare in teaching environmental science, supporting the survival of individual species and ecosystems, allocating time and resources to create livalbe communities, affordable housing, walkable carbon free transportation, greener transportation, a green economy as well as fighting environmental racism. RantWoman for her part weighs heavily in the transportation sphere with a steady intersectional inner dialogue on the themes of #DisabilityTooWhite and #DisabilityInChurch  Shouls RantWoman go on or may we resume waiting in silence upon God.

RantWoman's next reaction to this and certain other Quaker announcements sometimes amounts to "Oh gee, more Quakers talking to each other. Don't we have something glorious we are supposed to be sharing or applying beyond our circles?"  If RantWoman is allowed to get all Biblical about this, are we somehow hiding our Light under a bushel?  

RantWoman never thinks it is terrible when words like God and creator (or worship and prayer) enter into the drafting of minutes. RantWoman has certainly contributed to several minutes which lakc such references, but somehow when we are talking about stewardship of the whole planet and humans figuring out how to get along well enough to survive, seeking the grace of God is not a terrible idea. 

There. Now RantWoman will now shut up and hope she does not scare away anyone drawn to this sharing session, particularly if they need a listening elder afterward.