In 2011, the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain declared
“Sustainability is an urgent matter for our Quaker witness. It is rooted in Quaker testimony and must be integral to all we do corporately and individually. The action we are ready to take at this time is to make a strong corporate commitment to become a low-carbon, sustainable community.”
Sheffield Central Quaker Meeting as part of its on-going witness and commitment to this declaration has registered with Eco Church.
One of the key factors in climate change action is the sheer complexity of the network of factors that are believed to contribute to climate change. There is continuing development of climate models and associated metrics. Evolving technology is changing the climate impact of particular actions. It is very difficult to get validated data about the whole lifecycle of products and services
For example, using one metric base, Oil and Gas may be the biggest contributor to global warming, using another base, agriculture is the most important.
How do we promote actions that are available to most people and not just the monied elites? How do we balance the long-term future with the immediate short term?
Decisions about what actions to take depend on one’s personal perspective. There are no ‘right’ answers and many contradictory options.
Despite this challenging background, there is a quickly growing world-wide community of academics, activists and community groups. There is a developing conversation, sometimes controversial, between these groups and local networks.
In our context, the EcoChurch program and the resources of BYM and Woodbrooke are invaluable. They offer far-reaching networks that help us greatly by sharing ideas, identifying resources and providing other perspectives.
What we do in the SCQM community is important. We aim to become important pathfinders to ourselves and to other Sheffield communities we relate to.
The Eco Church survey covers five areas: Worship and Teaching, Building and Energy, Land and Nature,
Community and Global Engagement, and Lifestyle.
This guide gives an overview of these five areas and this document gives suggestions about how to start the process.
A good starting point is The spiritual basis for Quaker climate action with particular emphasis on the Canterbury Commitment