Earthcare Witness

The public is invited to meet Quaker “EarthPeace” activists Ruah Swennerfelt and Louis Cox on Sunday, December 16th at the Olympic View Friends Church. Ruah and Louis will teach Sunday School at 9:45am and give the sermon during meeting for worship which begins at 10:45am. The purpose of their visit is to show how the prophetic witness of John Woolman (an 18^th century Quaker who spoke out against slavery) is relevant to the work that Friends are being called to today.

This husband-and-wife team from Vermont is on a 1,400-mile journey by foot from Vancouver, British Columbia, to San Diego, California, visiting Quaker meetings and churches. They will discuss how caring for the earth is integral to Friends' long-standing testimonies for simplicity, integrity, peace, and equality. They will engage participants in exploring next steps that they can take personally and corporately to help transform attitudes toward the earth and all living things.

Woolman foresaw that strivings after ease, luxury, and outward greatness would bring about “great injury to succeeding ages,” not only in the form of physical suffering but in terms of spiritual impoverishment for the affluent. Woolman’s prophesy is clearly evident today in wars based on the unjust and unsustainable use of nonrenewable resources, as well as manifold social and ecological disruptions due to the combined effects of overconsumption and population pressures.

As part of their talk about John Woolman, Ruah and Louis will show how they try to practice what they preach: They live in a hand-built house that is heated and powered by the sun. They grow much of their own food and are part of an eat-local program to encourage people to give more support to local food growers and producers. They are active in their town’s sustainable living network to promote healthy community life as a key to lowering ecological impacts.

Ruah and Louis have participated in two extended walks in Vermont and Massachusetts to call attention to the growing crisis of harmful climate change. They are the staff of Quaker Earthcare Witness www.quakerearthcare.org, which is an organization devoted to demonstrating the many ways peace, justice, and ecological integrity are interrelated spiritually.

Follow their journey on their web site: www.peaceforearth.org