“Quakers have always believed it was necessary to speak truth to power. Our concern is to reach all men, the great and the humble, and though power in America ultimately rests with the humble, the great wield it, and must, therefore, carry peculiar responsibility.”
“Remember your responsibility as citizens for the government of your town and country, and do not shirk the effort and time this may demand. Do not be content to accept things as they are, but keep an alert and questioning mind. Seek to discover the causes of social unrest, injustice and fear; try to discern the new growing-points in social and economic life. Work for an order of society which will allow men and women to develop their capacities and will foster their desire to serve.”
“The primary function of a religious society is to ‘speak truth to power.’ The truth is that war is wrong. It is then our duty to make war impossible first in us and then in society. To cooperate with government in building morale seems inconsistent with all we profess to believe… The greatest service that we can render the men in the armed forces is to maintain our peace testimony.”
“I realized that being in nature does give me spiritual nurture, even if I don’t seek it out all the time. Seeing myself as a tiny part of a whole earth community keeps me humble and gives me perspective. The outdoors has a quiet that’s different from silence, which invites me to regulate the rhythm of my body. And the immediacy of nature encourages me to set my urgent life aside and be present, if just for a moment.”
“Whatever situation we face, we can choose our response. When facing overwhelming challenges, we might feel that our actions don’t count for much. Yet the kind of responses we make, and the degree to which we believe they count, are shaped by the way we think and feel about hope.”
“Our planet is seriously ill and we can feel the pain. We have been reminded of the many ways in which the future health of the earth is under threat as a result of our selfishness, ignorance and greed.
Our Earth needs attention, respect, love, care and prayer. In comfortable Britain we are largely insulated from the effects of the environmental crisis. It is the poor of the world who suffer first.”
“So then, there is the sweet communion…. the sweet joy and refreshment in the Lord our righteousness, who causeth righteousness to drop down from heaven, and truth to spring up out of the earth. And so our Father is felt blessing us, blessing our land, blessing our habitations, delighting in us and over us to do us good; and our land yields its increase to the Lord of Life, who hath redeemed it and planted the precious plants and seeds of life in it.”
“Our [Quaker] testimonies against war and inequality have been aimed at persuading people, and reminding ourselves, as to where their wealth lies: in the discovery of a common identity and a common cause with other human beings.”
When despair for the world grows in me / and I wake in the night at the least sound / in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, / I go and lie down where the wood drake / rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
“This is a marvelous world, full of beauty and splendour; it is also an unrelenting and savage world, and we are not the only living things prone to dominate if given the chance. In our fumbling, chaotic way, we do also make gardens, irrigate the desert, fly to the moon and compose symphonies. Some of us are trying to save species other than ourselves…”
End of content
End of content