Minute 2004-71

Minute on Name Change

The New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends recognizes that threats to sustainability of the Earth and its biosphere come from many aspects of our lives, and we commit to finding and living solutions. We realize that individual actions are not sufficient: often we are constrained by social, financial and infrastructural factors that prevent our making choices congruent with our values as Friends. Therefore, we commit to take actions designed to dismantle those societal barriers to responsible earthcare, and to put in their place incentives and support for making socially just and environmentally responsible choices. The specific actions we take will be informed by a shared vision of how we can live in ways that respect and restore biodiversity, natural beauty, and the Earth's ability to heal past abuses.
Awareness of serious environmental problems and their spiritual connections is widespread in New England Yearly Meeting, as demonstrated by our enthusiastic endorsement of the Earth Charter in 2002. At present, our foremost task related to earthcare is to act collectively on that awareness. In recognition of this new emphasis, the New England Friends in Unity with Nature Committee will be renamed the Earthcare Ministry Committee, with the following purposes and procedures:

Purposes: The Earthcare Ministry Committee encourages New England Yearly Meeting and its constituent monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, committees and staff to actions based on awareness that current rapid destruction of our planet and its fragile ecosystems is diametrically opposed to Quaker beliefs and values, and that the Religious Society of Friends must take an active stand against these trends and practices, inseparable from our other activities.

Procedures: The committee will help Friends to create a collective vision of how we can live peacefully and respectfully in the world, sharing finite goods with other inhabitants. It will work to identify specific actions that can turn this vision into reality, and help monthly meetings and other units of the Yearly Meeting with the national Quaker Earthcare Witness (formerly Friends Committee on Unity with Nature) by sharing information and calls to action. The committee also will encourage a growing awareness of global interconnections among social justice, war, environmental harm, and the emphasis our society places on materialism and consumption.

New England Yearly Meeting charges every committee with integrating the need to transform our lives and society to care for the earth, supporting the activists among us, and including that witness in our new Faith and Practice. We call on every monthly meeting, worship group and individual Friend to "let our lives speak" and to lead others, inside and outside the Religious Society of Friends, to uphold ecological integrity by making radical changes in our lives.

Minute 2003-84

The Minute on Genetically Modified Food which was forwarded to Sessions by the Young Adult Friends was considered. Friends approved the following minute:

Minute on Genetically Modified Food

There is a growing concern about the increasingly widespread use of genetically engineered foods.

In 2001 over 85 million acres of genetically modified soybeans, corn, canola, and cotton were grown in the United States¹. Greater than sixty percent of processed foods are likely to contain genetically modified ingredients¹.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports that there is enough food produced to feed the world one and a half times over¹. The problem of world hunger is related to food access, distribution, and other social and economic factors¹. We believe that genetically engineered crops will worsen this situation. Farmers are often unable to reseed genetically engineered crops due to licensing agreements and single-generation seeds, impairing peoples’ ability to feed themselves¹.

Research suggests that genetically engineered foods may pose health risks to humans including immune system effects, allergic sensitivities, and changes in organ development².

We discourage use of genetically engineered organisms. We urge Friends to contact our legislators to call for legislation to require the mandatory labeling of all genetically engineered products.

¹ Questioning Genetic Engineering: an overview of the impacts and history of biotechnology. Institute for Social Ecology Biotechnology Project 802/454-7138 or www.neRAGE.org

² Why do Massachusetts Organic Growers Oppose Genetic Engineering? NOFA/Mass, 978/355-2853 or www.massorganic.org

o Sources for education: www.monsanto.com/monsanto/layout/sci_tech/ag_biotech/biosafety.asp & www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.html

Friends asked representatives to the upcoming FWCC triennial to take this minute to share as a concern of our Yearly Meeting.

From the minutes of New England Yearly Meeting 2002

The Earth Charter

2002–28. [The] Clerk of Northwest Quarterly Meeting presented a minute forwarded from the Quarter endorsing the Earth Charter. Friends began discussion, but were unable to find unity, and agreed to continue consideration of this minute later in Sessions.

2002–59. [Another Friend] reviewed the purpose and history of the Earth Charter, which was written over the past decade by people from around the world in an open and participatory process. The Earth Charter office is in Costa Rica. [This Friend] stated that endorsement of the Earth Charter indicates commitment to the aims and spirit of the Charter. Endorsement demonstrates a commitment to its values and willingness to work locally and regionally as we feel led.

We returned to a consideration of the minute forwarded by Northwest Quarter endorsing the Earth Charter. The clerks reintroduced the minute summarizing our sense of where we were, as a body at the end of our discussion Monday morning.

Friends felt broad agreement with the minute and the principles of the Earth Charter, but were uncomfortable endorsing the Northwest QM minute. We recommend weighty consideration of the substance of the Charter, and of the urgent call for sustainable development. However, Friends felt that endorsement was premature without first making a commitment to examine the contradictions between these principles and our comfortable assumptions in our individual and corporate lives.

Friends approved inserting this minute.

Friends were reluctant to endorse words without a commitment to action. Our clerk spoke of how powerfully our action endorsing minutes at Sessions is, and how it allows her to speak more strongly when asked What are the Quakers doing?

Friends were clear on the following three points:

1. Friends did not approve the Northwest Quarter minute.

2. Friends did approve endorsing the Earth Charter with gratitude to Northwest Quarter for bringing it forward, and to the many people around the world who have worked to develop the Charter.

3. We committed ourselves to take the Charter back to our meetings, to work with it, to see how our testimonies respond to it, and to see how we are led further.

The Earth Charter, At a Glance

We, the peoples of Earth, join together in a global partnership and pledge to:

1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.

2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love.

3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful.

4. Secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations.

For over a decade diverse groups throughout the world have endeavored to create an Earth Charter that sets forth fundamental ethical principles for a sustainable way of life. Hundreds of groups and thousands of individuals have been involved in the process.

The Earth Charter is a declaration of interdependence and responsibility and an urgent call to build a global partnership for sustainable development.

The principles of the Earth Charter are closely interrelated. Together they provide a conception of sustainable development and set forth fundamental guidelines for achieving it. These principles are drawn from international law, science, philosophy, religion, recent UN Summit meetings, and the international Earth Charter Conversation on global ethics.

The goal of sustainable development is full human development and ecological protection. The Earth Charter recognizes that humanity’s environmental, economic, social, cultural, ethical, and spiritual problems and aspirations are interconnected. It affirms the need for holistic thinking and collaborative, integrated problem solving, Sustainable development requires such an approach. It is about freedom, justice, participation, and peace as well as environmental protection and economic well-being.

The 16 Earth Charter Main Principles

I Respect and care for the community of life

1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.

2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love.

3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful.

4. Secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations.

In order to fulfill these four broad commitments, it is necessary to:

II. Ecological integrity

5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth’s ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.

6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach.

7. Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth’s regenerative capacities, human rights, and community wellbeing.

8. Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of knowledge acquired.

III. Social and economic justice

9. Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative.

10. Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner.

11. Affirm gender equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity.

12. Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.

IV. Democracy, nonviolence, and peace

13. Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision making, and access to justice.

14. Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.

15. Treat all living beings with respect and consideration.

16. Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace.

Minute 2001–66

Friends then considered a revised minute from the New England Friends in Unity with Nature Committee. Friends united with the minute as follows:

Quakers’ Responsibility to Protect Ecological Integrity and Public Health

We are part of a society that has desecrated God’s garden by allowing the contamination of our bodies and the biosphere by manufactured toxic substances. While this affects all of us, some people are especially vulnerable. Children, people of color, those with low incomes, and those living in poor countries bear a greater burden of compromised health and environmental quality. Tolerating these conditions goes against many of our traditional Quaker beliefs in stewardship of the earth, equality, and peace.

Past and continued contamination of the biosphere by humans is a violent assault on ecological integrity, and the suffering that ensues is unjust. Our governmental policies have increased inequities in access to and enjoyment of an unpolluted, healthy environmental contamination continues to occur for many reasons. Among these are insufficient influence by the people who are exposed to these chemicals, ignorance, or uncertainty about long-term and cumulative effects of exposure, the exclusion of spiritual values from decisions that affect the environment and public health, and the failure to express love for future generations and the biosphere.

Consistent with our testimonies and search for Truth, New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) supports the development and implementation of more inclusive public policy-making processes for decisions affecting the environment and public health. We support the search for innovative, non-polluting ways to meet the basic needs of all people in our society without sacrificing human lives, other species, or future ecological integrity.

New England Yearly Meeting encourages all Friends to seek Light on these concerns in the coming year; to make daily choices affirming the sacredness of life; and to follow their leadings as individuals, within their monthly meetings, and as participants in local organizations. NEYM furthermore designates Molly Anderson, Clerk of New England Friends in Unity with Nature Committee, as the NEYM representative to the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow. The Alliance is a coalition of faith-based groups, public health and environmental professionals, and public-interest organizations. It is being formed to open governmental decision-making more effectively to those affected by the decisions; to make the environmental and public health consequences of alternative choices more transparent to the public; and to seek out safer, healthier options for proposed technologies or actions that plausibly will cause harm to ecological integrity or health. Participation by the NEYM representative will allow a Quaker voice in the development of the coalition, but is not an endorsement by NEYM of all activities of the Alliance. The NEYM representative is charged with bringing back information about the Alliance’s work to Yearly Meeting 2002.