Skip to Content

YMG 2011 - Building a low-carbon, sustainable community

Home » Faith and action » Living faithfully » Sustainability » YMG 2011

In early August, 1,500 Quakers came together in Canterbury for Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG). The Yearly Meeting made a corporate commitment to become a low carbon sustainable community.

You can read the Epistle from YMG here [PDF].

Read minute 36 of YMG to find out what this decision means in more detail. Minute 23 on economic justice is also informative. See the full minutes here [PDF].

What now?

The actions Friends have been asked to take include the practical, political and spiritual and are about both personal and corporate action, across the Yearly Meeting. Friends are asked if we can reconnect with our roots, to live a religious life and proclaim a message the world needs to hear.

Meeting for Sufferings have been asked by the Yearly Meeting to work with area meetings and staff to define appropriate aims for our corporate commitment. They will ask relevant committees to undertake projects to turn the decision into positive action. This will take time, but this discernment process means that we take the right decisions for our community. These decisions will be publicised as and when they are made.

Area meetings have been given tasks too, and individual Friends are deeply challenged by the minute.

What can you do?

There are many things individual Friends and meetings can do already to help build our low carbon sustainable community, and to help discern what this community might look like. Below is a list of suggested actions by Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW), as well as some initiatives by other Quaker organisations and area meetings.

The ideas cover sustainability, economics and peace. A sustainable community is one that is economically just as well as low carbon. By living sustainably we help to build a peaceful world.

If you have 2 minutes

  • Sign up to Quakernomics, the QPSW blog for people seeking a fair economy for people and planet. There is a special thread for matters discussed at YMG.
  • ‘Like’ the SustainableQuakers page on facebook, and join the discussion.
  • Sign up to receive Sustainability…for Peace, a biannual newsletter and regular e-update list for Friends with a concern for sustainability.
  • Sign up to receive Better World Economics, a three times yearly newsletter produced by QPSW for Quakers interested in economics.
  • Request a copy of the ‘Quakers and Sustainability’ display for your meeting. This 8 A3 panel display explores Quaker concern with sustainability and highlights some of the action that is already being taken. Contact Sunniva Taylor, QPSW Sustainability for Peace programme manager for a copy (sunnivat@quaker.org.uk or 02076631047).

If you have 5 minutes

  • Read ‘A Quaker response to Climate Change’, a corporate statement agreed at YMG 2009.
  • Read Green Advices & Queries. Resources are also available here to help you understand and reflect on the scientific, social, political and economic challenges posed by climate change.
  • Read ‘350 Years On – The Peace Testimony Today’
  • Email your MP and ask her/him to support EDM 1775 ‘Income Inequality’. Keep your message brief but consider explaining your Quaker motivations for supporting a more equal society
  • Read inspiring stories about what Friends around the UK are already doing to live more sustainably.
  • Learn more about being an ethical consumer, and consider subscribing to Ethical Consumer magazine. Ethical Consumer is a well established ethical and environmental consumer magazine. For every Quaker subscription between now and the end of September they will donate £10 to the QPSW economic justice programme. Just mention ‘Quaker’ if you are subscribing over the phone or enter ‘Quaker’ in the notes field if you are subscribing online

Learn more

Future events

‘Greening your meeting’ on 20th - 22nd January 2012 at Woodbrooke (in partnership with QPSW)

As a Meeting

  • Use the Sustainability Toolkit and Climate impact calculators.
  • Read and explore as a group the questions in the QPSW Responding to Climate Change pack
  • Hold some all age events on sustainability. See relevant editions of Journeys in the Spirit for many ideas
  • Think about your money. Consider whether or not your Meeting’s money is being used in a way that promotes right relationship. Perhaps you could hold a special meeting during National Ethical Investment week to involve the whole meeting in considering this? For more information and resources see ‘Money in a low-carbon, sustainable community’ an article written for issue 18 of QPSW’s Better World Economics newsletter.
  • Think about any employees or contractors you may have. Are they paid at least a living wage? Do they feel empowered to raise any concerns or join a trade union?
  • Is your Meeting registered as a Fairtrade place or worship? If not, see these details from the Fairtrade Foundation.
  • Do something to mark ‘Buy Nothing day’ 26th November 2011. You could display the 'simple lifestyles' poster (email sunnivat@quaker.org.uk for a copy) outside and consider holding an outreach skillsharing/mending day in your Meeting House.
  • Join Living Witness. Living Witness aims to support the development of Quaker corporate witness to sustainable living and explore ways of taking it to the wider community in Britain and elsewhere

Area Meeting initiatives

Supporting the work

As well as taking action please consider donating to sustain our existing commitments and to enable QPSW to support the decisions of the Yearly Meeting.