Editorial

Traditionally Quakers do not observe feast days and holy days, believing that each day is special and that all of life is sacred. But of course we live in a world full of ritual. The power and lure of marketing, advertising and peer pressure are particularly strong at this time of year. For those of us who live with young children we may aim for a simple Christmas. No Christmas celebration at all might feel like a step too far.

Yet all life is sacred all of the time. As I write, world leaders are arriving in Copenhagen for talks on climate change. Quakers round the world campaign for a sustainable future. We try to make changes in our own lives for the sake of all life. In the UK thousands of Quakers have supported the Wave. Many have lobbied politicians, attended conferences and events. Here at Friends House we have signed up for the 10:10 campaign. Meetings are greening their meeting houses. Individual Quakers are making significant decisions – not to fly, not to eat meat – which are changing our own lives for the better.

Quaker faith and practice 14.05 reminds us of our shared responsibility for funding our shared work, without which ‘we would be a scattered collection of small meetings with no coherence or shared witness.’ We will launch an appeal to meetings to help us co-ordinate Quaker efforts for peace and sustainability early in 2010. We have just received a significant grant from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and we hope individual Quakers and meetings will want to help too. Together we are working to arrest climate change. Together we can play our part to achieve the change that has to happen.

Rachel Rees
Head of Communications and Fundraising