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