Bill Upholt

Hartford Monthly Meeting is happy to be hosting
Connecticut Valley Quarterly Meeting

First Day, February 3rd, 2013

The program for the day will be presented by Ed Dreby and Margaret Mansfield and is entitled,

“It’s the Economy Friends, Toward a Quaker Witness”

We’ll begin by sharing initial impressions of a short video featuring Charles Eisenstein. He views our current economic system as the product of a culture of separation run amok. We’ll then consider together the basic thesis of two new Quaker Institute pamphlets about the growth dilemma and the concept of an ecologically integrated economy, which is akin to what Eisenstein calls “sacred economics.” How might a witness on ecology and the economy become a distinctive Quaker contribution to what Thomas Berry called “the great work” of our time?

Ed Dreby and his wife Margaret Mansfield are both former social studies teachers in Quaker schools and have worked together for many years as authors, editors, and workshop facilitators on Friends testimonies, and economics from an ecological perspective. They are members of Mount Holly, New Jersey Monthly Meeting, and are also active with Friends Committee on National Legislation. Ed is also a leader of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Growth Dilemma Project, and has collaborated with Quaker Institute for the Future on several publications.

Schedule for the Day

10:00 am Meeting for Worship with Hartford Friends

11:00 am Introductions and Announcements

11:15 am Refreshments

11:30 am Program

1:00 pm Luncheon

2:00 pm Quarterly Meeting for business

Hartford Friends Meetinghouse is located at 144 South Quaker Lane, West Hartford, CT 06119. We have a lift for mobility impaired persons, who are also invited to park in the meeting driveway.

For directions, see our website: www.hartfordquakers.org

If you need childcare, or you have food allergies or need other special assistance, please contact Chris Robinson: kranknsweet@sbcglobal.net or 860-675-5670.

Save the date! Join people from Transition and resilience efforts across New England for a day of learning, story-sharing, connecting, and organizing -

New England Transition and Resilience Gathering
Saturday, October 20, 2012

9:30am – 5pm, Coffee and Lunch Provided
Exact Address TBD
Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA

Convened by Transition Keene, Transition Newburyport, the Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition, and the New England Grassroots Environment Fund (NEGEF)

Thanks to the excellent work of activists and organizers across the region, New England is home to many thriving grassroots efforts to create economic and environmental justice by transitioning away from fossil fuels towards sustainable food, energy, and transportation systems.

How might we increase the effectiveness of our work by connecting with one another? Please join us on Saturday, October 20th as we consider this exciting question. You’ll have the chance to meet folks from across New England, share stories, think systemically about the region, and consider next steps. There will be plenty of opportunities for informal conversation and connection.

Together, we will:

Hear stories and lessons from other Transition and resilience efforts, and share your own!
Identify possible training needs your group may have, from group development to community organizing to small business planning. Dialogue with capacity-building trainers from NEGEF and the expanded team of certified Transition Trainers in the Northeast about what learning modules might be helpful for your initiative.
Discuss how we might increase the resilience of our region as a whole in terms of food, energy, transportation, and more. Learn about regional planning that is already underway and consider how our efforts might link to such planning.
Discuss how we might jointly benefit by creating a way to connect and communicate with one another going forward, and what shape that might take.

A member of one of the convening organizations will follow up with you shortly to discuss this gathering. Please feel free to spread the word to others in your initiative or network.

If you or someone else from your initiative would like to convene or help plan this event, we welcome your involvement! Please reply to this email or call 617.477.8630 x307.

Travel stipends and some in-home hospitality in Boston are available. Please contact Sarah Byrnes (sarah@localcircles.org, 617.477.8630 x307) for more information.

You are also invited to a potluck with members of the Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition on the evening of October 19. We’ll hear stories from Transition Initiatives around New England. Please indicate in your RSVP if you plan to attend.

For more info and to RSVP, contact Sarah Byrnes – sarah@localcircles.org, 617.477.8630 x307.

Thank you,
Sarah Byrnes
Jamiaca Plain New Economy Transition (JP NET)
Resilience Circles Organizer, Institute for Policy Studies New England

People can listen to the interview here. Feel free to forward the link to the interview to friends and contacts, and please encourage them to post comments about the radio show on the web site. This will have the effect of increasing the rating of the show in terms of favorites, helping to maintain its visibility on the site as time goes on, and offer interesting food for thought for other people who might consider listening to the hour-long program.

Steve and Ruah are also the coordinators of the online Quakers in Transition project of the Earthcare Ministries Committee of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. Enjoy this in-depth interview on links between Transition, faith, and action.

At this February luncheon of the Massachusetts Bible Society, Quaker Transition activist Steve Chase addressed some key questions: What is faithful, abundant living in the midst of the triple threat of peak oil, climate change, and an increasingly dysfunctional global economy? How can we draw on our faith as friends and followers of Jesus to resist the pulls of empire and consumerism, and unleash our creativity and love of our neighbors and God’s good earth? How can we respond to the challenges of our time with an inspiring vision of Beloved Community in the 21st Century that moves us beyond either denial or despair and helps us cultivate an inward state of blessed unrest and an outward engagement in creative faith-based activism? What can we start doing now to foster a transition to a more livable, just, relocalized, and neighborly post-oil world?

Bio: Steve Chase is a professor of Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability at Antioch University New England, a co-founder of the Transition Keene Task Force, a member of Putney Friends Meeting (Quakers) and a co-founder of the Quakers in Transitionproject of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends’ Earthcare Ministries Committee.

For more other online videotaped talks from the MA Bible Society, go to: http://www.massbible.org/program-videos.

This past Sunday, Transition Keene Task Force member Steve Chase and Antioch professor Polly Chandler co-facilitated a community interfaith conversation at St. James Episcopal Church on “Climate Change, Faith, and Action.” This local event was co-sponsored by the Transition Keene Task Force, the Keene Unitarian Universalist Church, and the St. James Episcopal Church. Attenders also included people from the Keene United Church of Christ, Keene Friends Meeting, Putney Friends Meeting, and Saint Michael’s Episcopal Church in Brattleboro.

Over 40 people from these six congregations showed up and took the opportunity to talk deeply with each other about their worries and concerns about the increasing impacts of climate change, their visions and hopes for a sustainable future, and what they and their congregations are currently doing–or could be doing to support positive climate action, help build community resilience, and tackle sustainability efforts as one of the key moral questions of our time–and a core element of our many faith traditions.

As Steve Chase noted, Quakers like himself are inspired by the three great loves shared by all faithful and prophetic Jews and Christians: 1) love of God with all one’s heart, soul, and strength, 2) love of neighbors, including one’s enemies, and 3) love of God’s good earth. Many other participants agreed that these three great loves were at the core of their faith journeys and traditions as well. Indeed, almost everyone in attendance raised their hands when asked if in their deepest heart of hearts they wanted to live in a world that is environmentally sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling.

After watching a short video segment of the interfaith environmental movie Renewal on the creation and spread of Interfaith Power and Light, a national religious coalition focused on taking action for climate justice and sustainability, Polly Chandler facilitated a process of small group discussions about how the congregations represented could expand their sustainability ministry and further innovative action and practices in their homes, congregations, and in the wider community. Polly asked people to think about easier, technical fixes as well as deeper and more creative cultural shifts and adaptions within their congregations. In the report back, many innovative ideas were shared, from the simple to the more challenging. Among the ideas floated was the idea of organizing a Keene Interfaith Power and Light chapter to keep pushing for these deep spiritual and practical conversations and helping area religious congregations become strong community leaders in addressing climate change.

I hope other attenders will write in comments to this post and share their high points and inspirations from the day.

Also, anyone who is interested in setting up a Keene Interfaith Power and Light chapter can–for now–contact Steve Chase of the Transition Keene Task Force, Putney Friends Meeting, and Quakers In Transition.

What if the best responses to peak oil and climate change don’t come from government, but from you and me and the people around us?—Rob Hopkins

Maybe you’ve already read Rob Hopkins’s first book, The Transition Handbook. Maybe you’re involved in a Transition initiative in your community. Or maybe you’re just curious and just want to learn more about the fast-growing international Transition movement. In any case, you’ll be in for a great treat reading his new book, The Transition Companion.

The original book was published about five years ago, when the movement was very new, as a beginner’s guide to starting, encouraging, and participating in a Transition Initiative. Key elements of Transition work were described in terms of re-skilling for resilience (e.g., canning, tool care, home health care), nurturing local communities, and supporting local economies.

While the original handbook analyzed the successes of just a few pioneering Transition initiatives, the new book is able to share hundreds of examples out of the thousands of Transition initiatives world-wide, ranging from diverse towns and cities to islands, universities, and even neighborhoods.

Since Part Three (the final part) of The Transition Companion” has a “starting out” section titled, “How the Transition movement does what it does—ingredients for success,” you could just read the new book and learn most of what was included in the first book. The remaining sections in Part Three are “Deepening,” “Connecting,” “Building,” and “Daring to Dream.”

Part Two, “Why Transition Initiatives Do What They Do,” begins with this important observation about diversity within the Transition movement:

“People get involved in their local Transition initiatives for a range of reasons. Although when Transition started it was framed very much as a response to peak oil and climate change, as time has passed and the idea has taken root in more and more places, it has been fascinating to see the wide range of reasons why people get involved.”

It moves on to the varied, delightful reasons that people get involved in Transition, including, “because it feels way more fun than not doing it” and “because of wanting a fairer world.” Along with all the descriptions of great tools and strategies used by various Transition initiatives are wonderful color photos of real people making a difference where they live.

Hopkins doesn’t guarantee what the outcome will be. In fact the movement’s publications always include this “cheerful disclaimer:”

“Transition is not a known quantity. We truly don’t know whether Transition will work. It is a social experiment on a massive scale. What we are convinced of is this:

v  If we wait for the governments, it’ll be too late.

v If we act as individuals, it’ll be too little.

v But if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.”

This book is fun, informative, inspirational, and very helpful for our very necessary transition to a warmer, post-petroleum world. The book helped me better understand the next steps my local Transition initiative needs to take to make us truly relevant to our community.

Just 82 days before the scheduled closure of the Vermont Yankee plant, the New Hampshire-based Nuke Free Monadnock affinity group, which includes a member of Putney Friends Meeting and the Transition Keene Task Force, is going to throw a one-hour, afternoon, New Year’s Eve bash at the gates of Vermont Yankee (546 Governor Hunt Road, Vernon, VT 05354). The party will take place from 1:30 to 2:30 pm on December 31st and is part of the SAGE Alliance‘s daily Countdown to Closure vigils at the plant.

At this afternoon New Year’s Eve party, we will have music, sing-alongs, kazoos and funny hats, a sparkling cider and dixie cup toast to the State of Vermont for standing up to the Entergy Corporation on behalf of the people of this region, and a New Year’s style ball drop to ring in a nuke free new year with hope for more green collar jobs and renewable energy to come. We will also take time to share New Year’s Resolutions for what each us will do to create a safe and green energy future in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont in the coming year. The event is even being filmed by Robbie Leppzer, who made Seabrook 77, as part of his documentary on the citizens movement to close VY and move toward a safe and green energy future in the region.

We would love to have many other Quakers In Transition from the Tri-State area near Vermont Yankee join us for this party. So, please bring your friends and neighbors to Vernon, VT, next Saturday afternoon at 1:30 pm as we celebrate the scheduled March 21, 2012 shut down of this aging and unreliable nuclear plant, which has the same design as the leaking reactors in Japan.

Parking for this holiday bash for safe and green energy is available at the municipal building just down the road from VY by the Vernon town offices and library. BTW, parking is not allowed at the elementary school across the street, so please do not park in that lot. Also, please carpool if you can. We encourage everyone to use Monadnock RideShare to coordinate their car pools. Just scroll down to the ride share offerings to Vernon, Vermont, on December 31st. Remember we want a low-carbon, as well as a nuke-free, future!

For more information, please contact NFM member Steve Chase.

P.S. Anyone who attends this party being thrown by the Nuke Free Monadnock affinity group agrees to the following guidelines for being a “good guest.”

Nonviolent Action Code of Conduct

Our attitude will be one of openness and respect toward all we encounter in our actions.
We will use no violence, verbal or physical, toward any person.
We will not harm anyone, and we will not retaliate in reaction to violence.
We will not carry weapons.
We will neither be under the influence nor bring any non-prescribed drugs or alcohol.
We will neither bring dogs nor other animals, except for service animals.
During a demonstration we will not run nor make threatening motions.
While affirming that people’s lives and safety are more important than property, we will not destroy or damage property.

Here is a link to a report back from Gail Parfitt, a Quaker involved in Transition Exeter, who attended the Quakers and Transition event held this summer at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, England. From Friday, June 24th to the 26th around forty Quakers met at Woodbrooke and “had a lively time looking at the links and potential synergies between Quakers and the Transition movement.”

The facilitator team, who started planning this event a year ago, consisted of: Catrina Pickering from Transition Network; Sunniva Taylor from Quaker Peace and Social Witness; Jasmine Piercy from Living Witness and Quaker Voluntary Action; Gordon Matthews from Evesham Quaker Meeting and Transition Evesham Vale; and Pam Lunn from Woodbrooke.

Participants came from all over Britain, with one visitor from the USA also joining us. About half the group came representing their local or area Quaker Meeting, and about half came on their own account. Many had been involved in environmental issues long before Transition appeared on the scene, and were bringing their previous experience and knowledge to the movement. We were reminded that transition involved a journey from oil dependency to local resilience and a post-carbon economy and society. One Friend asked, “Should transition (also) mean a move to a more socially just /egalitarian society/world.” Another added “a journey we are all part of!” Certainly the writer of ‘the Transition Handbook’ Rob Hopkins, talks of the importance of reciprocity and the need to address the heart as well as the head within an increased local democracy. This was an undercurrent running through the weekend workshop.

To read the full blog article, click here.

For an example of a local meeting cooperating with a local Transition initiative, here is a link to blog post by Andrew Reeve announcing that “Leicester Quakers and Transition Leicester are presenting their 3rd annual Apple Day event on Saturday 29th October from 10am to 4pm at the Friends Meeting House, Queens Road, Leicester.” For the full post, click here. Also, the local Transition Tunbridge Wells holds most of its community events at the Tunbridge Wells Friends Meeting House. Check out the list of events here.

Finally, I just found this longer “think piece” on the topic of Quakers In Transition from 2009. While I certainly don’t agree with everyone of the author’s points, it is an interesting discussion starter about how the end of the age of cheap and abundant energy will impact Quakers and what we might want to start doing about strengthening our meeting communities and our wider local communities. As noted by the blogspot author, listed only as Craig:

This was a submission to ‘The Friends Quarterly’ essay competition on ‘The Future of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain’. It is an attempt to explore some of the consequences of peak oil and climate change for British Quakerism. References and further reading are in hypertext links within the text. I am a Quaker from Sheffield, and I am also active in the Transition movement.

For the complete essay, click here. Please feel free to comment on the piece below.

What do other people know about Quakers in Transition in Britain, the US, and elsewhere? Let’s starting linking up and talking to each other!