Friends Meeting-La Jolla-Quakers

02/28/2026

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

11/24/2025

11/23/2025

In 2001, Ellie Shacter wrote this testimony and after much spirited consideration La Jolla Meeting was unable to come to consensus on adopting it.

A Testimony on Unity with Nature

To Friends today, the concept of unity with nature and the integrity of all creation flows directly and inevitably from our testimonies of Integrity, Unity, Equality, Simplicity, Peace, and Community. Our Quaker experience of continuing revelation leads us to deeper dimensions of relationship with all creation. As we see Spirit manifesting itself through the intricate processes of nature we recognize a divine unity. Every person, animal, and every other entity or substance has its own wondrous reality, its own authenticity.

We declare Earth Sanctuary.

We recognize and mourn the environmental catastrophes, loss of bio-diversity, mass extinctions, pollution of Earth, air, and water, overpopulation, and overconsumption of natural resources that have already occurred. We regret our participation in the environmental crises taking place today.

At the same time, our personal experiences of love and the continuing revelations of divine will have so deepened our compassion that we accept an Earth ethic: the call to reorient our lives and our social systems so that human beings, the Earth, and all its creatures may be sustained as part of an interdependent web. We understand that Friends may respond to the call in different ways and contribute to Earth as Sanctuary according to their individual measures of Light and strength.

In this testimony we give witness to our vision of an Earth renewed. This is the great work to which we are now called.

[related quotes:]
For me, God is creative, responsive love, binding together all that exists in the universe, manifest to us in the experiences which can bind us, all parts of creation, together in a blessed community.
Bruce Birchard, "This is My Quaker Faith."

We believe that now is the time that Friends everywhere should speak out on this issue and consider it a testimony on an equal footing with the testimonies on peace and social justice … (even though) we very often fail to live up to it. …
Netherlands Yearly Meeting to Friends World Committee for Consultation,
19th Triennial Meeting, 9-1997, "Sustainable Development as a Quaker
Testimony? A Challenge to all Friends."

The first law of the Ecozoic Era is to understand that the universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. Our relationship with the natural world is not primarily stewardship, but rapport, admiration, communion…
Thomas Berry

I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on the Earth.
Thich Nhat Hanh

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur"

Keep calm and carry on.

07/26/2025

07/26/2025

First night of La Jolla Summerfest. The coaching rehearsals and rehearsals and encounters are all free. I encourage you to give it a try if you have the time.

07/25/2025

🗣 New ceramics class at Pendle Hill!
Join us for this afternoon in the Art Studio with Amal Tamari for "Making in Community: Handbuilding Ceramic Bowls" on August 13th.
This hands-on studio experience will be a guided workshop on building functional bowls for the dinnertable. Bowls are an essential part of the dining experience, and can be used for sharing, serving, or personal soups and salads. Students will have the opportunity to made and keep up to two food-safe bowls each. Techniques will include coil-building, slab-building, and painting with underglazes. The workshop will also serve as a time for reflection on community at the table and what it means to gather for meals and eat with one another.
Register at https://pendlehill.org/calendar/making-in-community-handbuilding-ceramic-bowls/

06/19/2025

Join us on 6/24 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for PSR's annual Pride event.

06/19/2025

Friends, On Sunday, June 22nd at noon, Spiritual Nurturing C. is facilitating a worship sharing on Moving from Faith to Action. Quaker Call to Action has circulated a very informative video which would be helpful for you to watch in preparation for the discussion. The link is below.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Quaker Call Steering Committee
Date: Fri, Jun 13, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Subject: Daniel Hunter Presentation Follow-Up Materials
To: Judy Leshefka



Quaker Call Banner B 8-1-23

Daniel Hunter Presentation Follow-Up Materials

Dear Judy,

We at the Quaker Call to Action are pleased to send to you a packet of helpful information that was shared during our June 1, 2025, National Zoom Call with Daniel Hunter.

Daniel, who is a co-founder of Choose Democracy, an organization committed to helping concerned people learn how to nonviolently resist an autocratic takeover of our federal government, presented an especially informative and encouraging talk to the large group of Friends who attended on June 1. Daniel’s talk is excellent, uplifting, and hopeful.

HERE is a link to the zoom recording of Daniel’s presentation, and HERE is a link to the slide deck that he used in the presentation. We encourage you to view Daniel’s presentation and to consider sharing it with your meeting and other groups in which you may be involved. We believe that Daniel’s presentation should be distributed widely since it is so helpful and timely.

Also, HERE is a document with suggestions for using Daniel’s presentation in your meeting or group. On the second page of the document is a listing of additional resources that were mentioned during the June 1 session. There you will find links to various websites and a description of a new Quaker ministry that has arisen in Philadelphia called North Star Network. It is supporting immigrants and their families in various ways, including counseling and other forms of support for those who become clear that they want to try moving to Canada. There is a list of numerous ways for Friends to assist in their efforts, if you are so led.

We’ve been touched by the positive response to our Quaker Call to provide an online space for Friends across the country to come together for worship, support, learning, and encouragement to discern spiritually grounded nonviolent actions during these challenging times. Thank you for your faithfulness.

In the Spirit,

THE QUAKER CALL NATIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE
Marian Beane, Bruce Birchard, Lauren Brownlee, Diana Hadley, Dale Keairns, Von Keairns, Mary Ellen McNish, Jim Waddington, and Michael Wajda (clerk)


©2025 Quaker Call To Action | Quaker Call To Action, 146 Crosslands Drive, Kennett Square, PA 19348

06/08/2025

Thank you for those who joined us last night for June's First Monday Lecture with Dr. Esther Mombo. "Thinking Outside of the Box: Quakers Contending with Peace, Justice & Security in Eastern Africa" is now available on YouTube if you missed it: https://youtube.com/live/zVid5ABg1rw

We will be taking a break from First Monday Lectures in July, so join us in August for "Honoring the Past and Protecting the Future: 80 Years of Resistance Against Nuclear Weapons" with Molly McGinty and Colleen Moore. Register to attend online or in person for free at https://pendlehill.org/events/honoring-the-past-and-protecting-the-future-80-years-of-resistance-against-nuclear-weapons/

06/08/2025

Stop the Raids!
EMERGENCY PROTEST