“We are still here”: Quakers from around the world gather in South Africa
Quakers gathered in Vanderbijlpark near Johannesburg, South Africa, last week (5-12 August), nearly four centuries after their foundation.
Around 500 Quakers from 44 countries, online and in person, said: “We are called to tap into the same deep power as did early Friends, to name our grief in the face of climate and ecological breakdown."
The plenary, held on the banks of the river variously known as the IHai!arib, Lekwa, iLikwa and the Vaal urged Quaker communities to work together to prioritise climate and eco-justice, mapping their actions.
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There are truths which are uncomfortable to hear about Quaker involvement and complicity and past and present injustice.
- Quaker World Plenary
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Quakers (also known as Friends) called out past and present injustice around the world, from the impact of colonisation to the corporations and governments failing to live up to climate commitments.
"We are called to disrupt patterns of oppression and division…to challenge false notions of white supremacy…to make amends and to work for reparative and retrospective justice," they said in a final document weaving the weeklong discussions into one report.
But they acknowledged "there are truths which are uncomfortable to hear about Quaker involvement and complicity and past and present injustice."
And they urged local Quaker bodies and the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) to examine their own communities, talk to each other and centre those who have endured pain.
The first ever blended World Plenary meeting was held in English, Spanish and KiSwahili. Hosted by FWCC's Africa section and Southern Africa Yearly Meeting, the event explored the concept of ubuntu.
Ubuntu, the idea that a person is a person through other persons, resonates with the Quaker belief that there is that of God in everyone.
Simon Lamb, clerk of FWCC, said: "Both shaken up and inspired, this World Plenary has not only challenged us to examine how we move forward our concern for the care of creation.
"It has also encouraged the world community of Friends, through both honest and open dialogue, to explore how we truly value each other in the spirit of ubuntu and how we might find ways to face and heal the historical and ongoing injustices of the past."
Created in 1937, FWCC encourages fellowship and understanding among Quakers in 75 countries. It is a consultative body, not seeking one way of doing things for Quakers.