What is Abounding?
Abound is not a word I use often in conversation.
But when I saw this on the list of words for AdventWord this year, two quotations came to me which I’ve included below.
Social Justice is for me linked to the idea of equality and being aware of my own privilege and where that cushions me from the injustice, cruelty, lies, violence and oppression that affect others.
The world can be a scary place, and make you feel helpless and powerless. Definitely not as if you can change anything that affects the world around you.
But Quakers have always believed that they are able to work together and with others to make changes.
Some small, (e.g. twinning a meeting house toilet perhaps) some large (e.g. working at the UN) and others in partnership with others (e.g. this year’s first Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice.) but all with the hope that they are able to move the world just a bit closer to the light.
This song is written and performed by Carrie Newcomer, a Quaker singer songwriter, who says,
“This song, Three Feet or So from “The Beautiful Not Yet,” was written for a spoken word and song collaboration with Parker J. Palmer and Gary Walters called “What We Need Is Here: Hope, Hard Times and Human Possibility.” I reference in this song a beautiful story by Greg Ellison that affirms the idea that we may not be able to change the whole world, but we can change what is three feet around us. We have enormous power to create positive change in the world in how we choose to live our daily lives.“
We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for this party nor against the other … but we are for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with God, and with one another, that these things may abound.
Quakers believe that the same God who is graciously present with us is also known in other religions of the world, and by all who are ‘humble, meek, merciful, just, pious and devout’. An encouraging aspect of the Inter-Church Process has been its lively awareness of Britain as a multi-faith community… But beyond the other faiths, there is a whole people of God, the whole of humanity. We affirm, with the Swanwick [inter-church] declaration, that ‘the world with all its sin and splendour belongs to God.’ … The gospel-imperative for the church is to serve the people of God, and most especially ‘these least’. The hungry, the homeless, the sick and the prisoners abound in Britain today: the world cries out for justice and peace.
Wendrie Heywood
MBS Founder
