The Battered Earth: Injury, Loss, and Healing

Due to popular demand, we have made copies of Beverly’s slides that she shared during her February 6th presentation available here.

Since participating in a Woodbrooke course, “A Quaker Response to Climate Collapse” in 2021, Beverly Ward has been sitting with this concern: “We consider that Quakers could be poised to become midwives and comforters of the challenging times ahead of us.” Beverly will invite participants to join her in sharing concerns on the urgency of climate collapse, reflecting on the environmental, interspecies, and intraspecies impacts of humans. Her reflection will draw on lived experiences including environmental and climate justice advocacy and research, decolonization, and service.

What in our Quaker practice prepares us for this midwifery? Who are our docents? She will share thoughts, gleanings, and plans for future work on grief and loss, drawing on Eileen Flanagan’s message, “There is no faith community that says ‘Be in despair.’” Finally, Beverly will share how we can support each other through this transition, seeking to repair and heal ourselves, our communities, and the battered earth.

Leader(s)

Beverly is the field secretary for Earthcare of Southeastern Yearly Meeting. She has taught several courses at the University of South Florida where she also worked as a faculty member in a research center. Her experience includes conducting research and providing technical assistance to communities and local state and federal agencies on environmental and social justice, housing, and transportation issues. Her publications include Making Black Communities Matter: Race, Space, and Resistance in the Urban South. She is the Equity in Transportation Committee research coordinator at the Transportation Research Board. Beverly is an experiential workshop facilitator trained in conflict transformation, mediation, and strategies on healing for trauma and the Alternatives to Violence Project. She is a member of Tampa Monthly Meeting and an attender of Deland Worship Group. Beverly lives on lands once inhabited by the Timucua (Ocklawaha River Watershed) and the Tocobaga (Hillsborough Bay Watershed).

Travel directions to Pendle Hill. Please make sure to review our health and safety expectations at https://pendlehill.org/stay/covid-19-information/.