Living Witness Day 2008

In February this year we had a very successful Living Witness Day. Here, Emma Dummet writes about why we had the day and what it involved.

One of the first ideas that arose when the Living Witness Project formed was to hold some kind of event or fair around sustainability, to introduce what the LWP was all about and to gather feedback from the Meeting. Everyone in the steering group took responsibility for some aspect of the day, from presenting sites that had been considered for allotment-type cultivation to making cloth bags to preparing soup for lunch. As the day came together and I took breaks from the kitchen, where I was on soup and coffee duty, I felt hugely rewarded by the way that each person's efforts had come together into such a vibrant, diverse and cheerful-feeling occasion. We had all allowed each other to follow our enthusiasms - Simon's for seeds, Paul's for beach-cleaning, Jonathan for umbrella painting, Sarah for sewing - and trusted that they would each result in something beautiful, practical and thought-provoking. The other rewarding aspect of the day was the two talks from Rachel Howell (then of the LWP's central office in Oxford) and Mark Ballard, member of our Meeting and until recently a Green MSP. Rachel encouraged us to continue working together towards positive change, and Mark challenged us to think about what messages are really effective when it comes to the environment. The discussion could have continued much longer than time allowed, prompting me to reflect that few issues provoke as ardent a desire to share concerns, propose ideas, vent frustrations and venture hopes as sustainability and the environment, and that the LWP should aspire to provide a real forum for such discussions within the Meeting. We hope to hold a similar event, albeit probably in a slightly different form, in February 2009.