Tuesday morning session: Lizz Roe

Lizz Roe:

Dear Friends, beloveds, what does the Lord ask of us? That we are the salt of the earth, that we would be a light unto the world, that we would be streams of living water, that we would feed God’s people. Earth, light, water, nourishment - we are asked to tend God’s garden, we are asked to tend God’s community of heaven, we are asked to tend all God’s people.

In getting ready for today I have come to realise, mine is a quiet voice, my form of prophetic witness is usually without words. I think it is often so that the truth is more easily shown than narrated. Having something to say today about finding the prophetic voice for our time is for me based on having endeavoured, with God’s grace, to let my life speak. I am going to start by saying something about prophecy and prophets.

In my own experience, a prophetic life is one that is full of grace, grit, grief and growth. I think there are five parts to living this kind of life and each part needs to be absolutely grounded in God. The first three parts, seeking and expectant waiting, being ready to change; we can think of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, that pivotal movement of change, George Fox on Firbank Fell, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The second part is discerning God's call, though it might be costly, challenging or unpopular. Think of the prophets, Samuel, Jonah (he had a bad time), Isaiah, or the disciples walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee who gave up friends and family and their own place.

The third is being willing to use our gifts and acknowledge them. Being willing to live in the fullness of them with gladness and with joy and also with humility. Francis of Assisi, Elizabeth Fry, Caroline Fox, Nelson Mandela. These three stages are a kind of preparation for living a prophetic life.

The next two stages are really living up to the light, witnessing to God’s call in the way that you are led. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Margaret Fell, James Naylor and John Woolman. This means to actually be a prophet but recognition by others might come a lot later, be rather half-hearted or come not at all - and not to be concerned about that recognition, but to rest in the knowledge of a connection with God, of speaking the good news, of living it.

The last is remembering to nourish that witness and find balance in your life. Jesus celebrated at the wedding feast in Cana, he walked into the desert to be separate and to pray and be tested. He talked with his friends and he worked like the rest of us. This prophetic life is a life of discipline, devotion, divestment, discipleship and also, sometimes, of delight. Friends, are we ready to live like this? I believe that this is what God invites us to. If we live this kind of committed life it will be a life that is a countersign to the spirit of the age in which we live. There will be blessings and rewards but we should be under no illusions; there are times of great loneliness and prophets are singularly unpopular in their own communities, whether with friends or the place where you live. Prophets can die in the wilderness and their message can be lost.

So what does prophecy look like today? Prophets can be bracing, gritty, challenging, what they have to say and do can make us uncomfortable. They may sound full of shoulds and oughts and guilts and sorrows. They might be loved and respected, but they may not be liked very much. But prophets can also be joyful, encouraging, hopeful, they can speak of God’s love and live it amongst us. They can be a blessing to their community, affirm our choices and aspirations, feel easy and pleasurable to be around and bring us a deep sense of connection with the spirit at work in the world.

These are holy people, saints perhaps. Maybe we call some people saints or describe their holiness so that we might feel less worried about failing to live as they do. As though it is their saintliness that has enabled them to live as they are doing rather than seeing that it is endeavouring to live up to the light that has led them to live a life we might call holy or blessed by God.

Amongst Friends we have a tradition and theology as living as though the kingdom of heaven is at hand, of living like it’s heaven on earth in holy obedience to that reality. Not just as though it might come as some unspecified time in the future, but is an experience of Christ already present amongst us. This means that holy obedience to God's call is open to us all if we stand in the way of it, if we listen.

This manner of living in holy obedience answers the question, ‘what are Quakers for?’ Just as early Friends were, so we are still all called to be ministers, priests and prophets, answering the call to heal the world. We might tell when we are getting it right by testing ourselves against the fruits of the spirit as listed in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22.

If our prophetic life is grounded in God then these fruits will be present: love, joy, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Paul obviously thought hard about this, he talks about it too in Colossians chapter 3 verse 12 and there he speaks of compassion, humility, meekness, patience, and something that is so important, forgiveness.

To me, living a prophetic life means not just being able to see the future and what it holds, it means being willing to see what is right here, right now and to see what is needed to answer the needs of now.

In listening for God's call, in answering the needs of now, I have been challenged and I have been changed. My experience of endeavouring to live up to the light I have is that more has been given to me. I say that with humility and with gratitude and also with a clear understanding that I might just as easily have stoppered my ears and my heart and gone a different path. The word obedience comes from the Latin, which means to ‘hear’. It has been a willingness to listen that has been crucial for me in finding and expressing a prophetic voice.

I do believe that we are all called to listen through the prophetic voice within ourselves and to mediate God’s love to the world. That together we are called to be a countersign to what is happening in our world. Perhaps out of compassion for the planet, an understanding of the human condition or maybe an urgent sense of willingness to act, to act on God’s call.

There are many different ways of doing this: some of us are called to speak out, to build or demonstrate the alternative, to celebrate, pray and praise, to take symbolic or practical action or to hold to a vision of the kingdom come.

I have realised my kind of prophetic voice is one that is lived, danced and expressed with tenderness through action rather than through words. I am neither driven by fury at evil times nor forced on by anger or fear. Love has overcome these things. I have been angry and fear has whispered in my ears, it has closed my eyes and held me rooted to the spot. But I say again, love has overcome these things.

I have a short rule to live by; it is adapted from Micah, chapter 6 verse 8, to act justly, to love tenderly, to walk humbly and to live joyfully. This is mainly about how I am led to be in the world rather than what I am led to say. It is my form of testimony, how I let my life speak.

Our testimony, our own form of prophetic voice will vary because we are each different, unique, precious, a child of God. What we feel led to witness about will be different too. What matters is that we pay attention to God’s call and that we do it. It is not the thought that counts.

So far, I have mainly been speaking about finding the prophetic voice, more widely and in my own life. I am going to endeavour to convey to you four things now: I am going to try and find the words to invite you to hear what it is that I have been led to live about and what I witness to. I am going to share with you something that moves me to action and the form that this takes. I am also going to speak of antidotes to despair and grief and temptation.

We live, dear Friends, in an extraordinary time. We are greatly blessed to have an opportunity before us to listen to the ministry of both people and the planet. We have the chance to hear God's will for us and to live truly as though the kingdom of heaven were already here.

Across the globe, communities, individuals and ecologies are all in crisis. We have the chance to recognise and connect these in a new and different way. We have the opportunity to acknowledge our place and our current role in this crisis and to respond. We are all invited to listen to God’s will for us, to respond in love and to reconnect to ourselves, to one another and to the earth, which is our home.

The threats posed by climate change are not a future theoretical possibility; for millions of people, for many people here, they are already a lived reality. Drought, food scarcity, violent conflict over dwindling resources, floods, forced migration and displacement, changes in weather patterns, altered biological relationships, all these are just some of the effects experienced now.

In the future, we will see a global rise in temperature, sea level rise, increased loss of species diversity and mass population movements. Consequently there will also be increased levels of violent conflict over materials, territory and resources.

There are a number of responses open to us – ones I encounter amongst Friends include grief, despair, hopelessness, and sometimes apathy and denial or a sense that it is now too late to make the necessary changes in our own lives to have any meaningful impact on levels of carbon emissions.

In the latter part of the 20th century Friends were moved to witness against nuclear weapons. In many ways this was simpler to tackle. We petitioned governments, or them out there, to act.

Climate change is different. The science is complex, there is a wealth of misleading and inaccurate information and propaganda and we are all implicated, responsible and required to change. In the rich northern hemisphere we are in the midst of living out an entitlement theology that has developed strongly over the last 100 years. Many of us seem to worship in shopping malls, and many of us regard what we buy and consume as a primary source of status, happiness, self-expression, identity and fulfilment.

In the industrialised world it is hard to give up this sense of entitlement – we may think of it in terms of stewarding, sharing, or using the gifts of God's creation. In the industrialising world it is hard not to want this level or form of consumption and the corresponding lifestyle it brings. This has all kinds of costs attached.

If we are to continue with this kind of consumption, then I believe that this level of production and consumption will have to be available to all, and those of us with the financial means should put our money where our mouths are. If we truly believe in equality then we in the north should be willing to financially support sustainable technology and renewable fuel sources. Those of us who live in countries which have mostly exported industry to countries with low wage overheads, cheaper energy and raw materials should invest in making sure that the environmental and social consequences are not unevenly borne.

If in the north we want this kind of lifestyle we should pay the full costs and not expect to be subsidised by the health, well-being or lives of the poorest nations, nor the health, well being and life of the planet. I say “if” about this kind of lifestyle and these sorts of levels of consumption because I think as Friends we know a different way. This is important because there are costs beyond the physical and material of this addiction to energy and material consumption.

In the northern hemisphere many are slaves to work that bring no satisfaction, perhaps because we are tied into cycles of credit, debt and mortgage repayments. We are slaves to our diaries and schedules with no room for the spirit or inspiration, where Meetings for Worship are scheduled for an hour on Sunday with 45 minutes of fellowship afterwards.

We may be absorbed by the false idols of status symbols, a car, different clothes, a house, different work, so much so that we can have the hope and happiness sucked out of us, we don’t have time to recognise or celebrate what we already have and who we already are.

We in the rich countries also export our addictive attitudes and behaviours around the world without a health warning, a warning that this kind of behaviour promotes happiness at neither personal, local nor global levels.

We think we have it all, but what it has turned out to be is an addiction to unsustainable and unhappy lifestyles. As we consume we should be under no illusion. We are also consumed by a world that is full of fakery and falsity.

Consequently, I believe that people in the northern hemisphere need to be supported in letting go and recovering from an addiction to energy and to oil. In our lives I believe we need a loving reminder of the alternatives. When we recall our testimonies: peace, equality, truth, simplicity, justice, integrity and community, when we use these as the touchstone for our activities and our lives, when we inhabit these so that we become them and they are not merely abstract concepts then we may live truly in the promise of God’s love. This is an inspiration to others and it is such consolation to know them truly.

I believe we need to show great compassion and kindness and forgiveness to one another and help free each other and ourselves from this addiction into the freedom of truly living like the community of heaven on earth. This is both the freedom from and a freedom to. It is the freedom promised by God. It should not be confused with licence. It is the freedom to accept and live up to the responsibilities laid upon us, to be willing to take up difficult and challenging roles and even be unpopular.

It is true liberty to give service to something greater than worldly concerns and power. It means living in such a way that those we meet can see what this liberty has wrought in our lives. God is the blacksmith of our hearts who breaks the chains that have made us slaves and fettered us. Living in the fullness of grace, all things become possible. I now understand the words of the hymn, “our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace’. Lives lived under God’s ordering are at peace. We have been reconciled to God’s way.

When I endeavour to go my own way I struggle; when I go God’s way that struggle ceases. In my own life I try to show what such liberty is like. Over the last 25 years I have paid attention to different aspects of my life that contribute to climate change and with God’s help my life has been transformed. I have been led to a place where I have committed myself to living a more sustainable life, more sustainable for the planet, more sustainable for communities and more sustainable personally too.

A sustainable life reconnects us to each other, to ourselves, to the planet and to God. What I am going to describe is particular to my context living in Britain. If I lived elsewhere and had been so led my witness to sustainability would be different.

My testimony to the integrity of creation means not driving a car. I never learned. I gave up flying six years ago. It meant I had to change jobs and the work that I could do, and that there are some parts of my family across the globe I may never see again in person. I became a vegetarian when I was 14, I gave up dairy and eggs five years ago and I now use no animal products at all. I have moved house this year to be close to work so that I no longer have to commute by train and bus. This has meant letting go of the worshipping community that I love. I use renewable electricity in my home. Overall I use very little energy or water. I compost and recycle 99% of my rubbish. There is no such place as away, you can’t throw “away”. I grow some of my own food and I cook from scratch. I do lots of knitting and sewing; I make some of my own clothes. I don't own a television or a mobile phone or a microwave.

I am involved in my local community. My local MP sometimes comes to tea and we correspond regularly. The movement in the United States which said ‘what would Jesus do?” he says he has transformed into ‘what would Quakers do!’ I have worked at both the grass roots and at national policy level speaking truth to power and with love.

This year, I have endeavoured to give up spending beyond utilities, food and travel. That has been a really hard learning. I have my own integrity gaps and weaknesses and this year has highlighted them.

I want to say again this has taken me 25 years to be able to live God’s will for me as well as I am able. I continue to learn both obedience and joy.

There are times of feeling truly I am living as I am called to live, answering the design of my creation and I don't do any of this with a heavy heart, I do it with hope. I don't do it with a frown on my face, but with joy. I don’t wear a hair shirt. I see my life as an experiment in faith, of really endeavouring to live faith fully and that means for the most part it is a life that it is filled with grace and gratitude for what I have and what I am led to.

All of these small things I do are about demonstrating what it is possible to do; it is practical, it means I have a small carbon footprint – tiny by western standards –but it is also a symbolic life. It is a life I have been led to, a life freely answering God. It is such liberty.

It is not something I talk about a lot. This is probably the first time I have put it all together. In my head and my heart I hear a prophetic song and it is this I dance my life to.

Grounded in worship and prayer I have been able to let my life speak truly and to live more faithfully and with spirit. It is this grounding in worship that is part of what helps all and any of us go against the tide and live adventurously.

There are other things that are antidotes to despair and grief and temptation. One of these is being part of a community of shared values; another is the giving and receiving of friendship and love. I rejoice in opportunities for celebration. Times of learning and unlearning are important too. Finally I suggest that the opportunity to work together with others on something that is meaningful is also crucial to our spiritual and social well-being.

We can learn to be the change we wish to see in the world. These things can help sustain us when grief, gracelessness and hard grind threaten to overwhelm us.

The prophetic life, dear Friends, is one that can have a profound impact on the world and those around us. Living like this will change us for the better too. Living in the fullness of God’s grace and what we are called to is a blessing both to us and to the world.

Dear Friends, beloveds, I believe we have hands, hearts and voices to speak of the continuing creation of the world. We have the capacity and the potential to be a prophetic song for this time. All we need to do is open ourselves to the prophetic call and then give voice to it joyfully.

Lizz Roe, Britain Yearly Meeting, August 2007


Speaker: God wants us to live joyful lives. For me the prophets have influenced me the most. While in some cases they may have been filled with righteous anger, they have also been sources of great joy and they have moved forward in joy. Whether it’s obstacles that others have put before us or challenges that we give ourselves, the key to overcoming is joy.

New speaker: Friends, I feel led to speak on this again. I am from Uganda. In the letter of Paul, I am quoting, to Timothy, chapter 6, verse 10 it says the love of money is the source of all evils. According to the message delivered this morning from the speaker I feel that God has blessed us all. Some be rich and some be poor. Those who are rich they are blessed, it is not a sin. Those who are poor God has put them in that category. We have a rich man in this world called Bill Gates. He has a lot of money, but he has sent out to developing countries to help people who are affected by natural disasters like famine, earthquakes. He is in the USA, but he has sent his hand to the affected people so I feel Friends, if we are really touched and someone is in need I think we need to reach him. We were told that Africans are beggars, but I am impressed by this Triennial with the Irish friends, the way they are coming to us, they have seen that we need warm clothing, and they gave it to us. They don’t say we are beggars. Actually begging is not a sin and – to be a beggar is not a sin.

New speaker: I am from Kenya. I have heard the representation of the speaker. In the country I come from, Kenya, I am grieved when I see the gap between the poor and the rich. When I see thousands and thousands of young people going from school, trained, and they have no jobs. And in Romans chapter 8, we hear who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger. Friends, I want to appeal to this gathering here to pray for us that those that have shall share with those that don’t have because God has a purpose to create resources for those that have that they may also give to those that don't have.

New speaker: I am moved to sing and if anybody would like to join me I want to sing 'Amazing Grace'. It is on page 4 of the songbook.

(Song sung)

New speaker: Yesterday in our session we made a very important decision that in five years time we will, as Friends from around the world, be meeting in Nairobi and our time together now can be regarded as a time of preparation. Recently when I was in Kenya what came across is the faith and the zeal and the passion that Friends have to do God’s work, to be faithful. Everywhere there is work that is done to relieve suffering, to bring new truth, to study and I think it beholds us in the West to prepare our hearts for those of us who will be there in five years time. While we are here let us learn from our African Friends how we can share our resources wisely and well. I believe that this is such a God-given opportunity for the world of Friends to move forward in great power and great strength and I give thanks for that.

New speaker: Martin Luther King said true compassion is more than just flinging a coin to a beggar. True compassion comes to see that a society that creates beggars needs restructuring. We often focus on the suffering created by lack of resources as hunger and disease for lack of food and medical resources. This is helping us to see the suffering on the other side from those who have too many resources and spend our time too focused on the material world. We can all benefit from a restructuring.

New speaker: The Bible in Luke chapter 9 from verse 23. These are the words of Jesus himself: if anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit his very self. If anyone is ashamed of me and my words the son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the father and of the holy angels.

New speaker: Yesterday in my worship group I shared on the prophetic voice and I shared about what happened to myself. After my graduation from the university I went to attend an interview in a church of Uganda programme, the Compassion International Programme. I was short-listed and then when I went back home I heard that still voice calling to me. The voice said I could do something other than maybe going to get the employment. I did not know what I was to do, but then after a while I discovered that there were many displaced children within the location and that was where I was led. At the moment the way I am talking I thank God because the programme has grown and the programme has registered 200 children in one location and 250 children in another location. The way we are sharing the resources I really thank God for that because we have at the moment 200 sponsors, some of the sponsors are from Canada and some of the sponsors are from America. We are still seeking for more sponsors and I know we shall get them. I also want to thank God because with the same still voice the Friends have been very helpful, the programme and the sharing of resources have been very helpful. They have constructed a vocational institute for those children and at the moment we have nine classrooms, although more are needed.

New speaker: I thank God for the Friend who read the book of Romans chapter 8 verse 35 and when he read it a song came into my mind we used to sing it at home, I don’t know whether my colleagues from Kenya know this song, it is just a short one, it is not a long one, because it talks of all those things that are written in Romans, chapter 8 verse 35.

(Song sung)

I don't want to continue, you can continue mentioning all these things that will stop you from loving your God, that will stop you from seeing Jesus Christ, those were the things I wanted to share with you which are in Romans chapter 8 verse 35, thank you.


New speaker: Friends, I would like to give you a time I experienced sometime earlier this year. I was walking along, listening to the voice in the depth of my mind and this is why it is. One day I was walking towards the town and I met a friend waiting at the door of the police station and he was very deep in thought. When I approached him and asked what had happened to him he said his daughter had burned his house and she had nowhere to go and she was expectant and he had taken her to the police. She was only remaining with four weeks to delivery. I was very deeply touched and I believe you can feel the same at this time. But the voice came in my heart and said tell him this – forgiveness. I asked him and I told him that forgiveness is the art of releasing anger and it’s a way of solving a problem so that the hand of the Lord can touch you. We shared together and we prayed together. Many people were passing around and they saw us really in deep prayer and I am sure everywhere they went they were very surprised. Praise the Lord.

After five days I made a follow-up. I also felt relieved because he felt exactly what was in my mind with my Lord; he had actually got the daughter released from the police and went back home. It took only two days and she had her baby. After some time he has joined the theological college and he told me, ‘you helped me and the Friends have helped me put up another house’. Really, forgiving is one way of solving a problem in our daily life.

New speaker: The Lord has blessed us today with joy and with sorrow, with praise and with thanksgiving. Let us continue to worship God in our hearts as the day goes on, in our hearts and in our actions and in our words and in our love for one another and may the blessing of God, the creator, the redeemer and the inspirer of our world remain with us supporting, encouraging us today throughout this conference and throughout our lives. Amen.


Friends, if I could just have your attention just for a few notices. First of all, I would like to rejoice in the arrival of the final participant from Africa last night, who has, like many here (applause), has undergone tribulations with visas, with travel, with changes of travel and with lost luggage and I would like to thank the team that has made these travels and arrivals possible. We thank Loretta, I would like to thank Christine Birch and Helen Fanning and Seán McCrum who spent the last four days at the airport. I would like to thank Irish Friends for making the warm clothes available yesterday.

Nancy Irving would like to ask if there are two or three typists who would be prepared to help her with the transcripts following on from yesterday's session. If so would they make themselves known to her either in the coffee break or by leaving a note in her pigeonhole.

Two notices about announcements! Just to say could we be considerate to the interpreters, they do need their breaks and at meal times, we are not expecting them to interpret so could all announcements either be made via the daily bulletin – and Harry Albright is looking for contributions by 2:30 every day – or via the notices which come through the office. We will be putting up a notice board for informal notices and that will go up sometime later today.

My last announcement is that we are beginning to get questions about, I hate to say this, departures and we will be making more serious announcements about this on Thursday. Arrangements are in hand and there will be an announcement this afternoon about the final arrangements for the excursions, thank you, Friends.