Eileen Flanagan worships with Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting and holds a minute of religious service. Her new book Common Ground: How the Crisis of the Earth is Saving Us from Our Illusion of Separation is part of that ministry. Published this month, the book comes from years of climate justice organizing and public action brought forward from her faith.
Common Ground began in response to a query at a Quaker conference. “I heard a spiritual message that said, ‘The crisis of the Earth is saving us from our illusion of separation.’” At the time, Eileen was clerk of Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and was curious about climate campaigns that were bringing people together across racial lines.
Wanting to learn what could make such campaigns more frequent and successful, she visited organizers in Texas, the Navajo Nation, Louisiana, and India. The book includes lessons from these places, as well as Eileen’s experience with EQAT, and what she witnessed while accompanying Indigenous water protectors near Line 3, a pipeline built across northern Minnesota.
One of the stories in Common Ground takes place after pipeline construction harmed both the land and those standing in its path. “A few weeks after the violence, a group of Indigenous people and allies walked and paddled up river to the site of the harm with drumming and prayer songs. The part that blew my mind was that a number of animals joined us, including an otter, which was usually only seen from a distance. I also saw an eagle and a turtle surprisingly close to our group. An Ojibwe elder pointed out that all three were their clan animals, so of course they came to the action. That experience challenged and expanded my understanding of our interconnection with other species.”
“I believe we are at a point in history when we need both spiritual and strategic tools to thwart the rise of authoritarianism and many related crises. Quakers have relied on both in our history. I include both in Common Ground, which I think includes many relevant lessons for our times.”
Eileen first encountered her Quaker faith through her mother’s workplace. “My mother was the cafeteria cashier at Friends’ Central School. When my Roman Catholic school unexpectedly closed at the end of ninth grade, my mother wanted me to attend a Catholic high school. Only fourteen, I felt clear that I was meant to go to Friends’ Central. I think of that as my first leading.”
Later, she began attending a meeting in Maryland. When she returned to Philadelphia to help care for her mother, she joined Chestnut Hill Meeting, where she has held two different minutes over the years.
“Quakerism at its best gives people space to follow individual leadings with communal support,” she shares. “In some cases, the meeting as a body feels in alignment with a person’s leading and is willing to take it under its care.”
At Chestnut Hill Meeting, there is a clear process for minutes of religious service. One clearness committee helps the person discern whether to ask the meeting for support. A second helps the meeting test whether it is clear to offer support.
“I asked for a minute when I sensed I was entering a new phase of my work, which ramped up during the first Trump administration,” she explains, noting that she began teaching nonviolent skills that she learned through EQAT. “Around that time, I also was awarded a small grant, and the grantors wanted the money distributed through a 501(c)(3), so that was a practical advantage to having my ministry under the meeting’s care.”
As a result of Eileen’s minute, she has had regular meetings with a support and accountability committee. “When things got discouraging, with the book writing and looking for a publisher, having Friends meet with me regularly helped me to stay faithful.”
Her minute of religious service was recently renewed by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. “I am glad that the yearly meeting has affirmed a commitment to working to address both climate change and racism,” she writes. “My writing has been partly about the intersection of those two issues, so I appreciate feeling held by the whole yearly meeting.”
“I think having a community of support feels especially important right now when activists are facing escalating intimidation,” she says. “If I ever face government repression directly, I know I have a community that has my back.”
Eileen recently co-wrote Streetwise & Steady, a peacekeeper workbook with Daniel Hunter. It is available to download and offers practical preparation for people who help keep protests safe and steady. “It’s important that the pro-democracy movement works to keep protests inviting, calm, and united,” she writes.
“Stay calm” is the most common instruction in the workbook. “Most of us have experience with that kind of grounding, which we can tap during protests or nonviolent direct actions,” she writes. “During an era of escalating violence, I think assessing whether a situation is dangerous or not is a new skill for many people, so it’s challenging. That’s why we need more nonviolence training.”
Eileen will continue opening space for Friends to join her while she shares her book with the wider community. “I will be offering workshops on the book and trainings on nonviolent peacekeeping,” she says. “If people want to join my newsletter, they can find the form and more at my website https://eileenflanagan.com/. Friends can obtain Common Ground from a variety of retailers by visiting https://eileenflanagan.com/common-ground/.
