Fall Sessions 2014

Saturday, November 15, 2014 - 12:00pm to Thursday, March 23, 2017 - 12:00pm

 

 

Fall Sessions 2014

November 16–16, 2014
Fifteenth Street Meetinghouse
New York, New York

 

Welcome . . .

. . . to the landing page for Fall Sessions 2014. This page replaces the original landing page, which you can open by clicking the link below.

Sandra Steingraber

Sandra Steingraber
Saturday evening speaker
Credit: www.laurakozlowski.com

Highlights. New York Quarterly Meeting welcomed a record number of Friends to Fall Sessions 2014—196 Friends, of whom 26 were teens. We heard a challenging and inspiring messge from Sandra Steingraber, a well-known biologist, author, poet, mother, and activist. Her address, "Hydrofracking, the State of our State, and the Witness of Civil Disobedience," combined her own personal experience and sense of urgency with scientific explanation to call us to action. We approved the 2015 budget and approved next steps in implementing the Priorities that we approved at Summer Sessions. And the host committee continued the practice, begun in Fall Sessions 2013, of providing a rich Quaker program for young Friends, who attended these sessions in record numbers.

Links to Sessions documents and information

Saturday evening program: Sandra Steingraber addresses Fall Sessions

Hydrofracking, the State of our State, and the Witness of Civil Disobedience

Sandra Steingraber at the podium

Sandra Steingraber speaking at Fall Sessions

Ithaca Friend Sandra Steingraber is a biologist, an author and poet, and a tireless activist. She began with a personal story of how surviving cancer and being adopted led her to return to her home town to study the epidemiology of cancer there and ultimately to write her much-acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment. She went on to detail the science of hydrofracking and the plans to store natural gas in a salt dome near Seneca Lake, her home. She emphasized the central role that fossil fuels play in many of our environmental and social problems, described her involvement in civil disobedience against the construction of the storage plant, born of a tremendous sense of urgency. And she called us to action.

On Sunday afternoon, Sandra met with Friends to answer questions and consult with them about how to find our way forward on this critical issue.