The Vine and Fig Tree Planters
"...they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid..." - Micah 4:3-4
The vine and fig tree are ancient symbols of a fertile, stable, peaceful domestic sufficiency. The Israelite prophet Micah brings this image together with the the image of swords beaten into ploughshares to describe a non-expansionist, non-imperialist society where they shall 'study war no more'. This symbol reresents an hospitable order - other prophets speak of people beneath their vine and fig tree with their neighbour.
The Vine and Fig Tree Planters are a group of people inspired by the Christian pacifist tradition, historic peace churches like the Quakers and the Anabaptists and those who call for swords to be beaten into ploughshares. There have been others, in Sweden and the Netherlands, who have been inspired by the potency of the vine and fig tree image and, like them, we seek not to protest but to bear witness to a potent emergent reality.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Design by Andreas Viklund.