All systems go? Christine Downes-Grainger calls for a sensitive simplification

‘This is what we need to save.’

At North East Thames Area Meeting, we have a group charged with considering how we might simplify our Area Meeting. We recently set up a Zoom call between members of the group and us elders, and prepared for it by reflecting on the following: ‘Being a Quaker is deeply rooted in many of us. Why should we try to save that? If we do, which elements should we or can we keep – for ourselves, our fellows and future enquirers?’

‘Quaker Meetings need to interlock,’ said one Friend, who is knowledgeable about Quaker history. ‘George Fox created a structure with different levels of responsibility, but in which all Friends are members of the priesthood, to avoid little groups acting congregationally.’

We have five small Local Meetings in our Area, and one of a medium size. Each of them is much loved. A seventh Meeting was transferred to another Area, which means we are down to 127 members, three of whom live outside the UK. An approximate calculation reveals that we have to make fifty-nine appointments to run the Area Meeting, ranging from our church obligations and care of people, to buildings and finance. The thirty-five people currently performing these roles enable us to be a compliant and functioning Quaker community.

We have four Meeting houses and two burial grounds – we know of the burden felt by members of our Premises and Treasurers Committees. Meanwhile, our Area Meeting nominations process has collapsed. Our trustees comprise the minimum number to be quorate, and there are vacancies in key roles. Local clerks are in short supply.

Back in 1980, our Yearly Meeting’s official church government guidelines advised that ‘Each monthly meeting shall appoint from its membership, a clerk, assistant clerk and registering officer, and these appointments shall be revised at regular intervals’. Our current version of Quaker faith & practice (4.04) has added a Nominations Committee, a body of trustees, and a custodian of records (or committee for the purpose). In 3.23 we are also advised that ‘It is generally undesirable for someone to hold an appointment for more than six years continuously although there may be exceptions’. (One story behind this change is that some people had begun to think, once they were appointed, that they were (for example) elders or treasurers for evermore.)

The recommendation on length of service generated extra activity in the Society. Our Area had long had a participant model, with each Local Meeting appointing at least one member to serve on the Area Nominations Committee. Much dedicated but valuable time was spent on considering, encouraging, training, contacting, clerking, and maintaining records. Trust was developed, both in the process and between people.

Until about six years ago, there were enough experienced members and regular attenders to allow people to take rest years between roles. But the demographics have changed. We now have fewer members, with less time, energy and commitment to offer. We could probably only swap roles now.

I am currently reading about a man from the USA. As a teenager he was drawn to a monastery in the Tibetan mountains. Here he learned timeless, universal truths. He was working towards universal consciousness, so that he could love everyone and everything unselfishly. Such a person is kind, compassionate, giving, caring, knowing and harmless (which does not mean neglecting the self or being incapable of defending the innocent).

On the topic of relationships, he was taught that there is a primary pattern that exists in the universe. Each light we see in the night sky is either a sun that is radiating light, or a planet or moon giving off reflected light. All elements are in an orbital pattern and an orbital relationship. Each physical object consists of atoms in the same pattern.

Everything is orbiting something which is orbiting something else. It is the pattern of creation, of the universal spirit. In a sense, it is the only reality; the harmonious interaction of energetic opposites creates a whole. Then, individual units combine to form interlocking larger units. All things are connected in this way.

In this process we receive from, or surrender to, something, and we direct something. It is similar to the way we hold roles as a parent and a child at the same time. We receive friendship and offer friendship to someone else. George Fox understood the universal truth of this pattern – hence it is in the Quaker structure he created.

I remember the first time I stood to minister, in a Meeting house in the north east of England. I was a young mother in my twenties, and far from my relatives. I needed a sane, calm place. My visits to Meeting were infrequent but I felt I belonged. ‘I have come to understand,’ I said, as my heart thumped, ‘that for Quakers it is the relationships between people that are important.’ This is what we need to save. As we refine our Area Meeting, we need administrative processes that allow us to fulfil our Area responsibilities without them becoming a burden.

We have been serving a system that has evolved over a long period. In a couple of years we may subsume into a London-wide arrangement. The seven London Area Meetings are searching for the light, interlocking structure that will support Quakers in this century.

I will see the evidence that we have achieved this in the continuation of those friendly, sincere and animated conversations that take place between friends and Friends old and new, before and after our committees and events, and our Meetings for Worship and Business. I will see us draw in visitors and enquirers, because we are using our time and space to live the values many of us hold deep in our hearts. We will be creating relationships.

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