Brexit statement: ‘Be truthful but tender’
Britain Yearly Meeting and Ireland Yearly Meeting have reaffirmed their shared friendship and unity as the UK leaves the EU
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) and Ireland Yearly Meeting (IYM) have reaffirmed their shared friendship and unity, as the United Kingdom takes the historic move to leaves the European Union (EU).
In a joint statement that recognises Brexit as ‘a step’ in relations, and not ‘an endpoint’, the Meetings write: ‘Regardless of the changing political situation, the ties that bind us at the deepest level – those of love and human connection – remain as they ever did.
‘We are committed not only to maintaining our relationship as Quakers, but deepening it. We are Friends, and will remain so in a way which transcends how our countries and governments relate to each other.
‘All boundaries and divisions are human constructs; we seek to see beyond these and relate to each other as children of God…
‘We know that there will be a wide range of emotions felt in our Quaker and wider communities about our arrival at this point, and we ask Quakers to be truthful but tender with those around us. We all have to continue to live together, and we should act in ways that encourage this.’
The statement, signed by Denise Gabuzda, clerk of IYM, and Clare Scott Booth, clerk of BYM, also pledged to ‘maintain our shared commitment to peace in Northern Ireland’ and urged that ‘people, politicians, people of faith and others, act in ways that help maintain and strengthen this [fragile] peace’.
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