Friends’ Ambulance Unit uniform. Photo: Trish Carn.
Britain Yearly Meeting 2018: Special interest groups
From veganism and mental health to business and Travelling in the Ministry
In the library…
On 6 May the library hosted the Quaker Service Memorial Trust, who are launching a DVD of interviews with members of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU) and Friends’ Relief Service (FRS). On display were related items from the library’s collection.
Climate justice and the new economy
Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) hosted a session on 6 May entitled ‘Climate justice and the new economy’ run by Chris Walker and Suzanne Ismail from QPSW’s Economics, Sustainability and Peace Programme.
Chris Walker said that the bedrock of their work was the question: ‘What would an economy that upholds our testimony as Quakers look like?’
Suzanne Ismail gave a brief overview of the problems with our current economic system. She highlighted the extent of inequality across the globe and cited figures from the Trussell Trust that over 1.3 million food parcels were needed last year.
Friends were shown a diagram of ‘Nine Planetary Boundaries’ by Johan Rockström, which shows that many natural systems the earth depends on are now in the ‘unsafe zone’ or the ‘zone of uncertainty’. Suzanne Ismail stressed that these things ‘are interconnected’. However, there is ‘reason for cautious optimism,’ said Chris Walker. Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement had not resulted in ‘the domino effect of others pulling out’ and the UK’s current climate change strategy is ‘full of inaccuracies’ but at least is now articulating ‘how climate has to be at the heart of the economy’.
Friends discussed the economic injustices involved in fossil fuel extraction, agreed that ‘we must engage with climate policy’, recognised that Quakers had divested from fossil fuels and were urged to contact their local MPs.
A Friend said that part of the problem is ‘we are too UK-centric and don’t see the effect of climate change’. He suggested twinning UK Meetings with Meetings across the globe to share information.
Travelling in the ministry
‘Enriching’, ‘inspiring’, and ‘surprising’ were how Friends described the experience of receiving a visitor at their Meeting whilst at a special interest group hosted by the Quaker World Relations Committee (QWRC) on 6 May.
Robin Mohr, executive secretary of the Section of the Americas of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), shared what has been learned during the first two years of the FWCC Travelling Ministry Corp.
She began with a QuakerSpeak video, which she said ‘can be found at http://bit.ly/TravellingMinistry’, where Friends talk about what Travelling in the Ministry is, the history of the practice and how it affects the Quaker community.
Robin Mohr described how the Travelling Ministry Corp seeks to provide training, support and a peer group for Friends called to this service in the Americas.
She spoke of the experience enabling ministers ‘to grow more fully into their gifts’, how Meetings who receive a minister have reported hearing a message their community needed, and how Friends who aren’t travelling can be enabled to ‘grow out of the shadow of gifted ministers’ in their absence.
Quakers and business
Academic Nic Burton gave an impressive talk to the Quakers and Business Group special interest group at Yearly Meeting. He focused on Quakers in business from the eighteenth century and into the early nineteenth century. He said while Friends know about Cadbury, Rowntree and Fry companies they are not so familiar with Bryant and May’s matches, Allen & Hanbury’s medicine, Coleman’s chemicals, or the Quaker origins of Price Waterhouse and their contributions to modern finance and accounting practices.
The phenomenal success of Quaker business had several roots. The interconnection of Quaker families created a network of trusted sources of finance, effectively creating a capital market. The close network, with the foundation of Quaker schools, built a pipeline of education that fed a system of apprenticeships into Quaker businesses that ensured the succession of future managers and executives.
Nic Burton explained that Quaker businesses were partnerships, where the individual partners were liable for all the debts and actions of the business. They were members of their Local Meeting and the Meeting provided moral and spiritual oversight of the businesses. The business owners submitted their business plans and accounts for scrutiny to the Meeting. The Meeting approved and, not infrequently, disapproved of the proposals and performance. Quaker openness created independent scrutiny, governance and even regulation. This depended on the business knowledge and experience of the members of the Meeting, as well as their spiritual eldership and pastoral oversight.
He went on to say that the death knell came with the passing of the Companies Act in 1850. Enshrined in law, the shareholder system (over time) flushed out the Quaker owners and opened the door to non-Quaker owners and directors. This destroyed the partnership businesses.
Nic Burton explained that there are alternative business structures to the shareholder capital business model, such as the Scott Bader Commonwealth, Waterstones and John Lewis.
Celebrating ten years of QDEG
The Quaker Disability Equality Group (QDEG) held their annual general meeting at a special interest group on 5 May and marked an important anniversary.
QDEG is ten years old this year and Friends celebrated the Group’s achievements whilst at Yearly Meeting. Among these is the input QDEG gave during the refurbishment of Friends House and their work with Central Nominations to enable Friends with disabilities to offer service.
The Group has also delivered a residential course at Woodbrooke, launched a website, written guidelines on inclusion and encouraged Quaker libraries to make content more accessible.
This year they launched a Facebook page and will be working with Woodbrooke on ensuring the garden is more accessible.
A member of QDEG said ‘it would be lovely not to be needed’ but ‘there is still a lot to be done’.
Mental health in Meetings
Friends shared personal stories at the special interest group on mental health and one Friend’s experience and distress was echoed by others in a similar situation.
A sense emerged that members of a Meeting can be unwilling to engage with people in mental distress. A Friend said that we don’t want to talk about mental health but we could talk about other subjects. Many specific questions were met with ‘not as yet’. Friends, it was revealed, are struggling.
In this unusually intense and passionate session Friends also heard from Quaker groups and organisations. The Retreat in York was reported as transforming itself into a new independent psychiatric hospital with new services to its community built on its Quaker and medical expertise. Friends heard of the Quaker Life Mental Health Cluster that supports Area Meetings struggling to deal with mental health in their areas.
Veganism, Friends and witness
Three Friends shared their journeys of becoming vegan in a session on ‘vegan living as Quaker witness’ hosted by Quaker Concern for Animals (QCA).
Thomas Bonneville and Julie Hinman of QCA led the session on 5 May. The panel included Laura Wirtz, from South London Area Meeting, Sasha Lawson-Frost from Blackheath Area Meeting, and Laurie Michaelis from Oxford and Swindon Area Meeting.
The session opened with Julie Hinman citing figures that, over the last two years, the number of vegans has risen from one per cent to seven per cent of the UK population. She said: ‘Fifty-two per cent are from the fifteen to thirty-four age group, so it is a movement driven by young people. It is predicted that over the next few years, the biggest increase will be in China.’
Friends were told that the internet and social media drive the movement. Julie Hinman said the demands of vegan consumers are powering a bottom-up chain, with politicians, theologians and scientists now discussing animal sentience: ‘We feel Quakers should know more about this progressive, compassionate global movement.’
Friends heard how veganism spoke to the panel’s Quaker faith. Sasha Lawson-Frost said: ‘The path to veganism I discovered through Quakerism came from a place of compassion, love and wanting to make a difference. I see caring for animals and being a vegan as a kind of ministry… Seeing God in everyone can extend to animals.’ Laura Wirtz said she would like to see veganism become ‘the default setting’ in Friends House, so soup and sandwiches have vegan labels, not just vegetarian. She said it would make veganism ‘more acceptable and accessible… My veganism has grown, but sadly not by upholding of Quakers.’
One Friend told the gathering that when she moved from vegetarianism to veganism, she felt ‘a great outpouring of love’ for all animals and non-human creatures. Friends discussed the environmental benefits of a vegan system, and the etiquette of accepting food invitations from non-vegans.
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Further coverage of Yearly Meeting will appear in next week’s edition.
