Photo: A view of the Quaker Meeting House in Edinburgh.
Cheerful sounds: Alice Curteis reports from General Meeting for Scotland
‘At the heart of the day was a focus on peace.’
At Edinburgh Meeting House, the cheerful sounds of café life drifted through the windows on a warm sunny day. So it was on 8 March when sixty-six Friends attended General Meeting for Scotland (GMS), half of them online.
Our regular business included the trustees’ report and news of the work of bringing Scottish Quakers into a single charity. But at the heart of the day was a focus on peace, and Paul Parker, Britain Yearly Meeting’s recording clerk, spoke on ‘Peacebuilding in Dark Times’. He began by starkly listing the many crises we face, the violence and destruction being caused by political and climate disruption. It is easy to despair. He asked ‘What can Quakers say and what can Quakers do?’
For Scottish Quakers, it was an opportunity to look at how our Peace Testimony is expressed through GM-supported work. So we heard from groups involved in parliamentary engagement, in interfaith and ecumenical work, and in work with younger Friends.
The Parliamentary Engagement Working Group’s (PEWG) work on climate justice and human rights is challenging, with the government insisting on ever more growth and increases in defence spending, at the expense of international aid. But long-term relationships have been built up with cross party MSPs, by treating them with respect as human beings rather than just making demands and criticising them. The group is finding common ground where it exists. Along with Christian Aid and our Criminal Justice Working Group, PEWG is getting involved in manifesto meetings ahead of next year’s election.
The thread of finding common ground continued with news of ecumenical and interfaith engagement. Nine reports came in from bodies such as Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees, the Iona Community, and National InterFaith Days. Some of the value of this connection was summed up by a couple of comments: ‘When an issue arises we know each other if we meet regularly.’ ‘Peace in the world won’t happen without peace between religions.’
Zoe Prosser, our local development worker, reminded us of the tools we have to build peace in our own communities. This starts with looking for ‘seeds of war’ within ourselves and remembering our experience of silence and listening.
Peace is also the theme of this year’s Children’s and Young People’s events, with peace cafés planned, and hopefully a young Palestinian visitor to Summer Shindig.
A period of worship-sharing allowed powerful insights to emerge. Everyone can use their lives in acts of resistance to the darkness we find all around us. We are called to take action, but there is also great value in prayerfully upholding and supporting those who do. We can be ‘prophets or reconcilers’ but not both at the same time – sometimes we need to be the ones who stand up and speak truth under concern, and at other times we need to open the door and invite others to come and sit with us and listen. And self care is essential, along with gratitude for what we have.
