Country pursuits: Finola O’Sullivan visits Central European Yearly Meeting

‘This story is about us, the youngest Quaker Yearly Meeting in Europe.’

First anniversaries are always special. Following a minute at what was then the twenty-sixth Central European Gathering (CEG) in May 2023, the youngest Yearly Meeting (YM) in Europe came together again recently, in Budapest, for the first time as Central European Yearly Meeting (CEYM).

The seeds of this Meeting go back much further than one year, however. In around 1995/6, Friends received a request for a visit to Budapest, for people there to learn more about Quakers. These visits turned into annual gatherings, which continued to grow. An annual CEG in-person gathering has been a permanent fixture in recent years, with a Spring and Autumn preparative Meeting, usually in Prague.

In preparing for my own visit to CEYM, to represent Quakers in Britain, I made the mistake of asking for a fixed map of the countries that make up the new Yearly Meeting. I was reminded that it operates within a more-loosely-defined sense of geography and aims to ‘serve Friends in the area between the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black seas and welcome f/Friends and visitors from further afield’. In practice, most CEYM Friends are from the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Hungary, but some are from other countries such as Ukraine, Latvia, Slovenia, and Germany. There is contact with Friends from Slovakia, Estonia and other Balkan countries. Some live in Portugal or the UK, but have strong connections with CEYM. Other Friends are international members, or members of German YM or All Poland Gathering.

In effect, CEYM runs in parallel to other gatherings, and is open to anyone who wishes to participate in its Meetings. I was reminded that ‘at the beginning of this community was the idea of a gathering for Friends from all areas, because of the small number of Friends in each country, and we are here today.’

During worship in Budapest, one Friend ministered that ‘the tendency to violence is nurtured through nationalism.’ Territorial claims lie at the heart of the two wars currently raging in Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. The letter of greeting to CEYM from Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) Europe and Middle East Section (EMES) reminded us that there is ‘a complete disregard for human rights in [these] two wars’.

The same ease in working across porous borders was again reflected in CEYM’s imaginative approach to membership. Its Business Meeting discerned the future processes for new applications for membership, and for transfers-in. In June, thirteen Friends who formally held international membership will be formally transferred and become the first CEYM members. Overall CEYM has perhaps over thirty Friends today, many of them young, and there is an ambition to double this in coming years. New ground was broken in Budapest in the additional minuting of a how Friends in membership with another YM can apply to hold dual membership, and become a member of CEYM without giving up membership of their other YM. This is surely timely as we review our own patterns of membership (including our identifying with new online worshipping groups) in Britain.

Joy in being together was evident from the first Thursday evening when we gathered together at Hotel Budapest. Train journeys of more than nine hours were common in reaching here, but I heard no complaints – such was the happiness at gathering in person again. The food was vegetarian. CEYM has no Meeting houses, no staff, and its bank account is in Prague. In this multi-lingual YM, the working language is English. I admired the concentration of Friends in all sessions, as everything was conducted in what was often their second language. CEYM worships on Sundays online, and also offers an additional Friday evening Meeting for Worship online for those who attend other churches on Sunday.

Paweł Milk, recently appointed as record clerk, will represent CEYM at Britain Yearly Meeting in London in July.

Epistle of Central Europe Yearly Meeting, 2024

‘Dear Friends all around the world,

Let me tell you a story about 50 Friends from 11 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, Ukraine, United Kingdom) and Australia. They met in the city of Budapest, Hungary and online to celebrate the first time they gathered from start to finish as the Central European Yearly Meeting. They even enjoyed some vegan birthday cake.

This story is about us, the youngest Quaker Yearly Meeting in Europe. We are basically newborns so we have the difficult task (and also the privilege) to define ourselves including membership procedures.

Ben Pink Dandelion gave a lecture about the key threads of the Quaker way and described what has changed over time and what has stayed the same. The following day we were encouraged to find answers in ourselves about what drew us to Quakerism, what could we do to deepen our spiritual life and what practical steps could lead us in this direction.

Kasia Kaczmarkiewicz shared with us a moving excerpt of her work regarding the archiving project about the nearly 30 year old history of Central European Gathering accompanied by a slideshow of photos from over the years. Tracey Martin from the Quaker Council for European Affairs gave us an interactive presentation about how they work, Irena Marušincová told us about her thesis regarding Feuerstein’s method and we also had an interest group about the Image and Likeness of God. We did not forget to call attention to the climate emergency thanks to Arne Springorum and Pavel Marušinec.

We gathered for a two hour long Meeting for Worship, we had a silent walking worship and as every year we enjoyed singing together. One night a storyteller enchanted us with tales of Hungarian and other folklore.

We received greetings from Europe and Middle East Section of Friends World Committee for Consultation and Britain Yearly Meeting, Scotland General Meeting, Ireland Yearly Meeting, German Yearly Meeting as well as from distant individual Friends. We felt held in the Light by Friends spiritually supporting us from afar. We welcomed representatives from German Yearly Meeting and Britain Yearly Meeting. We are looking forward to seeing each other again next year in the Czech Republic (Litoměřice or Litomyšl), but even before that some of us will meet in Prague at our World Plenary Meeting Hub.

Stories accompany us during our whole life, we are living history at this very moment. CEYM started and grew strong as Border Meeting, Quaker Spring Regional Gathering, and Central European Gathering and we are grateful to the Friends who came before us. Now it is up to us to continue gathering and growing as Central European Yearly Meeting.’

Finola is co-clerk to Quaker World Relations Committee.

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