Epistle from Britain Yearly Meeting, 28 April to 1 May 2023

‘We need to be courageous, imaginative, careful, and joyful.’

Loving greetings to all Friends everywhere – Cyfleuwn gyfarchion cariadus i Gyfeillion ym mhob man. We meet at a time when existential issues face us within our aging and numerically-diminishing Society, and in the wider world. These require urgent responses. Quakers can show leadership and offer counsel that will help our nations in matters of the degradation of public truth, the climate and ecological crisis, and divisive public commentaries around people’s identities and associated rights.

How best can we achieve this? We are a people of faith, always in transition on an exciting path of collective and personal exploration. We seek and follow the eternal Truth of the Spirit, which has many names, remaining open to new leadings and also to the possibility that we are mistaken. Our faith requires us to practise our testimony of truth and integrity in all that we say and do.

Kindness has a powerful impact and we hope to offer caring support to all, including those with whom we may disagree. Speaking from a faith perspective can carry weight. We try to let our lives speak and have a ministry of presence, but can we speak out more as Quakers?

We can be a listening presence, creating a ‘kinder ground’, alongside speaking truth in public places and contexts. We are called to witness truth-telling, accountability, community-building, and to give messages of hope. Speaking ‘truth to power’ with love is a ministry, and is vital in a time when truth is often corrupted.

Our Quaker community has many voices, and we are upheld as one by the power of the Spirit. We all have a part to play, need to collaborate and trust those doing work on our behalf. Are we open to all voices, and how can we develop structures to engage all Friends through active listening? Ensuring true access is a work of love. This may require us to move outside our own comfort and experience others’ frustrations and discomforts.

YM is our all-encompassing body, where we are most diverse. It asks: Who are we? Why are we here? What are we led to do? At times we have been mystified, even baffled. But we discern a need to make our structures more transparent, to release energy. We seek intentional change, led by the Spirit, to help our community as we move into uncertain futures that dance before us.

Building on our tradition of radical spirituality, we need to be courageous, imaginative, careful, and joyful. We seek structures that are agile, simpler, more inclusive and support equality. Big questions are being asked about how we take the Society forward, with ways of working that meet our needs and have spirit-led discernment.

Ways to involve Friends across BYM will be developed in 2024. As a Society, we must go in whichever direction we are led, so that the Truth may prosper.

Signed in and on behalf of Yearly Meeting, Adwoa Burnley, clerk. Edited for length.

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