France Yearly Meeting
Richard Thompson reports on a recent gathering of Quakers in France
Between sixty and seventy of us met together in Paris at the L’Enclos Rey, a Catholic centre, surrounded by the teeming streets and avenues of the fifteenth arrondissement just behind the Eiffel Tower. Our meeting room looked onto a beautiful park, with even a prehistoric grotto, to help us find our perspective! Finding this calm amidst the noise of the world was an excellent place to consider our theme ‘Despair or Confidence.’
Two important committee meetings preceded the opening of our Annual Assembly (Yearly Meeting). On Saturday morning, 27 October, at the International Quaker Centre, three tube stations away, an Extraordinary General Meeting was held, envisioning the eventual move to a new centre where resident Friends could offer a welcoming presence to visitors. In the afternoon, back at the Enclos, there was a full agenda for the France Yearly Meeting (FYM) Committee. The main item – ça y est! – was the publication of our own Faith & practice entitled Quakers en France Expérience et Pratique, the culmination of ten years’ work and delivered just three days before the Annual Assembly. Over 200 copies were purchased during the weekend!
In the opening session on Saturday evening, Olivia Caeymaex, from Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) in Brussels, shared with us the inspiring developments of the QCEA, summed up in the booklet Construire la paix ensemble. The FYM Committee had just taken the decision to finance the Arabic version of the same booklet.
On Sunday, a morning full of Quaker political activities, Jonathan Woolley, of the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), Lee Taylor, of Friends World Committee for Consultation Europe and Middle East Section (FWCC EMES), and Holly Spencer, of Stop Fuelling War, focused on activities such as ‘discrete diplomacy’. That involves offering quiet conditions for opposing groups to meet, and standing up to the ‘powers that be’ who promote the sales of armaments to anyone with a cheque book.
In this time of xenophobia and anti-migrant publicity, we remembered how the first Quakers coped with their period of huge violence. They found strength in meeting and taking action together. Amidst the intimidation, they practised patience. I thought of Anthony Benezet, the Quaker who set up evening classes for black children in his own home after his daily work and convinced Friends to open the first free day school for African Americans in 1770. In the afternoon we just had fun, singing together and valuing the works of Quaker composers. In the evening, Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, asked us two important questions: ‘What is your personal ministry, aim, testimony?’ and ‘What are those of your group?’ Two big questions for all of us to answer!
Monday morning took us all further along the path of our testimonies – les epices de lavie: egalité, paix, intégrité, communauté, ecologie/environnement, simplicité. For me, the necessary link is love.
Our Assembly concluded with a challenge: /What action can we take together?’ We had good examples of Quaker action: humanitarian aid during and after the first world war, and the work of Secours Quakers in the concentration camps in France during the second world war. There were two fascinating inputs from Norway Quakers, one about work in Gaza and in the Congo, the second by Skype from Oslo about collaboration of different European Quaker groups in Alternatives to Violence Projects. It is now up to our local groups in Paris, Nantes, Toulouse and Congenies, and to individual Friends throughout France to send in their response to our request ‘What action can we take together?’
We each need to face the question ‘Despair or confidence?’ George Fox had an uncomfortable but effective response. I summarise: See your negative tendencies, but don’t be taken over by them. Meet together. Be patient. Come into a new world!
