General Meeting for Scotland: Gisela Creed reports

‘The clerks did a marvellous job of steering us patiently through.’

Will Scottish General Meeting ever feel the same again? About fifty people attended, but less than half were at the welcoming, spacious, sunlit Edinburgh Meeting room. Even with the best technology, for me, Friends attending by Zoom feel somewhat remote.

What keeps people from travelling? Is it fear of Covid, environmental considerations, lack of finance and time, lack of desire to meet in person, preferring home comfort? There used to be such celebration in coming together, sharing our passions, joys and sorrows, and joining in genuine, lively debate and discernment to find ways to make our community and the wider world a better place. I miss that, and I am sorry that some new Friends have never had that experience. Perhaps we are losing something important.

This meeting had a very busy agenda with many reports and appointments, all essential business. The nine reports or updates and eleven appointments demonstrated our amazing, wide-ranging engagement in Scottish politics, and the hard work by many Friends. We also heard about inspiring work with younger age groups, Meeting for Sufferings (MfS), the Book of Discipline revision, and future options for the simplification and effectiveness of Quakers in Scotland.

For me, the highlights and most stirring issues of business were provided by the hardworking Parliamentary Engagement Working Group (PEWG), which could easily have provided content for a whole day’s meeting. Its activities included an ongoing and encouraging conversation with the Scottish Greens, continuing advocacy around peace building and peace education, and the Land Reform Bill. They left us with three calls for action, which I hope might penetrate to Local Meetings: write to MSPs about the implementation of the Scottish Government’s Loss and Damage Fund, and the need for reparations; contact MSPs in the lead-up to COP27 in October, in support of a statement by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland on the phasing out of oil and gas; follow up on the Circular Economy Bill.

Time was pressing and we moved on to the rest of the agenda. Following the MfS report we promised to come back to exploring reparations for historic slavery in a Scottish context, including modern slavery.

We squeezed in a report about the problems of the Opposing War Memorial (OWM) project. This was initiated by the Peace and Justice Institute, which, sadly, no longer has the capacity to carry the project forward. GM agreed to remain part of the OWM consortium.

Domestic matters needed time and consideration, and the clerks did a marvellous job of steering us patiently through. We had no excuse not to be adequately prepared, with papers and draft minutes issued beforehand, yet still time seemed too short and content too much!

So, work goes on, mostly quietly, behind the scenes. We are grateful to Friends who devote their time and energy.

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