General Meeting for Scotland: Robin Davis reports from Inverness

‘We want to find new and more flexible ways of working.’

The term ‘hybrid Meeting’ got a new note at General Meeting for Scotland last month. As we met for opening worship, online and in Inverness, we played our Friend Sally Beamish’s Peace Bugle, to recognise the International Day of Peace. 

We felt blessed at being able to Meet at a time of so much violence and conflict in the world. A few years ago the only way we could participate was to attend in person. Now those from afar can take part. Scotland has very few Meeting houses, however, and so this time we took the necessary technological equipment to the city centre room we rented. More than eighty Friends were present in all, about half online.

Some of our younger Friends shared with us their experiences and joys of the summer Shindig, which took place on the Isle of Cumbrae in the Firth of Clyde. We also rejoiced at other such gatherings: Junior Yearly Meeting, the family weekend at Pitlochry, and the Wiston Lodge weekend organised by South East Area Meeting. 

‘We are clearly very concerned that our beloved Society continues to thrive. But we are far from being in agreement about exactly how!’

Our agenda was once again extremely full, with several items having to be curtailed or put off for another time. A major item was an extremely thorough report from the Scottish Community Justice Working Group, whose recommendations we endorsed, including adding more Friends to the group and exploring the possibility of its having a budget. Another major item was the receipt of the Nominations report, with its cry for help in trying to find names for a number of key roles. Indeed, our first substantial item of the day was an appeal from East Scotland Area Meeting, where the lack of names has created a critical situation. We hope to be able to find ways of supporting this Meeting.

The work of seeing how we can strengthen our community through imaginative restructuring continues, with the hope that the Area Meetings will all feel able to be part of a single charity. At the same time we want to find new and more flexible ways of working. The Quakers in Scotland Coordinating Group has had a tremendous response to a questionnaire about all this, with Meetings and individuals throughout the country contributing ideas and reactions about how to maintain a real community. We are clearly very concerned that our beloved Society continues to thrive. But we are far from being in agreement about exactly how! 

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