Good & ready: Adwoa Burnley prepares for Yearly Meeting

‘The journey is as important as where we land.’

Dear Friends, as we move closer to Yearly Meeting (YM), I find myself reflecting on what it means to meet and discern together. YM is a time when we collectively listen to, and seek guidance from, ‘that which is eternal’. I am clear that the journey we embark on is as important as where we land.

Our collective, prayerful upholding of the process, which we hold so dear, is enabled by our coming together with hearts and minds prepared. But what does this mean? How many YMs have I approached without being prepared? A few. What have I done in those circumstances? I have prayed harder and upheld those who are serving us, as well as those who are prepared. I have listened hard to the leadings of the Spirit. I have humbly accepted that there may be Friends present who have studied the matter more carefully than me, and listened carefully to what they say.

How we approach this work, and how we act while at YM, will make an enormous difference. Some of us will find particular decisions easy, but others may find them painful and difficult. Can we hold each other with an honest love, to enable God’s guidance to be heard? I hope so. Can we word our ministry in ways that won’t hurt those around us? I hope so.

Quaker faith & practice says that ‘We see our meetings for church affairs not as business meetings preceded by a period of worship, but as “meetings for worship for business”. Ideally the sacred and the secular are interwoven into one piece. Believing that all our business is brought before God for guidance we deprecate all that may foster a party spirit or confrontation. We therefore seek for a spirit of unity in all our decision making’ (2.88). I promise to be an attentive servant to you all. I will bring the whole of myself to the task – the serious, the nervous, the humorous, the tentative, the strong, the quiet, and, with God’s help, the brave. I ask that you uphold your clerking team, our staff and volunteers. Let’s love each other to be better. Let’s leave the tendencies of bad behaviour, which we see so much of in our world today, at the door (and/or away from the screen).

Your clerking team, with Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee and BYM staff, is working hard to ensure that clear helpful preparation material is available on the Quakers in Britain website (www.quaker.org.uk/ym).

There you will find sections on preparing for the YM, and the Documents in Advance. I can’t tell you how much work goes into preparing those words! If you know of people in your Meeting that don’t have access to these documents, can you help them obtain them?

I am looking forward to being with you all. I am looking forward to knowing that you are there. I am looking forward to taking this journey with you.

Adwoa Burnley is clerk to Yearly Meeting.

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