International Quaker presence at Yearly Meeting Gathering
Cecile Nyiramana from Rwanda, co-writer of the 2016 Swarthmore Lecture, will be attending Yearly Meeting Gathering
Cecile Nyiramana from Rwanda, who was prevented from coming to co-deliver the Swarthmore Lecture at Yearly Meeting last year, has confirmed that she will be attending Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG) at the University of Warwick in the summer.
The Quaker World Relations Committee (QWRC) is making a significant contribution to YMG this year and has invited Friends from different Yearly Meetings to attend. Other guests include: Thuli Mbete, from South Africa; Emma Condori, from Bolivia; and Merryl Titus, from India.
Lee Taylor, of the QWRC, told the Friend: ‘Our mission is two-way: bringing the world family and its diverse ways of worshipping and social action to Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), and letting Friends in the world know more about BYM’s liberal Quaker traditions.’
‘How can “movement building”’, she said, ‘not involve a world perspective?’
She added: ‘BYM always invites representatives of Europe and Middle East Section (EMES) [of the Friends World Committee for Consultation] Yearly Meetings to our Yearly Meeting, and we hope to continue to strengthen our relationships with Yearly Meetings in Europe during the Gathering.’
Among the events that the QWRC is hosting at Warwick is an ‘International House’, which will be a space in ‘The Learning Grid’ section.
Lee Taylor explained: ‘We are planning to have an “international guest of the day” lunchtime open house. Our guests will be hosted before and after YMG so that we can learn from them, and they can have a wider experience of BYM.’
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