Letters - 11 December 2015
From 'Our faith in the future' to Syrian bombing
Our faith in the future
Ethel Livermore (4 December) is defending Our faith in the future as a visionary document whose aspirations will guide all our Meetings and committees in planning their work.
A vision is not a long-term plan. I hope that Meeting for Sufferings will now use its vision to guide it in carrying out its first function – set out in Quaker faith & practice ‘to set the priorities for the centrally managed work in its long-term plan’. This gives Sufferings a role in policy but protects it from involvement in detail which it is not able to manage.
I was a member of the group which prepared A framework for action 2009-14 and we aimed to give helpful guidance to Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees on priorities for work in the next five years. This met the duty given to Sufferings to provide a long-term plan to guide the centrally managed work: I think it was also generally helpful to BYM.
It has served its time and needs to be replaced with a new long-term plan. I hope that Sufferings will now build on its new visionary document to provide a plan to guide BYM trustees and the whole of the Yearly Meeting for the next five years.
If members of Sufferings were to feel that they should no longer set priorities for the centrally managed work, then perhaps they should bring this to BYM in session for further consideration and possible revision of chapter seven.
Jim Putz
Membership
At Meeting for Sufferings a Friend mooted the idea of membership being held within the Yearly Meeting rather than the Area Meeting. Whether or not that happens in the fullness of time, I’d appreciate it if we could see, and hear read out, the names of new members at each Yearly Meeting.
We look backwards, with our testimonies to the grace of God in the lives of deceased Quakers: could we not also look forward, celebrate new convincements and offer a Britain Yearly Meeting-wide welcome to these new Friends?
Jane Pearn
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