Letters - 16 December 2016
From 'Dibleyfication' to a sense of humour
The ‘Dibleyfication’ of British Quakers
We didn’t intend it, and probably didn’t even notice it happening, but haven’t our meetings turned into close cousins of The Vicar of Dibley, where the men sit in secret dour conclave in the property committee, while the women take on the ministry and parish visiting? How did we get here?
I count three steps. First, when we joined Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, on the dubious grounds that we had never formally denied the Trinity, we entered by our own choice the estate of steeple houses.
Second, when we subscribed to the Churches’ Agency for Safeguarding, we were content to see one another as employees of a church, to verify one another’s papers, to put trust in a national database rather than in one another, and to comply with government legislation, whatever it is.
Third, having adopted modern charity legislation, which puts trustees in charge, and forbids them to act politically, we find as seemingly inevitable consequences that our open business method slides towards confidentiality and closed sessions, and that asset management begins to occupy us above truth and love, or mending the world.
Is it too late to change back, or take a different and bolder tack? Does anybody else want to try?
Ian Beeson
Quaker Life Central Committee
In the course of Meeting for Sufferings on 3 December the co-clerk of Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC)remarked that they have an excellent relationship with the Yearly Meeting trustees but feel far less engaged (my wording; I hope I have understood aright) with Meeting for Sufferings, and wonder why.
May I suggest that such a body as QLCC confides in the trustees, but proclaims to the Yearly Meeting through its Area Meeting representatives in Meeting for Sufferings. The narrative of both reports may well be similar, but the purposes differ. Speaking as a member of Sufferings, I suggest it is for the full Yearly Meeting now to hear what Quaker Life are undertaking and planning in their name and to rise to the challenge of making it fully their own.
Roger Seal
You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.