Meeting for Sufferings: Area Meeting minutes
From the BYM budgeting process to Islamaphobia
BYM Budget process
Northumbria Area Meeting’s minute brought a concern about Britain Yearly Meeting’s (BYM) budgeting process. They believe ‘there is an ambiguity [in Church Government] about who actually decides on how much money is spent in various areas on behalf of BYM’. The minute asks Sufferings to ‘consider passing the issue to Church Government Advisory Group for their discernment’. This was done.
End of Life Care
Leeds Area Meeting’s minute on ‘End of Life Care’ was taken along with two minutes from Quaker Life Central Committee on ‘Looking at end of life issues’ and ‘Identifying and taking forward the issues surrounding dying and death’. This discussion was moved to later in the day.
Tax Justice
Cambridgeshire Area Meeting sent a minute of concern upholding the Quaker Socialist Society Committee’s (QSSC) minute on the Salter Lecture which had been sent to them. The QSSC minute states: ‘The Salter Lecture highlighted the injustice inherent in the current system that allows companies and rich individuals to avoid paying tax at the right level… (“tax dodging”).’
In the papers sent to Sufferings’ representatives there were reports about the work already taking place within BYM’s centrally managed work. This included work being done by BYM’s Finance and Property Committee and the BYM Investment Group.
One Friend said that ‘Christian Aid has done a good bit of work on this subject’. Another Friend hoped that ‘we could continue working with other churches’ in this area. ‘What are we doing in our own Meetings?’ asked a Friend. He continued that the question that had come into his mind ‘when parliament played fast and loose with expenses’ was ‘Yes, it is legal, but is it right? Many injustices are legal but they are wrong… We can testify as the Spirit leads us. We know what is just and right’. A Friend asked if we are too glib about asking if what others do is right but do we look at our own personal practices.
A staff member said that Quaker Peace & Social Witness was considering whether to join with the Christian Aid campaign on Tax Justice but that the decision still needed to go through the committee discernment processes. It was noted by another Friend that this did not preclude Area Meetings or individuals from joining.
Search and rescue
Sussex West Area Meeting’s minute on refugees called ‘upon the UK government to lead the European Union in reinstating “search and rescue operations” in the Mediterranean’. Britain Yearly Meeting deputy recording clerk, Juliet Prager, had signed a letter that was delivered to Downing Street on 17 November. The Jewish Council for Racial Equality initiated the letter, which was signed by leaders from the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities and other faith organisations. It urged David Cameron to reverse the government’s recent decision not to support future search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean. One Friend queried if there had been any response from the prime minister but the answer was ‘not yet’.
Sussex Quakers noted ‘with deep concern the numbers of people attempting to cross the Mediterranean as they flee oppression and war’, which seem to be ‘especially high this year’. They also called on the home secretary to ‘take the lead in establishing a more equitable way of dispersing asylum claimants throughout the EU’.
A Friend noted that we need further advice from others but that anyone who doesn’t go to the aid of a stricken vessel is ‘breaking the law of the sea’. Another Friend described how their Meeting along with other churches in the town had ‘persuaded local government to make provision for 600 Syrian refugees’. Another Friend said ‘the plight of the refugees is increasing. Italy has borne a very heavy burden’. Querying ‘what canst thou do?’ a Friend suggested persuading ‘local communities to open their doors’ was a way forward.
The minute was forwarded to QPSW for advice and to seek possible help from the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network.
Islamophobia
Brighouse West Yorkshire Area Meeting sent forward a concern about the ‘prevalence of Islamophobia’ and ‘the growing suspicion of anyone who is Muslim’.
One Friend stated that we need ‘to deal with it as individuals. We are well reminded to counteract racial prejudice at a personal level’. The minute was forwarded to the Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations for advice.
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