Meeting for Sufferings: Becoming an inclusive Society
Discussion on race includes matters discussed on Twitter and renaming William Penn room at Friends House
After registering Escaping Victimhood as a Quaker Recognised Body, and approving a letter of greeting to Ireland Yearly Meeting, the report from Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees gave rise to a discussion on race, in the wake of social media complaints from two former employees. Caroline Nursey, clerk to BYM trustees, said that work was ongoing to review policies and procedures, but she pointed Friends to BYM’s third statement on the subject, saying that the matters discussed on Twitter had been handled by an external organisation and there had been no disciplinary action required. Trustees had heard other reports of racism within the Society, she said, noting that some of these related to non-staff Friends. Trustees would be attending anti-racism training, she said.
In another move towards becoming a more inclusive Society, the name of the William Penn room at Friends House would be changed (Penn had enslaved people in his household), and trustees have commissioned a paper looking at the ‘complex relationship between Quakers and slavery.’ Caroline also talked about BYM’s response to the Sewell Report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. Quakers contributed evidence that has been disregarded, she said, and BYM rejected the findings of the report.
Friends reacted strongly to the removal of William Penn’s name, with one objecting to the ‘dissing’ of Penn’s memory, saying that he was ‘dismayed at the attempt to write him out of history’. One representative worried that changing names was a way of ‘looking away’ from the subject rather than engaging with it, while another believed it was ‘better to explain history than expunge it’. Almost all celebrated male figures will have been abusive to women, she said, and it was ‘a mistake to simply remove people’.
In response, another BYM trustee said that the decision ‘wasn’t about expunging anyone… We just didn’t want to perpetuate harm’, she said, having talked to Friends of colour about how they’d feel about being in a room named for an enslaver.
Robert Card, assistant clerk, stepped in to remind Friends that MfS did not control the name of rooms at Friends House, and let them know that he would minute an acknowledgement of the ‘good and bad’ of Quaker history on the slave trade. The discernment continued, however, with Friends wanting to make further amendments on the staff issue. The recording clerk Paul Parker reminded representatives that employee issues were sensitive, and the remit of trustees. Including too much detail in an MfS minute, where they could be read by anyone, would not be appropriate, he said.
‘I think we have reached the point where the clerks should be allowed to disappear’, said Margaret Bryan, clerk, and when they reappeared the minute was good enough.
