Meeting for Sufferings: BYM considers UK post-Brexit divisions
Meeting for Sufferings heard from the Quaker Peace & Social Witness Central Committee
Quakers could be doing more to help heal divisions in post-Brexit Britain, suggested one Friend at Meeting for Sufferings.
The comment came on 24 November after Jeff Beatty, clerk of Quaker Peace & Social Witness Central Committee (QPSWCC) spoke to the QPSWCC report.
The Friend said that she was ‘struck by’ the involvement with Quaker peacework over the world, ‘but I wonder if we should be looking at ourselves post-Brexit, with the divisions that have occurred?’
Helen Drewery, head of witness and worship at Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), responded by saying that they were drawing on work done by Turning the Tide in East Africa, ‘looking at this country again’ and exploring ‘what situations and groups would most benefit’.
The QPSWCC report focused on the question: ‘How has our work over the last year strengthened the life of our Yearly Meeting?’ It drew on areas such as ‘movement-building’, reporting a growth in joined-up work across BYM and Local Meetings, the placement of a third peaceworker, the New Economy, Turning the Tide, and reframing and broadening international work.
Jeff Beatty paid to credit to Isabel Cartwright and Marigold Bentley for the ‘inspirational’ INSPIRE ‘Remembrance for Peace’ event at Friends House in London, and to Quakers involved in the Extinction Rebellion movement, protesting for climate justice.
Challenges mentioned included the complexities of measuring success, particularly in international work.
Jeff Beatty said: ‘Our focus is on building sustainable peace and justice for all, but how are we to measure success? When is it right to let go and leave it to local players?’
He quoted the phrase: ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.’
On the subject of evaluation, one Friend said part of measuring requires being ‘brave enough to recognise that taking risks means failing’. He said he hoped QPSWCC will be ‘confident enough to tell us when you are failing because if you never fail you are being too careful’.
Other ministry asked if Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) workers had been affected by BYM’s decision to not invest in companies that profit from the ‘occupation of Palestine’. Friends heard that this appeared not to be the case so far.
Helen Drewery said that speaking out is important, but added ‘there are risks… it could be EAPPI get stopped at the airports more often’, but this is, she said a risk worth taking.
She added that they are ‘constantly having to assess risk in this area’, and that the announcement is just one more ongoing risk to evaluate.
Jeff Beatty reported that a group has been set up to consider ‘what makes our international work distinctive’ and said the annual activists gathering is becoming more central to QPSW work.
Comments
It’s good to see QPSW considering reputational risk. The recent pronouncement on BDS was welcomed by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and condemned by the British Board of Deputies. Do Quakers want to seem so one-sided?
By frankem51 on 7th December 2018 - 7:36
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