Meeting for Sufferings: Creating connections

Anne Ullathorne, assistant clerk of Meeting for Sufferings, reflects on creating connections

by Anne Ullathorne 12th February 2016

People are often perplexed when they first hear the phrase ‘Sufferings’ or ‘Meeting for Sufferings’ being used by Quakers. Whatever could this mean?

For eighteen months, from 2014 to 2015, members of the Meeting for Sufferings Arrange-ments Group (MSAG) have been visiting Friends in their Meetings around the country. It is an opportunity for us to explain a little about the history of the beginnings of the representative council for Quakers in Britain. Meeting for Sufferings dates back to the late seventeenth century, when it was decided that this central body was to keep a record of the sufferings of Quakers when they were persecuted following a stand of faith.