Meeting for Sufferings: December Meeting - part one
Rebecca Hardy reports on the December Meeting for Sufferings
Prison and Court Register, and other draft minutes
The morning session of 6 December opened with some disruption, as online participants found their Zoom links were invalid. After some no-doubt frantic messaging, a new link was sent, and online participants were let virtually into the Benjamin Lay room at Friends House for opening worship. Friends heard a reading from Advices & queries 17: ‘Do you respect that of God in everyone, though it may be expressed in unfamiliar ways and be difficult to discern?’
After some practical considerations, and an apology for the stress caused by the Zoom mix-up, the session opened with items taken on draft minute, with a few minor amendments. Elizabeth Allen, assistant clerk to Meeting for Sufferings (MfS), said there was quite an agenda ahead, with ‘a lot for us to think about… discern… and hear’.
Draft minutes covered: governance developments in Scotland and Yorkshire; an Area Meeting (AM)annual compliance report; and an update on the Memorandum of Understanding between Quaker charities.
When it came to the Prison and Court Register, there was shock and concern that Andrew Dames, from Cambridgeshire AM, had just been sentenced to serve twenty-six months for his part in the Just Stop Oil action on the M25 motorway. Forty per cent of that was to be served in prison, Elizabeth Allen said, with him also required to pay costs of £2,480. Suggesting that Friends minute that: ‘We are deeply saddened by this’, Elizabeth invited the room to immediately hold Andrew in the Light.
Friends sat in worshipful silence, until one spoke on MfS’s beginnings, there to help Friends with financial support. ‘We remember early Friends were carted off to prison because of their Quaker faith.’ Could financial assistance be offered to Andrew from Cambridge AM or MfS? ‘We know that Friends in prison are also welcoming of stamps, letter [writing materials], or even food and books.’
Elizabeth Allen suggested adding to the minute: ‘we will consider giving practical support as needed.’ ‘We live in dark times,’ she said, to the room.
Quaker Recognised Bodies review
The session then moved on to consider recommendations for the process of registering and renewing Quaker Recognised Bodies (QRBs). Currently, MfS plays a vital role in recognising and renewing QRBs, Friends heard. This will come to an end in 2026, with the responsibility shifting to Yearly Meeting (YM). ‘We believe this creates a wonderful opportunity to embrace QRBs and to make this process more transparent,’ the group set up to review this process said in its report.
Magnus Ramage, from the group, introduced the review. The team had worked for about nine months, he told the gathering, and had spoken to a number of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) staff about the way in which the process is currently working. It had also surveyed all existing QRBs and received ‘helpful responses’ from around half.
‘Friends really value having QRBs... and that is being explicitly acknowledged,’ he said. ‘We did also find that, while the process in general works well, there are various ways in which it could be tweaked.’
The application form could be improved by having more information, to make the decision-making more transparent and help staff to work more efficiently, he said. The second ‘substantative thing’ was about criteria, both in the process of registration and renewal. We constantly need to be clear in how QRBs recognise and embody Quakers values, explained Magnus, in how they are living these out and how the QRB is aligned with Yearly Meeting (YM), ‘while recognising that those change from time to time and that QRBs need to change in relation to that’. The third consideration was how the QRB process might be integrated into the new continuing YM after May 2026, when MfS will have been laid down. But this was ultimately for YM to consider, noted Elizabeth: ‘We might be able to make comments but [it’s] not our decision.’ Elizabeth asked if there were any questions or comments.
One Friend asserted that, with the move to a continuing YM, this was ‘a fantastic opportunity, as well as a big challenge’, while another said that section 3.1 of the report (on ‘managing challenges’) was ‘not clear [on] who would substantiate the challenges and how that process would happen’. This should be made more transparent, they said.
Another Friend spoke about the criteria for approval and selection, and the ‘delicate and difficult’ issue of alignment with Quaker values. ‘I wondered if a slightly more forthright statement could be included about size and level of activity – is that another criteria?’ It’s easier to ask for a body to be laid down on the basis of activity and capacity, rather than alignment, he said.
Magnus agreed that it would be ‘helpful to have a sense that a QRB is capable of managing itself’. Another Quaker suggested changing the wording in that section to say that challenges should be ‘factually substantiated… so that we get away from the difference between fears and emotions and facts’. Another asked whether there should be a time limit before which a QRB can reapply for registration – if they had not been initially accepted.
This was addressed later with Paul Parker, recording clerk for BYM, commenting that ‘some interval would be good’. ‘I’m slightly uncomfortable to ask you to come up with a figure now [for that time limit],’ said Elizabeth Allen, suggesting that Agenda Planning Committee would be asked to consider it.
Offered a summary, before a draft minute, Friends agreed more ‘action bits’. These included: that ‘all necessary information, including safeguarding arrangements, should be collected with the application form’; some work should be done on clarifying Quaker values; and that there should be a clear single set of criteria for acceptance of QRBs, including their capacities (for more recommendations, see MfS minutes online).
Commenting on proposals to hand over to YM, and that suggestions should go to Agenda Planning Committee, one Friend, reporting from their Meeting, said they were worried that this was ‘putting a lot of responsibility on a group that already has a lot to think about’ and questioned ‘whether YM Threshing Meetings could do it all’: ‘we thought it needed a bit more thinking through’.
Friends agreed the draft minute which noted that, while the ultimate decision should lie with YM, ‘we hope that opportunities can be found for Friends to engage with applications. That might involve using preparation sessions as well as formal business sessions of Yearly Meeting’.
BYM’s trustees’ report
The morning session drew to a close with an item on a paper from Quaker Committee for Christian & Interfaith Relations (QCCIR) about the theology of trans inclusion (to be reported next week). With time running out, the final item on the morning’s agenda was moved to the afternoon, with an earlier start.
This was the BYM’s trustees’ report, with Marisa Johnson, clerk to BYM trustees described the main items on their last Meeting’s agenda in late November. This included: considering a ‘very detailed’ paper on risk management which they consider twice a year (‘in which we have to decide whether we are doing things properly’). Also covered was ‘ongoing work on strategic priorities’, and hearing a communications and fundraising report, which revealed the encouraging ‘cost benefit of fundraising’: that ‘for every one pound we spend, we raise nine’. This is very much due to the generosity of Friends, and the very good work of BYM staff, said Marisa. As well as receiving the paper from QCCIR, trustees also looked at the annual report from the health, safety and environmental committee
The Reparations Working Group was still working hard, she said, and had asked that its terms of service be extended by one year, as ‘they don’t feel the complexity and amount of work they have to do can be done in the agreed time frame’.
Paul Whitehouse, treasurer, then spoke about next year’s budget and BYM’s investment policy. Friends might remember that BYM had started running a deficit budget after the pandemic, he said, with the Quiet Company enduring significant losses. BYM had discerned that the budget for 2028 would balance, so ‘we need to reduce the deficit for next year and 2027 and 2028’. With an increase in staff costs, and a ‘downward trend’ in donations, this year they are not meeting budget, he said. ‘Please will you raise with everyone that we need the money to carry out the work that you have laid upon us.’
According to BYM minutes, ‘the budget shows an unrestricted deficit of £1.02m (2025 forecast £1.04m), with a total deficit (restricted and unrestricted funds) of £2.75m (2025 forecast £1.46m). The proposed capital budget totals £1.8m and will be subject to further scrutiny by Finance, IT & Property Committee as funds are required to be released’.
Legacies continue to help, said Paul, but we should not deceive ourselves that this will continue every year – sooner or later it will reduce. We are also living ‘in increasingly turbulent times’, he said, noting the building work needed at Drayton House and a move to net zero. Staff have made £775,000 in savings, he said, with other reductions of more than £500,000 identified. Even though staff will be able to do less, BYM would focus on the priorities you have given us, he assured.
Paul then set out updates to BYM’s investment policy, which will now seek to clarify that investors are aligned with Quaker values. Not only will there be an expectation that they will be ‘leaders’ in social, environmental and human rights issues, but BYM will also focus on lobbying them, supporting fundraising managers and businesses to change any ‘harmful activity’ and be changemakers in the world.
‘We have been using Rathbone Greenbank for well over a decade,’ he said, but it has become clear that over twenty per cent of its companies are not aligned to Quaker values. After appointing an ethical investment consultant to select new investment partners, BYM has now switched all of its equity investments to Royal London Sustainable Equity Fund. The draft minute also noted that BYM ‘will soon choose a new manager for fixed-income assets’.
Next week: Sex Matters to Quakers, the book of discipline, and QCCIR.
