Meeting for Sufferings: Engaging with ‘Our Faith in the Future’
Sufferings considered how Friends engage with 'Our Faith in the Future'
Our Faith in the Future is a word picture of what Quakers in the UK to would like the Religious Society of Friends to be in the future. In September 2015 the document was accepted in Sufferings. The layout for the current leaflet has changed but the wording remains the same.
Leeds Friend Jude Acton told Sufferings about how the document was considered at a local level and explained how trustees in Leeds initially asked Friends to respond to it: ‘But Friends were not engaged. Trustees took it to Area Meeting. Again, it was not heard.’ She said this led trustees to ask themselves some questions: ‘have we framed the questions correctly? Why was this ministry not being listened to? What, if anything, should we do?’
The engagement of Friends was prompted by a suggestion that a local Meeting house, Carlton Hill, might be turned into luxury accommodation for students. The subsequent responses from Friends included: ‘The Meeting house is our spiritual home… not for wealthy students’, ‘The church is people not buildings’ and ‘the building has a sense of purpose’. The view that social housing was a greater priority was also expressed. A threshing meeting decided the Meeting house will not be developed.
Jude Acton said: ‘this process of discernment made us think about what we really value. How should we use our resources to live out our Quaker values?’
Leeds Area Meeting established six discussion groups to take it further. They identified three areas for ministry: sustainable and affordable housing; economy and employment – supporting people to get into work; and asylum seekers and refugees. The latter two categories may come together – helping refugees to find work once they are settled. She added: ‘We are asked to think about how we involve our young people more.’ She also said that the Our Faith in the Future leaflet provided ‘a really valuable framework. The spirit can grow in terms of challenge.’
A Friend from Craven and Keighley Area Meeting told Sufferings she had been ‘feeling despondent I hadn’t done as much as I ought. But I am encouraged by what I have heard here.’
There was laughter when another Friend said it was attenders, not members, who had led them to confront the dilemma of what to do with their Meeting house: ‘We decided to refurbish the toilets. This is what the modern world requires!’ He added: ‘this illustrates how attenders, not just members, can give us faith as well. We need to have faith in ourselves.’
Another Friend suggested ‘positive provocation to engage with inter-faith communities locally. What alternative visions do they have?’ A Friend from Bristol said Our Faith in the Future was ‘a very useful checklist in the evaluation of what are the big decisions to be made’.
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