Meeting for Sufferings: Exploring priorities and balances
Representatives ministered on the role of Meeting for Sufferings
Meeting for Sufferings returned to questions relating to the Yearly Meeting 2015 minute ‘Living out our faith (call for equality)’ that it had not had time to consider in April. Four questions had been posed following the encouragement from Yearly Meeting for Sufferings to explore how it prioritises and balances different parts of the work Friends are called to do.
Friends first discussed the questions in lively conversations with their neighbours before the Meeting opened to contributions from the floor.
Ministry ranged widely: from the strengths of Sufferings to Friends’ worries that Quakers can be concerned about ‘absolutely everything’, from the relevance of Yearly Meeting structures to needing to learn how other groups within Yearly Meeting prioritise their work.
One Friend raised the issue of what was meant by equality and expressed concern about the Yearly Meeting, querying whether Quakers are afraid to ask questions about the age, race, income and levels of homeownership within the Society compared to the wider population.
Two Friends who had served as Meeting for Sufferings representatives in the past spoke of similar conversations about its role that they had been involved with.
One felt that the role of Sufferings is in discerning ‘what is genuinely Spirit-led… springing from the well of Quakerism’. The Friend explained that finding ‘rare opportunities where there is something genuinely Quaker to be said’, which do not duplicate the work of others, may only occur every forty to fifty years.
The other recalled the discernment and response of Sufferings to a ‘broad brush’ question about the allocation of Yearly Meeting resources. Representatives were able to get input from their Area Meetings and help guide decision-making – but Sufferings ‘can’t do fine detail with a broad brush’. He spoke of the importance of delegation and relying on the ‘people of great experience and talent’ the Yearly Meeting employs, as paid staff and volunteers, to provide information and seek guidance from Sufferings.
A Friend described prioritisation as being a ‘difficult task well worth doing’. Another Friend spoke of the situations in which guidance on priorities might be needed; especially where an ‘either/or’ decision is required. It was said that, in such circumstances, the opportunity to take the issue to Local and Area Meetings would be helpful and ‘might engage with more Friends’.
One Friend challenged the Meeting to ‘be a little more honest’ and not to think of Sufferings as the place to prioritise work but as ‘a place where we can test issues, explore them, give them substance’. The Friend said central committees and trustees may be better placed to prioritise.
Another Friend brought the Meetings’ attention to Sufferings’ role as a ‘visionary and prophetic’ body and how ‘as such we have priorities thrust upon us’.
