Meeting for Sufferings: Focus on Vibrancy at Sufferings
The new Vibrancy in Meetings initiative was one of the main agenda items at Meeting for Sufferings on 1 October
The new Vibrancy in Meetings initiative was one of the main agenda items at Meeting for Sufferings held in the George Fox Room at Friends House in London on Saturday 1 October.
Rachel Matthews, who took up the role of national coordinator for the Vibrancy in Meetings pilot programme in March, told Sufferings that the rest of the team had been in place for just four weeks. She acknowledged that there are many interpretations of ‘vibrancy’, but defined the team’s version as one that was ‘full of life’. Rachel said that this does not necessarily mean busier, or ‘all singing, all dancing’, but related to ‘depth and richness’.
Vibrancy in Meetings is a three-year legacy-funded pilot programme, and a joint initiative between the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham and Britain Yearly Meeting. It involves locally based staff getting to know Meetings, Rachel explained. She stressed that anyone can contact the Vibrancy in Meetings team about anything, big or small, to do with Quaker life.
Helen Oldridge was the first to introduce herself. She did so first in English and then in Welsh. She will be responsible for Wales and the Southern Marches. Helen explained that she sees her responsibilities as similar to those of a tourist information desk, providing any information requested. That is the first of four ways in which the team will support Meetings.
Carrie Comfort will work in Surrey, Sussex and Kent. She outlined the second way of helping. When Meetings have a query that isn’t fully formed, she said, the Vibrancy team will talk them through it and share examples of how other Meetings have dealt with similar queries.
Pip Harris, the staff member for Devon, Cornwall and West Somerset, gave the third example. The team will support Meetings with major projects, such as those concerning Meeting houses, she said. They will ‘be there beside Meetings with a sequence of support for them’.
The fourth and final member of the team is Wendy Hampton, whose remit covers part of the North West of England – Manchester & Warrington, Pendle Hill, Hardshaw & Mann, Lancashire Central & North, and Kendal & Sedbergh Area Meetings. Wendy told Sufferings that the fourth way in which the team will help Meetings is ‘by signposting in the other direction’, informing Friends House and Woodbrooke about Friends’ gifts, needs and basic requirements.
Rachel Matthews concluded by saying that the team hoped Vibrancy in Meetings would ‘be a gift to the Society’.
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