Meeting for Sufferings: Funding position is ‘comfortable’
The treasurer of Britain Yearly Meeting reported to Meeting for Sufferings
Funding for the Religious Society of Friends remains in a ‘relatively comfortable position’, Meeting for Sufferings heard.
Peter Ullathorne, treasurer of British Yearly Meeting (BYM) trustees, said that the overall position is stable, notwithstanding the problems in the wider UK economy. BYM has more than £10.5 million in reserves, he said, and he described this situation as ‘acceptable’. Generous legacies have been received (£2.3 million in 2016 and £3.8 million in 2015). Legacy funding is being given to ‘a really exciting project’, he explained, with half a million pounds going to the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO).
Contributions from Friends amounted to just over £2.1 million, exceeding the 2015 total by £114,000. Peter Ullathorne praised Friends House (London) Hospitality as ‘a beacon of good practice in business’. After paying its operating costs and the costs of managing the buildings, the company (which also manages the Quaker Bookshop and Swathmoor Hall in Ulverston, Cumbria) made a surplus of £816,700 – the highest figure in its ten-year history – as a contribution towards the charitable work of BYM.
The garden project completed last year has been ‘a magnet’ for visitors to Friends House, one Friend pointed out.
Peter Ullathorne acknowledged that contributions from Meetings go ‘up and down according to circumstance’ and he said that increased support from Friends over the next few years would be ‘essential’ in order to sustain funding at present levels. This amounted to an average increase to £225 per member.
Stewardship is sound but ‘in terms of the future there are risks’, he explained, particularly with HS2, which would bring disruption to the Euston area.
Work is ongoing in areas of concern such as tax justice and BYM was ‘writing to companies in which we hold shares’.
