Meeting for Sufferings: March 2025 morning session
Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations report, Yearly Meeting 2025, Quaker Housing Trust, and the report from Britain Yearly Meeting trustees
QCCIR
Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) on 1 March opened with Advices & queries 17: ‘Think it possible you may be mistaken.’ After worship, some items were taken on draft, including recording Margaret Biddle, of North Wales Area Meeting, on the Prison and Court Register.
Friends then turned to the first main item, in which Elaine Green, clerk of Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations (QCCIR), spoke to the organisation’s annual report for 2024. One of QCCIR’s main purposes, explained Elaine, was to remain in dialogue with other churches and faiths. ‘We have had many differences… but it is vital to continue for peacebuilding, focusing on what we can do together, rather than what drives us apart.’ New reduced structures had been brought in, Elaine said, following a request from Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM). To compensate for reduced committee numbers, individual ‘co-optees’ serve on the external bodies as QCCIR representatives.
QCCIR had established three working groups to support its work: interchurch; interfaith; and a new focus on spirituality/ theology commissioning.
A gathering in October 2024 brought together ‘all our co-opted people’, which a QCCIR member later described as ‘extraordinary’. More work on antisemitism was underway, following a special interest group at Yearly Meeting (YM) 2024. QCCIR had also worked closely with BYM’s Reparations Working Group to draw up a brief for research into Quaker theology around enslavement. It further helped develop several other BYM priorities, including the Quaker marriage declaration, and gender inclusivity. ‘Our work is expanding largely because we reduced our structure,’ said Elaine. ‘It’s always challenging but deeply fulfilling, and maybe a calling for others… let us know if those names are out there.’
One Friend said it was ‘heartening’ to hear about work done to ‘hear words from other denominations’, particularly with the book of discipline being revised. ‘What relationships are ongoing with Muslim groups?’ asked another, to which Elaine Green said that one of QCCIR’s working groups was always focused on interfaith relations. ‘We know most of our work with Muslim and Sikhs is very local. This is one of the challenges of a national standing committee.’ While relationships with those groups in cities was strong, the loss of the Inter Faith Network meant that the conversation had gone ‘on hold at national level, but we did have good relations before [it] collapsed’.
Judith Baker, BYM’s interfaith officer, said that, as well as attending a meeting in Lambeth Palace of the Christian Muslim Forum, she personally kept up with Muslims she’d met before the network closed.
One Friend said that, working as an ecumenical officer, they’d noticed an ‘immense respect for Quakers’, but found little interest in their Meetings about what they brought back from other faiths, and invited Elaine Green to speak. Local faith forums do exist but ‘are lacking in Quaker representatives’, another Friend stressed.
A draft minute noted that, while QCCIR was still engaged with other faith groups, the closure of Inter Faith Network meant ‘the committee has no access to any other national interfaith body, apart from through Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and Churches Together in England’.
Can we emphasise that the network stopped because the last government withdrew funding, and refer to it as the ‘previous government’, asked Friends? Paul Parker, BYM’s recording clerk, pointed out that BYM had spoken to the current Labour government which had said it was not restoring the funding, ‘so I wouldn’t be too gentle’. Elizabeth Allen, assistant clerk to MfS, asked the room whether to add the word ‘previous’, to which Friends agreed.
Yearly Meeting 2025
Friends then heard about the agenda for Yearly Meeting (YM) in May 2025. Adwoa Burnley, clerk of YM, opened with a plea, asking Friends to organise ‘group learning or one-to-one conversations on discipline and expectations’. More understanding of Quaker business method would help more YM attenders to know that ‘it’s not a secular process but trying to listen to the voice of God’.
Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee (YMAC) had heard from some Friends that last year’s YM business had been ‘too inward-looking’, said Adwoa, ‘so this year we are looking out to the state of the world’. It became clear there was a will to focus on the Peace Testimony. YMAC had been ‘listening hard’, said Adwoa, and after further discernment, opted for three themes: ‘conflict and violence in our local communities across Britain’; ‘radical peacemakers’; and ‘aspects of international peace work done on our behalf’. YMAC had also planned activities, including creating one large quilt – or many smaller ones.
Silent witness outside Friends House during YM 2024 had felt ‘so valuable’, so they were planning to do it again. There was also more work to do ‘to implement our decision to move to a continuing YM’. The final minute noted the dates of YM, and that the theme of peace would be mirrored in the children’s and young people’s programmes.
Quaker Housing Trust
After a shuffle break, Mark Bitel, Quaker Housing Trust (QHT)’s clerk, spoke to QHT’s report. It had been a ‘turbulent time’ for the organisation, said Mark, with staff changes, and a drop in donations. ‘We hope to provide a practical witness,’ he said, with QHT created as a vehicle in which every Friend can give as much as they can to those vulnerable in housing. ‘Over this period, we’ve had a particular focus on projects supporting people recently homeless; people trafficked; people seeking asylum from persecution and war; older people; people living in rural areas; young people [particularly those with experience of care]; people from black and other minoritised communities; and people in recovery from addictions.’
QHT supports small charities with an annual turnover of no more than £1 million. ‘Our grants and loans have been used to buy or lease properties, convert and renovate existing buildings, refurbish and furnish rooms and communal spaces to create quality homes,’ explained Mark. QHT also introduced a new strand of funding in April 2022. The Quaker Asset Fund helps Meetings to investigate if their properties might be converted to provide social housing. Priorities set for the next three years were: Wales and eastern England; refugees and asylum seekers; people from minoritised communities; and women and children fleeing domestic violence and control. ‘Independent of BYM central funds, our work relies on donations,’ emphasised Mark, urging Friends to give, as ‘many of us have earned money just from sleeping in our houses’. Also, might some Quaker properties be suitable for social housing, or be gifted?
Over the last three years, QHT supported sixteen projects. with grants totalling £195,977; and loans totalling £120,829. With the revision of the book of discipline in mind, QHT would like more reference to using collective and personal Quaker resources to change attitudes and help housing. ‘QHT has only ever had one project default on a loan,’ stressed Mark, which suggests ‘we are stewarding our funds really well’.
One Friend asked if there were ways to generate applications from the priority area of Wales, as the Charity Commission showed there had been none. Were any QHT trustees in Wales? Last year QHT did fund a project in Wales, said Mark: move-on housing for people coming out of rehab. ‘Our previous secretary put out lots of feelers in the housing communities in Wales… but only one project came forward… we don’t have trustees from Wales. Our previous clerk was from Cardiff, but we have highlighted that to Central Nominations [Committee].’
Could QHT create resources to help Friends find other Quaker-led housing groups, another Friend asked. Mark said this was difficult as QHT’s core work was all-consuming. But trustees usually respond to requests for guidance from Meetings, and there were ‘stronger and more finessed’ appeals in the pipeline.
With more hands-up for questions, Robert Card, clerk to MfS, said Friends could grab Mark over lunch. QHT is also hosting a stand and special interest group at YM.
‘This work is part of our core testimonies.’
BYM trustees report
In the last morning session, Marisa Johnson, clerk of BYM trustees, spoke to their report. With three new trustees starting this year – and another that day – it was a time of change. ‘Every time there’s a new trustee, the whole body has to reform… and refresh. It’s good, but a little destabilising.’ Trustees would be meeting ‘face to face’ in Leeds in June.
Margaret Bryan, convener of the Group to Review Central Structures, had shared reflections with trustees at their February meeting. ‘We laid the committee down and started to think about how we might tackle the remaining challenges,’ said Marisa, adding ‘watch this space’, as more proposals might be on the way.
Kit King, new assistant clerk to trustees, then told the gathering how trustees sent a minute to the Book of Discipline Revision Committee about including text on the spiritual roots of giving. A minute had also been sent to MfS asking for consideration on whether encouraging donations should be a duty laid upon AMs. Trustees also heard that AMs are ‘in a sticky position’, so Quaker Life had put together some tools and strategies to help. Oliver Robertson, BYM’s head of Witness and Worship, also sent a paper about a new outreach strategy in development.
Paul Whitehouse, YM treasurer, then spoke. He wanted to squash some common complaints, including one that BYM spends too much on witness, at the expense of worship. ‘The truth is we do both,’ he said, emphasising that trustees allocate resources according to wider discernment, not their own agenda. ‘Some people have also questioned the work we put into diversity, equity and inclusion… All our staff and all Friends need to understand how easy it is to exclude people without intending to.’
One Friend said they had been ‘dismayed’ at criticisms about diversity, equity and inclusion: ‘It’s patently obvious that this work is part of our core testimonies.’ They also asked whether new work for struggling AMs would be accessed via local development workers (LDWs), to which Paul Parker said this was still being considered, but in the meantime LDWs should be the first ‘port of call’. They were also looking at what happens if an AM is unable to function, and there were lots of different models, such as merging into a single charity. The key thing was to ‘start talking about it while you still have the people there’, said Paul.
Next week: Afternoon session.
