Meeting for Sufferings: Minutes from Area Meetings
William Penn room name change discussed.
After lunch and notices the Meeting turned to minutes sent in from Area Meetings (AMs). There were twelve in total, plus minutes from Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) Central Committee, most of which related in some way to the restructuring at BYM. A threshing Meeting earlier in the week had addressed this issue (see 16 July issue) and Sufferings (MfS) turned first to two minutes sent in on the proposed renaming of the William Penn room at Friends House.
One AM had described the renaming as a ‘meaningless gesture’. ‘Are we suggesting that we can no longer consider him a spiritual leader?’ it asked. Another AM wanted more change, not less, hoping ‘that consideration shall be given to removing the names of historical Quakers from the doors of rooms at Friends House and that there will be a return to a simple identification of all of the rooms by numbers.’
The assistant clerk had prepared a draft minute which reminded Friends that the decision to name rooms after Friends was part of the Quiet Company’s commitment to using Quaker buildings in ways that tell the Quaker story. The name was unlikely to be changed until early 2022, it said, but there was no intention to write William Penn out of Quaker history. Trustees had asked staff to bring proposals for ways in which a full account of Quakers and slavery can be told. It would be helpful to listen to the views of a newly-emerging ‘Black, Brown and People of Colour’ Quaker group.
Representatives were content with the minute, though one Friend noted that every figure of the past could be considered problematic by contemporary standards. Another offered the help of a historian who had been researching these issues.
