Meeting for Sufferings: October afternoon session
Roles and responsibilities; language on Israel/occupied Palestine; reparations; and the marriage declaration
Roles and responsibilities
Clerk Robert Card admitted that the afternoon agenda for Meeting for Suffering’s October session had become a little ‘jazzy’, given the morning’s lengthy discernment over the ‘New ways of belonging’ report (see 11 October). But Friends knew that some sober consideration was ahead of them, in particular the language the Society used to describe the situation in Israel and occupied Palestine.
First, given that some representatives were attending for the first time, the Meeting elders took an opportunity to remind them of their responsibilities and conduct. The usual practices around Meeting for Worship applied, they said, reminding Friends not to pre-prepare their ministry. Quaker faith & practice 2.55 was read: ‘Pray that your ministry may rise from the place of deep experience, and that you may be restrained from unnecessary and superficial words.’
Language on Israel/occupied Palestine
At the last session of MfS, in June, representatives had received a paper outlining the central work of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) on Palestine and Israel, including the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The response of Quakers in Britain to the attacks on 7 October, and subsequent violence, had also been considered.
After hearing of this work, Friends had wondered whether developments in Gaza meant they should change the language that the Society uses to describe what is happening in the Middle East. Quaker Peace & Social Witness Central Committee (QPSWCC) was asked to reflect on this, and, via a sub-group, returned to this session with a minute.
Before it was considered, Diana Jeater, of QPSWCC, who had clerked the sub-group, spoke to its process. It had been ‘deeply moving’, she said, but initially there had been ‘a lot of distance between us’. Eventually, Friends had reflected on the two forms of work they felt Quakers were called to do in the world: first, being a prophetic voice; and second, undertaking reconciliation or peacebuilding work.
In Gaza at present, it was the first that was most relevant, said Diana, since neither party was asking Friends to engage in reconciliation. What BYM was involved in was the ‘work of bearing witness’. This realisation informed the group’s discernment, and it slowly moved toward unity around adopting new language.
‘There are no easy paths’, said the minute, ‘and we have a genuine fear of the consequences of getting this wrong’. But, ultimately ‘we feel that the term “apartheid” is an appropriate one for the situation, and that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza… When shocking events occur, we can do no other than use truthful and powerful words to describe them… Speaking with love in such contexts does not always mean avoiding hard words.’
Diana noted that using words like ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide’ did have an effect on interfaith work. As the minute went on, ‘‘Speaking our truth is only a stepping stone to building the kingdom of heaven on earth. How can we do good on the ground here in the UK, where community relationships are sometimes hanging by a thread?’
One Friend wondered ‘who we are speaking these words to?’ Diana said that such language often featured in multi-organisation statements on the Middle East, so this sat alongside those.
One Friend noted that, as a European, she felt the word ‘genocide’ would always be connected to the holocaust, which was a European failure. To apply it, as a European, to another culture, made it sound different. She hoped Friends would be cautious, noting that the minute went no further than the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which warned of the ‘plausible risk’ of genocide. There was an important difference between that and calling Israel a ‘genocidal state’, she said.
Another Friend was conscious of a George Fox quote that was painted on the wall of the (Benjamin Lay) room in which Friends were sat: ‘my allegiance lies in truth and faithfulness.’ Palestinians were asking ecumenical accompaniers (EAs) to ‘go back and tell people what you have seen’. There was ‘a danger in saying we mustn’t upset people’, she said. ‘We have to tell the truth.’
One Friend, who had spent a lot of time in peace work, said he had learned early on that ‘naming’ was one of the first steps. Yes, this could upset people, but it ‘starts you out on the road to peace’. He pointed to another quote on the wall, from Margaret Fell, which said that Friends were ‘a people who follow after those things that make for peace’. The Friend had represented Quakers on national bodies, he said, and other churches were grateful to Friends for saying what they could not. EAPPI was itself the response of the World Council of Churches (for which Quakers in Britain manages the programme) to church leaders in Jerusalem who wanted people to visit and ‘speak to what you have seen’.
Online, a Friend recalled the US philosopher Richard Rorty, who had said that there were some words that, once used, couldn’t be gotten past. Some words, said the Friend, had ‘such moral freight that they bring everything to a stop’. He too hoped that Friends wouldn’t go further than the ICJ.
A young Friend, noting that the ‘ICJ is slow’, said ‘We’re slower… I don’t know why we can’t use these words when it is the truth.’ As a result of the conflict in Gaza, she said she had seen more people die than she ever wanted to again. ‘We are wasting our time.’
The clerk tried a minute, but Friends weren’t quite ready for it. One asked to hear from EAPPI staff, who talked about the profound changes the recent events had made to the programme. EAs were not able to be present in as many places now, they said, and Palestinians felt that their country is ‘empty of witnesses’.
One Friend said that he believed that, in the face of conflict, his role was silence. He accepted the need to change language but wanted to remind representatives that ‘legal definitions exist so that these conditions [apartheid and genocide] can be brought to an end.’
The eventual minute captured the mood well: ‘Our twin roles as prophets and reconcilers may be difficult to balance. We reaffirm that ultimately our task is to engage in peace building focused on ending the illegal occupation and seeking justice for all who live there and the surrounding region, however we note that in this situation our primary role is to bear witness.’ It accepted the recommendation from QPSWCC as ‘honouring our commitment to speak truth in love’.
It had been a heavy session. After the minute was approved, elders called for a period of silence to uphold those in the region affected by violence.
Reparations
After a shuffle break, Marghuerita Remi-Judah from the Reparations Working Group spoke to its report. The group had been Meeting for around a year, and members had begun by educating themselves about reparations. There had been some initial tensions, said Marghuerita, for example over whether to include climate justice under the reparations umbrella. These were resolved in conversation with Meetings around the world, who had focused on language, land loss and economic justice. Some issues were still to be worked through, like the erection of memorials, which Quakers were not generally in favour of – but anti-racist organisations wanted them, so a decision would have to be made.
At an early Meeting, the group agreed that its first step had to be ‘telling the truth about British Quaker involvement in transatlantic chattel slavery, in colonialism, and in economic exploitation’.
This would require historical research, which would in turn ‘identify the financial harms and impact that that involvement created’. Some Area Meetings, such as Bristol and Lancaster, had already made progress on this.
‘Once there is sufficient information about the involvement of British Quakers in the Transatlantic Chattel Slave trade’, said the report, ‘then the members of the Financial workstream will be able to start to quantify the harms and impact that involvement created.’
The group had led exploratory sessions at Yearly Meeting, and also provided a video about its work for the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC)World Plenary. FWCC Sections are also being asked about their experiences of the legacy of enslavement.
Members of the group would be visiting more Area Meetings to encourage participation, to explain their work, and to present the historical information they have uncovered. They were also developing a series of courses at Woodbrooke.
There was work that could be done immediately, however: the group had worked with BYM staff to develop a policy that will offer rooms at Friends House to groups ‘whose activity is concerned with reparation’.
Friends thanked Marghuerita for her ‘enthusiasm and dynamism’.
Marriage declaration
Last December, MfS received a paper from the Book of Discipline Revision Committee, asking it to consider the wording of the Quaker marriage declaration. This primarily concerned the use of the words ‘divine assistance’, or ‘with God’s help’. Was it necessary for both parties in a marriage to use these terms? MfS asked the wider community of Friends to consider the matter, and received more than fifty minutes and contributions.
Assistant clerk Elizabeth Allen summarised the responses, which representatives had seen in their preparative documents. There was a wide range, said Elizabeth, from Friends who believed that, without an explicit faith component, a marriage was a purely a civil affair, to those who felt it wrong that some longstanding members of the Society could not be married as Quakers because they could not honestly use those phrases. Clearly, said the clerk, this showed that ‘we are not yet of one mind.’
There was no time for full discernment, but Friends did suggest that the use of the term ‘The Light’ might satisfy all parties. QLCC was asked to form a working group to consider the matter.
It was the last business of the day, which ended in worship.
See www.quaker.org.uk/mfspapers for the Meeting minutes. These had been held back due to the sensitivity of the Israel/occupied Palestine discussion, but are now available.
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