Meeting for Sufferings: Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC)
Friends at Meeting for Sufferings heard from the clerk of Quaker Life Central Committee
Most of the morning was taken up with reports from central committees. First, Emma Roberts, clerk of QLCC, spoke to the committee’s report, which offered highlights from the year.
QLCC is responsible for overseeing the rollout of local development workers (LDWs) – the extension of the vibrancy programme. The next wave of workers is due in Autumn 2020 and there was much ‘excitement and enthusiasm’ building across the country, she said. QLCC was in the process of approving the criteria for shortlisting the areas that would be next in line to receive LDWs.
The committee had also been considering how to support unattached Friends and the issue of gender diversity. The latter had seen a struggle – but a successful one – to hold the different viewpoints within the committee. There was still time for Friends to make personal responses to the initial QLCC statement on the issue. ‘We hope your Meetings are also getting on with discussion and discernment’, said Emma, who went on to read five personal statements on the issue from members of the committee. These expressed various worries about how to create a welcoming inclusive space for all. ‘I fear that hate will consume us,’ said one. ‘Trans exclusion is the reality of my life.’ Another spoke of a daughter who, at seven years old, had wanted to identify as a different gender from their birth, but reverted again at fifteen. ‘My fear is the medicalisation of the issue.’
One talked about being wary of gender non-conformity as a younger man, but beginning to explore it later in life. He feared for his Meeting and himself. ‘I hope Friends can love each other,’ he said.
In response, Friends found these testimonies useful and moving. One from the south of England said his area had dedicated a meeting to the subject and had a ‘similarly tortuous experience’. Circulating these stories in the wider Society would be a valuable addition to the discussion and discernment, he said.
Another Friend said that ‘when you hear these stories you react differently than when approaching the subject in general’. They encouraged people to express empathy in a way that wasn’t always possible with a more philosophical approach.
