Meeting for Sufferings: Sufferings considers strategic aims for Quaker Life
The strategic aims of Quaker Life were reviewed and reflected upon at Meeting for Sufferings
Meeting for Sufferings, held at Friends House on 3 February, was asked to review and reflect on a series of strategic aims set out by Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC) to shape Quaker Life’s future work.
QLCC’s purpose is to support and strengthen Quaker Life throughout the Yearly Meeting ‘to help to deepen Friends’ experience and expression of God’s grace, in Meetings and life, and to increase awareness of and interest in Quakers in Britain’.
Jocelyn Burnell, the co-clerk of QLCC, spoke to the report. It includes strategic aims that QLCC agreed, at a gathering held last November at Swarthmoor Hall, to bring before Sufferings.
She explained that the committee had ‘undergone enormous change in the last three years’, commented on the retirement of Richard Summers as head of Quaker Life, and said ‘the committee was working superbly and the staff have been brilliant’.
Jocelyn Burnell stressed the importance of addressing ‘the big questions’ and urged Friends to consider the strategic aims as ‘looking ahead’. She reminded Friends that ‘when we undertake action we must ask: what is possible?’
The strategic aims are structured into six sections that match the six sections in Our faith in the future, the vision for what Quakers in Britain would like the Society to be in the future, which was approved by Sufferings in September 2015.
The report
Friends at Sufferings were invited to focus particularly on three of the sections: statements one, two and six. These are: (one) ‘Meeting for Worship is the bedrock of living as a Quaker’, (two) ‘Quaker communities are loving, inclusive and all-age’ and (six) ‘Quakers are well known and widely understood’.
Friends were asked to leave the other three statements for review at a later date, although it was noted that there would be some inevitable overlap. The remaining three statements were: ‘All Friends understand and live by Quaker discipline’, ‘Quaker values are active in the world’, and ‘Quakers work collaboratively’.
In the strategy report each of these statements are followed by several aims (such as ‘Meetings are more joyful, confident, dynamic, welcoming and growing’), as well as several ‘indicators of success’ in order to measure achievement of the aims (such as ‘more Local Meetings are large enough to be vibrant and sustainable’).
Friends were then asked to move, after lunch, into twenty geographically-gathered Home Groups and to consider two questions: ‘In your judgement what are the “big issues” in the Quaker Life area of British Yearly Meeting (BYM)?’ and ‘What do you consider should be the most important strategic aims of QLCC?’
Feedback
The Home Groups, having considered the questions for some time, then returned to the George Fox room.
In a contemplative but convivial environment, Friends stood up, after well-considered pauses, to share what their groups had discussed.
The first Friend who spoke said they had felt more ‘flexible types of membership are going to be needed’. He shared a story about how he had met a younger member at Ramallah University, who, due to travelling commitments, could only be at Meeting once a year.
‘She is one example of many people who don’t fit into the present category of membership,’ he said, adding that he hoped it was something that Quaker Life could think about and ‘find a way forward’.
The first statement, ‘Meeting for Worship is the bedrock of living as a Quaker’, was discussed from the outset. A Friend from the North West of England said that the ‘bedrock’ is not just Meeting for Worship, but also ‘the preparation you do for the Meeting. We need to look at the word “bedrock” and what’s behind it’.
A Friend, who agreed that the preparation for Meeting and Meeting itself were the bedrock and that the two worked together, later reiterated this point. Another Friend said the indicators for this aim were ‘soggy’.
According to the Quaker Life report, a way of quantifying success for this first statement might include ‘the number and variety of Meetings for Worship rises…[and] attendance at Meeting for Worship rises’. Another was, ‘more – and a wider range of – Quakers engage in Woodbrooke courses’.
However, the Friend pointed to what he called ‘the diversity of our worship’. He said: ‘It’s not just Woodbrooke or Meeting for Worship. It’s meeting for learning, Kindlers, business and study groups… the things that many of us get up to.’
A Friend agreed that ‘outcomes should always be measurable’, but questioned how easy it would be to measure whether attendance has risen or not on a practical level.
Another Friend said: ‘Someone can count how many come to the Meeting and report back to Friends House, but this begs all sorts of questions: do Quakers want to be measured by these things?’ Perhaps, the Friend said, this represents a ‘shift into a more quantified society’.
After some moments of reflection, Anne Ullathorne, clerk of Meeting for Sufferings, asked Friends not to get ‘too bogged down by indicators’ and, returning to the main theme of the session, asked to hear more about what they thought were ‘the big issues’.
Diversity
As the session progressed, it became clear that key themes were starting to emerge. The subject of diversity was often raised. One Friend highlighted the fact that the word ‘diversity’ applied to his Meeting, and if it were to represent his local community, would have to include ‘ex-miners and ex-shippers, not just professionals’. He said Friends should consider whether ‘the diversity reflects the whole of our local area, not just a small group.’
Diversity was seen as linked to vibrancy and one London Friend called for a ‘structure that is vibrant’, saying Friends needed ‘vibrancy’ for young people and called for ‘youngsters’ to lead things. He explained: ‘We need to look at how we attract people and put money in, to facilitate bright people attracting bright people.’
Depth and vibrancy
Another word that kept coming up was the word ‘depth’. There was a feeling that a successful Meeting has a depth and vibrancy that is impossible – or very difficult – to measure. A Friend from the South East wondered if it were possible to have ‘qualitative’ indicators, not just ‘quantitative’ ones. ‘I’m wondering how one finds out about the spiritual depth of our Meetings?’ A northern Friend picked up the point moments later: ‘Nothing is more important than the quality of our worship. Unless that works, nothing will.’
A London Friend, who said that the ‘vibrancy must come from depth’, added that ‘the counting of attenders is one thing, but it has to come with depth, which is difficult to measure.
‘We all know as Quakers when we feel depth. Meeting for Worship is the heartbeat of Quaker life’ and if people do not feel welcome, ‘Where do we go? We don’t go out. We shut down.’ She added: ‘That depth is down to us, not just the elders.’
Other Quakers talked about the quality of their ‘welcome’ with one Yorkshire Friend sharing that they had done a Kindler workshop on ‘Nurturing Our Meeting’ and was overwhelmed by how many people brought concerns about the Meeting’s ‘welcome’.
‘One person said they had never felt welcome at the Meetings’, she said, adding how important it is to listen to other’s people’s journeys and what brought them to Meeting: ‘It’s a very spiritual thing we do when we welcome. It’s in the warmth of our handshakes.’ This particular Meeting now runs workshops on its welcome.
Living by Quaker discipline
Another key theme that emerged was the word ‘discipline’. A Friend was disappointed that number three (‘All friends understand and live by Quaker discipline’) was not placed higher, while another Friend stood up to say that they felt one, two and three were the forerunners of four, five and six, because ‘discipline was needed before some of the others’.
There were also moments of humour. A Friend from the Home Counties amused the group by saying that, while they ‘utterly believed’ that ‘Meeting for Worship is the bedrock of living as a Quaker’, it had come out that Friends can become a ‘bit enslaved’ by their Meeting houses.
‘It is such a burden,’ he said, musing on the fact that Quakers in the past were freer to follow their callings. He added: ‘We need to liberate ourselves. We’re basically maintenance people. We need to free ourselves from slavery’, to which the room filled with laughter.
Gradually, the session drew to a close on a bright and hopeful note. One Friend said that while exercises such as the one they had completed are ‘brilliant, they rattle our cages… to spend time looking inwards at what might not be working’, but ‘it’s good to remember what we do that’s great… how we talk and hold ourselves in the world. All will be well.’
Jocelyn Burnell brought the session to an end by thanking Friends for their ‘engagement and wisdom’, and a final minute prepared by Anne Ullathorne, the clerk of Meeting for Sufferings, was read out and accepted.
