Meeting for Sufferings: Tabular statement concern

A suggestion has been made for a change to the data collected in tabular statements

by Ian Kirk-Smith 3rd April 2015

Gloucestershire Area Meeting brought to Meeting for Sufferings the suggestion that the Religious Society of Friends might cease to ask its members and attenders to declare a specific gender in forthcoming tabular statements.

The invitation to consider the idea, contained in a minute for Sufferings, followed discernment among Friends at Cheltenham Meeting and in a Threshing Meeting held in October 2014. The concern came from a membership clerk, who asked why she should ‘require Friends to tick a box as to their gender?’