Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting 2016
Friends were encouraged to attend Yearly Meeting 2016
Deborah Rowlands, Yearly Meeting clerk designate, made several suggestions for encouraging Friends to attend Yearly Meeting 2016. She recommended urging new people from Area Meetings to participate, and in particular encouraged the involvement of children and young people. She also stressed a new feature – participants arriving at Friends House on Friday evening will be able to meet staff and learn about centrally managed work. Further information will be available in April.
Deborah also spoke of the introduction of registration for those hoping to attend. This is new to London-based Yearly Meetings, and is intended to help with catering, health and safety, pastoral care, overflow facilities and so on, she explained.
A Friend said she was glad to see no cap on numbers. She said: ‘When restrictions are put on numbers, it shouldn’t be a case of “first come, first served”. We need proper representation.’
She added: ‘Yearly Meeting is very popular. I look forward to the day when we have the same problem with Area Meetings!’
Sufferings also heard the dates and venues of the Yearly Meetings in 2018 and 2019. In accordance with the three-yearly cycle set in 2011, Yearly Meeting 2018 will take place at Friends House on 4-7 May, and Yearly Meeting 2019 will also be held at Friends House, on 24-27 May.
