Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting Gathering
Meeting for Sufferings held a session on Yearly Meeting Gathering 2014
Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG) at Bath was described at Meeting for Sufferings as an ‘inspiring complex of friendly activity for all ages’.
The session on Yearly Meeting Gathering began with an outline of the key issues to note from the event: membership, commitment and belonging; revision of the Book of Discipline; the Tabular Statement; the call for nominations for the next triennium of Meeting for Sufferings; the report of Britain Yearly Meeting trustees; the report of Meeting for Sufferings; becoming a low-carbon sustainable community; the Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) governing document; and the Yearly Meeting Statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This was followed by a ‘worshipful reflection’ on the event and its impact on Friends. Ursula Fuller began by offering her personal reflections. Her ‘predominant impression’ was of the number and diversity of people who had attended. She described how she had been ‘changed and invigorated’. She had found the sessions in the Big Top ‘calming and uplifting’.
She said: ‘Unlike in York and Canterbury there was not one dominating, controversial item of business.’ The business sessions and the reception of reports in plenary sessions gave her the impression that ‘at national level our structures for strategic vision and governance are serving us well’.
The big set piece lectures by Ben Pink Dandelion, Richard Murphy and Jessica Metheringham were, for her, highlights. Bath was ‘gentle and peaceful, giving a wealth of opportunity and above all immersion in a community where everyone is valued and welcomed. It allowed me to spend a week focusing without distraction on all aspects of my Quakerism, spiritual and practical.
‘I have brought home warmth and love and a renewed vision of, to paraphrase Ben Pink Dandelion, how I can be transformed, transform my Meeting today and act as an agent of transformation in the world,’ she added.
A Friend spoke of her gratitude for the ‘incredible organisation’ involved in putting on the event. She mentioned the excellent provision that was made for those with disabilities and the care given to small children. Another Friend echoed these sentiments but ‘could not help but wonder if it had become too complicated’.
A representative said the organisation had been ‘doubly difficult’ due to unfinished building work at the University of Bath. He also expressed a concern that he had felt, at times, that he was in a party political conference. He said that Friends at both his Local and Area Meetings, when asked for feedback about the event, had raised the same question: can the Gathering part of Yearly Meeting be put alongside the business part? They felt that there was not enough time for ministry.
A Friend was pleased that all her family were able to attend. She said: ‘My nine-year-old had an amazing time and learnt a great deal about Quakerism.’ She added that having teenagers attend made it a ‘complete Gathering’.
A Friend appreciated that a statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been made. She had been worried that YMG would be ‘so highly organised and controlled’ that there would be no ‘space to be spontaneous’. She was delighted that a special Meeting for Worship had been arranged and that there was space and time for ‘the Spirit to move us’.
