Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting Gathering 2020
Yearly Meeting Gathering in 2020 will be held at the University of Bath
Yearly Meeting Gathering in 2020 will be held at the University of Bath.
Meeting for Sufferings agreed to the recommendation of Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee to hold the triennial gathering at the University of Bath and it was also agreed that the dates would be on 1-8 August.
Deborah Rowlands, clerk of Yearly Meeting (YM), explained to Sufferings that it was always a challenge to select the most appropriate venue for the Yearly Meeting Gathering. Many universities that were suitable, she explained, were not available and there was often a clash with school holidays. The committee had considered factors such as geography, cost, provision of meeting spaces and Local Meeting support.
She apologised that the Gathering in Bath in 2020 would clash with the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol (National Eisteddfod), which has become a major opportunity for Quaker outreach in recent years in Wales. She hoped that it would not clash with the Scottish Shindig.
Deborah Rowlands said plans were well in hand for the 2018 Yearly Meeting in Friends House on 4-7 May. She reminded Sufferings that Friends needed to book into their programmes for YM.
The deadline for Junior Yearly Meeting is 23 February and for other programmes 18 March.
A Friend hoped that ‘we’d make Yearly Meeting gadget friendly – from tablets and tweets to Facebook’ and said it ‘really makes a difference if we can really celebrate technology’ and that this would ‘make YM available to people who are not able to attend’.
Volunteers are needed to help in the running of Yearly Meeting in many different ways, from microphone duty to pastoral care, and Friends were encouraged to help.
