Meeting for Sufferings: Yearly Meeting reviewed
The 2019 Yearly Meeting was considered at Meeting for Sufferings
One of Meeting for Sufferings representatives’ tasks is to review Yearly Meetings (YMs). A wider survey of YMs will take place in October, so Friends reported on their experiences of YM 2019. One Friend thanked those who had been brave in discussing their own life stories. It meant that those who attended had ‘learned a lot about what some of us are living with day to day’, which left them ‘better placed to be inclusive and welcoming.’
Another Friend left more ‘empowered to change our world’. Early Friends set an example in this, they said, by ‘using resources wisely in a way that is still making an impact today.’
One representative from the Midlands had attended with a first-time visitor. It was interesting to note how easy it is to get swept up in procedural pressure, they said. ‘How do people feel empowered to speak?’ they asked. ‘Familiar names pop up, and more work needs doing in empowering people who feel trapped to the chair.’
A Friend from the Quaker World Relations Committee worried that ‘we were trying to do too much’. There were two huge topics, she said, and the marriage was uneasy. ‘It felt like wearing a pair of bad varifocal glasses.’
The Christian language of the Swarthmore Lecture was also discussed, with some left disappointed that a number of listeners had left early because of it. A Friend from Scotland hoped that members of the Society would do more to examine where Britain Yearly Meeting sat in the global environment. The review of the Lecture in the Friend had left him feeling like this was not well understood ‘It bordered on rude,’ he said.
A representative from south west England, who had been a YM elder, wanted to ‘make sure that enough unspoken ministry was going on. There were times when [spoken] ministry followed quickly after ministry.’ She worried that Friends had ‘missed the big scale of stillness’.
Generally the room felt positive. One Friend had arrived feeling anxious and low but ended up having a ‘most extraordinary experience’ because of ‘amazingly careful planning’. ‘The way it was structured let me through a range of things I needed to learn about’ which was ‘done with grace and care’.
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