‘I think of our community like a group of trees weathering multiple storms. And how do trees survive? They connect. They reach out.' Photo: The clerking table, courtesy BYM
Yearly Meeting 2022: Opening Session - Faith, community, action
‘If together we form a loving community, there will always be someone nearby.’
Almost 500 Friends gathered for the Opening Session of Yearly Meeting (YM) 2022, the first to blend online and in-person participation. Almost 2,000 people had registered to attend (1,199 online, 735 in person, with sixty-two children and young people) and on Friday evening 220 gathered in The Light with around 270 on Zoom.
Quaker faith & practice (Qfp) 24.21 was read to open: ‘There is to be a time when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more”… This blessed state, which shall be brought forth [in society] at large in God’s season, must begin in particulars [that is, in individuals].’
In ministry, one Friend predicted that ‘there will be times when we stumble and fall, but if together we form a loving community there will always be someone nearby… to help us up with a tender hand’.
The clerking table was fully masked, as requested of all attendees, but Clare Scott Booth, the outgoing YM clerk, unmasked to welcome Friends warmly. Her first duty, she said, was the appointment of this year’s clerks, proposed as Siobhán Haire, Adwoa Burnley (first assistant) and Fred Langridge (second assistant). Were these names acceptable? For the first time in years, Friends House resounded to the sound of hundreds of ‘Hope so!’ ‘Well that’s a relief,’ said Clare.
This would be the third YM in a row in which Friends would be adapting their approach, said Siobhán. That would require ‘some discipline and thoughtfulness from all of us’ – compassion, patience, and ‘a sense of humour’. It was important that online Friends felt that they were full participants in the Meeting; there can be one or two pieces of ministry that can be turning points in any gathering, so it was important that all were heard.
Friends were gathering at a crucial time, she went on, given the cost of living crisis, the situations in Ukraine, Afghanistan and East Africa, and the recent school shooting in Texas. It would be ‘so easy to respond with despair’, so the Quaker testimony to peace and peacebuilding was more important than ever. Siobhán read from some prepared ministry that Oliver Robertson had given to Meeting for Sufferings earlier in the year (see 11 March): ‘We aren’t necessarily called to be amazing, we are called to be faithful.’
After dispensing with the ‘dots and commas’ committee that usually deals with any grammatical amendments to minutes, Friends were reminded of what blended discipline would look like. Online Friends would need to remember to lower their electronic hands if not called to minister. A tech team would also be able to do that. For those in the room, ‘We haven’t got a team that will come and sit you down… but offers of service are welcome.’ The room was enjoying the witty tone.
Adwoa Burnley, clerk to YM Agenda Committee, read a letter of greeting from Tim Gee of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC): ‘I think of our community like a group of trees weathering multiple storms. And how do trees survive? They connect. They reach out. And they uphold one another with their roots.’
Agenda Committee has met wholly online for two years; Adwoa reminded Friends that they were at the end of a thread of discernment on diversity and inclusion. This year Friends would be considering next steps and ‘how we hold ourselves accountable’.
The next items dealt with nominations and the eldership team spoke about being there to ‘offer a ministry of presence to the whole Meeting’. The pastoral care team was also on hand to be ‘a listening ear for practical and emotional needs’. But we were all responsible for pastoral care, said the convenor: ‘Be kind to each other and watch over each other.’
The Meeting ended in worship, with a visibly emotional Friend sharing their gratitude for being able to participate in a Meeting from home, sixty years on from their first YM: ‘to feel the power of being all together, to be centred down in depth… [I feel it] as much now as when I was a youngster.’
Apologies: last week’s issue referred to an opening session on 21 May that was in fact an informal preparatory Meeting. We also titled that piece ‘Yearly Meeting Gathering’ when it is, of course, a usual YM year.
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