Yearly Meeting 2022: Session 4 - BYM Trustees’ Report
'The Meeting then heard a shocking and moving contribution from one of the QPSWCC co-clerks.'
In Session Four, Friends received and considered a report of the work of BYM trustees. After a reading from the Testimony to the Gace of God as shown in the life of Lea Adonis Keeble (a ‘big, warm personality’ who had dealt with the difficulties of apartheid South Africa), Caroline Nursey, clerk to trustees, spoke to the report, along with Linda Batten, Yearly Meeting treasurer. They were here to report back on trustees’ work and the decisions they made, and to ask advice, said Caroline.
Trustees met online during most of 2021, with ‘one joyful face- to-face meeting’ in September. Quaker discipline ‘transfers pretty well online’, said Caroline, but ‘it is harder for newer trustees’.
Work was ‘profoundly impacted’ by the pandemic, and Caroline thanked staff for ‘everything they’ve delivered in these extraordinary times’.
It had been another atypical year, financially, said Linda. Income was down £6 million and expenditure was down £3 million. Donations from Friends and Meetings had dropped to £2 million from £3 million: ‘In the face of continued hardship… we appreciate it has not been possible for you Friends or your Meetings to continue at this higher level’.
The Quiet Company, affected by lack of events, had not been able to gift any profit. Reserves increased on paper, but that has been wiped out in recent months. There were three key risks, said Linda: inflation, higher operating costs, and the Quiet Company not returning to profit. Reserves did mitigate these, she went on, but 2021 income was the lowest since 2009. Things ‘could have been worse’ but BYM was ‘still facing an uncertain future’.
Caroline reminded Friends that trustees decided in 2020 to move to a balanced budget by 2023, faster than first planned. There was now a smaller and more focussed staff team. Elsewhere, trustees were looking at ways to work with Woodbrooke, especially with regard to roleholder training and online learning.
By autumn, every Meeting would have a local development worker within reach, Caroline went on: ‘It seems [they] are providing that flexible support Friends need.
She had heard in the earlier ministry that Friends wanted younger people to be more integrated. There was a ‘fear that we aren’t doing enough… should we be doing more?’
The Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) team had had to adapt to deliver a new strategy. This wasn’t easy in the midst of the pandemic, said Caroline, but staff were now settling into new roles. She highlighted efforts around COP26 as an example of work being done.
To move towards simplification, trustees had led online workshops aimed at ‘developing a shared understanding of what is needed for the governance of Quaker work nationally.’ They would continue to work with Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) ahead of full discernment on the subject at YM 2023.
Friends wanted to know about support for Young Friends General Meeting, and work on anti-racism.
Georgina Bailey – one of the trustees’ anti-oppression champions – said there were three strands to that work: asking what does it mean for BYM to be an anti-racist employer; embedding it into all of the BYM work programmes; and work with the whole YM.
Another Friend wondered about the laying down of QPSW subcommittees. There was a new structure, said Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship. This would help Friends who wanted to do the work, as opposed to govern it. Governance would be done by QPSW Central Committee.
The Meeting then heard a shocking and moving contribution from one of the QPSWCC co-clerks. She began by saying that CC had ‘really diligently… tried hard to… be faithful to the Quaker Business Method’. But the Meeting listened aghast as she spoke of being told that, because of the colour of her skin, she didn’t ‘look like’ a co-clerk of a CC. ‘It takes a lot to adapt to white people’s ways of doing things… I deal with this all the time… I have to live with this every day… I have a child who looks like me, who does not look like you, and we are very mindful that when we’re in public we try to practice extremely British English because I come from mixed heritage’, ‘I really try to fit in… I do my bit…’ Friends heard a plea to truly listen: ‘When [people] say they feel excluded or marginalised… I really hope you believe them.’
In open ministry Friends were distressed. After an important, weighted space left by the clerks, one ministered: ‘I was so moved by the co-clerk… I’m shocked but not surprised that she has felt it necessary to say this… I want to express my love and gratitude.’ She was ‘so ashamed that this is happening in our Society’.
A Friend from Nairobi Meeting also needed to ‘release something in my chest’. After Covid, she said, ‘there is racism in the air’. She retold an incident in which someone had repeatedly shouted ‘The N word’ at her and spat at her. She slapped the man across the face. ‘When you have got that experience you begin wondering, what’s gone wrong?… This thing is everywhere.’
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