Yearly Meeting 2023: All-together’ Meeting for Worship

4 May 2023 | by Rebecca Hardy, Elinor Smallman, Joseph Jones

‘One of the things that brings me great joy, is being with other Quakers in Meeting for Worship. Sometimes it makes me feel safe and sometimes it is the most dangerous place to be. And it’s wonderful.’

Sunday morning saw a distinct change in tone. This was an ‘All-together’ Meeting for Worship, and those who made it to Friends House were greeted with a table full of art materials. Many Friends joined with their Local Meetings online, for a session that was to be part-programmed but based, said the clerk, on silence, to allow all to participate.

Two Friends working with the childrens’ programme said their groups had been thinking about truth and joy. They shared a story the children had heard about encountering difference in others. The Fox Cubs (aged two to five) had built a house, into which they put things they loved and brought them joy (the Meeting enjoyed the image of a plate of biscuits on the screen). What things bring you joy?, the Meeting was asked. ‘What helps you feel safe? What do you need to be true to yourself?’
Children were invited to the art table to draw pictures of houses filled with these things. ‘This is ministry’, said the clerk.

Offering a vocal contribution, one older Friend said ‘One of the things that brings me great joy, is being with other Quakers in Meeting for Worship. Sometimes it makes me feel safe and sometimes it is the most dangerous place to be. And it’s wonderful.’

Another referenced the Egyptian book of the dead. There, the newly-departed person is asked two questions by the spirit guide: ‘The first one is did you find joy?  The second question is: did you bring joy?’

A Friend in his Local Meeting in the south west read the poem ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley: ‘I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul.’ ‘We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling,’ he said. ‘But if you are troubled by sin, look up, look up, there is a realm in which we can soar with the song birds over the sea of sin and walk cheerfully over the earth.’

In Friends House, one Friend said ‘I have lived in fear for the majority of my life… but my release from that is through the spirit… through Quakers.’

Another Friend, who said she had been a very bad mother, ministered that ‘What really brings me joy, apart from being forgiven… is that [my children] have allowed me to be a really good granny, and they trust me with their children. And it has been an absolute delight.’

One Friend had stopped attending Meeting because ‘I was very scared that the beeps of my wheelchair, and the clatter of my spasms, would disrupt Meetings for other people.’ But the pandemic had meant she could Meet online, and in time developed the courage to come back in person. ‘I find joy through living adventurously by attending a Meeting whenever I am worried about the beeps of my wheelchair, and the clatter of m spasms, but still attending anyway.’

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