Yearly Meeting 2023: Session 3 - Looking at Central Committees

4 May 2023 | by ‘We are a people … forever in transition. To be faithful is to be open to change’

Rebecca Hardy, Elinor Smallman, Joseph Jones

Session Three looked specifically at Quaker Central Committeees – the bodies appointed by Meeting for Sufferings to shape the work carried out centrally for and on behalf of Friends. Did these bodies need changing to better fit the contemporary Society of Friends? If this sounds like a simple question, it proved to be a complicated session. Friends reported having a tricky time in the discernment, with some feeling ‘mystified’.

First though, this was perhaps presaged in the opening worship, with one Friend offering a series of connected words: ‘Beauty, us, here, now. Beauty, love, tears, truth, us, together. Difficulty.’ The resulting minute, as expected, says only ‘We have gathered in worship’ – ‘Such a simple minute for something so profound’, said a clerk.

Before discernment, the Meeting first heard part of the epistle from Australia Yearly Meeting 2022: ‘What is holding us back from our radical roots; where is the evidence of the Truth moving amongst us; is our endless busyness keeping us from knowing one another in the Spirit?’

This was followed by a report from Caroline Nursey, clerk to BYM trustees, on their work. The Meeting would usually receive the Society’s accounts at this point, but this was not possible, said Caroline, because of some changes in the finance team and the software it uses. YM would include an extra session, in July, to complete that work. The session will be open to all Friends, in person and online, and will coincide with a Meeting for Sufferings, to which all Friends are also invited.

Caroline instead took the opportunity to talk about the central work being done on Friends’ behalf. She began with the fifteen local development workers (LDWs), all of whom are now in place, helping Local Meetings be more effective and vibrant. Two of the LDWs are not Quakers, said Caroline, but she knew from local experience that it was possible for a non-Quaker to do the job well. LDWs were linking Meetings with Quaker Life staff, chaplains and resources for young people – helping with witness as well as worship.

The Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) team also worked with LDWs, said Caroline, and the Faith in Action team had been part of the movement advocating successfully for a loss and damage fund for nations most affected by the climate crisis. She also referenced work done by the Turning the Tide team, and the EAPPI programme of human rights monitors in Israel/occupied Palestine. Caroline couldn’t cover all the work being done. For that, she said, Friends would have to wait for the annual review. She did also mention BYM’s grant-giving, the biggest of which supports the Quaker United Nations Office. Woodbrooke will receive £800,000 over five years, and will continue its ‘vital’ work even with its buildings being handed over to a local trust. She ended her report with thanks to Paul Parker, the recording clerk, to all those working on central committees, and ‘you too, for financial giving’.

Friends wanted to know how LDWs’ successes were being measured. Others asked about progress on reparations and the inclusion of trans people. Caroline handed over to Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship, who said that measurement of LDW work couldn’t be done with simple numbers, but BYM was working on ‘outcome harvesting’. Feedback from Friends was always ‘enormously helpful’, he said.

Discernment of the session topic began with some well-expressed prepared ministry from Ben Pink Dandelion. When considering whether to extend BYM’s simplification project to central committees, he suggested it would be helpful to begin with four key elements that comprise the ‘Quaker Way’. These, he said, were: direct encounter with God; worship that enables such; ways of discerning what is ‘of God’; and a lifestyle that was a ‘lived testimony’.

This way was ‘simple in some ways and radical in many’, he said. To be Quaker was to gather in worship. ‘In case of emergency, please be silent.’ People of such faith ought to be always in transition, he went on. Friends were cautious about people who claimed to have the complete picture. ‘Over the last century, we have emphasised being open to new light from whatever source it may come. As such, we are a people of faith forever in transition. We celebrate not having the answers, only ones that are partial, provisional, or personal. The Spirit… for us is not about finality or certainty, rather an exciting path of inward collective exploration.’ Unfortunately, ‘we leave some Friends out in our bid to get things done.’ Could we find a better way that was more inclusive, and more joyful? ‘If we’re not joyful in our service… we’re left with duty and contract.’

The question before the Meeting was ‘Are we ready to ask for our committee structure to be made simpler, more inclusive and sustainable?’ It meant examining central bodies, including Quaker Life Central Committee and Quaker Peace & Social Witness Central Committee. This wasn’t about ‘final detail’, said the clerk, but the principle.

Friends didn’t seem to know quite how to answer the question. They began discernment by offering experience about work in their local communities. One Friend commented on this. She found it instructive that ministry so far had been about personal experience and interaction: ‘Maybe it’s because we don’t fully understand what our committees do… What do we do as a Society? We live as Quakers. We try and live our values. And there are individuals and groups bearing witness in many ways. But what we do as a Society, what we do through our committees, seems to me different unless it facilitates that work.’ The Friend ‘did not expect to stand’: ‘I’m shaking. I think it is because I am mystified.’

After a shuffle break, the clerk asked again whether Friends were ready to make some changes to our central structures. Finally, one Friend said ‘I hope the answer is yes’, but still wanted to recognise that ‘the most important part is the individual’. Another Friend talked about the days of Quaker Home Service. Things had changed several times since then but ‘It never made any difference to me.’

Another Friend confessed to being ‘overwhelmed’. He wanted to talk about the crises that Friends faced, most notably the shrinking numbers of Quakers. ‘At what point do we become unviable?’, he asked.

The clerk asked whether she was right in hearing that Friends did want a change. Yes, said one, but in small steps. Trustees had been thinking about this issue, said the clerk, and wouldn’t be surprised if the Meeting asked them to do some more work on it in those careful steps.

The clerking team began work on the minute. It was a tricky one to get right, and took some time. Friends wanted to work on it further, but seemed to be becoming exhausted. By the time some changes were made, over a quarter of those participating online had left the Meeting. Eventually though, the minute had a precise clarity: ‘We are a people of faith forever in transition. To be faithful is to be open to change; to be open to the leadings of the spirit… We recognise that the time has come to look anew at our structures, including our central committees.’

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