Yearly Meeting 2023: Special interest groups
‘Anyone has the potential to offer a mystical revelation.’
In the week before Yearly Meeting began in earnest, various Quaker Recognised Bodies and special interest groups ran sessions online for interested Friends. Staff from the Friend managed to get to many of them, but if we missed yours please let us know and we’ll try to catch up another way.
Parables not preaching, stories not sermons
Rosemary Brown, of The Kindlers, led a session on 21 April to look at storytelling. Sixty Friends gathered to consider ‘how and why mystics use the power of metaphor’ and why story can have a profound impact.
To illustrate, Rosemary took on the role of storyteller and asked those present to share and reflect on the messages each tale conveyed.
They included the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and the parable of the vineyard workers (Matthew 20:1-16), but also included: ‘The blind men and the elephant’ from India, ‘The conference of the birds’ from the Islamic tradition, and another from the Dervish tradition.
Rosemary also asked Friends to consider A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and The Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke, explaining that, as there is that of God in everyone, ‘anyone has the potential to offer a mystical revelation’.
Of ‘The blind men and the elephant’, one Friend said that it was ‘a very good advert for Quakerism… no one of us has the whole picture, the more we listen to each other the more we see the whole picture’.
A golden jubilee of peace studies
On 21 April the Quaker Peace Studies Trust (QPST) marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, Adam Curle.
Around forty Friends heard Geoff Tansy, a trustee of QPST, give an overview of the history of the Trust, its involvement with peace studies at the university, and other activities, such as the establishment of the Eva Pinthus Award to support students of peace studies.
Another trustee, Susan Clarkson, spoke about her long connection with the department and of how, being resident in Bradford, she is able to engage with the students, attend valuable study trips, and take part in the department’s ‘crisis game’, which sees students take on the roles of ambassadors and research specific situations.
Prathivadi Anand, the head of the department of Peace Studies and International Development, told Friends more of the department’s wide-ranging activities and impact.
To celebrate the golden jubilee there has already been a workshop held in collaboration with the Rethinking Security group. There will be an Adam Curle Peace Lecture about peacemaking and peace building through a feminist lens by Irene M Santiago on 26 April, as well as a conference in September.
A criminal justice system in disarray
Forty Friends gathered to hear representatives from Quakers in Criminal Justice (QICJ) speak to problems with three Ps: police, prisons and probation. The news was bad on most counts, and sat alongside a court backlog that predated Covid. But that morning had seen the resignation of Dominic Raab as secretary of state for justice. He had been a ‘disaster’, said Melanie Jameson of QICJ, especially his role in Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) orders, by which people are held in prison not for what they have done, but for what they might do. Her prayer was that whoever succeeded him would address that.
Tim Newell talked about how a person’s adverse experiences (particularly in childhood) put them in a position that made imprisonment a more likely outcome. This meant that prisons were full of traumatised people. It wasn’t a sensible way to run a criminal justice system, he said, and alternative approaches, which were known to work, were underfunded. ‘Why do we take resources from what prevents harm to pay for what tempers our fear?’
Marian Liebemann discussed restorative justice (RJ). Availability of RJ approaches was ‘a postcode lottery’, she said, and depended on whether the local police commissioner was sympathetic. There was an all-party parliamentary group working on RJ (chaired by the Conservative MP Elliot Colburn), but progress had been hindered by Dominic Raab here too. The system wasn’t working, ‘It is time for us to speak our truth’.
The lifecycle of a Meeting
The Quaker World Relations Committee (QWRC) session on 22 April explored the natural lifecycle of a Quaker Meeting. It was led by Michael Booth, church government advisor for Britain Yearly Meeting.
He told the twenty-eight Friends present that no Meeting will last forever. The group was invited to consider what factors might contribute to a Meeting’s closure and what indictors there might be of a limited future.
Michael spoke about his involvement in an international group of Friends looking at the lifecycle of Meetings, but not just the ending – ‘each was new once… Meetings wax and wane’.
‘We became convinced that it’s possible for a Meeting to complete its ministry and organise its end… However, many Meetings put off asking the questions about their ongoing existence until it’s too late and the decision is one that is forced upon them.’
Friends shared a wealth of insights and experience, considering: the need to ask the question of Meetings throughout their lifetime; that difficulty managing a Meeting house does not mean the Meeting isn’t viable; and that Friends around the world organise themselves differently.
Draft chapters of the new book of discipline
The Book of Discipline Revision Committee (BDRC) held two sessions on the draft chapters that are now available online: marriage on 22 April and nominations on 23 April.
Each provided Friends with the opportunity to hear from members of the BDRC about the background to their work and about the process they are going through to move it forward, as well as giving them an opportunity to hear reactions to the texts from Friends.
Thirty Friends gathered in the first session. They heard how the committee was established, the discernment that led to the decision to revise Quaker faith & practice, and the instructions they had received from Meeting for Sufferings – namely to start with the church governance section. The new book of discipline will have two types of material: a ‘core’ book focussing on the ‘why and what’ of what Quakers do, and ‘supplementary’ material on the ‘how’, the practical guidance, which will be held online and more easily and frequently updated as required. The aim is for the final draft to be brought to Yearly Meeting 2027.
Fiona O’Sullivan, a member of the committee, also shared reflections on the approach being taken with the core governance chapters, which include the use of a single narrative voice in addition to quotations.
She also spoke of the approach the committee has taken in relation to language, especially use of the word ‘God’. As will be addressed in the introduction of the final book, they acknowledge that no single word fully defines God, the Spirit, the Light, the numinous. And so different words will be used throughout the book, but each chapter will be consistent in using one. In these examples, marriage uses ‘God’ and nominations ‘Spirit’.
In breakout rooms Friends considered their responses to the draft text and/or audio; how it felt and whether there was anything particularly helpful or jarring. A plenary gave Friends an opportunity to share these with the group, and to ask questions.
The second session, focussed on the chapter about nominations, followed a similar format and saw forty-four Friends take part, following an introduction from Catherine James, of the BDRC.
She asked: ‘Are we getting it right? That’s what we need to know.’
Friends were encouraged to visit www.quaker.org.uk/rqfp to listen to or read the draft chapters. There are links on the page to submit feedback for consideration by the committee by the end of May.
QUNO turns seventy-five
The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) was established seventy-five years ago, around the same time as the UN itself.
On 23 April over thirty Friends heard about their work from Laurel Townhead, representative for human rights and refugees, and her programme assistant, Yasmin Beldjelti. They emphasised the ‘how’ as much as the ‘what’, and the impact the organisation has had through ‘quiet diplomacy’.
The team brings people together over food at Quaker House in Geneva, where informal and off-the-record conversations can take place that are not otherwise possible. QUNO also focuses on ‘raising issues up’, building expertise and speaking out on topics where they don’t think others are.
Laurel spoke of the importance of the QUNO summer school, which plays a role in ‘the ecosystem of change’, while Yasmin described the small team that runs the QUNO Geneva office and its governance structure.
Laurel shared that ‘a really significant amount of our funding comes from Friends’, which is important because ‘it means we’re less tied by changing funding priorities of others… [what] it gives us is the space to be more focused on the concerns of Friends as raised up through the discernment process through our governance committee’.
The pair shared what helps them sustain hope in the face of such deeply challenging issues.
Friends were given an opportunity to ask questions, such as: how the Geneva and New York offices interact, how they respond to situations such as Ukraine, the importance of UN work at the country-level, and how resource constraints impact their work.
Campaigning for peace after the invasion of Ukraine
Around forty Quakers came to discuss how Friends can campaign for peace after the invasion in Ukraine. Charlotte Cooper, from Quaker Peace & Social Witness, opened the session talking about the challenges of remaining pacifist in times of war, saying that some Friends were questioning their testimony. There are no simple answers, she stressed, but we do have ‘good answers to hard questions’. Yet nonviolence is not about judging other people’s actions, or claiming that we would have certainty if we were in their position, she said. It was also important not to be ‘paralysed’ by these hard questions, as they can distract from other constructive focuses. These include the Ukrainians who are nonviolently resisting the war (from monitoring war crimes to protecting civilians); or those on both sides who don’t want to fight; and the continuing impact of the war, such as the lives lost, the environmental impact, and the nuclear threat.
Philip Austin, from Northern Friends Peace Board, said that peace campaigning was also about upholding those who are impacted by war, and it was important to keep the conversation going with politicians to counter ‘the very strong media narrative that throwing weapons will get us out of the situation when clearly it won’t’. To counter the threat of public hostility towards peace campaigning, he described that one Friend had said: ‘We just need to listen’ and engage with people’s questions. Flagging up the Global Days of Action on Military Spending, a worldwide campaign running until mid-May, Philip stressed there was ‘still a lot of potential in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons’ which came into force in January 2021, and many Friends are actively engaged in raising awareness of this.
Robin Bowles, from Quaker Roots, then spoke about Quaker witness against the Defence & Security Equipment International fair in London this autumn. Highlighting the destruction of the global arms industry, he quoted a woman from Yemen describing the ‘living hell’ when missiles are dropped: ‘One weapon has far more destruction than you know or read about,’ she said, describing the civilians injured and killed, and children crying and wetting their beds, unable to go to school because the buildings are being targeted, and food is unaffordable and scarce.
Shamanism and Quakerism
Forty-eighty people gathered to take part in a shamanic journey in a session on 21 April. David Brown, from the Experiment with Light group, told Friends that the word ‘Shamanism’ originated in Siberia, but shamanic practice can be seen all over the world, particularly North and South America, and Asia. ‘The word entered the English language in the 1600s and means being open to spirit in everything,’ he said. ‘Or, in Quaker language, being open to that of God in everything, not just other people, but also nature.’
Quoting Advices & queries 42, David said that Shamanism has common ground with Quakerism, with its notions that everything is sacred, alive and interconnected; and we can communicate with everything, and everything can communicate with us. Both talk about the right relationship to God, spirit and animals, he said, as well as everything around us. After describing the ‘lower’, ‘middle’ and ‘upper worlds’, David took us on a ‘journey’ to the upper world – the higher, spiritual and possibly angelic dimensions – which consisted of a thirty-minute guided meditation. Although we didn’t journey to a drum beat, as is the usual practice, we did go with an ‘intention’ (in my case to receive guidance on a particularly thorny issue, which I am happy to say was answered). Friends reported seeing beautiful light and peace, with one person seeing their feral cat who had disappeared years ago – and watched it turn into a tiger. Another experienced visions of the Amazon before ending up in her grandmother’s garden, ‘among the sweet peas’ (her intention was to reconnect with her long-lost grandmother’s wisdom). David then told us about a ‘prayer bundle’ (‘despacho’) from Peru, in which you ‘manifest an intention on paper with leaves and flowers, and then burn it so the prayer goes up to Spirit’. ‘Psychologically you can see it as a way of holding an intention for a period of time, not unlike a Meeting holding a person in the Light,‘ said David.
Helping the people of Congo benefit from their mineral rights
Elizabeth Coleman, from the Quaker Congo Partnership UK (QCPUK), spoke about the group’s campaign to help the people of DR Congo benefit from their mineral rights. ‘Congo is very rich in minerals but they are constantly being exported and the people are among the poorest in the world,’ she told the twelve participants. Jacques Kanda, originally from Congo, summarised the country’s turbulent history since it became independent from Belgium in 1960. Now the second-largest country in Africa, the people suffered greatly under presidents Mobuto and Kabila, and a long-standing war in the east of the county has seen an estimated ten million people killed and five thousand women raped.
Congo’s abundance in minerals includes a third of the cobalt used in electric cars, as well as sixty per cent of coltane used for PCs, laptops and electronic gadgets. The country is also rich in uranium, diamond and wood, with the second-largest forest in the world, but the minerals can also be a curse, leading to: violent conflict; rape of men, women and children; people being driven off their land; and environmental destruction.
Friends heard how corruption and exploitation from foreign companies, with miners paid only one or two dollars a day, continue to plague the country. But the group’s work is having an effect: George Bahni, based in Congo, described how their campaigns are helping people understand their rights better, with local authorities now coming for advice. Meanwhile Jules Irenge spoke about the education and workshops the group runs, as well as meetings and campaigns. A weekly radio broadcast by George Bahni is raising awareness of the need to protect mineral rights, reaching 10,000 people, with another one hosted by Jules hoped to start soon. The group has also produced reports highlighting conflicts between companies and artisanal miners, and companies involved in land-grabbing. Elizabeth said, though only starting two years ago, the group is getting known in the country and is invited to meetings, including one with a minister who was interested in its campaigns. ‘It’s a huge problem, but I do think that progress is being made.’
Hearing African voices on reparations
Fifty-one Friends came to hear members of Quaker Africa Interest Group (QAIG) discuss their experiences working in partnership with Friends and organisations in Africa on the questions of: ‘How do we deal with the legacy of a colonial past and with imbalances in soft and hard power as donors?’ and ‘Is true partnership possible?’
Ann Floyd, from QAIG, opened the session highlighting two key points made in the QAIG statement in response to the Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) 2022 minute 33 on making reparations for the harms of the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and economic exploitation. These are that the injustices are not just historic but ongoing – poor countries still suffer from rich countries behaviour in terms of climate change, for example – and the second is that ‘we felt that we should be addressing loss and damage and injustices’, rather than trying to work out who is owed compensation and how much, and taking a broad approach. The third point, she said, is working in partnership: ‘It is crucial to listen to those most affected, to avoid the continuation of colonialist practices and attitudes… and that is what this meeting is about.’
Friends then heard from three Quakers from Africa who each highlighted the importance of dialogue and hearing African voices on the continuing effects of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Robert Wafula, from Kenya, encouraged people in the UK ‘to come and see what is going on in Kenya and the areas that are having difficulties making ends meet. That would be a good place to start’. Describing regions with arid land, deforestation, and a lack of water, he said, many conflicts are over resources and poverty caused by colonialism, with young people still suffering the effects.
Justine Limpitlaw, from Southern Africa Yearly Meeting, said she had been ‘personally challenged’ by the minute, and said that, while it recognised the ongoing injustices, there was a feeling among some Southern African Friends that ‘this was devoid of sufficient meaning for those suffering the ongoing impact… what historical impacts are being acknowledged? We wanted a real granularity of what those were, to make sure that there is a recognition.’ She also called for BYM to find ‘a mechanism for listening’ to African voices ‘so we have an actual account’. She also questioned the practicalities of making reparations ‘because the whole continent has been impacted by colonialism’. BYM is ‘hugely influential in impacting what governments do’ and should be talking about reviewing foreign aid, so it could be a tool for making reparations. Another Friend echoed that the language of reparation was important, but ‘they want it in action’, including initiatives that promote clean energy and sustainability. She also highlighted the struggle many women and girls face.
In discussion, one Friend said forty per cent of people in Kenya and Sudan are aged under fourteen: ‘nearly half the population are children, many are orphans… could people be thinking particularly of their interests?’
Epilogues
A quiet time at the end of the day, held in a spirit of worship, epilogues have long been a feature of Yearly Meetings and many other Quaker gatherings.
During Yearly Meeting 2023 a range of these opportunities for worship were offered throughout, in person and online.
From 28 to 30 April Beacon Epilogue was held each evening. It was hosted by Friends from Lighthouse Epilogue, which began in April 2020 as a response to the first pandemic lockdown, and has continued ever since.
Each evening an offering was made to the two dozen or so Friends who gathered.
On Friday, music was played, ‘Baba Yetu’ as sung by the Stellenbosch University Choir, which can be heard at https://bit.ly/BabaYetuBYM, and a quote from Quaker Process for Friends on the Benches by Matilda Navias was read: ‘Every group preparing to make a decision has a musical composition in the making. No one really knows the tune until each part gets offered up in its rightful place. There will be no music if the drummer insists on drowning out the oboist. The rests are as important as the note to be played. The holding back is as important as soaring into a solo. The Holy Spirit calls forth the tune; the clerk facilitates that process.’
Saturday’s offering was an extract from Living Adventurously, the book of discipline for Central and Southern Africa Yearly Meeting. It features words written by Jennifer Kinghorn for the Richard Gush Lecture in 2005: ‘I know that the ethical mysticism of Quakerism is effective in renewing and healing the world. I know that I cannot live fully in body, mind, and spirit on my own. The maturing process is a communal one. We are part of a communal discovery and evolution. Our process is good, it will lead us to a good place in the mystery.’
On Sunday a video from the Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC) about the wisdom of geese was shared, which can be viewed at https://bit.ly/WisdomGeese, focussing on the way they work together when flying in a ‘V’ formation.
Curious Friends can find out more by contacting lighthouseepilogue@gmail.com.
An Intergenerational Epilogue was hosted by Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) on Saturday, shortly after the Swarthmore Lecture.
Tas Cooper, a YFGM elder, offered an introduction. He said: ‘I’m not much of an activist or maker of big waves. When I think about “how we can change society” I just get daunted at the scale of the thing and want to be left out of the limelight… But I’m reminded of Isaac Penington: “do not despise the day of small things”.’
He quoted former YFGM clerks about ‘a lesson learned every time we meet… how small acts of love and work unseen and unacknowledged create more love, and the grounds for love to act in the wide world’.
He reflected: ‘YFGM is like that, and so is the family of Friends more generally, for me: we have our business, our concerns and activism and special interest gatherings, but at its heart it’s “a community, and it shall ever remain a place of family, friendship and unconditional love”… How can we change society? Perhaps, one small act at a time, helping one another up and helping one another on, with a tender hand.’
There was also an opportunity to worship with Friends from other Yearly Meetings, including on Sunday night, during an Epilogue hosted by Quaker World Relations Committee (QWRC).
Johan and Judy Maurer, of Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends in the USA, led the forty Friends gathered in a semi-programmed worship.
They began by sharing the history of their YM, which is a coalition of seven Quaker congregations and describes itself as ‘Christ-centred and dedicated to welcoming LGBTQ people’. It formed after Northwest Yearly Meeting decided that Local Meetings who affirmed same sex relationships would no longer be included.
Johan spoke of how the Friends involved all ‘cherish the same scriptures’ but understood the authority of the Bible, Yearly Meeting, and faith and practice differently. ‘One of the things cemented in us was the real heart for concern to build a trustworthy church… we stopped complaining about the church we had and started dreaming about the church we want’.
Apologies, we didn’t quite have room for a report on the Salter Lecture. We’ll get to that next week.
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