Yearly Meeting 2024 - part five
The Friend reports from Yearly Meeting 2024, Friday to Sunday
After opening worship (‘I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go to the house of the Lord’, quoted one Friend), Session Four returned to the issue of governance structures. The clerk had heard in the exploration sessions that Friends had reservations that had not been expressed in the minuted session (at the one the Friend was able to attend, these concerned issues such as the role of the relevant agenda committee, which would now be given much more work, and consequently perhaps more influence). Only if Friends were minded to accept the proposals could they move on to other matters. She knew that some things needed more thought. Terms of reference could be drawn up to be approved later by MfS, but detail on bursaries for attendance, or the patterns and distribution of Meetings, could not be agreed now. Could Friends find unity on the broader proposals?
One Friend believed the Meeting was minded to agree to them, despite his own personal concern. Discernment was best undertaken by worshipping groups that had grown together, he said, and was worried that the new system would not allow for that.
Another Friend wanted to remind the Meeting that, despite some of our language on equality, Friends were actually a hierarchical group – but this hierarchy was an ever-changing river. Without it, ‘the power goes to the most charismatic and the most articulate… Let’s not remove barriers which are there to keep the river flowing’.
One was struck by how ‘uncontentious the proposals are’. She expected ‘hot debate’.
She was about to get it in a way. Adwoa, searching for the right way to express it, was looking for alternative views.
One Friend, in broad agreement, wondered again about the new responsibilities for clerks and agenda committee. Another hoped Friends could retain the name ‘Sufferings’. Then one Friend rose to apologise for the fact that he would be the ‘dust in the ointment’. It was a ‘matter of principle’ to him that the agenda process would be controlled by a small group of people. So began a shift in the room. ‘That Friend speaks my mind,’ shouted one Friend. Adwoa thought Friends might be at unity, however, and asked in that direction. She got mostly ‘Hope so’ but enough ‘No’ to take pause. An elder intervened. ‘Dear God, we really need some help right now.’ He asked Friends to ‘take a minute’ to test their leadings.
Adwoa was uncomfortable in proceeding with a minute. She felt like maybe ‘seventy-two per cent’ of Friends were minded to accept, and offered a session for those opposed to meet with clerks to discuss further. The room did not like that approach. ‘No’ was shouted again, with a Friend saying, ‘That is not our way… the work has to be done with all of us together’. The minute, which most had initially expected to be one of approval, said instead that Friends had failed to find unity. They would return to the issue later in the week.
After the session Friends gathered for a witness, encircling Friends House to stand for peace around the world. Some (mostly young) Friends were already there, with pro-Palestine banners that the original witness had chosen to avoid. Friends took differing views, but in practice the witnesses merged, and it was perhaps the Palestinian flag that got the most horns sounding on the Euston Road.
Sunday ended with a Celebration evening to mark the 400th anniversary of George Fox's birth. There was cake and laughter, and a series of interactive games and crafts for all ages. No one minded what George Fox himself might have thought of being celebrated – Friends needed the opportunity to let their hair down: difficult sessions were ahead of them in the coming days. ν
Yearly Meeting minutes can be found at www.quaker.org.uk/ym/documents...>. Next week: Mon-Tues, and the non-YM Salter Lecture.
