Yearly Meeting 2024 - part four
The Friend reports from Yearly Meeting 2024, Friday to Sunday
Sunday morning saw a change in tone. This was an ‘All-together’ Meeting for Worship, and those who made it to Friends House were greeted with a colourful mat where young Friends worshipped in their own way. The Light was filled with the gentle sounds of young children, yet the Meeting was deeply peaceful, with a profound sense of shared worship.
Adwoa opened by referring to a large screen: ‘I hope you can see what we can see – a screen full of Local Meetings from all around the country.’
To help the children with the twenty-minute worship before they were welcome to leave, a Friend onscreen described in a meditative style what he does during Meeting for Worship. ‘It takes me a moment before I can join in properly… listening… It’s good to notice everybody; we’re all here together.’
Friends offered moving ministry in what felt like a deeply gathered Meeting. One Quaker prison chaplain described how each week they welcomed the male inmates to sit in a circle and quietly listen. ‘The metaphor I give is, imagine we are sitting around a pool or lake and when we first sit down, we are all… busy and stressed… the water is choppy… and as we settle into silence, the ripples get smaller until the lake is smooth like glass.’ She also described a man who told her he had a voice in his head which often told him to hurt people or to hurt himself. In the Quaker worship, the voice went away for ten minutes and that had never happened before. ‘I get shivers remembering that story. I know the way we can change lives. And that changes me.’
Another Friend shared ‘a sense of urgency and panic about what we’re doing to ensure the children and the baby in our midst can also know that peace when they reach our ages’. Quaker silence is ‘transformative’, said another, admitting he didn’t find it ‘peaceful or comfortable’. In this Meeting he’d been shown how to ‘make peace with some people I’ve been quite difficult to… love shows the way forward’. The energy could be felt in the corridor, he said. ‘Yesterday someone asked me to tell them about Quakers,’ offered another Friend, which he found difficult to answer. ‘I hope everyone is equipping themselves for that task.’
Towards the end of the worship one Friend reflected on their first Meeting thirty years ago, when she was told that ‘what Quakers did in silence was seek what is God in oneself and what is God in others’. ‘That’s not easy,’ she said. ‘It’s easy to find God in the agreeable, it’s more challenging to find it in the bully and the gaslighter… disagreements are sometimes a very rocky road that both parties travel, hoping in faith that you reach truth.’
‘We are the “we”. All of us.’
Maria Johnson, clerk of BYM trustees
Session three began with a reading from the epistle from Intermountain Yearly Meeting in Colorado, USA. It began by acknowledging the ‘indigenous traditions that are so deeply rooted in this region’, but noting that ‘such acknowledgements are only meaningful if they represent a commitment to healing and reconciliation’. The Meeting had been struggling with disunity but understood that ‘throughout our history, we are accustomed to living with questions’. Yet, ‘Given the tumultuous changes we face not only in our yearly meeting, but also in the world around us, these are not easy questions to answer and they leave us, at times, with deep uncertainty’.
Marisa Johnson, clerk to BYM trustees, then rose to offer their annual report. Trustees came from a range of backgrounds, which were used to match their responsibilities in finance, property, employment and so on. There wasn’t time to go into all the work, but Friends could read to Our Faith, Our Work document for more on that. She outlined the context in which trustees had been meeting, with one particular occasion being on 7 October, when Hamas attacked Israel, remembering the sorrow of that day, and the fears for the future. ‘We have not been afraid to speak our truth,’ she said. Ultimately their work was about making it ‘possible for the will of the Yearly Meeting to become manifest’.
Paul Whitehouse, treasurer, knew Friends remembered that last year’s accounts had been filed late. Much work had been done to ensure their timely arrival this year. These revealed some expected losses, and Paul warned Friends that they might need to cut back. Currently, ‘the work outstrips our ability to fund it’ (details can be found in the financial statements). The gap might be filled by an influx of new Friends, and an outreach plan was being developed to that end.
One Friend was glad to hear that, noting the ongoing decline of Friends revealed in the Tabular Statement. He wanted to know more. Another feared that, if efforts were made to attract people outside Friends’ usual demographic, they might not have the funds available to become contributors.
A further Friend wondered about the ‘we’ used in the Our Faith, Our Work report. Who, exactly was that ‘we’? Sometimes it seemed to mean trustees, sometimes staff, and sometimes YM itself.
Marisa was clear: ‘We are the “we”. All of us.’ The report collected the contribution of everyone involved. The ‘we’ was ‘All of us, all of the time’. She encouraged Friends to trust.
Mary Aiston then brought the Tabular Statement before the Meeting. Noting the concerns that had already been raised about the decline it revealed, she pointed out that it was a simple statement of fact. It was therefore accepted without further ministry.
