Yearly Meeting 2024 - part ten

The Friend reports from Yearly Meeting 2024, Monday to Tuesday

In the opening ten-minute worship of Session eight, the closing session, Friends seemed quick to speak. Arriving late to the morning session, one Quaker said he had been reminded of the words of Robert Barclay: ‘When I came into the silent assemblies of God’s people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart; and as I gave way unto it I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up.’

Another Friend said that, when she introduced Sunday’s outdoor witness, she talked about ‘the despair’ of ‘the world in conflict’ and what brings hope. Meeting for Worship gives her hope, she said: ‘the magical, mysterious connection between us. Thank you for being here, Friends.’

So began a joyful end to the five-day gathering, which at times had seen disagreement and upset. The room welcomed children and young people, hearing their epistles, as well as the first draft of BYM’s epistle (see page 15). This being Tuesday afternoon, there were a smaller number of Friends present than had been there over the weekend – 143 friends online and around 300 in the room. ‘We will throw minutes at you,’ said the clerk, but ‘they’re important and beautiful’. 

Mary Aiston, second assistant clerk, read out words from the young people’s (YP@YM) Meeting for Worship, on the power of love and truth in public life: ‘Sometimes we can find it hard to speak’ but ‘our truth can shake the whole world. If everyone works together we can make a difference,’ it read. ‘We also know truth can hurt and this is hard. Especially if someone else’s truth is not yours… But perhaps sometimes we can welcome opportunities even though it might make us vulnerable.’

Finola O’Sullivan, of Cambridgeshire Area Meeting, then read the draft BYM epistle which talked about change as a constant in life. ‘How can we open Quaker spaces so everyone feels welcome?’ The epistle also asks: ‘How can we love those who do bad things?… loving… is an action more than a feeling’, referring to the Swarthmore Lecture. There was also a nod to disagreements in sessions seeking to welcome transgender, nonbinary and gender diverse people: ‘Unity is not the same as unanimity… minority views may continue to exist… we need to find kinder ground for our disagreements.’ Proposals to meet four times a year had been ‘deeply tested then accepted’, it said.

After some minor suggested tinkerings from Friends, Adwoa asked: ‘Is the epistle as beautiful as we feel it?’ and the room filled with murmurs of agreement. Fred then read draft minutes, starting with accepting a letter of greeting to the Friends World Committee for Consultation’s World Plenary. This mentioned YM’s discernment on equity and justice, and said we need to acknowledge ourselves as a YM in a country that has a colonial past. 

More draft minutes included receiving epistles from other YMs around the world, as well as testimonies that had not already been minuted in other sessions, and welcoming Friends from sixty-one other YMs and Quaker groups around world. Asking Friends from other YMs to stand, who ‘haven’t already made yourself known’, people stood in the west, east and north blocks, while others raised electronic hands online. Visitors from other churches were also welcomed.

It was then time for the ‘absolute joy’ of receiving minutes and artwork from the children’s programme, said Adwoa, which as a primary school teacher she knew could be ‘haphazard’. 

‘At Tavistock Square Gardens we made big bubbles and shared games joyfully,’ said the Fox Cubs minute. ‘We brought back small things we loved and thought of their message of commitment to a sustainable future.’ 

Next came the YP@YM minute, which spoke of learning about ‘different aspects of showing love and where we find this in our day-to-day actions’. Finally, a member of Junior Yearly Meeting read their epistle on the theme of ‘How can we nurture love in our actions?’

 ‘Ben Jarman, Swarthmore lecturer, challenged both our preconceptions about the people who inhabit our prisons and the systems which control them,’ read the epistle. ‘As youth we often feel powerless, even within our wider Quaker community, and his emphasis on the “tiny slices of power” that we hold gave a portion back to us.’

The session ended with Adwoa reading the BYM epistle aloud again, signing it into another moment of Quaker history.

Yearly Meeting minutes can be found at  www.quaker.org.uk/ym/documents

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