Yearly Meeting 2024: Preparation - part seventeen
The Friend’s reports from Yearly Meeting preparation sessions and special interest meetings continues
A special interest group on Engaging with the new government was led by BYM’s public affairs team. Grace Da Costa and Billy Vaughan said the team was keen to be involved in Labour’s Ethics and Integrity Commission (although more details had yet to be announced) and was planning to engage different Quaker groups, ‘so we can have a stronger collective voice’. The team will also be seeking to work with new and re-elected MPs at national and local level, building long-term relations and helping them maintain their truth and integrity. ‘We will focus on MPs that are interested and influential in areas that we want to focus on,’ she said. This also includes the six Quaker MPs now in parliament. Friends were also encouraged to engage with their MPs locally, and the team plans to provide support with this, including offering greetings cards and Faith in Action drop-in sessions to provide one-to-one support for Friends.
‘We hope to have one-to-one meetings at national level with MPs, and to continue the quiet diplomacy and group meetings we’ve been having… as part of our work on truth and integrity,’ said Grace.
Responding to disillusionment was a particularly hard task, she added, which the team plans to discuss with colleagues, Friends and other groups. Other challenges being explored are addressing the rise of the far right.
In breakout rooms, Friends discussed: their views on BYM’s plans so far; what Friends can do to engage with parliamentarians; and how BYM could support this. One Friend expressed concern that BYM’s chosen issues might have left ‘a wide gap’ which could be ‘dangerous for Quakerism’. With no focus on social justice per se, ‘it takes us further away from people who are actually hurting’. Grace pointed out that social inequality is covered in climate justice, but agreed there had been a shift in focus. Friends could witness locally on these issues, or collaborate with other campaign groups.
With calls for BYM to not lose sight of the conflict minerals involved in green technology, and a reminder about the relaunch of Rethinking Security in September, the Meeting drew to a close.
‘It’s quite extraordinary that with a small team you manage to do as much as you do,’ reflected one of the twenty-eight Friends who gathered for How Quaker Social Action aims to speak truth to power with integrity.
Claire Brandon, head of services at QSA, introduced the session with a brief overview of the history of the charity and how it works.
Sophie Clarke, manager of QSA’s Down to Earth project, then spoke of how this ‘supports people on low-incomes and benefits who are struggling with funeral costs’.
The funeral costs helpline supported 966 people in the financial year from 2023 to 2024. It has seen an increase in demand of more than sixty per cent. Tens of thousands of people access QSA’s extensive digital resources, the latest of which is an eligibility checker for the Funeral Expenses Payment.
Sophie then described the strategic aspect of QSA’s work, which includes its contributions to the Competition and Markets Authority’s Funerals Market Investigation Order in 2021, and ongoing reporting of funeral directors who are not complying with it – 250 to date.
Aqeelah Malek, manager of the Cook Up project, then introduced her work, which provides access to a cooking space. This forms part of QSA’s homelessness work, including those who are: street homeless, in temporary accommodation, or asylum seekers and refugees.
Cook Up hires two kitchens in London and holds six sessions a month, with ingredients and travel provided. In three years, said Aqeelah, ‘we’ve supported 136 participants and cooked a whopping 7,000 portions of food’.
‘It’s quite extraordinary that you manage to do as much as you do.’
QSA is also doing more advocacy work. For example, it did a lot of research into the catered Home Office accommodation that came about during the pandemic. Asylum seekers received £37 a week before the pandemic, which was dropped to £9 a week, with contractors being paid to cater three meals a day. These meals had inadequate portion size, were lacking in nutrients, and generally poor quality. The contractors were paid ‘in excess of £8 million a day for housing and catering’ and saw skyrocketing profits.
QSA is hoping the Cook Up project can be used as a case study. One Friend said: ‘Your organisation doesn’t speak truth to power, it actually shows truth to power... God bless you all.’
Playful preparations for exploration afternoons was an extremely jolly session in which six Friends were led in play by Kirsty Philbrick of BYM.
Beginning by guiding Friends through some self massage, Kirsty talked about how play could be nurturing and liberating. She then asked Friends to put a piece of paper on their heads and draw themselves. Laughter was the abiding sound of the session, as everyone learned not to be self-critical.
A game in which Friends had to reply with words that were opposite to the first one given showed how play could be profound. After a couple of obvious picks (dark/light, soft/spiky) and a few comical ones (custard/mustard), answers to ‘adventure’ got Friends really thinking. And was ‘fundamentalist’ the best opposite of ‘Quaker’?
Other games went in the same vein. What colour is integrity? What shape is it? What animal? If the YM exploration sessions are anything like this, then go reader go.
Writing by: Lis Burch, a trustee of the Friend; Rebecca Hardy, journalist at the Friend; Imi Hills, a freelancer from West Weald Meeting; Joseph Jones, editor of the Friend; Alastair Reid, a trustee of the Friend; and Elinor Smallman, production manager at the Friend.
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