Yearly Meeting 2024: Preparation - part twelve
The Friend’s reports from Yearly Meeting preparation sessions and special interest meetings continues
In Woodbrooke: the next phase of our vision, Simon Best introduced sixteen Friends to Mandy Cooper, Woodbrooke’s new CEO. She was impressed by Friends’ enthusiasm and drive, and was grateful for their upholding. Mandy wanted them to know that, having moved from its building, Woodbrooke’s ‘purpose hasn’t changed’. It was still ‘a place of learning, discussion, reflection, contemplation, discernment and growth’. What had changed was how it would be delivering those things.
Mandy had been reflecting on how the early founders of Woodbrooke would be viewing today’s opportunities. George Cadbury, as a pioneer and imagineer, would be excited, she thought.
Woodbrooke’s courses would still be offered, with more plans for multimedia resources, from ‘audibles’ to virtual reality. The staff team of sixteen was essential, of course, but Woodbrooke also needed the support of its hundreds of volunteer facilitators and tutors. ‘Woodbrooke belongs to you,’ she said. ‘It exists because you want it to exist.’
Friends had several questions. Could Woodbrooke’s online worshipping communities become a formal Meeting? A worship sub group had been set up, said Mandy, and Friends would see movement on its discernment soon.
One Friend missed the in-person tutor community. She welcomed online activities but wanted Friends to remember that they were ‘embodied creatures’. ‘Please don’t forget the old ways’, she said. Associate tutors were an essential part of Woodbrooke’s life and operation, said Mandy. Finding ways to support them was a priority.
Another Friend just wanted ‘to enthuse’. Woodbrooke once served a very narrow group of people, he said, so the new ventures were ‘more accessible and timely.’
In Lloyds of London: underwriting exploitation, Friends gathered to hear about the insurance firm, its role underwriting the slave trade, and current fossil fuel projects. Anna Lewis, from Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM)’s climate justice team, outlined British involvement in the Middle Passage, where from 1750 to 1900, two million enslaved people died, and there were 10,000 voyages by British slave ships. Anna also described how the Industrial Revolution was heavily dependant on the slave trade. ‘Many people were involved,’ said Anna, ‘but shipping was a big part which needed insurance to manage the risk of the business.’ There were many risks in transporting the people and goods across the sea, and ‘the global centre of insurance was Lloyds of London,’ she said, which still operates today. Starting as a coffee house, where insurance was traded, by the late 1700s and early 1800s, Lloyds enjoyed a huge share of the market. Lloyds also forged relationships between the captains and underwriters, and even actively protested against anti-slavery legislation, she said. Some insurance even featured a clause insuring against rebellionn and resistance from the enslaved people.
Although Lloyds apologised in 2020 for its history, committing £52 million in 2023 to various initiatives, the slave trade and colonialism have left traces, including in Lloyds’ substantial finances, said Anna.
In breakout rooms, Friends considered other types of reparations, in addition to money: apologising, perhaps, fixing old narratives, and building a fairer world. There was also discussion about Lloyds’ financial investment in ‘climate bombs’ like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (ECOP). Although the project has not been confirmed (it is struggling to get insurance, in part due to campaigning), it will displace people and destroy farmlands and freshwater sources. Sharing footage of protests, Anna said campaigns such as Insure Our Future have had ‘significant success’ in encouraging insurers to pull out of oil and gas projects. However, as a ‘marketplace’, Lloyds is arguing it is an umbrella for lots of different insurers acting independently, and unwilling to set rules. ‘They have adopted guidelines on coal, but they are still not enforced,’ said Anna.
On Monday, twenty-seven Friends met for Quaker Racial Justice Network (QRJN) – Real transformation is happening. Informal contacts between Friends who are active in various aspects of racial justice (including research into how Friends were responding to Yearly Meeting minutes on racial justice and reparations) were formalised into QRJN in September 2023.
QRJN has a broad conceptualisation of ‘race’, not limited to shade of skin or texture of hair, but nonetheless recognising that ethnicity affects life expectancy, and treatment in certain situations, and therefore has real life significance. QRJN has quickly become an enriching community, helping Friends develop new ways of seeing, understanding, and being in the world.
Friends were reassured to hear that racial justice will be addressed in the revision of the Book of Discipline. Attendees were mostly white, which attendees understood was appropriate because it behoves those who are white to learn and understand more about their white privilege, and to address the resulting inequalities. Friends were grateful to QRJN members for sharing their journeys.
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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