Photo: The Friend.
Yearly Meeting 2025: Friday 23rd May
Follow the discernment that unfolded during Yearly Meeting
The Opening Session of Yearly Meeting can be a bit like Marmite. Some dislike the slow trek through lists of nominations and notices. But others see Quaker practice at its best: the upholding of the functions of a DIY church. Mary Aiston, second assistant clerk, said as much when she quoted Elizabeth Allen, assistant clerk to Meeting for Sufferings (MfS): ‘It seems like dry business but, take the lid off the box, it’s what we’re about… We need people to give faithful service, joyfully. Each of these names is a picture of the people who do that.’
But first were some notices, including a surprisingly detailed one on the Friends House toilets. Some signage had had to be changed because of recent clarifications in the law surrounding transgender people. This changed nothing about Yearly Meeting’s wish to affirm and include our trans and non-binary Friends, said Siobhán Haire, deputy recording clerk. Toilets were available for use according to a person’s lived experience. Facilities were trans inclusive. No one would be asked to make any disclosure. Siobhán was unequivocal and clear, and, happily, probably headed off any grumbling or misunderstanding.
Following a reading of Quaker faith & practice 10.04 (‘The life of a religious society consists in something more than the body of principles it professes’) Friends went into opening worship. All the ministry was unspoken.
Welcoming all Friends, Adwoa Burnley, clerk, noted that much of the world was ‘plunged into darkness’. But ‘let’s look towards hope’, she said. Almost 2,000 people had registered to attend, including more than 400 first-timers, so she would be careful to make sure everything was comprehensible – indeed, Adwoa’s welcoming manner is such that, even when warning Friends to be kind to staff, she managed to make it feel like an inclusive exercise.
Elders and the pastoral support team were introduced in their colourful sashes before Friends heard from representatives from Central Nominations Committee. They were keen for Friends to offer their availability for central work: just 2.8 per cent of Friends had done so, they said. Then came those long lists of appointees – but Mary Aiston prefers not to list actual names. ‘We don’t need to read out every one to show how much we value people,’ she said. It meant business moved on pretty quickly.
Next up were Rosie Carnall and Anya Ramamurthy of the Book of Discipline Revision Committee. Their report will be familiar to Friends who attended preparation sessions earlier in the month, but the pair reminded Friends of where the committee had gotten to in the production of a new book of discipline. Final drafts would be completed by October of this year with the aim of offering a complete text in the Documents in Advance for Yearly Meeting 2027. Ultimately the committee hopes that a complete new book can be approved at Yearly Meeting 2030. The next stages would mean Friends being willing to ‘read, reflect and respond’, said Rosie. ‘So clear your diary.’
The last business of the evening was an introduction to international peace work. This involved hearing from two Friends who had been ecumenical accompaniers in Israel/occupied Palestine. Their contributions were to set a tone for the whole weekend.
Debbie Flack had found in Quakerism a way to do something more than ‘scream at the news on TV’. In Palestine she ‘learned… that holding on to your humanity and resisting the tyranny of hate is the work of love’. She contrasted the beauty of the landscape with the ugliness of occupation. But ‘a better world can exist, and I have a role in trying to create it’.
Jane Harries echoed the sentiments. She had learned: ‘The importance of naming things…recognising that true peace can’t come about without justice and equality… peace can never be brought about from a position of systemic oppression of one side by the other. True reconciliation can only come from a recognition of the truth, hard though that is.’
‘Let us take these words and let them seep into us over our weekend,’ said Adwoa. They surely did.
