Yearly Meeting Gathering (YMG), 2021: Fringe and preparatory events
‘Living well does not have to mean living like us.’
How to Draw a Labyrinth
One fringe event aimed to provide Friends with something light-hearted and playful. How to Draw a Labyrinth, led by Barbara Childs, was held a number of times throughout YMG.
Barbara opened the session with an introduction to labyrinths, beginning with how they differ from mazes. A labyrinth is a pattern that has just one path, no dead-ends, no possibility of getting lost. These patterns can be found all over the world, in many different cultures, and examples have been found that pre-date Christianity. In the medieval era, when pilgrimages were not possible, pilgrims would walk labyrinths as an alternative.
Labyrinths are now used for mindfulness, play, mediation, for fun, and as a reflective spiritual practice. They can be found in a range of settings, from hospitals and hospices to playgrounds and London Underground stations, each of which features a unique pattern.
For the session, Barbara guided Friends through a step-by-step process to create a seven circuit classical labyrinth. Once completed, participants were invited to spend time tracing the path of the pattern they had created, with the suggestion that this be done using their non-dominant hand.
After this reflective space, Friends were able to join breakout rooms to share their experiences with their labyrinths, and to take the opportunity to mingle in smaller groups.
Un Gwraidd Dan y Canghennau
At ‘Un Gwraidd Dan y Canghennau’ (The Same Root Underneath the Branches), Welsh Friends used Waldo Williams’ words to highlight the strength that exists in their linguistic diversity. ‘Worshipping in two languages makes us listen more carefully, and be more patient’, said one Friend. ‘It forces us to acknowledge different possible meanings’. The Society had come a good way since the days when Friends were not always sympathetic to bilingualism, said another. He had once been told there was no need for Welsh, since ‘everyone can understand English’. Friends had moved on since then but ‘more movement is necessary’.
Truths and Diversities
An abundance of creative talents was shared at an evening of entertainment hosted by the Quaker Arts Network (QAN).
Author and broadcaster Geoffrey Durham welcomed Friends to the Truths and Diversities event and introduced each act to the audience of 100 who had gathered.
Poet Phillip Gross read three pieces that reflected a theme of opposites and difference. He said that ‘difference… can be the road to intimacy’ and that poetry as an art form can provide ‘a space that listens to its own words’, not ministry but ‘a type of discernment’.
Dancer Kate Green shared a video of four Quakers from Wanstead Meeting performing a Chantraine dance. She explained that this form of dancing encompasses the spiritual and intellectual dimensions of dance as well as the physical.
Actor Emerald O’Hanrahan read an excerpt from John Lampen’s book Hester and Sophie, a moving scene where Hester, who has recently lost her best friend, is on a hike with her father.
Actor Amaryllis Gunn played guitar and sang a self-penned song about her wild garden to the tune of ‘An English Country Garden’.
Poet Sam Donaldson, whose book of poetry, This Place, is being published at the end of the month, read three pieces that spoke to his personal explorations of loving the earth.
Composer Tony Biggin presented a recording of a Quaker virtual choir that had been formed especially for the QAN event. Twenty Friends sang ‘Truth’s a Seed’ by Alec Davison and Tony Biggin, and ‘George Fox’ by Sidney Carter.
Journeymen Theatre provided two performances, both scenes from And The Beat Goes On, a production that charts three centuries of Quaker nonviolent direct action. For the event Lynn Morris performed a scene as a Palestinian Quaker woman, and Dave Morris portrayed abolitionist Benjamin Lay.
Composer Sally Beamish shared a lockdown recording of a composition used for an exhibition called Dovetailing. The exhibition is inspired by the making of stringed musical instruments and, upon being approached by the artists, Sally was moved to adapt an existing composition of a prelude and cannon for performance by two violas, played by herself and Sophie Renshaw.
Our BLM Banner and Other Craftivism
Friends from Disley Meeting hosted Our BLM Banner and Other Craftivism. Till Geiger and Ann Lewis shared the Meeting’s experience of erecting a Black Lives Matter banner. It provoked mixed responses from the local community, most alarmingly an arson attack (logged as a hate crime by the police).
The Disley Friends described the impact of this act on the Meeting and how they discerned a response. A replacement banner read ‘We say “no” to racism – Quakers uphold Equality, Peace & Truth’.
A spark had been lit within the Meeting and, inspired by Glasgow Friends producing butterflies in support of migrants, Disley Friends went on to organise a display of Nepalese prayer flags with ‘Migrants are welcome’ spelled out.
Friends in the session reflected on what item they would take if they had to leave their homes suddenly, and how that could feed into craftivism. The thought-provoking session closed with reflections on how craftivism is particularly important when traditional forms of protest are harder.
Canterbury, Ten Years On
Almost 200 Friends joined a session looking at Canterbury, Ten Years On, to consider where the Society was a decade after Friends had committed to being a sustainable community. The session was led by Caroline Howden and Peter Aviss, members of the Sustainability Monitoring Group. Discussing what had gone well, as well as some of the struggles, they had discovered that ‘The whole is greater than the parts’ – Quakers had a wide range of perspectives and approaches and were active in a number of ways. There was national support through BYM, and FWCC allowed Friends to hear from people all over the world.
Friends were in different places on the issue, however, and some projects had taken a long time to implement. Not everyone found it easy to articulate the faith basis to the commitment.
Those gathered then heard case studies from around the Yearly Meeting, from a parent encouraging a love of nature, to Meeting house renovations, to green accreditation at Friends House. In the following worship those gathered heard from Advices & queries 42: ‘We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will’.
‘I do hope that we will move further and faster’, said one Friend, ‘not only in our own lives but in our ability to change the government’s view’. Friends finished with an important question: ‘What stories will you be able to create, to share in ten years’ time?’
What’s New With the Revision Committee
Members of the Book of Discipline Revision Committee (BDRC) are clearly enjoying their work, and a spirit of optimism was evident as they offered What’s New With the Revision Committee? to almost eighty Friends. Individuals from the committee’s sub-groups offered their experiences of wrestling with different parts of the book, from nominations, to discernment, to membership. On the latter, Friends discussed how they were going to need some time to work through the tricky questions. Did it imply a hierarchy? Is membership a role, or a responsibility? How prescriptive should it be? They were going to listen carefully to what the Yearly Meeting was saying on the subject.
Those listening were fascinated and supportive, and offered a long list of questions for the committee members to take away with them.
Open to New Light: Our faith and practice through creativity
In three separate sessions (Open to New Light: Our faith and practice through creativity), BDRC members spoke about how they weren’t just looking for ‘great quotes’ for the book, but ‘materials that reflect our experience in the modern world’. The new book ‘might not just be a book’. Attending Friends were challenged to offer a creative response to Quaker faith & practice 28.11 (‘Only such writings as spring from a living experience will reach the life in others’). They offered a range of arts and craft, from woodturning to poetry to watercolour – even some expressive dance.
QCEA: Our Quaker voice in Europe supporting peacebuilding, human rights and climate action through quiet diplomacy
At QCEA: Our Quaker voice in Europe supporting peacebuilding, human rights and climate action through quiet diplomacy, new director Timmon Wallis spoke of his first 100 days in office. ‘Here we are’, he said, with the UK out of the European Union, ‘on the sidelines’. But we had been here before. The difference now was that the EU had become the largest economy in the world – one of the largest political structures in the world; the largest donor of overseas aid; the only democratic parliament of any international body. And this had happened at a time when it had become clear that the most serious problems facing humanity today require international coordination and cooperation. The EU wasn’t perfect, said Timmon, noting that QCEA’s most recent report looked at the disconnect between its climate aspirations and its willingness to support the arms industry. Similarly it was failing on migration and refugee support. But ‘it’s one thing to criticise and condemn, it’s another to help find solutions. And we see that as one of our roles at QCEA’. The organisation is trying to ‘identify specific policies and practices at the European level that we can actually have the potential to change… We are there as Quakers to challenge and disrupt, to hold absolutely firm in our own convictions of what is right and true’.
Quaker History in an Hour
In Quaker History in an Hour, Woodbrooke tutor Ben Pink Dandelion offered a fast but fascinating tour through the history of British Quakerism. Friends familiar with Ben’s writing may have come across the material before, but all were gripped by his engaging rendering of subjects like ‘the great separation’ between those Friends who began to question the Bible, and those who were closer to mainstream Christianity. As he came closer to the present day, those gathered (more than 100) heard him tell of how being open to new light came to be a key understanding of Friends in the twentieth century. Holding on to Quaker form, whatever Friends’ theology, had made the Society very ‘plural’ today. This presented challenges. Where Friends had once described themselves as the true church, they now said they were just one of many. Quakers could be ‘pretty absolutist’ about this provisionality but clear distinctiveness remained, particularly in Friends’ wish to create environments in which one could have a direct encounter with the divine. It was an arresting hour, filled with interesting asides: did you know that Quaker worship had shortened by half an hour in every century?
Climate justice: Living Equality and Truth in a time of crisis
In Climate justice: Living Equality and Truth in a time of crisis the main speaker was Beverly Ward, Quaker Earthcare Witness representative at-large. (Quaker Earthcare is an American Quaker body.) She was working on ‘climate equity’, she said, and began by reminding the 200 Friends present about one of George Fox’s journal passages in which ‘It was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to all conditions?’ She addressed the differences between equality and equity, where the former might mean everyone having the same pair of shoes, but the latter meaning everyone having a different pair that fit them.
Beverly showed a map which demonstrated that black populations in the US were still concentrated in areas most associated with enslavement – often agricultural areas with low-wage jobs. This meant that historical associations were still playing out in black people’s lives, which extended into urban areas with poor air quality and communities ‘on the frontline for the impacts of climate collapse’. This demonstrated a need for social impact assessments, and systemic change, rather than minor law amendments that could actually incite conflict among marginalised communities. Quaker Earthcare Witness United Nations Working Group was working to defend the right to live in environments that are conducive to good health and good quality of life – good environmental work had a social dimension.
Friends then heard from staff at Quaker Peace & Social Witness about their work on climate justice. This is a priority area, said Olivia Hanks, Economics & Sustainability programme manager. Justice meant acknowledging that those who were most affected by climate change had contributed the least to it. Environmental problems weren’t accidental, but the outcome of our economic system. There was a long history of rich countries using poor ones for resources, and one outcome of colonialism was that some countries were left ill-equipped to deal with the climate crisis. Rebecca Woo, QPSW campaigns and advocacy co-ordinator, added that the crisis can’t be addressed by individuals alone. Their work involved learning from others, and acting in solidarity.
Responding, Friends spoke of being ‘overwhelmed’. Some even talked of ‘despair’. But others reminded them that lifestyle changes could prompt conversations with others, and so were always worthwhile. Olivia added that recent research had suggested that humans could reduce energy usage by about 95 per cent without significantly worsening living standards: ‘Living well does not have to mean living like us.’
YMG reporting by Friend staff: Rebecca Hardy, Joseph Jones, and Elinor Smallman. Friends, we couldn’t get to every event. If you’d like to share your experience of one we missed, please do write to: editorial@thefriend.org. Full minutes can be found at www.quaker.org.uk/ym
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