Yorkshire Friends inspired
Friends met in York for an inspiring gathering
Quakers in Yorkshire met at The Mount School in York on 15 October for what one described as ‘an inspiring and challenging day’.
Stephen Pittam, formerly of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, talked about a proposal to establish York as a Human Rights City. He explained that it would be the first in the UK. In Europe, Graz and Vienna in Austria, Bihac in Bosnia, and Utrecht in the Netherlands are part of the initiative.
Janet Dean, of Friargate Meeting, told the Friend that York becoming a Human Rights City ‘would build on the presence of the University of York Centre for Applied Human Rights and bring together partners from across the city to respond to the challenges of government proposals to introduce a Bill of Rights in place of the Human Rights Act’.
She added: ‘Stephen helped us to understand how we can change people’s perceptions about human rights and demonstrated how protecting the [provisions of the] Human Rights Act safeguards those aspects of life that people prioritise for themselves, such as health, housing, poverty and equality.’
Part of the day was devoted to a presentation by students from Bootham and The Mount schools. Janet Dean said that the young people ‘demonstrated how a deeper understanding of Quaker history and current Quaker thinking provided enrichment in the schools on a daily basis and prepared them to demonstrate Quaker values in the world’.
The young people described their participation in a joint retreat at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham and on the Quaker Pilgrimage.
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