Outdoor Meetings
Thank you to Craig Barnett for his most useful report (1 November) of the much-awaited conference on the Future of British Quakerism.
He mentions so many ideas for unconventional Meetings for Worship. One idea, which our Meeting has explored for a while now, is gathering out of doors. We walk to a clearing in the woodland, which has a fireplace and a large old parachute covering, which mostly keeps out the rain. We build a fire in the middle and sit round on logs for our Meeting for Worship. It always seems to result in a deeply spiritual time that encompasses all of us present. It is a precious gift which we look forward to each month.
Sally Hartog
Future of British Quakerism
It was encouraging to read the articles about the Future of British Quakerism conference, especially the one by Craig Barnett saying that ‘what we are experiencing is not death, but transformation’. And I agree that in the future there will be a greater diversity of different kinds of Quaker community, especially online.
I liked his suggestion that ‘it will look much more like a movement than a monolithic organisation’. However, if that is to happen, we need to be much better at reorganising ourselves and our existing structures, and this will be hard for many older Quakers.
I attended part of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) this year and was appalled at the amount of time spent on the proposed changes to Sufferings and BYM, at the expense of discussing some of the critical issues facing us in the world. Various young Friends were equally shocked. And this review is still ongoing.
In my view, simplification needs to go a lot further and we need to change our labyrinthine structures if we are to become more of a movement. This will be a painful process for some but one which I am sure will be welcomed by many younger Friends.
As a start why don’t we hand over at least one full day of next year’s BYM to a group of young Friends and see what they come up with, as happened in Germany’s Yearly Meeting this year? It was recommended in Maris Vigar’s letter to the Friend (1 November).
Gerald Conyngham
