London Quakers AGM 2011
London Quakers: All Day Event Including AGM 5/3/2011
Faith for our Future – Susan Seymour
Susan’s talk covered two areas:-
1. Her recent experience of clerking Meeting for Sufferings
2. Quaker responses to global change
Clerking Meeting for Sufferings
Advices and Queries 2
Susan discovered Quakers after 25 years of no contact with religion. For her, an important meaning of living a life of faith is having the belief that what we do makes difference.
She received an unexpected invitation to be Clerk of Meeting for Sufferings at a time when Sufferings’ role was changing into something more “visionary”. She had no previous experience as a Clerk. Whilst serving as Clerk of Meeting for Sufferings, she felt she had a lot of practical support (including having a Recording Clerk).
A review group was set up to review the workings of Meeting for Sufferings and BYM Trustees from 2009. Their report will be presented at BYMG 2011. One proposal is to make the Sufferings committee smaller.
Meeting for Sufferings were quite tentative about same sex marriage – it was put to BYM in 2009, where more major discernment occurred.
Quaker Responses to Global Change
Meeting for Sufferings has contributed more substantially on the topic of sustainability and climate change, including in 2009 “A Quaker response to the crisis of climate change.”
Susan recommended watching the environmentally conscious documentary, Home: The Movie
When storms come, some build walls, some are thrown by the wind. Others build windmills. Lao Tzu
FWCC “Friends Responses to Global Change: An FWCC Worldwide Consultation among Friends” presents six queries that form the backbone of this consultation. Friends will consider these queries at the world conference in Kenya in 2012. Query 6 reads:-
“How can we support one another in rekindling our love and respect for God’s creation in such a way that we are messengers of the transforming power of love and hope?”
We considered this question in small groups. The groups were configured following a line-up in order of the number of years of involvement participants had had with Quakers.
Contributions from the final plenary session are represented in a bicycle wheel diagram, “London Quakers Response to Query 6 of FWCC Friends Responses to Global Change.” (See graphic at bottom of this page)
By Daphne Stedman
Quaker Business Method – Elders of Young Friends General Meeting
On 5 March 2011, London Quakers were pleased to welcome Quintessential (Elders of Young Friends General
Meeting) who led us through their workshop on the Quaker business method.
The question posed at the start of this workshop was, “How do we learn about the Quaker business method?” It was suggested that reading about it Quaker Faith and Practice and picking it up as you go along is not enough. At their residential gatherings, Young Friends often have a number of newcomers present, and so there is always a need to introduce and explain the business method.
The most commonly used tactic in this workshop is to role play a Quaker business meeting. This is followed by small group discussions, giving opportunities to reflect on the role play and participants’ own experiences and understandings of what happens in Quaker business meetings.
We were treated to a quite hilarious role play covering part of a business meeting in which an important item of unplanned business was included. No-one knew the item was coming up until one of the co-clerks introduced it and asked the member concerned to speak to the meeting. The member reported having been approached by a stranger offering to pay cash to buy Friends House and then rent it out to Britain Yearly Meeting. It was proposed that Friends House should indeed be sold for cash to this individual, and a draft minute had already been prepared
to this effect.
From start to finish, the role play demonstrated many examples of “poor practice” including:-
Practical Issues
• Chairs were arranged in classroom format, not a circle
• Size of meeting affects how clerking is done/how people behave
How the Meeting was conducted
• Co-clerks’ division of tasks was not apparent
• No silence between contributions
• No spiritual discernment
• No eldership
• No preparation for new-comers – too much jargon was used
• One co-clerk was applying make-up and the other knitting during the meeting
• Co-clerks’ body language – had to be seen to be believed!
• Anyone bringing a business item needs to be spoken to/prepared for possible reactions including being
challenged and having the issue they bring explored at the business meeting
• A draft minute (prepared before the meeting) on a controversial issue was accepted unchanged
By Daphne Stedman
For more information on booking this workshop please click on the Weblink at bottom of this page
