Meeting for Sufferings - July 2010

At a Meeting for Sufferings held in London 3 July 2010

S/10/07/ 1: Worship

Section 16.02 of Quaker faith & practice has been read in our opening worship, and we have remembered former members of this meeting who recently died.

S/10/07/2: Last Meeting for Sufferings on 27 March and Britain Yearly Meeting 2010

Having gathered in our Home Groups in preparation for our agenda today, we have reflected on our last meeting held 27 March, and on Britain Yearly Meeting held 28-31 May 2010.

We have received a response to our letter to the former Justice Secretary about detention of children of asylum seekers from the Border Agency (part of the Home Office). We are glad to hear that the present government is committed to ending the detention of children and is conducting an urgent review. A Quaker contribution to that review has already been sent in.

We have noted points raised about Yearly Meeting 2010 and will pass these on to Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee.

We need to go well-prepared to Yearly Meeting Gathering 2011 in order to develop a strong Quaker voice.

We ask our Clerk to communicate with the Justice Secretary welcoming his recent statement to reduce the use of prison sentences and referring to Quaker work for restorative justice and in Circles of Support and Accountability. This letter should be made available for Friends to use in communicating with their MPs.

S/10/07/ 3: Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee and preparation for Yearly Meeting 2011

We have received a letter from Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee inviting issues for Yearly Meeting 2011, and a representative to attend a meeting of the Committee on 25 September 2010 where possible items will be considered (paper S/10/07/A).

We ask our clerks to consider the suggestions made in the meeting and from Home Groups and to convey our contribution to Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee. We ask our Assistant Clerk to attend the meeting on 25 September.

S/10/07/ 4: Quaker Marriage

Further to minute 23 of Yearly Meeting 2009, and our minutes S/09/10/4 of 3 October 2009 and S/10/01/2 of 15-17 January 2010, Michael Phipps of the Church Government Advisory Group has introduced a paper (paper S/10/07/B) on the draft revision of chapter 16 (marriage process) of Quaker faith & practice.

We have considered questions raised by the paper. We advise Church Government Advisory Group to aim for the widest availability of time and place that is practicable. We ask Church Government Advisory Group to reconsider their proposed use of the term “spouse” and to consider why a couple should not be allowed to choose what terms to use in consultation with the registering officer.

Friends can pass drafting suggestions to the Assistant Recording Clerk for the Church Government Advisory Group before the end of August.

We will return to further consideration of the full draft at our meeting in October 2010.

S/10/07/ 5: Clerk of BYM Trustees report

Jonathan Fox, clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting Trustees, has reported on the meetings of Trustees held on 27 March, 13 May and 2 July 2010, highlighting on priorities and Friends House development.

Trustees are offering broad guidance to management to meet the current financial difficulties. Trustees are ensuring that our resources are used to optimum effect. The financial commitment to QUNO is being reviewed.

The Friends House development project has been progressing. Decisions have been taken to reconfigure the offices in Friends House to improve working conditions and increase space for lettings, and to appoint architects to bring in plans for improving the large meeting house.

We have been told of the planned retirement of Michael Hutchinson, Assistant Recording Clerk, who will work part-time from October 2010 and retire in October 2011.

S/10/07/ 6: Membership and Appointments

a) Membership of Meeting for Sufferings

The following changes to the membership of Meeting for Sufferings are proposed.

Release
Beth Allen QCCIR
Maryfaith Autumn Pendle Hill AM
Robin Bennett Southern Marches AM
Sheila Legg Banbury & Evesham AM
Sally Rogerson Devon AM

Nomination
Robin Bennett QCCIR
Alan Ray-Jones Devon AM
Susie Tombs Banbury & Evesham AM
Mary Waldmeyer QWRC

We duly appoint the Friends named and thank the Friends released for their service.

b) Yearly Meeting Committee on Clerks

Clerk of Meeting for Sufferings
Yearly Meeting Committee on Clerks brings forward the name of the following Friend to serve as follows:

To serve from 1 January 2011 until 31 December 2011
Clerk
Christine Cannon nomination Wirral & Chester AM

We duly appoint the Friend named.

c) Central Nominations Committee

brings forward the names of the following Friends for service or release as indicated:

Meeting for Sufferings Support Group
(already notified and agreed by Clerk of Meeting for Sufferings)
Rachel Frith release South East Scotland AM
Margot Lunnon release London West AM

To serve until YM 2012
Sue Johnson nomination Hampshire & Islands AM
Peter Whiteley nomination Southern East Anglia AM
Margaret Williams nomination North Somerset & Wiltshire AM

Quaker Committee for Christian & Interfaith Relations
To serve until 30.4.2011
Mike Glover nomination Brighouse West Yorkshire AM

Quaker Finance & Property Central Committee
To serve from 1.9.2010 until 31.8.2013
Richard Bloomfield renomination Thaxted AM
(appointed 2009, first renomination)
Janet Lynch renomination Bristol AM
(appointed 2009, first renomination)
Heather Wilcox nomination South Wales AM

Quaker Housing Trust
To serve with effect from AGM 2010 until the end of AGM 2012
Robert Williamson nomination West Scotland AM

Quaker Life Central Committee
To serve until 31.12.2012
Michael Smart nomination South East London AM

To serve until 31.12.2011
Sonia Relf nomination Sussex East AM

Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee
Meeting for Sufferings Appointments
To serve from YM 2010 until YM 2013
Paul Parker nomination Thaxted AM

To serve until YM 2012
Gillian Turner nomination South London AM

To be forwarded to YM 2011
Yearly Meeting Appointment
Hugo Finley release Sussex West AM

Representative to German Yearly Meeting, 4-7 November 2010
Marie- Hélène Drouin nomination Notts & Derby AM

We duly appoint the Friends named and thank the Friends released for their service.

d) Central Nominations Committee

brings forward the following name for interim appointment by Meeting for Sufferings acting on behalf of Yearly Meeting between sessions (to be notified to Yearly Meeting 2011)

BYM Trustees
To serve from 1.1.2011 until YM 2011
Alison Ironside nomination Central England

e) Central Nominations Committee

has made the following appointment

Joseph Rowntree Foundation Search Group
To serve from 1.1.2011 until 31.12.2013
Rachel Carmichael renomination Leicester AM

S/10/07/ 7: Minutes & Correspondence: Area Meeting Minutes

a) Leicester AM: Response to question on cost of governance

Further to our minute S/10/03/7, we receive part of minute 35/10 of Leicester Area Meeting held 9 May 2010 concerning the cost of governance (paper S/10/07/ mc i a).

b) North Somerset & Wiltshire AM: Request for establishment of a central BYM Central Professional Advice Facility

We receive minute 10 of North Somerset & Wiltshire Area Meeting held
11 April 2010 concerning the establishment of a central BYM Central Professional Advice Facility (paper S/10/07/ mc i b).

This has been passed to Quaker Stewardship Committee for their further consideration and advice. Their minute [QSC/10/06/5b] follows:

Quaker Stewardship Committee members both individually, and collectively as a committee, regularly give advice to Friends. We have asked ourselves about some of the risks associated with this. What we can give is information about the issues and what needs to be decided rather than advice on what the decision should be. It is for the meeting to satisfy itself that it has the relevant advice to make its own decision. We may often be able to signpost Friends to external sources of advice, for example the Charity Commission. We may also have specific advice to give about Quaker practice and principles, related to Yearly Meeting decisions (including text of Quaker Faith and Practice). We have considered whether we should compile a list of professionals which have been used by Quaker meetings, or alternatively a list of meetings who have required a particular type of advice so that other area meetings can contact the relevant professionals if appropriate or whether we should pay a firm of solicitors. We feel that lists of this kind are not the way forward at this time. In most cases, the questions to be answered are likely to be too specific to each area meeting for QSC to ask a solicitor for general advice and that there are also risks in sharing advice given in one meeting’s circumstances to others whose circumstances may be slightly different.

We note this advice.

c) Staffordshire AM: A memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum

We receive minute 5 of Staffordshire Area Meeting held 13 March 2010 and background information concerning a memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire (paper S/10/07/ mc i c).

We have heard an introduction to this from Shelagh Robinson and Helen Lockwood, Staffordshire Area Meeting representatives. They spoke of how the yearning for peace is apparent in the garden. There are many memorials to civilian lives lost in war and to the contributions of civilians and the public services.

We realise that a memorial to the Friends Ambulance Unit and the Friends Relief Service would be seen by many people who would not normally hear of the peace testimony and Quaker work for peace. We encourage further thought and discussion about this idea.

We ask those meetings who would like to offer support to this proposal to be in touch with Staffordshire AM.

S/10/07/ 8: Framework for Action Priority D: Sustainability

Further to our minutes S/09/12/3 and S/09/10/4b, Sunniva Taylor of Quaker Peace & Social Witness has introduced a paper on sustainability from QPSW (paper S/10/07/C). She described the sustainability and peace programme which will offer practical support to Quakers to live as patterns and examples, living sustainably together to build peace. They are working with Woodbrooke’s Good Lives project and Living Witness. The focus of their work at present is preparing for Yearly Meeting Gathering in 2011. She also referred to the FWCC consultation leading up to the world conference in 2012. She encouraged meetings to work with the queries in paper S/10/07/C. We thank Sunniva Taylor for the paper and wish her well with this project.

We have been encouraged to inform ourselves about Birmingham Friends’ initiative in developing the Northfield eco-centre.

Sustainability is not only about putting our own lives and houses in order, but challenging the ways of the world and campaigning for change with a positive vision driven by love and not fear.

We commend the queries to our meetings.

S/10/07/ 9: Criminal Justice Project

Jamie Wrench, Southern Marches Area Meeting representative and clerk to Quaker Peace & Social Witness Crime, Community and Justice Group, has introduced the Group’s ‘Learning from Experience’ work. Copies of leaflets and information on this are available for members. We ask meetings to spread the work and encourage the contribution of stories of personal experience from people affected by the criminal justice system.

S/10/07/ 10: Framework for Action Priority G: responses to resources queries

Further to our minute S/09/12/4, we have received for information a paper on the responses from meetings to the questions prepared by Quaker Stewardship Committee (paper S/10/07/D).

We feel this is a valuable compendium of ideas for sharing with local meetings. We ask for it to be made available on the website and paper copies to be available from the Recording Clerk’s Office. We hope that meetings will go on reviewing how they use resources.

We send the summary to Quaker Stewardship Committee for their consideration.

S/10/07/ 11: Review of Meeting for Sufferings and BYM Trustees: Interim Report from the Review Group

Peter Eccles, convenor of the Review Group for Meeting for Sufferings and BYM Trustees, has introduced the Group’s interim report (paper S/10/07/E) which he described as more of a report on progress so far.

We welcome the report. We have shared a number of responses to the report, particularly about the role and size of Meeting for Sufferings. We are concerned about the tensions between discernment and communication. We will reflect further on all the issues raised by the group.

Local and Area Meetings are encouraged to respond directly to the Review Group through the Recording Clerk’s Office, and Meeting for Sufferings members are also encouraged to respond individually.

We will return to this report for further consideration at our next meeting in October.

Susan Seymour
Clerk