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wrapped up
author ht
date Mon, 20 Feb 2017 16:19:54 -0500
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1 Meeting for Sufferings
2
3 4 February 2017
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5 Henry S. Thompson, SE Scotland AM representative
6
7 *Headlines*
8
9 Two high-profile statements, on foreign policy (that is, Donald Trump)
10 and on fracking, were agreed:
11
12 http://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/fracking-must-be-banned
13 http://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/quakers-stand-alongside-victims-of-racist-policies
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15 All the papers for the meeting are available online at
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17 http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/meeting-for-sufferings-agenda-papers-package-december-2016
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19 where much more detailed information about these and other matters are
20 available.
21
22 *BYM Sustainability Group*
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24 This group was set up by BYM at 2011 YM, it is now attached to MfS.
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26 They delivered an annual report, after 3 years, "review[ing] progress
27 in 2016 and priorities for 2017"
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29 There has been considerable action centrally, particularly with
30 respect to Friends House itself, but also by providing help to local
31 meetings through a new "project officer providing advice to local
32 meetings on property matters, including sustainability".
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34 Much harder to assess what's happening across AMs/LMs, as useful
35 information gathering and analysis takes resourcing they don't have.
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37 They've recently tried to focus on "What's _Quaker_ about this
38 concern? Where does it get its spiritual grounding?" Less guilt,
39 more love!
40
41 We are asked to feed back to the group on what we think about the
42 proposed "a project _Nurturing our Sustainability Ministry_, enabling
43 and encouraging Friends to give expression to our sustainability
44 commitment in many different forms" If AM is interested in doing so,
45 someone should contact Lis Burch, Clerk BYM Sust. Grp..
46
47 Do we, as other AMs apparently do, report our annual energy usage (at
48 least for 7VT and Kelso) to BYM along with our annual accounts?
49
50 An interesting echo of some of the STIR group's observations: The
51 Canterbury Commitment was a commitment made by BYM, but has been
52 adopted and acted on by AMs to widely varying degrees. What does it
53 mean for a more central body to make a notionally binding commitment
54 when the action involved has to be taken 'lower down'?
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56 As the group was established in 2014 for an initial period of three
57 years, there will now be a review group established to consider
58 whether "this approach is the right way for our concern to be carried
59 forward".
60
61 *Opposition to Fracking*
62
63 (From a meeting of Pendle Hill AM)
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65 We ask Britain Yearly Meeting to maximise involvement in ecumenical
66 and interfaith structures that allow faith groups to have a strong
67 united environmentalist voice on fracking, and that as Quakers
68 nationally we take a public stance against fracking.
69
70 MfS supported this, and the minute [see link at the top] makes a
71 specific statement on behalf of Quakers in Britain in support of
72 sustainable energy and in opposition to "unconventional approaches" to
73 fossil fuel extraction, including fracking (expanded from the original
74 to imply worldwide, in response to a mention about the role of
75 Grangemouth in processing US shale gas).
76
77 There will be some kind of event on Pendle Hill on 6 May...
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79 *Cadet Forces in Scottish State Schools*
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81 QPSWCC has taken up this matter, and broadened it in the area of
82 transparency and accountability
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84 Junior Yearly Meeting application deadline is 15 March
85
86 *Quaker Housing Trust*
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88 An excellent, detailed, informative report was given. I recommend it
89 highly, see item *MfS 2017 02 10* in
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91 http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/meeting-for-sufferings-agenda-papers-2017-02-04
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93 I was hugely impressed: they do outstanding work, with enormous
94 almost-all volunteer effort: give them more money!
95
96 *Yearly Meeting Gathering*
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98 An 'Anchoring' initiative is in place for this event: making time and
99 space to digest, both food and mental/spiritual/emotional inputs,
100 meaning, among other things, that there will be no (centrally
101 organised) meetings over lunch
102
103 Two afternoons with 'all-age activities' (lots of facilities for sport
104 at the venue).
105
106 Overall theme is 'Movement Building: Working with others to make a
107 difference'
108
109 *Statement as "Response to the current international situation"*
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111 A good one, see the link at the top.