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author Henry Thompson <ht@markup.co.uk>
date Sun, 03 Nov 2019 13:32:10 +0000
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1 *Meeting for Sufferings*
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3 6 July 2019
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5 Henry S. Thompson, SE Scotland AM representative
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7 All the papers for the meeting are available online at
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9 https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-2019-07-agenda-papers-package
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11 The minutes and other follow-up material are available from
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13 https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-2019-07-follow-up-package
14
15 *Court & Prison Register*
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17 Some 14 Friends are reported as arrested in connection with 1 or more
18 alleged offences undertaken as part of Extinction Rebellion actions.
19 5 of these are from SE Scotland Area Meeting:
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21 Cath Dyer
22 Justin Kenrick
23 Saul Kenrick
24 Lesley Morrison
25 Eva Schonveld
26
27 *Gender diversity*
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29 Sufferings are going to consider this matter in more detail in our
30 October meeting.
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32 The background for this is QLCC's November statement _Quakers and
33 gender diversity_ and YFGM's _YFGM minute and values statement_. The
34 YFGM value statement is at least in part a response to the QLCC
35 statement.
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37 We are asked "to encourage Friends [to reflect on these statements
38 and] to explore this in our local Quaker communities."
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40 My personal view is that it is the very politically-charged issue of
41 shared spaces that is implicated in conflicting interpretation of the
42 wordings where it is felt that "the two statements contradict".
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44 Although the MfS agenda quoted above continues "... perhaps using the
45 resource provided at the end of this paper." I doubt that this issue
46 can be explored without participation from both sides of the matter,
47 as third party assertions of the form "feminists think X" or
48 "trans-rights people think Y" are rarely either accurate or useful.
49
50 QLCC are happy to receive submissions, which will be treated
51 confidentially if so requested, from individuals and Meetings on this
52 matter.
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54 *Other business*
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56 - Sustainability
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58 Three thoughtful minutes received. I particularly like the _West
59 Weald AM Statement from the Quaker Meeting for Worship held at the
60 Extinction Rebellion camp at Marble Arch, Easter Sunday, 21st April
61 2019_.
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63 MfS took no action to speak of.
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65 - Refugees and asylum seekers
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67 QPSWCC is trying to raise 75K to keep support for Sanctuary
68 Everywhere via Sanctuary Meetings going for another year.
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70 https://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/social-justice/migration
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72 I _think_ this is an England/Wales-only initiative at the moment.
73
74 *Trustees*
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76 At their June meeting, shortly after Yearly Meeting, Yearly Meeting
77 Trustees (in conjunction with Woodbrooke Trustees), made a major
78 decision about the future of Britain Yearly Meeting.
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80 The two bodies issued a joint statement:
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82 "a meeting-centred approach to providing support can deepen our
83 worship and transform our communities.
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85 "We share the aspiration to
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87 "a) extend and expand the current model of Locally Based Development
88 workers so that there is a local development worker within reach
89 of every Meeting in Britain within 5 years.
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91 " b) work rapidly towards more local support for Meetings and begin
92 to experiment with new regional bases, hubs or clusters."
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94 Sufferings minute reads, in part
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96 "Change will not happen overnight and have reminded us that some
97 work that is dear to our hearts will have to be laid down to find
98 the investment for meeting-centred support.
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100 "However, the time to invest in the future of Quakers in Britain is
101 now, whilst we have reserves to enable the management of change -
102 of infrastructure and of culture."
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104 The Clerk of Trustees said
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106 - Details on how this will happen are still "totally up in the air".
107 Not a cookie-cutter, same thing is not going to work everywhere.
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109 One example: an Area Meeting that has a lot of money, could fund a
110 worker for themselves and a neighbouring AM.
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112 - "Evolution not revolution"
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114 - We will use reserves to cover the [short-term] overspend.
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116 - Transition planning in hands of Management Meeting.
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118 - Staffing impact - we're not closing Friends House! Management
119 C'ttee are working actively on what will be devolved,
120 where/when/how this will happen, what IT infrastructure is needed.
121 Hubs/clusters/bases important for staff welfare: 100% lone-working
122 is not always an easy life.
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124 When asked what was meant by "within reach of", she replied that that
125 was a challenging question.
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127 Many people expressed surprise that we'd gone from pretty broad
128 statements of support for some kind of follow-on to the Vibrancy
129 project by Sufferings (in April) and Yearly Meeting (in May) to a firm
130 decision about major restructuring of our central work without _any_
131 further discernment being asked for or given by those two bodies.
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133 My personal view is the cost is not just financial -- we are admitting
134 we can no longer say that we take care our of our business ourselves,
135 we have to pay someone to do it for us. This may well be necessary,
136 but it saddens me to lose such a central part of our understanding of
137 our distinctive nature.
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