Mercurial > hg > rsof

comparison Sufferings/2018-02-03/sesame.txt @ 126:5dad4e59725e

Find changesets by keywords (author, files, the commit message), revision number or hash, or revset expression.
*** empty log message ***
author ht
date Sun, 04 Feb 2018 11:08:57 -0500
parents
children
comparison
equal deleted inserted replaced
125:c6b0fe9dda75 126:5dad4e59725e
1 Meeting for Sufferings
2
3 3 February 2018
4
5 Henry S. Thompson, SE Scotland AM representative
6
7 All the papers for the meeting are available online at
8
9 http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-feb-2018-updated-agenda--papers-package3
10
11 The minutes and other follow-up material will also appear sometime
12 soon linked from
13
14 http://www.quaker.org.uk/our-organisation/meeting-for-sufferings/papers-and-minutes
15
16 *Yearly Meeting 2018 -- report from the Clerk*
17
18 We had a brief introduction to plans for Yearly Meeting (4--7 May 2018
19 at Friends House, London). Perhaps the most interesting thing in this
20 regard was a phrase from YM Agenda Committee (YMAC) at their recent
21 meeting: "Preparing YM for radical change". This came up several
22 times in different contexts during the day, and was explained as
23 referring to the growing awareness of the need to recognise and
24 respond to the fact that we are shrinking, and getting older.
25
26 Further to Sufferings' decision, as reported in December, to recommend
27 to YM that we should set about revising our Book of Discipline and
28 that Sufferings should manage the creation of a Revision Committee to
29 undertake the necessary work, the largest agenda item at YM 2018 will
30 be devoted to preparing for and making that decision and addressing
31 the consequences.
32
33 Deadlines for young people's participation in May are fast
34 approaching:
35
36 Junior Yearly Meeting: 23 February 2018
37 Young people's YM programme: 18 March 2018
38 [Those two are not at Friends House]
39 Children's programme at YM: 18 March 2018
40 [This one _is_ at Friends House]
41
42 See http://www.quaker.org.uk/events/?category=1 for details.
43
44 Once again those planning to attend YM in May are asked to register in
45 advance:
46
47 https://forms.quaker.org.uk/ym/
48
49 *Yearly Meeting Gathering 2020*
50
51 Deborah Rowlands, YM Clerk, also gave some background to the
52 recommendation from YMAC, which Sufferings agreed to, that the 2020 YM
53 Gathering should be held at the University of Bath from 1--8 August,
54 2020.
55
56 *Report from BYM Sustainability Group*
57
58 This Group, which is not itself empowered or funded to do work itself,
59 is near the beginning of their 2nd 3-year 'term'.
60
61 They have sometimes found the lack of resources of their own difficult
62 to deal with.
63
64 They are concerned that the uptake of the sustainability concern is
65 very uneven across the YM -- YM said we need to change in the 2011
66 Canterbury Commitment [1], but that hasn't always translated into
67 action
68
69 Sufferings received the report but postponed any discussion until our
70 own review group, appointed last year, reports. This is now planned
71 to be in time for April MfS.
72
73 The Group's report closed with these lines from G. K. Chesterton's
74 _The Ballad of the White Horse_:
75
76 “I tell you naught for your comfort,
77 Yea, naught for your desire,
78 Save that the sky grows darker yet
79 And the sea rises higher.”
80
81 [1] http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/minute-36-leaflet-2011
82
83 *Quaker Life Central Committee (QLCC) report*
84
85 This item took by far the most of our time, and was structured by way
86 of a response to a challenge from QLCC's Clerk (now co-Clerk) Jocelyn
87 Bell Burnell in her report to us in December 2016 to make these annual
88 reports from the major central committees more than just a box-ticking
89 exercise (see my report of that meeting for details). The core of
90 this year's report is QLCC's new Strategy (see the Agenda link above)
91 and their proposed priorities within that.
92
93 Jocelyn gave a brief introduction to these before lunch, and QLCC
94 members were available over lunch to discuss them. Then after lunch
95 we met in our geographically-determined House Groups (Scottish and
96 Welsh representives in our case) for an hour-long worship-sharing
97 session, followed after a short break by a return together and a
98 continuation of the worship-sharing approach. I think the change in
99 process worked very well, although we really need to hear back from
100 QLCC as to what _they_ got from it before we really know how well it
101 succeeded.
102
103 In our group, and more widely, I think the deepest concerns around
104 QLCC's role all centred around membership and worship: the process of
105 admission to membership, the need to understand Quaker discipline as a
106 key part of membership, the centrality of deeply experienced worship
107 in holding our community together, making it attractive to enquirers
108 and sustaining us as we seek to witness to our faith in the wider
109 world.
110