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+Meeting for Sufferings
+
+2 December 2017
+
+Henry S. Thompson, SE Scotland AM representative
+
+All the papers for the meeting are available online at
+
+  http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-dec-2017-updated-agenda--papers-package
+
+The minutes and other follow-up material will also appear sometime
+soon linked from
+
+  http://www.quaker.org.uk/our-organisation/meeting-for-sufferings/papers-and-minutes
+
+The first item is perhaps the most significant decision Sufferings has
+taken in the whole of my first term so far: we are asking YM2018 to
+agree that we should set about revising our Book of Discipline and
+that Sufferings should manage the creation of a Revision Committee to
+undertake the necessary work.
+
+*Book of Discipline Revision Preparation Group*
+
+"By the Holy Spirit, guard the good deposit entrusted to you."
+   2nd Letter of Paul to Timothy 1:14
+
+Sufferings endorsed the recommendation from the Group for "a full
+revision" of our Book of Discipline, and forwarded it to YM Agenda
+Committee, asking them to bring this YM in 2018.
+
+A bit more detail:
+ * The 1994 revision merged the 2 existing books ("Church Government"
+   and "Christian Faith and Practice in the Experience of the
+   Religious Society of Friend" _without_ any review of the CG bits;
+
+ * YM2014 was asked to commence a revision, but did not reach unity;
+
+ * Sufferings then established the Revision Preparation Group charged
+   with better preparing us for the question when it came back again;
+
+ * They in turn launched the "Reading Quaker Faith and Practice"
+   exercise, which was much more successful than they had expected.
+   Three kinds of outcomes were reported back to them, broadly
+   speaking:
+
+   - Engaging with the book and the process
+   - Understanding why revision is appropriate
+   - Listening to differences
+
+ * Following on from the last of these, they established a "Theology
+   Think Tank", whose report, in the form of a small book entitled
+   _God, words and us_, has just been published and is available from
+   the Friends House bookshop.
+
+ * They concluded that the Church Government parts really need a
+   complete rewrite:
+
+   - The only completely up-to-date CG parts are online;
+   - Lots of supplementary information is also available but not
+     'officially' part of 'the book'
+
+ * A key part of their recommendation is to separate core from
+   supplementary material.  For example, in the (new in 4th edition)
+   Chapter 16 on Marriage the first 15 sections are 'core, the rest
+   'supplementary'
+
+ * Sufferings _expects_ that if YM agrees, Sufferings will be asked to
+   appoint (and oversee) a Book of Discipline Revision Committee.
+
+In conclusion, Sufferings endorsed the following summary
+recommendations and asked that YM2018 agree that:
+
+  "the time is right to begin a revision of our book of discipline.
+   This revision should:
+
+  "1. begin with, but not be limited to, church government, namely the
+   sections which focus on our procedures and corporate discipline.
+
+  "2. divide material between that in the main body of the book, which
+   lays out principles, and supplementary material, which gives
+   details.
+
+  "3. draw on the richness of theological thought in our yearly
+   meeting, now and historically, seeing diversity as fundamental to
+   our community, not as a flaw
+
+  "4. give a Revision Committee the freedom to be creative while
+   remaining in close contact with the yearly meeting."
+
+*Finance report*
+
+Overall summary: Anticipated 2017 deficit down from last year, about
+125,000GBP, out of 12MGBP.  A further 2MGBP is available from 'legacy
+funding' for new projects.  The Hospitality Company, which manages
+Friends House and Swarthmore Hall, represents nearly 1/2 of
+centrally-funded staff, but turns a profit for us as a whole, which
+goes for our 'charitable work'.  Although the planned 2018 budget is
+almost unchanged from 2017, and not only were contributions are up, a
+bit, in 2017, and Trustees are budgetting for that to happen again in
+2018, a 700,000GBP deficit is forecast.
+
+*Investments in Israel-Palestine: West Bank"
+
+In response to a minute from Devon AM, Trustees responded that we hold
+no current investments in West-Bank-active companies, Investment
+policy guidelines are currently under revue by Trustees.
+
+*Lobbying Act*
+
+Trustees are supporting an exploration of bringing a case for judicial
+review to force the passage of an amendment to remove the
+vulnerability to retrospective application of the Act in the case of a
+snap election.
+
+*Sanctuary Everywhere Manifesto*
+
+A second draft of this has come to us from the Forced Migration
+Advisory Group.  It combines good will and aims with some inopportune
+phrasing.  MfS offered some further amendments to try to address this,
+and then returned it with our approval as amended.
+
+*General Meeting for Scotland*
+
+Adwoa Bittle (GM Clerk) gave an intro to GM, with a lot of good
+detail, including our campaigns wrt Fracking, Militarism in Schools
+and Economic Justice.
+
+  See the GM website:  http://www.quakerscotland.org/