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+Report of Meeting for Sufferings, held in London 2016-02-06
+
+*Introduction*
+
+During our opening worship, extracts from the Epistle [1] of the Friends
+World Committee for Consultation World Plenary meeting held in Pisac,
+Peru, 19-27 January 2016, includng these words:
+
+  Although God can fill our hearts, God has no hands but ours to heal
+  this broken world. [2]
+
+*Annual budget*
+
+Church Government Advisory Group declined to suggest any changes to
+Quaker Faith and Practice as regards how our annual budget is
+determined, as QF&P is about general principles, rather than detailed
+specifications which would require too-frequent updates.  We agreed
+with this, and heard, with respect to documenting the current budget
+process, that the "Operational Plan" is the current core of the
+process, but this changes too often to be usefully documented, even
+informally.
+
+*Refugee sponsorship*
+
+At first several statements of support were made for asking Quaker
+Peace and Social Witness to lend our names to the Citizens UK effort
+to encourage the government's consideration of a Private Sponsorship
+system.  However, "serious reservations [were also] expressed both
+about the scheme itself and the impact this could have on existing
+work with and services for refugees." [3] QPS&W are initiating efforts
+to clarify both the status of the organisation so far taking the lead
+in this, Citizens UK, and the position of the main charities already
+envolved in supporting refugees and asylum seekers.
+
+Our representatives are aware of considerable interest within the Area
+Meeting in participating in such a scheme, and will actively monitor
+QPS&W's progress in this area.
+
+*Yearly Meeting 2016*
+
+Yearly Meeting will be in London, 27--30 May 2016.  We are requested
+to register [4] and to make use of the Spiritual Preparation for
+Yearly Meeting guide [5].  Area Meeting Elders will shortly be
+publicising two local sessions for those considering attending Yearly
+Meeting, to provide an introduction and support for those considering
+doing so for the first time, and to work with the two parts of the
+preparation guide.
+
+*Vision: Our Faith in the Future*
+
+Scottish and Welsh representatives met in a 'house group' to return to
+the new Vision document [6] and our consideration of the state of our
+Area Meetings.  A few of the comments that stayed with me:
+
+   * Meeting for Worship for Business -- "A Meeting for Worship with an agenda"
+
+   * "Right Ordering" -- in life as well as in our Meeting for Worship for Business
+
+   * Membership (historically) implied accepting the Discipline, does
+     it still?  What obligations does Membership carry with it?
+
+   * Concerns need to be at least 3/4s baked -- AMs are told if they
+     send something to Sufferings, they have to be clear what they are
+     asking Sufferings to _do_.  Likewise if an LM sends a concern to
+     AM, they should be clear what endorsing it _means_ in
+     practice. "I don't want AMs just dropping a dead pigeon on the
+     doorstep of Friends House".
+
+Henry S. Thompson, Area Meeting representative on Meeting for Sufferings
+
+[1] http://fwcc.world/plenary-2016/epistle-from-2016-friends-world-committee-for-consultation-world-plenary-international-representatives-meeting
+[2] A paraphrase of part of a poem attributed, controversially, to
+St. Teresa of Avila, _Christ Has No Body_
+[3] http://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-feb-2016-agenda-papers-final-minutes-package.pdf
+[4] https://forms.quaker.org.uk/bym/
+[5] https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/ym-2016-spiritual-preparation.pdf
+[6] http://old.quaker.org.uk/our-organisation/meeting-for-sufferings/our-faith-in-the-future