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author Henry Thompson <ht@markup.co.uk>
date Wed, 17 Apr 2024 13:46:55 +0100
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C&P Register
Witness?
Arrest?
Uphold vs. condone?
Testing concern: how, before or after?
PP says _post-hoc_ is OK.

*Sustainability*
 "How might we be called to act next?"
  - Eldership
    "All creation was being set free to be true to itself" Eden Grace 2019
    "Right purpose, right use, right relationship" Ditto
  - Oversight
    Action depends on community, acting alone is too hard
     Enable and support us: changing community norms [wrt energy use]
     Economic growth vs. finite resources
  - Living Faithfully
    Think about energy _as part_ of a decision, not a retro-fit
    [Social pressure wrt holidays]
  - Right Ordering
    Wrt property: reporting currently focussed on Meeting-level, not individual
    Carbon emissions: focus on _saving_ (e.g. from switching to Good
    Energy) rather than _emitting_
  - Witness
    Economics and Sustainability sub-committee of QPSW
 Eco-church movement?
 Anger about narrowness "too neat, too tidy": impact needed on wider
  community (i.e. not "white, middle-class")

 Small groups
  "What's being done already?"
  "Looking forward": what more are we being called to do?

Group 3 Elaine
 *Doing now*
   "Just transition" ['just' as in 'justice'] [breaking out of the bubble?] [1]
       Co-ordination
   Self-awareness
   Leverage our privilege
   "... go on the defensive"
   Younger friends: veg[an|itarian], cycle/walk by default
     Cultural shift [c.f. changing community norms]
   Buses on a Sunday!
   Celebrate what we _are_ doing [ref. Geoffrey]

 *Looking forward*
  small actions vs. despair
  _Our_ particular angle: faith basis, ref. Eden Grace
  Central priority [set by PP?] is on the political [Gordon Benson]

Trees came up a lot
 Quaker burial ground?

*Trustees*
 "Meeting-centred support" [2] is the new buzz phrase, 'vibrancy' is no
 longer mentioned.

 Woodbrooke: numbers down over several years.  Renew purpose to meet
 friends and peoples needs.  Survey done: Woodbrooke needs to come to
 Friends, and too expensive (c.f. someone from Friends House 'for
 free').  Vibrancy pilot.  Opportunity for renewal.  JW Rowntree
 "Woodbrooke should not be a privilege for the rich".

 Simpler meetings: 500+ Friends involved in governance/decision-making
 about centrally-funded work.  Free up that effort to do other things.
 Be sustainable.  Slow, lack of accountability.  Risk of shrinking:
 discernment not reflecting the breadth of the YM.
 [So, _not_ the leadings of the spirit]

 ['Experiment' of video "had its challenges": Good for trustees, hard
  on the person in scotland]

*Quaker Stewardship Committee*
 [remit]

 "We are a bottom-up organisation, and I don't know of any other" [Win
   Sutton]

 "The bottom _is_ the top" [Ursula Fuller, QSC Clerk]

 "Yearly Meeting decisions are taken with care because they are
  understood to be, as a matter of our faith, decisions by _all_ of
  us." [ditto]

*Safeguarding*

We've been asked by the English inquiry on this for answers to a
detailed questionaire from their sub-investigation into "child
protection in religious organisations and settings in England and
Wales".  

*Assisted dying*

This has come around again from several English AMs.  Attempted to
focus on what we _as Quakers_ have to say.  My memory of our
experience in Scotland is that we are unlikely to reach unity on the
question, but might that in itself may be a worthwhile contribution?

"Not reaching unity is not a failure" [PP]

MfS session reflected a wide range of positions.

Studied neutrality is also a possibility [3].

We were usefully reminded that even _considering_ assisted dying is
[at least currently] very much a possibilty only to the privileged.

*Speaking out*

We were reminded that there is a policy governing "public statements
and comments" from, among others, Area Meetings (typically having been
agreed in an Area Meeting for Business and published over the name of
the Clerk), and individual Friends, particularly in the context of
marches/vigils/protests where any of us may find ourselves confronted
by a microphone and camera [4].

That there is a moderated Facebook group was brought up, see topic
*Post-truth world* at MfS 2019-02-02, and in particular my take:

  Finding the courage to challenge lies is hard enough to do in
  person, it's even harder to do on social media, where the response
  may well be both many-fold and obnoxious, the latter particularly in
  response to challenges from women.

  Can we find ways to provide safe online spaces [perhaps taking EAPPI
  as a model]?

[1] http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/publication/climate-change-and-the-just-transition-a-guide-for-investor-action/
[2] https://quaker.org.uk/our-organisation/support-for-meetings/meeting-centred-support
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3505400/
[4] https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/speaking-out-briefing

[blog is indexed but not linked, Quake is linked but not indexed, 'jai
jagat' is not indexed.  Is there a place on the Web where all and only
'statements' on behalf of BYM are linked?]