*Meeting for Sufferings*

6 July 2019

Henry S. Thompson, SE Scotland AM representative

All the papers for the meeting are available online at

  https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-2019-07-agenda-papers-package

The minutes and other follow-up material are available from

  https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/mfs-2019-07-follow-up-package

*Court & Prison Register*

 Some 14 Friends are reported as arrested in connection with 1 or more
 alleged offences undertaken as part of Extinction Rebellion actions.
 5 of these are from SE Scotland Area Meeting:

  Cath Dyer
  Justin Kenrick
  Saul Kenrick
  Lesley Morrison
  Eva Schonveld

*Gender diversity*

Sufferings are going to consider this matter in more detail in our
October meeting.

The background for this is QLCC's November statement _Quakers and
gender diversity_ and YFGM's _YFGM minute and values statement_.  The
YFGM value statement is at least in part a response to the QLCC
statement.

We are asked "to encourage Friends [to reflect on these statements
and] to explore this in our local Quaker communities."

My personal view is that it is the very politically-charged issue of
shared spaces that is implicated in conflicting interpretation of the
wordings where it is felt that "the two statements contradict".

Although the MfS agenda quoted above continues "... perhaps using the
resource provided at the end of this paper."  I doubt that this issue
can be explored without participation from both sides of the matter,
as third party assertions of the form "feminists think X" or
"trans-rights people think Y" are rarely either accurate or useful.

QLCC are happy to receive submissions, which will be treated
confidentially if so requested, from individuals and Meetings on this
matter.

*Other business*

 - Sustainability

   Three thoughtful minutes received.  I particularly like the _West
   Weald AM Statement from the Quaker Meeting for Worship held at the
   Extinction Rebellion camp at Marble Arch, Easter Sunday, 21st April
   2019_.

   MfS took no action to speak of.

 - Refugees and asylum seekers

   QPSWCC is trying to raise 75K to keep support for Sanctuary
   Everywhere via Sanctuary Meetings going for another year.

   https://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/social-justice/migration

   I _think_ this is an England/Wales-only initiative at the moment.

*Trustees*

At their June meeting, shortly after Yearly Meeting, Yearly Meeting
Trustees (in conjunction with Woodbrooke Trustees), made a major
decision about the future of Britain Yearly Meeting.

The two bodies issued a joint statement:

  "a meeting-centred approach to providing support can deepen our
   worship and transform our communities.

  "We share the aspiration to

   "a) extend and expand the current model of Locally Based Development
       workers so that there is a local development worker within reach
       of every Meeting in Britain within 5 years.

   " b) work rapidly towards more local support for Meetings and begin
       to experiment with new regional bases, hubs or clusters."

Sufferings minute reads, in part

  "Change will not happen overnight and have reminded us that some
   work that is dear to our hearts will have to be laid down to find
   the investment for meeting-centred support.

  "However, the time to invest in the future of Quakers in Britain is
   now, whilst we have reserves to enable the management of change -
   of infrastructure and of culture."

The Clerk of Trustees said

  - Details on how this will happen are still "totally up in the air".
    Not a cookie-cutter, same thing is not going to work everywhere.

    One example: an Area Meeting that has a lot of money, could fund a
    worker for themselves and a neighbouring AM.

  - "Evolution not revolution"

  - We will use reserves to cover the [short-term] overspend.

  - Transition planning in hands of Management Meeting.

  - Staffing impact - we're not closing Friends House!  Management
    C'ttee are working actively on what will be devolved,
    where/when/how this will happen, what IT infrastructure is needed.
    Hubs/clusters/bases important for staff welfare: 100% lone-working
    is not always an easy life.

When asked what was meant by "within reach of", she replied that that
was a challenging question.

Many people expressed surprise that we'd gone from pretty broad
statements of support for some kind of follow-on to the Vibrancy
project by Sufferings (in April) and Yearly Meeting (in May) to a firm
decision about major restructuring of our central work without _any_
further discernment being asked for or given by those two bodies.

My personal view is the cost is not just financial -- we are admitting
we can no longer say that we take care our of our business ourselves,
we have to pay someone to do it for us.  This may well be necessary,
but it saddens me to lose such a central part of our understanding of
our distinctive nature.