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