--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Sufferings/2017-12-02/notes.txt	Sun Dec 03 10:36:40 2017 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+Devon AM minute: No current investments in West-Bank-active companies,
+Investment policy under revue by Trustees.
+
+[Off the record:
+
+ 1) Reconsidering the way central committees report to Sufferings and
+    the way Sufferings handles them: this is still being discussed in
+    the background, and it may be appropriate to review at our
+    residential meeting in 11/18, perhaps in small (house?) groups.
+
+ 2) Trustees are gearing up to consider [the value for money of]
+    Yearly Meeting the event.]
+
+BDRPG
+
+(Paul writes to 2T 1:14 [?] By the Holy Spirit, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.)
+
+They are recommending that we have a full revision.
+
+Merged the 2 books (w/o review of the CG bits) in the 1994 revision.
+
+2014 YM declined to decide, but MfS set up BDRPG to advise Sufferings
+about what to do next.
+
+Reading QF&P has been a success (much more than expected)
+ Engaging
+ Understanding why revision is appropriate
+ Listening to differences
+   Ref. theism/non-theism, but BDRPG don't like the binarism of this,
+   and find in particular that although non-theism is a label some
+   adopt for themselves, theism is almost always applied to _others_.
+   New pamphlet _God, words and us_ from 'theology think-tank'
+
+Discussion with CDAG confirmed that CG parts really need a complete
+rewrite.
+ * Not only are the only completely up-to-date CG parts are online;
+ * Lots of supplementary information is also available but not
+   'officially' part of 'the book'
+
+Basic recommendation: separate core from supplementary
+ E.g. new Chap. 16 (Marriage) -- 1-15 Core, 16-- supplementary
+
+Full vs. partial
+ "Doing half a job is not a sensible option"
+ "Opportunity cost of not revising"
+ "Those to whom the words don't speak"
+   ['There is nothing that resonates with them']
+ "Best of the past with what represents the best of the present"
+
+Sufferings _expects_ that if YM agrees, Sufferings will be asked to
+appoint (and oversee) a BDRC.
+
+Sufferings endorsed the following summary recommendations and asked
+that YM2018 agree the:
+
+  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.
+
+[Draft Terms of Reference]
+
+-----
+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. [Bill Moyes, Royal High?]
+-----
+Contributions are up, a bit, in 2017, and budgetting for that to
+happen again in 2018.
+-------
+*Sanctuary Everywhere Manifesto*
+
+Second draft has come to us.  It combines good will and aims with some
+inopportune phrasing.  MfS offered some further amendments to try to
+address this, and then approved its publication.
+-------
+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/
+-------
+

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Sufferings/2017-12-02/sesame.txt	Sun Dec 03 10:36:40 2017 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+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/

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/Sufferings/2017-12-02/sufferings_agenda_2017-11.txt	Sun Dec 03 10:36:40 2017 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+To: Juliet Prager <Julietp@quaker.org.uk>
+Cc: Paul Parker <RC@quaker.org.uk>
+Subject: Two agenda points for Sufferings on Saturday
+From: ht@inf.ed.ac.uk (Henry S. Thompson)
+User-Agent: Gnus/5.1012 (Gnus v5.10.12) XEmacs/21.5-b34 (linux)
+Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2017 15:47:15 +0000
+Message-ID: <f5b7eu7vke4.fsf@troutbeck.inf.ed.ac.uk>
+--text follows this line--
+[Juliet, could you please forward this to Margaret Bryan and Anne
+Ullathorne, I can't immediately find email addresses for them. Thanks]
+
+1) I haven't checked ever possible document, but looking at this year's
+draft Annual Report for Sufferings, I was reminded of Jocelyn Bell
+Burnell's challenge to us back in December of last year, to consider
+whether our approach to reports from central committees was working
+well.  MFS/16/12/20 refers:
+
+ We have heard of the positive relationship which has been developed
+ between QLCC and BYM Trustees and have been challenged to consider how
+ we as Meeting for Sufferings can work more effectively with QLCC.
+
+ We recognise that this is an area that needs more work and ask our
+ Arrangements Group to do some initial thinking on this, liaising with
+ QLCC as appropriate, and to report back to us.
+
+I note that in the follow-up mailing to that meeting, the minutes of
+MfSAG for 2016-12-12 acknowledges this
+
+ We noted our minute 2016.12.40 about Quaker Life Central Committee
+ (QLCC) in which MfSAG is asked to do some initial thinking on the ways
+ in which MfS can work more effectively with QLCC and will return to
+ this in due course.
+
+But I can't find any sign that this has happened, or any mention in the
+most recent MfSAG minutes that we plan to -- have I missed something?
+
+2) In the Trustee's Minutes of 21 September (MfS 2017 12 13b, item
+BYMT-2017-09-08) I see
+
+ We feel that the time may be right to look at the purpose Yearly
+ Meeting in the life of the Society of Friends, including whether
+ different formats may be appropriate in future.
+
+and a little further on
+
+ We agree that Ingrid Greenhow should prepare a paper and that she
+ should represent us at [YMAC of 28 October].
+
+Was this with reference to that earlier point?
+
+In any case, could we hear a bit more about this issue?  If feels like
+something we should be involved with.
+
+Thanks,
+
+ht