Britain Yearly Meeting Gathering, July 25 – August 1, 2009
We had a memorable week in York and were able to share in our business method at its very best. I feel blessed to have been there, in the Central Hall of York University, when the minute on committed relationships was agreed. I sat next to a Friend who stood up about twenty times before she caught the eye of the Clerk, to ask that we add an ‘s’ to “government”, with a reminder that the UK has more than one.
Junior Yearly Meeting had helped to move us towards the minute, and many JYMers stayed in the hall when they could have left. Could we be moving towards a time when young Quakers, who regularly leave us in their teens because Quakerism seems, in Miranda Chadkirk’s words in the Friend (7 August), ‘a religion for older people’, will actually decide to stay on in their local meetings? We will welcome them for themselves, but also for the additional zip they bring to our affairs. After all, George Fox’s followers in the 1650s were predominantly young people. Another thing: we spoke out in the world at York (a goal in ‘A framework for action 2009-2014’), and the world listened. Let’s make a habit of it, and do it more professionally. Despite our new-found wish to speak out we excluded journalists from Central Hall! And, as Rosemary Hartill pointed out in the Friend (7 August), we failed to provide the facilities they need to do their job properly. I hope we will do better in that direction at Canterbury in two years’ time.
How did the minute come about? To paraphrase George Fox, “We marry none. It is the Lord’s work and we are but witnesses”. When I first arrived at York I thought we might discern there an equal but parallel process for same-sex marriages. I know I was not alone in that, but having heard Colin Billett and the words of four couples in various committed relationships, Jim Putz of Exeter Meeting spoke for many when he said that the word ‘marriage’ should be used for all of them; and George Fox’s words explain why. Our testimony to equality demands nothing less – why did it take us 22 years to understand this? Of course, this is only the end of the beginning, the start of a long process, of which the revision of Quaker Faith & Practice is only a part.
There were nearly 1700 of us at YMG at the high point, including Friends, Attenders, young people, children, interested friends, representatives of other churches, Friends from other Yearly Meetings worldwide, staff, everybody. That’s a lot of people, and was a consequence of bringing together Yearly Meeting, Summer Gathering, and Junior Yearly Meeting, with Attenders, family members and non Quakers welcome too. Not least of our personal pleasures was to keep on sighting, in the crowd, Friends from other local meetings in Devon; and to show my sister-in-law - an Attender at a meeting in Somerset – more of what Quakers are about. Friends who limit themselves to their local meetings, never attending Area Meeting, let alone Yearly Meeting, are missing a lot, and we are all the poorer for their absence. At York there was an overflow room with a large screen and sound for those who couldn’t get in to Central Hall for the Swarthmore lecture and other sessions. How many halls in the UK can hold 2000 people?
Self-congratulation is well deserved this week, but let’s remember, even if our minute puts us ahead of other ‘mainstream churches’ and the UK government on this issue, Canadian Friends and the Canadian government were earlier, as was much of secular society in the UK. The army, we heard in York, treats same sex couples much like opposite sex couples when allocating married quarters! It was a decision which brought us bouquets in the media, not brickbats. We might earn the latter if or when our testimonies to peace and equality for all lead us to ask that prayers for servicemen killed in action should always remember those they had killed or wounded, and whose homes and livelihoods they had destroyed in the course of their duties. Is that too far outside our comfort zone? In June, after all, BYM issued a press release calling for an Unarmed Forces Day when the government instituted Armed Forces Day - the first time I have noticed a press release on a subject not primarily to do with our own activities.
What else was there to remember about the week? The complexity of the documentation! Our accommodation in the university hall of residence was unexceptional but adequate, and one of those who shared our kitchen was the convenor of the epistle committee – up until 2am one night! The mobility scooters were excellent for those who had difficulty in walking, for the buildings are quite spread out. The weather was variable, and the rainiest day seemed to be Wednesday, our day out. I went to Malham, and to Airton, and saw the beautiful old Meeting House there. The lake at the university was wonderful and the last night very memorable, when we stood around it with lighted candles, joined hands and sang.
Alan Ray-Jones