Letters - 14 July 2023
From Clerking by Zoom to Listening and questioning
Clerking by Zoom
How do clerks feel the sense of the Meeting when there is a large gathering of Friends?
At this year’s Yearly Meeting hundreds joined online with hundreds in the Meeting house, with three clerks at the table. They sought discernment on issues affecting the relationship between Meeting for Sufferings and trustees. The outcome: no unity.
At General Meeting for Scotland in June there were thirty-nine Friends online and thirty-eight in the Meeting house; two clerks sat at the table. We had in front of us recommendations about how we may organise ourselves more simply. The clerks discerned we were not in unity. Was this because half of us were not there in person?
Video technology enables clerks to see who is present online and allows them to call participants to speak. In the Meeting room, the clerks are able to see all Friends present and can call them to speak. When many Friends wish to minister, how do clerks know whom to call? Many a clerk has confessed this is a mysterious process. You can think about calling one person and find yourself calling another. This year I have been present when really tricky issues were being discussed and discernment sought. How do we know God’s will in these situations?
We have been tested this year and found wanting.
Robin Davis
Let your lives speak
Having been present by Zoom at the extra Yearly Meeting session, I was very interested in the Tabular Statement and the discussion about how to encourage new people to attend.
For me, it’s about ‘let your lives speak’ at all times, not just Sunday morning/Yearly Meeting and so on. My friends and family all know I’m a Quaker, I’ve had people knocking on my door with a question as they’ve seen the ‘Quakers for Peace’ sticker on the front window. Instead of telling my outdoor swimming group, ‘I can’t swim on Sunday mornings’, I say ‘I can’t swim on Sunday mornings as I go to Quaker Meeting’.
It’s about your daily actions showing that you’re a Quaker – whether that’s remaining calm in the inevitable squabbles among friends/groups and trying to encourage a peaceable outcome, or giving gentle input about sustainability or overuse of plastic, or challenging the use of homophobic/racist language. If people don’t know what Quakers are like nowadays (or that we even exist), they’re not likely to want to seek us out and join us. One of the best discussions I had about Quaker funerals was in the middle of a lake! I hadn’t planned to have a conversation like that, but someone who was swimming with me started talking about a funeral she’d been to and it led on from that.
And I’m not perfect by any means – for example, when my powerchair access was blocked by someone parking their car across the pavement near my house, it would have been much more satisfying in many ways to swear loudly and crash my powerchair around. It was very hard to try to keep calm and explain politely why it was an issue!
Dawn Beck
You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.