Friends World Committee for Consultation Triennial 2004
I attended the triennial in Auckland as a newly appointed representative to FWCC. I already knew, theoretically, about the diversity of Friends world-wide, but I had never experienced it this directly. My experience of the triennial has led me to reflect more deeply on the place of our Yearly Meeting within the 'world family of Friends'. Our Yearly Meeting has been part of FWCC since its creation, and has given it much support. Right now, sustaining the financial side of that support is vital for FWCC. But at home in our local Meetings we know how difficult it can be to get Friends interested the wider concerns of our own Yearly Meeting. How often do we think about the wider Quaker world? The introduction to our Quaker Faith and Practice reminds us that we in Britain Yearly Meeting are in a privileged position, at the geographical source of Quakerism. But because our history is 'on our doorstep', we have not needed to look outwards to learn where we have come from. Through the triennial, I have been challenged to think about how we are connected to other - sometimes very different - Quaker paths that lead from the same source as our own.
In the 1930s German Friends wrote a letter to other Yearly Meetings. Feeling increasingly isolated as the political situation in Europe grew more troubled, they challenged Friends to consider the question, does Quakerism stop at the borders of our YM? This challenge was one of the seeds that led to the establishment of FWCC. The question remains relevant for us today. At the triennial Marion Hobbs, a member of Aotearoa / New Zealand YM and the country's Minister for Disarmament, reminded us how much our culture, and especially our media, emphasises the conflicts and divisions in our world rather than helping us focus on those things that will help us break down the boundaries between us. Our attempts to build links with Friends world wide today take place amid much mistrust, heightened by fears of international terrorism. The bureaucratic hurdles to be overcome in obtaining visas to travel are increasing, and restrict our ability to meet together internationally. The experience of the triennial was significantly affected by the absence of Friends from India, and the delayed arrival of many African Friends. I was very moved by these Friends' accounts of their journeys. Not simply because of the hardships they had suffered, but because of the determination and the desire to meet together which these stories revealed. If I had arrived at the airport and been told that I did not have the required documents to travel, wouldn't I have given up and gone home? Would I have put up with the traveling back and forth to different embassies, the frustrations, suspense and delays which these Friends endured in order to meet with the us?
This was one experience which made me feel that the world family of Friends is a family in more than name. Another was in discussions of homosexuality. Other Friends have told me that this has been a difficult and divisive issue at some FWCC gatherings. I found that it is certainly an issue on which Friends have widely differing views. Hearing some of these was not always comfortable. However, interest groups and conversations on this subject showed that among Friends there is a willingness to listen and to learn from one another. Even where different views are strongly entrenched, it seems that Friends want to continue to stand alongside one another, reaffirming that the things that draw us together are stronger than those that divide us.
By building a genuine 'world family of Friends' as a community that embraces the multiple forms of Quaker faith and practice, we as Friends have an opportunity to model a vision of society that emphasises unity rather than division. To me, this is also a natural extension of our understanding of Quaker community and Quaker process. Many of the concerns which are adopted by our Yearly Meeting reach beyond its borders. The idea of corporate discernment to identify and test the work which we feel called to undertake as Quakers is central to our tradition. By bringing our concerns into dialogue with those of Friends world-wide, we add another layer to this process of discernment. Through it, our Quaker witness can be refined and strengthened.
© C.M. Brewer 2004
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