The Quaker blog

Friends at Yearly Meeting Gathering have agreed - after a process spanning much of the week and various different methods of worshipful consideration - to allow gay marriage in our meeting houses and to lobby the government(s) for a change in the law!

It felt momentous and emotional. Mine and Alistair's input - along with that of three other couples - was widely appreciated and affirmed. It was not possible afterwards to walk around the campus without being stopped by Friends wanting to congratulate, thank, discuss, express warmth... it was quite a wonderful experience all way round.

Below is Minute 25 agreed on Friday morining for your information...

Minute 25, Britain Yearly Meeting 31 July 2009

Further to minute 17, a session was held on Tuesday afternoon at which speakers shared personal experiences of the celebration and recognition of their committed relationships. These Friends had felt upheld by their meetings in these relationships but regretted that whereas there was a clear, visible path to celebration and recognition for opposite sex couples, the options available for couples of the same sex were not clear and could vary widely between meetings. Friends who feel theirs to be an ordinary and private rather than an exotic and public relationship have had to be visible pioneers to get their relationship acknowledged and recorded.

This open sharing of personal experience has moved us and added to our clear sense that, 22 years after the prospect was first raised at Meeting for Sufferings we are being led to treat same sex committed relationships in the same way as opposite sex marriages, reaffirming our central insight that marriage is the Lord’s work and we are but witnesses. The question of legal recognition by the state is secondary.

We therefore ask Meeting for Sufferings to take steps to put this leading into practice and to arrange for a draft revision of the relevant sections of Quaker faith and practice, so that same sex marriages can be prepared, celebrated, witnessed, recorded and reported to the state, as opposite sex marriages are. We also ask Meeting for Sufferings to engage with our governments to seek a change in the relevant laws so that same sex marriages notified in this way can be recognised as legally valid, without further process, in the same way as opposite sex marriages celebrated in our meetings. We will not at this time require our registering officers to act contrary to the law, but understand that the law does not preclude them from playing a central role in the celebration and recording of same sex marriages.

We have heard dissenting voices during the threshing process which has led to us this decision, and we have been reminded of the need for tenderness to those who are not with us who will find this change difficult. We also need to remember, including in our revision of Quaker faith and practice, those Friends who live singly, whether or not by choice.

We will need to explain our decision to other Christian bodies, other faith communities, and, indeed to other Yearly Meetings, and pray for a continuing loving dialogue, even with those who might disagree strongly with what we affirm as our discernment of God’s will for us at this time.

Quakers taken a principled lead once again...
 

Part of the reason this site was developed was for Quakers to engage with non-Quakers in a useful and informative way.

To that end, we've tried to make the text on our public pages easy to read and relatively free of the Quaker terminology that some people find difficult to understand. Where we have used it, we've tried to explain what we're talking about!

We've also opened half our forum to public view (although only registered users may post on it) - the point of this is so you can see what we're discussing. New Quakers or non-Quakers might find the 'Ask a Quaker' section interesting.

If you have any questions, or there's something on the site you don't understand, please feel free to comment on this blog post!

Our Quaker Social Justice Group meets on the 4th Thursday of each month at 7.15pm at Central Manchester (Mount Street) Meeting House.

It has met for around 20 years and has engaged in a range of issues and with different approaches.
We have engaged with issues of Inequality in Britain, campaigning for a more equal society - this involved us one year in holding a vigil on the steps of the Meeting House with banners and placards to project the Quakler voice onto the street.

We have fostered the Neighbourhood Friends Project - this worked with schools in East Manchester to try to avoid school exclusions by working with youngsters who were in danger of this.

We have worked hard to engage Friends throughout our area with the problems of Trade Justice, and the need for debt forgiveness.

Latterly there has been a considerable focus on the difficulties faced by refugees and asylum seekers, not least so-called failed asylum seekers who are often both destitute and in danger of deportation. We have made our concerns known to Ministers and to our MPs, have created a fund to allow for urgent help in a small number of instances. there is also a scheme offering overnight hospitality to those in need which some of our members have been closely involved with.

Also in the last two or three years we have turned our attention to problems related to global warming - not least because this will have disproportionate effects on the poor globally, and even locally. In this respect we have promoted a Quaker position supporting the so-called Congestion Charge; we have secured the approval of area Meeting for our 'Position Paper on the Motorist Lobby' and have promoted discussion amongst Friends of the problems of choosing to fly

There is much else. But I hope that gives a flavour of the range of interests the Group has worked on and the range of approaches we have adopted. It is a Group that has helped Quakers locally to witness more effectively to their testimonies to Equality, Peace, Truth, Simplicity and Care for the Earth. It's a good base for witness. It is always open and is always prepared to hear new concerns.

Next meeting is Thursday, March 26th at 7.15 at Mount Street Friends Meeting House