I think I’ve possibly spotted two. We really should have worn some secret Quaker ID so we could find each other!

Having been brought up within the box allocated to her by Apartheid, being introduced to Quakers who shared food and drink with her, who shared cups and cutlery with her, and who invited her outside of her ‘box’ to their homes, she thought, ‘These people are strange, but I think I’ll stick with them.’ (Probably something most of us can identify with as Quakers!)

In Europe perhaps we take our visa-free travelling for granted and do not always remember it is not as easy for most Friends in the world. This is not the first gathering where Friends from the Americas or from Africa have been prevented from attending, or where those travelling have found the journey traumatic. What can we do in the future to provide more support and to combat ‘travel discrimination’?

As the day progressed, Esther Mombo (who Irish Friends may remember from IYM 2022 in Belfast when she spoke to us online) shared ministry this morning inspired by the children’s song ‘There’s a hole in my bucket’. There are so many holes in the world - racism, human trafficking, social and economic injustice, climate injustice, colonialism, genocide - we cannot skirt around them, we can’t make excuses, we must confront them. For repentance we need to acknowledge our complicity - we need to recognise that we have benefitted and continue to benefit from historical injustices. With repentance we can change the system. We must change the system.

In a small group discussion in the ‘Healing Historical Injustices’ workshop we wondered, when discrimination is so ingrained in a society, do we always recognise when we are being discriminated against? I found myself going a step further and wondering, if that discrimination is so ingrained in our society (including in our Quaker community), do we recognise when we are the perpetrators?

I found myself taken aback when I arrived here on Monday at what seemed to me a disproportionate number of white European (particularly British) Friends at this gathering. I continue to be frustrated by the speed of native English speakers; and, despite many, many reminders, by the lack of slowing down and pausing to allow time for comprehension, processing, and interpretation for non-native English speakers. As a language teacher, it has long been a bugbear of mine that there is an assumption that everyone speaks, or at least understands, English.

The majority of Quakers in the world are not white.

The majority of Quakers in the world are not European.

The majority of Quakers in the world do not speak English as their native tongue.

Do we need to follow Esther’s advice and stop avoiding what seems to me to be a massive big hole in our own Society of Friends?

Can we look at how our structures could change to be more equitable for everyone?

We may have to be creative - an Italian Friend suggested we all learn Esperanto ahead of the next World Plenary!

I would encourage everyone to learn enough Spanish to be able to enjoy the experience of being part of the Spanish speaking world of Quakers. We started the day with so much laughter this morning, and it was wonderful

Cristela (El Salvador) welcomed all in both Spanish and English, and introduced what would be happening.

Ivana (Bolivia) gave the opening prayer in Spanish and Paty (Mexico) translated it into English.

Jorge (Cuba) read the Bible reading and Neyda (Bolivia) then read it in English.

Myron (Bolivia) translated for Raussie (USA) who was introducing the preacher.

Kelly (on the right - also USA) was the preacher for this session. Ricardo (Cuba) translated his message into Spanish.

Manuel David (Cuba) led us in prayer and introduced a video of a group of Young Adult Cuban musicians with Hazel (Costa Rica) translating for him.

Elvira (Peru) gave the closing prayer, translated into English by Darwin (Guatemala) not in this picture as he was also the multi-talented roving mic man, also translating ministry from the silent worship into English.

The programmed worship also contained video contributions from some who should have been here but did not make it due to travel issues.

Darwin asked Lynn and me to perform our ceilidh again in the corridor by our room. It’s very telling that as we assumed our positions, Tim Rouse (from BYM) came across us, looked a little puzzled but once we said we were dancing and humming the Gay Gordon’s so Darwin could film us, he nodded and immediately accepted this as perfectly reasonable 10.30pm activity.

Im not the only Irish Friend online for the World Plenary Meeting. I am also attending for the European and Middle Eastern Section also with tasks. Its been a full on week, trying to balance the need to take screen breaks and my wish to not miss anything on this most interesting and engaging Meeting. The opportunity to meet Friends from other Yearly Meetings worldwide has been so rewarding and while it has been amazing to see that the number of online Friends was almost 50/50 with Friends present in person, there were a much smaller number of African Friends online which was a gap for me. At times there seemed to be two very different groups of Friends and im greatful to the Friends who were able to more actively include the online Friends. Thank you Dawn for inviting me here to the padlet.

Ill continue my experience later today.

We’re all feeling a bit emotional to be leaving - I was going to say to be going home, but the South Africans have greeted many of us with ‘welcome home’ since we arrived here (as we all originate from Africa) and it does very much feel like home here.

Though we are sad to be saying our goodbyes, Ricardo told us this morning not to be sad as the sooner we leave, the sooner it will be that we get to meet up again.

I’m taking a moment down by the river, in one final attempt to see at least one monkey. Maybe they are hiding from me because they know I’ll come back to see them another time.

We were slightly taken aback to be welcomed to the stage as ‘elders’.

Hopefully it will not take another 19 years for us to reconnect - we now have a WhatsApp group!

Also, we know Anna Dunford and possibly others were with us online as well.

It will take me time to reflect before I can report back. The agenda and work to be done is huge. I hope you soon see both the epistle from the meeting and to me maybe more important the document that weaves the strands of the themes.

I have spent the week co-facilitating a home group which included Friends from Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, Portugal, Britain and South Africa.

I have also been supporting two young Cubans as they learned how to bring a proposal and get it seasoned.

Lots of catching up with Friends from over the years. I’m getting glimpses of what might be some of the next things I’m called to do.

It’s been fabulous to see individual Irish Friends online faithfully all week- and to see the Belfast and Dublin hubs yesterday…. Glad we could all share that worship.

Please pray for Travelling Mercies, as African Friends say, for our safe return

This was an initial meeting for those of us who are too old to be considered Young Adult Friends now, and who feel a need for fellowship with those of a similar age. Our age boundaries are vague. We know that 36 is very young to be middle-aged, and also that 55 is perhaps too low for our maximum age!

We are a group who find we are considered ‘young’ by our preparative, monthly and yearly meetings and as such often find ourselves invited to many, many committees. Though we all want to play an active role, there was a shared feeling of occasionally feeling overwhelmed by the demands of juggling work, home and Quaker lives.

We also want to find a way of welcoming those who join Friends slightly later in life and who have not had the experience of participating in Young Friends events. Parents from this group who do not have other children in their meetings would love to share ideas on how to bring up Quaker children, and how to find books, games and resources.

We want to insert a bit of the fun and games from Young Friends gatherings into our more ‘mature’ meetings - we lamented the loss of ratchet screwdriver/possession/wink (which may be called other names elsewhere!), a game which has become the stuff of legends after its banishment! We also shared a retrospective horror of the child protection and safeguarding issues of some of the games we used to play!

I mentioned the ‘rosy glows’ and the positive affirmations that are so present in the YF world. We miss those too!

We do not want to set up another committee, or an executive committee, or write any minutes - we all have enough to do!! What we do want is to be able to find each other and share experiences, ideas, frustrations. We want to be there to listen to each other and support each other. We recognised that often having someone to vent to (or to share inappropriate jokes with!) from our own age demographic is invaluable.

So - we have a WhatsApp group! If you are an Irish Friend who would like to join the mafia, please let me know! dawnmarie.rafferty@gmail.com

We do want to make it clear that this particular mafia has no initiation requirements - though last night those present were all forced to sit together on the floor and then compare the creaking and groaning of our bodies as we stood back up, we thought it might be unquakerly to insist that everyone undergoes this particular ritual. Also, we want to assure you, that mafia members are free to leave at any time!

He can now relax and laugh and smile a bit more!!

Myron was Simon’s room mate for the week and has now swapped identities!

It has been such a fun airport experience, however, ambling around the shops looking for souvenirs and every now and then hearing, ‘Hola Amiga’, ‘Hello fellow Quaker’ etc as we all bump into each other. The flight from Jo’burg to Heathrow is packed with Quakers and I think so far there are five of us on the flight to Doha.

Hopefully my very messy notes and thoughts will arrange themselves into some order by the time I get back to Dublin.

We send loving greetings from the Friends World Committee for Consultation World Plenary, held August 5 to 12, 2024 online and in Vanderbijlpark near Johannesburg, South Africa, on the banks of the river variously known as the IHai!arib, Lekwa, iLikwa and the Vaal. We are truly ‘down by the riverside’ as we lay down our burdens and lift them up to God.

500 Friends have gathered at the river’s edge and online, coming from 53 countries and representing 95 Yearly Meetings, worship groups and Quaker organisations. Half of them joined the gathering online, individually and organised in 50 hubs all over the world, a first for a World Plenary Meeting. With joy we reflect on how great it has been to have the contributions from online Friends in the room. For those of us online, it was a joy to be included and to experience the togetherness. Sadly, some Friends were prevented from joining us. We regret their absence and hold them in the Light.

Our theme is ‘Living the Spirit of Ubuntu: Responding with Hope to God’s Call to Cherish Creation and One Another’. Ubuntu is a Zulu word that speaks to the power and ceaseless work of the Holy Spirit between us, enabling us to go beyond our individual selves and grasp that ‘I am because we are’.

In this joyous gathering, we have expanded our understanding and appreciation for who we – as Quakers – really are. What a gift. Despite our multitude of differences, we have celebrated that we share not only our Quaker founders – happy 400^th birthday, George Fox! – but also deep Friendship, an openness to new Biblical interpretations, our structures and processes, our deep commitment to peace and justice, our love of the Earth, and our love of God.

Eager that all gathered Friends may participate as fully as possible, we have bridged geographical distance and differences in language with technology, patient interpreters, and God’s grace. We are thankful. In the inclusive spirit of Ubuntu, we have all – and particularly English speakers – been challenged to speak slowly and clearly enough for our interpreters to do their work. We have all been challenged to find a Spirit-led balance between speaking and listening, between action and contemplation, between doing and simply being.

Prior to this gathering, 46 of the Young Adult Friends among us came together for four days of shared experience, conversation, reflection, laughter, worship, and song. Living in community, Young Adult Friends explored, held, and danced with commonalities and differences. In an exciting development, a world committee of eight Young Adult Friends from all FWCC sections was formed. This reflects a joyful commitment to keep nurturing the newfound sense of community. Aware of the magnitude of the responsibility, Young Adult Friends call on all of us for support and trust.

We were warmly and joyously welcomed by our hosts from Southern Africa Yearly Meeting and the Africa Section of FWCC. A local Friend shared with us the South African greeting ‘sawubona’, which means ‘I see you and not only you, but all who have made you who you are’. She also spoke of how coming to Quakers helped her to believe in life beyond racist segregation. Excursions both virtual and local enriched our programme. Field trips to the Cradle of Humankind and the Apartheid Museum grounded the gathering in the context of our host country’s own painful and turbulent journey. We have been inspired by the Spirit-filled resilience of our hosts, emerging from the struggles of the past and present steadfastly to affirm that through God’s grace, we are still here. We are one.

Together, we have worshipped, prayed, sung, been warmed by the sun, chilled by the evening frost, and, of course, we talked — and talked — and talked some more. We have sought to discern Spirit-led ways forward to honour our commitment to our three interconnected themes: care of creation, the healing of relationships in the light of historic and ongoing injustice, and nurturing Ubuntu. Our emerging concerns have been captured and woven together in a tapestry document.

We are seized with the urgent need to do transformative work in the world. We are also called by that still small voice to pause, to listen deeply to one another and to creation. Jeremiah 29: 11-14 says: ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.’ God is with us. We are here.  We are one. 

We have been challenged, and many of us are called to join collective, global Quaker action to live out our concerns — to be, as George Fox said — “valiant for Truth”.  Others among us focus on local community. We are learning to expand our compassion for who we are, just as we find ourselves in all our brokenness and our beauty.

The variance in our perspectives, some large, some small, have become more apparent, at times painfully so. We have been able, with God’s blessing, to resolve some tension through compassionate conversation, while some was simply held in our midst. We are not discouraged.

Our past and present reminds us of our capacity to be faithful, courageous changemakers. With radical hope, we trust in our collective ability to “recognise, repent, redeem and restore” and to work together in beautiful and transformative ways. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  We know that through Jesus’ invitation to new life,  ‘All things are made new.’ God has no hands but ours, no feet but ours, no lips but ours, so we keep imagining a better world. I am because you are. I am because we are. I see you. We belong to each other. We are still here. We are one.

George Fox’s radical insistence on bringing the Kingdom of God to all aspects of our lives, invited what he called ‘the new creation’. Are we ready for what is to come?  Are we prepared to do what is required of us to birth the new creation? How does our living Ubuntu change the world?

As we return to our homes, with renewed love for our international Quaker family, may God bless the spaces between us as we seek a better world for all creation. Let the new creation come.

In God’s love, with radical hope,

Simon C. Lamb,

Clerk, FWCC, on behalf of all who were part of our World Plenary Meeting

The 2024 World Plenary Meeting is being held in the context of the challenges in our world, of climate and ecological breakdown and historical and ongoing injustices.

Meeting in South Africa and online, we are united by the spirit of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu refers to the deeply held belief, morality and custom that every person is worthy of being recognised, respected and heard, and that we as human beings are all interdependent.

During our time together we have woven a rich tapestry from the encounters and dialogues within our worldwide meeting of Friends.

We recognise that our three themes of Ubuntu and community, care for creation and repairing historical and ongoing injustice are intertwined and inseparable.

We acknowledge our brokenness and the need for God’s healing power.

‘We dedicate ourselves to let the living waters flow through us – where we live, regionally and in wider world fellowship.

We dedicate ourselves to building the ‘peace that passeth all understanding’, to the repair of the world, opening our lives to

the Light to guide us in each small step’.

This commitment in Kabarak in 2012, reiterated in Pisac in 2016, remains central, the basis for our ongoing discernment and commitment.

We are called to tap into the same deep power as did early Friends, to name our grief in the face of climate and ecological breakdown. To face that darkness, but to face it through the Light, with a deeper

form of love.

The spirit of Ubuntu, the power of community, can also drive us to dig deep into the pain and trauma of the world, to face up to climate crisis and the ongoing effects of historical injustice.

Without justice – climate justice, racial justice, social justice, economic justice - there can be no true peace.

We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will. Let us be open to God’s promptings moving through us, using our faith and practice, the prophetic and the practical.

We feel compassion for, and are in solidarity with, the poorest in society, who while struggling to make a living may cause damage to this creation we so value. We acknowledge that ecological destruction is

disproportionately driven by the rich, who must bear the greatest burden of climate action. We need radical transformative change, towards simplicity and sufficiency.

We need to challenge the corporations and governments which are failing to live up to their international climate and biodiversity commitments.

We value the work of QUNO, Quaker agencies and other partners in taking our concerns forward. We support and uphold those Friends who take non-violent direct action. We call on Friends across the world to prioritise climate and eco-justice; to map their actions for care for creation, to invigorate and encourage radical action, and to nurture a sense of togetherness.

In expanding our sense of the divine and our understanding of Ubuntu, we can say : I am, because you are, and because creation is’

We grieve with God for the exponential impact of historical and ongoing injustice. This includes the impact of colonisation, forced displacement, slavery, economic exploitation and racism. We are called

to disrupt patterns of oppression and division, to acknowledge offences, to challenge false notions of white supremacy, to repudiate doctrines of discovery, to make amends and to work for reparative and retrospective justice. We are called in our Quaker communities to be patterns and examples, to share gifts and skills, to be brave, to become radically inclusive and to celebrate diversity. Are we all ready to take up these callings?

Healing begins with sharing our stories, telling the truth, and listening deeply. There are truths which are uncomfortable to hear about Quaker involvement and complicity in past and present injustice. We need to build, or rebuild, trust. We pray that in trying to do the right thing, we do not do further damage. We draw inspiration from the Bible and our Quaker values of equality, truth, peace and justice. We draw hope from the examples we have heard, that demonstrate and lead us to recognise, repent, redeem and restore.

And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’

Micah 6:8

It is a long journey to heal and repair relationships in the light of historic and continuing injustices. Shepherd Jesus, be our guide. We call on Yearly Meetings and FWCC to take up this work. We call on

them to begin by examining our own Quaker communities, to engage in dialogue across the FWCC Sections, to centre the voices of those who have endured pain, to take action with and alongside allies, to educate and train ourselves, and to share reports of what Friends are doing so that we can learn from one another.

See, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5: 17-18

Ubuntu is about unity in our diversity. Our diversity is what makes us rich and vibrant: we are all equal and beloved in Christ Jesus.

Those on the receiving end of injustice need to be trusted to create changes in the world. Let’s move away from the colonial shadow.

Being Ubuntu is disrupted by gender based violence and patriarchy. Sexual discrimination and disunity over sexual orientation continue to hold us back.

We need to identify and name the underlying causes of injustice in the world. Only then can we work for repair, through prayerful deep listening.

And once we’ve named the issues, we need to listen to that of God in others, and only then speak our truth with humility, in ways which others can hear.

As Friends we are called to action in the world, as individuals and as communities … ‘What canst thou say? What canst thou do?’ Let us be a faith community, different from the kingdoms of this world – through the work of the Holy Spirit.

We are reminded of our brokenness, and we are challenged by the spirit of Christ to take action in the world.

A prayer

God of love and grace, we are a beautiful and broken people, living in a beautiful and broken world.

We confess that we have fallen short in caring for each other and for creation

As a faith community we ask you to forgive us for neglecting creation, and for inflicting grave injustices upon one another.

Give us the courage and wisdom to move forward boldly.

Grant us the strength to seek each other’s forgiveness, and the love and courage to hold both pain and possibility in our hearts

We ask you to send us on a new journey with our fellow humans and all your creatures in the spirit of Ubuntu.

Amen

Footnote: the term retrospective justice, as used by the Black Quaker Project, does not carry the challenging meaning which it can sometimes have in post-apartheid South Africa.