8. The centrally managed work of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain

• 8.22 8.23

The committees whose work has been described were all set up to carry through what Yearly Meeting or Meeting for Sufferings has considered important service which Friends should undertake. It is imperative, therefore, if they are to continue to be sensitive to the concern of the yearly meeting, that there shall be a living and two-way communication between them and local meetings. It is sometimes complained that committees issue statements or initiate policies and work of which local meetings remain largely ignorant or see as some far-distant event, little affecting them. If the complaint is even in part justified, what remedy is open to us? First, let us set our minds to see the committees not as some distant 'they' with documents emanating from an impersonal 'Friends House'. It is we who compose the committees and the document we dislike was, like as not, drafted by Friends in meetings not far from our own.

People are usually preferable to paper, though admittedly some Friends are more effective than others in transmitting experience in a concise and lively way. Friends accepting service on committees, whether by local nomination or not, might usefully share with their area meeting the interests and concerns which are claiming their committee's attention. And, since many Friends are diffident to a fault, clerks might seek them out, looking not to mere reporting but to the sensitive sharing of experience.

If committees are to be responsive to changing concern, they must be aware of local judgment, which in turn must be based upon knowledge. It is essential, therefore, that meetings should from time to time review the effectiveness of the ways in which they keep themselves informed of the activities of committees.

Our committees do not live to themselves. Their appointment by and reporting through the Britain Yearly Meeting Trustees to Yearly Meeting or Meeting for Sufferings reflect their responsibility. As the representatives of area meetings on Meeting for Sufferings attempt a disciplined understanding of the total work and witness of the yearly meeting, so the individual pieces of work of different committees will be seen in a right perspective.

Next: 9.01