Britain Yearly Meeting 2006 Epistle to Ireland Yearly Meeting

March 4 2006

Dear Friends,

Warm greetings from Friends in Britain as you come together from all over Ireland for your Yearly Meeting in Dublin. There is a special bond between our Yearly Meetings that rests on our Quaker heritage shared over more than three centuries and on the strong personal friendships that this has brought. We share, too, a mutual concern for peace, reconciliation and justice amidst the pains and complexities of Britain and Ireland's political relationships. We give thanks for the witness of Friends both corporately and individually throughout all these difficulties.

Friends' work and witness are a response to divine leadings. They are patient and long-term, centred on the roots and causes of problems rather than concerned with quick successes or ready-made solutions. In our religious life as well as in our social concerns let us keep Paul's words to the Corinthians always before us:

Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love keeps no score of wrongs; does not gloat over other men's sins, but delights in the truth. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance. (1 Cor. 13: 4-7, New English Bible).

Recently, new expressions of our faith have emerged. Both Australia and Aotearoa Yearly Meetings have produced new books of discipline, and Switzerland Yearly Meeting is starting this process. Britain Yearly Meeting published Quaker Faith & Practice in 1995, and is currently engaged in a revision of structures known as RECAST (Representation, Communication and Accountability in our Structures), which occupied much time and careful attention before and during our residential Yearly Meeting last summer in York.

These Quaker processes, which several Yearly Meetings around the world are involved in, are rarely short and easy, as Friends in Ireland know well from the revision of Christian Experience. But wherever we are, we seek God's guidance as we attempt to crystallize our faith in words that will speak to new generations and honour past generations.

We know that Irish Friends are already well advanced with preparations for the FWCC Triennial in 2007, when you willwelcome Friends from all over the world, not only to Dublin but also to other parts of the island of Ireland. The experience of hosting a Triennial is both a challenge and a joy.

May your Yearly Meeting, both now and in your Triennial preparations, experience the spirit of Christ working among you, supporting you at all times and enabling you to speak peaceably and lovingly to each other and the world.

Signed on behalf of Meeting for Sufferings and of Britain Yearly Meeting

Caroline Nursey
Clerk