Message from NFN clerk Tim Regan
The Nontheist Friends Network AGM, previously announced during notices after the last two Creative Conversations, will be at 7pm UK time on Thursday the 23rd of May. The AGM is open to all members of the network. Do let me know if there is anything you would like to add to the agenda, and I will send round a Zoom link nearer the time. Tim
And don’t forget our next ‘Creative conversation’ on Doubt tomorrow evening 2nd May.
Our next Quaker Meeting and Creative Conversation will be on
2 February QM+CC at 7PM GMT/2PM EST by Zoom, and will introduce the concern, How have I reached a non-theist position – or have I?
Before the meeting, registered participants will receive the Zoom link along with a selection of questions and definitions to ponder.
Details have already been sent out by email and will follow here later. (Not the Zoom link, you should email for that if not already registered)
In the meantime, our AGM is at 7pm UK time this Thursday the 19th of January 2023 and an agenda and the Zoom link to members will follow soon.
Here is my NFN Website Report 2022 (for Jan 2023 AGM) (.doc) (.pdf)
Trevor
“We are all the poorer for the crushing of one man, since the dimming of the Light anywhere darkens us all.” Michael Sorensen, 1986Queries to consider: How do we as non-theist Quakers work at repairing the world? What is the source of this inspiration?
Quakers don’t famously do Christmas. (Consider the word order and absence of commas).
What more could you expect for Xmas except a Bumper Post? (This is it).
Tim has posted the details of the AGM and I will post the details for the intervening Meeting and Creative Conversation, which have already been sent out by email, soon.
For the AGM I’ll just remind everyone about the Constitution and:
8. Any proposed amendments to this constitution must be sent in writing to the Clerk at least 20 days* before the AGM. The Clerk will circulate them at least 10 days before the AGM. Only the AGM may authorise amendments. (* ie. by 30 December email clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk).
It might be an idea to look at the Constitution now.
I have been reading Rhiannon Grant’s Quaker Quick Hearing the Light, (the metaphors are deliberately mixed). A 60 page masterpiece (if that’s not incorrectly gendered) which I thoroughly recommend. It’s I suppose a sort of follow up to Telling the Truth about God of which I’ve lent two copies as soon as bought so haven’t read yet. Rhiannon’s belief in God is carefully explained and her position does not seem very far from that of ‘nonbelieving’ NFN members. For more on this topic on this website see here.
This article on the Death of God by a Catholic writer might give more food for thought: https://christogenesis.org/the-death-of-god-and-the-rebirth-of-god/
As does this take on the ‘Divine‘ by Quaker nontheist Sam Barnett-Cormack.
Remembering Os Cresson’s Quaker and Naturalist too, Friends may find this website of interest: https://religious-naturalist-association.org/welcome/
If you want to treat yourself (or a Friend) for Christmas (and into February), this new course from Woodbrooke on the Gospel of Mary may be just the thing. Meanwhile, the Bishops may have something to say about same-sex relationships.
Bearing in mind the recent poll (or was it a census result?) about declining religious belief in the UK, this latest post from Chuck Fager on the situation in the USA, is worth a read.
Now, please don’t let’s forget the poor billionnaires this Christmas as The Equality Trust (with Quaker connections – think The Spirit Level) write; their report is also written up in the Grauniad. (I’d favour 90-95 pence in the pound myself as used to be the case in the USA and I think the UK in the 60s or 70s). (A testimony to Equality?)
Not quite finally, here is Frank Cranmer’s post ‘What has Religion got to do with “Corporate Purpose”?’ on the Law and Religion blog.
If you fancy something scandalous for Christmas, here’s a book or two in another offering from the Church Times.
And finally, for Christmas, a nice picture of Suella Braverman.
Hope that will do for now.
A date for your diaries … the next AGM of the Nontheist Friends Network will be at 19:00 UK time on Thursday the 19th of January 2023. We will send out an agenda and the Zoom link to members nearer the time. You can find details of membership on NFN Membership.
I believe 5 additional Working Groups were proposed at the AGM in February and all those who came forward to express an interest were contacted by our clerk Tim Regan on 18 April to take matters forward. So far, only the Website working Group (6) seems to have been particularly active. (the others being QF&P revision (6 or 7), Conference (2), Newsletter (4) and Woodbrooke courses (4) – numbers in brackets names coming forward).
Whereas 6 people (including 3 members of the Steering Group) put their names forward for the Website group, only 2 people (and I was one of them) came forward for the Conference group – which appears to me to be a bizarre sense of priorities.
Why the concern for the website (which seems to be working fine?) and so little for a future Conference when the latter, whether at Woodbrooke, elsewhere or online, has been one of the annual highlights for Nontheist Quaker activity, support and the AGM?
Am I to take it that NFN members and past or potential future Conference attenders have no further interest in such an event whether in person or online? I do hope very much that this isn’t the case as I have always very much enjoyed NFN Conferences of which I have attended at least 6 at Woodbrooke and one online (2021 in lieu of 2020 cancelled through ‘covid’).
From my experience of being involved with the QUG (Quaker Universalist Group) Conference at Woodbrooke over several years, last year online and especially the ‘blended’ Conference at Woodbrooke and online this year when I was heavily involved with managing the online component (but most of the work being done by the QUG team at Woodbrooke), I know that organising a blended conference is very much more demanding than organising one online or even just in person.
If we can’t assemble a team to organise a blended conference (rather more than half a dozen perhaps) or an in person only conference (still 5 or 6?) then perhaps we could rise to an online only conference organised by as few as 4 people perhaps?
There might be a ‘Conference-lite’ alternative which would be simply to have (in person or online) a ‘meet-up’ for social exchange, sharing ideas and worship and so on – perhaps a ‘nontheist retreat’? – organised by just the participants themselves with only 2 or 3 people taking on some prior planning, bookings etc. Online this might seem little different from our monthly ‘Quaker Meetings with Creative Conversations’ although it could be over a weekend with more time together. In person would be quite a different experience – and perhaps even that could include the possibility of ‘dropping in’ online.
Does anyone else in NFN feel the need for a Conference (or ‘meet-up’) – or should I go back to bed?
I really would appreciate some feed-back on this – whilst you are preparing your articles for a future newsletter.
Oh, by the way, I mentioned ‘other matters’ – the ‘Conversation’ last night on ‘How do I as a nontheist Quaker relate to deeply Christian Quakers‘ went extremely well with some very interesting contributions, particularly, I thought, those from Jean Wardrop and David Boulton. I will try to return to this later but if anyone else who was there would like to write up something for the website now, that would also be most welcome.
I mentioned at the AGM on Thursday (17th February) that some nontheist Friends might be interested in the Quaker Universalists’ Conference at Woodbrooke and online from 1-3April.
Details can be found here: https://qug.org.uk/conference-2020-health-and-healing/
Friends might also be interested to look at the newly formed Quaker Truth and Integrity Group (next meeting for QTIG members on 23rd February and Zoom Conference from 25 April): https://quakertruth.org/calendar/
Courses at Woodbrooke which should certainly be of interest to nontheist Friends have already been mentioned here.
Trevor
We have several reports available, from our Steering Group, Working Groups, etc., which will be presented at our AGM on Thursday the 17th of February, 2022. They are the:
We also have the minutes of the previous AGM (pdf).
(N.B. If you want to attend the AGM, and have not yet registered please email clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk for the Zoom link.)
Our clerk Tim Regan and the Steering Group issued the following notice to members by email last week.
We are planning to hold the next AGM of the Nontheist Friends Network on Zoom at 7:00 UK time on Thursday the 17th of February, i.e. interleaved between our monthly Creative Conversations. I hope you can come along. The provisional agenda for the AGM is:
Email Tim (clerk@nontheist-quakers.org.uk) if you would like to receive the Zoom link.
The minutes of this AGM can now be found here: https://nontheist-quakers.org.uk/events/minutes-from-our-2022-agm/
(N.B. As previous AGMs took place on 30th March 2019 and 9th December 2020, it is assumed the Steering Group or the AGM will decide if this AGM is for 2021—and we need another for 2022—or whether this AGM is to stand for another 12 months.)
We now have a draft minute for the AGM on 9 December, which was sent to current members of NFN by email on our mailing list yesterday (Wednesday 23 December).
The clerk welcomed participants and expressed great pleasure in seeing old and new faces. She introduced the Steering Group. Altogether there were 35 people present. After clarifying some ground rules for the procedure of the AGM, an extract from QF&P was read (26.39, Charles F Carter, 1971).
(For full details, see the minute)
The Meeting appointed Piers Maddox (Clerk), Trevor Bending, Gisela Creed, Tim Regan, Kiera Faber, Steven Goldblatt and Roger Warren-Evans to be the Steering Group for 2021, and asks them to find ways of working with small, open planning groups for specific tasks.
One of these might be a working group consisting of interested members of the Steering Group and others to undertake an evaluation of the website and, if an entirely new website is required, come up with at least a created ‘proof of concept’ site.
The clerk (Gisela Creed 2017-2020) thanked the retiring members of the steering group for their work and especially David Boulton whose initiative started the group. She thanked everyone for attending, and ended with a quote by David Boulton from his introduction to ‘Godless for God’s sake, the collection of essays on Nontheism in contemporary Quakerism which David edited in 2006:
There is so much to do. So much in our divided, warring world, our atavistic religion, our polluted politics, our unexamined ways of thinking that we need to SUBVERT! Where shall we find the society of rebels, agitators, and outsiders, the partisan recruits to the underground army of subversion whose loyalty is pledged to the republic of heaven on earth? Who will choose to be Godless- for God’s sake?
The Steering Group page of the website has been updated with the new details, as has the Constitution amended by the AGM:
(a) In section 1, we agree to replace the words ‘listed informal group’ with the words ‘Quaker Recognised Body’ in accordance with changes in the Britain Yearly Meeting regulations.
(b) In section 2, we agree to add the words ‘and attenders’ after the word ‘Friends’ to reflect the open nature of our group.
One Friend at the AGM said that he found the name ‘Steering Group’ off-putting. This came about because a ‘planning group’, considering the setting up of the NFN (which didn’t then have a name) in 2011, eventually decided on the terms ‘nontheist’ (about which arguments have continued to the present day), Nontheist Friends Network and Steering Group (a temporary sort of name?) and that’s the way it’s been ever since our first full ‘annual’ conference at Woodbrooke in 2012. We never got round to changing the SG to ‘Committee’ – but it is not in any way exclusive, is appointed annually by the AGM (I think that means for one year) but, in accordance with normal Quaker practice and our Constitution ‘The appointments of Clerk and Steering Committee will normally be for three years’. Steering Group members may choose to stay as long as required or ask to be released at any time and especially at the AGM which in normal circumstances usually takes place after one year – but in this exceptional year (not to mention the ‘C’ word, well maybe, Coronavirus) took place on ‘Zoom’ after 20 months.
Whilst ‘membership (of NFN) is open to all who sympathise with the aims’, to be a member of the Steering Group, in accordance with our status as a ‘Quaker Recognised Body’, you should be a member or regular attender at a recognised Quaker meeting being part of a recognised ‘Yearly Meeting’ such as Britain Yearly Meeting. (BYM also stands for Baltimore Yearly Meeting and there are many Quaker Yearly Meetings around the world – see FWCC website for details!)
Nontheist Friends Network 