Interchange – Fall 2010

Posted on October 14, 2010 by bymrsf

Considerations of Marriage

We are led to enable same sex marriages in the meeting for worship under the care of a meeting as we currently do for opposite sex marriages. We see this as embarking on a new phase in our life together. Registration officers are not, however, asked to step outside the law at this time. Revisions to Quaker faith and practice will be prepared. We are led to uphold
this affirmation to the testimonies to truth and equality. Marriage is God’s work and we are but witnesses.

Epistle from Britain Yearly Meeting Gathering 25 July to 1 August, 2009

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Advance Report – 2010

Posted on July 28, 2010 by bymrsf

This report covers the period from the August 2009 Annual Sessions of BYM through the April 27, 2010 Spring Interim Meeting.

Due to various schedule conflicts in the busy lives of our committee members, the BYM Ad Hoc Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns was only able to meet two times during this reporting period (we will also be meeting at summer Interim Meeting on June 19th, and during Annual Session, August 2010). Continue reading →

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Visioning Report

Posted on July 20, 2010 by bymrsf

In our sharing together, we agreed that we are most energized by and drawn to education and pastoral care for persons who are laboring with questions of gender and sexual identity and society’s perceptions, on behalf of themselves, their loved ones, or their meetings. We accomplish this by making ourselves known as a safe place. We need to be in touch with each other at the Yearly Meeting level in order to share information and to spiritually support and re-energize each other. Our presence as a Yearly Meeting committee is a quiet, yet powerful witness to the inclusivity of God’s unconditional love.

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Interchange – Fall 2009

Posted on September 28, 2009 by bymrsf

The BYM Ad Hoc Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns asks your Monthly Meeting to consider the following query and send your responses to us:

“Historically Friends held a called Meeting for Worship to celebrate the religious commitment and spiritual union of two of their members. There was no legal or civil component to these earliest marriages, because the state did not sanction marriage between two Friends in a Quaker Meeting House. Today many of our Friends are in a similar position. No legal jurisdiction within the boundaries of our Yearly Meeting will sanction marriage between two Friends of the same gender. Is it time to encourage a return to this earlier practice of separation of church and state? In accordance with our testimony to equality, should we offer the same marriage under the care of Meeting — no more and no less — to all couples, while encouraging couples who are legally able, to have a separate civil ceremony?”

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