Britain Yearly Meeting - Organizational Structure

Organizational Structure

Britain Yearly Meeting is the national organisation of Quakers in Britain. Its membership consists of the members of all Area Quaker Meetings in England, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands. Any member of Britain Yearly Meeting is entitled to attend the Yearly Meeting. Between the annual sittings of Yearly Meeting as a whole, the national work of Quakers in Britain is carried out by Meeting for Sufferings and the various standing committees which are in existence at that time, each of which are made up of representatives and corresponds with each Area Quaker Meetings in Britain, and each Area Quaker Meeting likewise is made up of representatives and corresponds with Local Quaker Meetings (that cover a small area). This correspondence and representation means that Quakers in Britain can have unified response on major issues.

The organisation has been recently re-structured, under proposals called RECAST (Representation, Communication and Accountability in our Structures), which were brought to Yearly Meeting in 2005.

There are committees set up to deal with particular issues, long running committees consisting of representatives from all over Britain include Meeting for Sufferings, Quaker Life and Quaker Peace and Social Witness. There is also a permanent paid secretariat who work at Friends House in London, carrying out the work decided upon by the Yearly Meeting and its standing committees.

Meeting for Sufferings is a national representative committee which deals with decisions which need to be made on a national basis for the Yearly Meeting during the year whilst Yearly Meeting is not in session. It has two representatives from each Area Quaker Meeting in England, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

Britain Yearly Meeting currently has four national committees who carry out work at a national level on behalf of Friends in Britain. Each have both representative committees of Friends appointed by Yearly Meeting to oversee the work, and a paid secretariat who carry out the day-to-day work of each department:

• Quaker Life deals with the running of Quaker meetings within Britain, including outreach work within Britain, education and development for Quakers in Britain, activities for children and young people
• Quaker Peace and Social Witness deals with Quakers' peace and development work, both in Britain and overseas
• Quaker Communications deals with the production of leaflets, posters, pamphlets, books and a website
• Quaker Committee on Christian and Interfaith Relations deals with relationships between Quakers and other Christian and faith groups.

Britain Yearly Meeting assembles and publishes British Friends' Book of Discipline, which since 1995 has been known as Quaker Faith and Practice.