‘Trust’ and ‘what it means to be a Quaker today’ will be central themes in Britain Yearly Meeting this year it has been revealed. The timetable for BYM, from 24 to 27/05/2013 reveals that the issues of Trust in the Spirit and Trust in Trusteeship will be considered at sessions of the annual meeting of Quakers in Britain.

In part one of Documents in Advance, which was released in 02/2013, Deborah Rowlands, clerk of yearly meeting agenda committee, writes: “This year, as part of our three-year exploration of ‘What it means to be a Quaker today’, we will look at what it means to be Quakers together. Trust is an important part of our corporate life. We trust in the Spirit, the leadings of God which are the promptings of love and truth in our hearts. How do our individual leadings fit with our corporate discernment, and vice versa? How do we own our decisions, take responsibility for them and put them into practice in the world? What is our understanding of Quaker trusteeship?”

Deborah Rowlands continues: “Yearly Meeting is when Quakers in Britain come together to worship, to make decisions and to spend time as a community. Some local meetings have arranged for groups of Friends to come and stay together, which has strengthened the community locally too.” Within part one of Documents in Advance are exercises for people in meetings to undertake together.

In the first yearly meeting session responses to queries will be shared, having been ‘distilled’ by persons unknown. The queries are: “How have you discerned the right way forward in your own life? “What experiences have you had of Quaker meetings being guided by the Spirit when making decisions?” “What do you value about the ways in which Friends work together?”

Friends are invited to respond to the queries by email to [email protected], by post to Yearly Meeting Office, Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ or by posting on the forum http://quaker.boards.net/board/8/truth-prosper.

Documents in Advance includes a hashtag, #bym13, on the bottom of alternate pages. Hashtags are used in Twitter, a social media site, to label topics and filter searches. The document is brightly coloured and includes more graphics and images than in previous years.

Documents in Advance are available to download as a PDF, or in e-book reader or tablet formats.