News ...

The August newsletter is available online here ... in both PDF and plain text versions.

QLGF Autumn 2010 Gathering will be at Horsfield FMH in Bristol on 23rd October - Looking at ‘Inter-Faith Work’

QLGF are delightd that Yearly Meeting Gathering (York 2009) has endorsed same-sex marriages...

As a Listed Informal Group, QLGF was offered the opportunity to participate actively in Yearly Meeting Gathering at York, 25 July-1 August.

• The following is reproduced from the front page of our August newsletter. The newsletter will be available soon as a downloadable PDF on this website.
  
  
  
• "In case you have been on a desert island, British Quakers have come down unequivocally for same sex marriage. At 2009 Yearly Meeting Gathering at York, 1700 Quakers asked for a revision of the handbook Quaker Faith and Practice which would treat same sex and opposite sex couples exactly the same. They also asked the national body to lobby for legal changes to give same sex marriages legal status.
  
  Although voices were heard for disobeying the law, the Gathering decided against any such action at this time.
  
  The decision stemmed from a three year process of consultation and discussion, and went beyond a somewhat muted report from the national representative committee, Meeting for Sufferings. The concern began with the purely secular civil partnership process, which although giving same sex couples the same legal rights, separated the legal part and the spiritual celebration part. Quakers have unusual status (with Jews and Anglicans) of being the only groups who can do the entire marriage process in one go, and as such the inequality was particularly felt.
  
  Those at the Gathering report an extraordinary week of searching and coming to clarity, in which lesbian gay and bisexual Friends played a full but not exceptional part. There were strong disagreements expressed but no one stood in the way of the final, clear minute.
  
  The press hailed this as the first ‘mainstream’ religious body to adopt same-sex marriage, a phrase which was not suggested or approved by Quakers. Nevertheless, as the first member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland to do so, the debate in other religious organisations may be intensified. Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was quick to issue a statement that the decision was “honourable, courageous and trailblazing.”
  
  
• There is plenty of information on the UK quaker website if you click here
• For a summary of the national press coverage click here
  

QLGF flier available online. If you want to download and share with Friends and/or your Meeting click here.