It is time, Friends

In an extraordinary series of meetings, Quakers gathered at York have endorsed same sex marriage, {readmore}seeking both to revise our handbook Faith and Practice, and also to seek changes in the law.

There has been a palpable sense of movement as we have heard from couples and families, and we have moved further, with more unity and less dissent than I had expected. In particular the words have mattered less and the unity and equality of one marriage proceedure has come to dominate our minds.

The session has only justmoved to the next business and I will post the minute when I have it. As so often with Friends we achieved unity and gatheredness and then spent nearly an hour picking over the detail, but we got there. Hopefully acknowledging those for whom this was a difficult decision, Certainly it was not done to be popular or fashionable, but because over the last three years and in particular the last week, to be right, led by the Spirit of love.

People kept asking me where we would get to and I said I didn’t know, but what came to me on Thursday am and which I kept to myself was, Friends, it is time. and it was.

I don’t normally blog in white heat, I normally work on it a bit. More to follow I am sure.

It was a wonderful minute when we started and it was quite good even when we had faffed around with it.

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