Yearly Meeting

New Zealand Yearly Meeting Annual Gathering was held here in Wellington from Thursday July 9 through Sunday July 12. It is the centennial of the first Annual Gathering of New Zealand Quakers, also in Wellington. Of course, at that time NZ was a Meeting under the care of London Yearly Meeting; it became independent in 1964. The first Meeting for Worship was in Auckland in 1885. Because the Gathering is held in the winter, it is mostly business; there is a summer gathering with workshops and family activities. Wellington Meeting has been working on this conference for about two years. They are very glad that it is now successfully concluded!

Ron and I went mostly to help and to meet people; we figured that most of the business did not need our input. Ron helped particularly at registration the first day, and we went to lunch Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We enjoyed meeting people from Auckland, Christchurch, and all over NZ. About 110 people attended. I worked mostly on Saturday, helping in the book store. I found that as soon as business meeting started, I could close up and join it. The sessions I heard were the tail end of a report on their Quaker Ethical Investment Trust, a report from Young Adult Friends, and one from the Treaty Relations (Indigenous Rights) Committee. None of the reports seemed to lead to any decision making, which perhaps goes with an observation that about half of each monthly business meeting is taken up with work for the yearly meeting. Many decisions seem to come through this process, but I also haven’t observed enough to be sure.

The Young Adult Friends seem to be approaching getting the status of their own monthly meeting. They get together physically once a year at Easter for a long weekend, and have Skype conferences monthly. A couple of them traveled to the Triennial of the Asian section of FWCC in Bhopal, and found that very interesting and different. There was a Young Adult weekend after the main conference, where they met many more young Indian Friends, most of whom are on the more biblical, conservative end of the Quaker spectrum.

The Treaty group deals with Maori relations and issues, and is working on a position paper to give to the government about some of the issues currently at the forefront. In their report to the Meeting, they emphasized the constitutional issues for New Zealanders. The problem may be that, as with Great Britain, there is no Constitution. There is a Bill of Rights, and the Treaty of Waitangi sets out Maori rights, but it is relatively easy to override them. The High Court can only interpret legislation, it cannot not overrule it as unconstitutional. The committee’s opinion was that this means that minority rights have fewer protections, and that it might be a good idea for NZ to look at this issue. New Zealand, along with Australia, Canada and the USA, has not yet ratified the UN Treaty on Indigenous Rights; although all 4 countries seem to be moving towards signing that treaty under their new governments.

Thursday night there was a public lecture in the Town Hall auditorium, which might become the first of an annual Quaker lecture series wherever the Yearly Meeting session is held. This lecture was about the Chinese immigrant experience in New Zealand, and was given by Bill Willmott of Christchurch. At first that seemed to us a strange topic for a Quaker lecture, but in fact it made sense, since he was quite frank about issues of discrimination and assimilation. I believe that Christchurch, which came up with the idea for this lecture, and hopes for an annual lecture series, sees it as an opportunity to present issues of interest to the wider community.
Howard and Rosalind Zuses arrived on Saturday with their daughter Elizabeth and her friend Bill. Rosalind came for Yearly Meeting, but Ron was able to act as tour guide for Howard, Elizabeth and Bill. It was very nice to visit with them. They are also really enjoying their NZ experience as Resident Friends in Auckland.

After a celebratory dinner on Saturday at Yearly Meeting, there was a slide show and talk about the Quaker School in Wanganui, which operated from 1921 to 1969. Then there was a film about the civil rights movement in Kentucky, made by a former resident friend, Betsy Brinson. It is always fascinating to be reminded of those times and the courage of the people fighting for their rights.

Sunday morning everyone was bussed over here for Meeting for Worship, so we had approximately 120 people in the main room and out in the corridor and library. Afterwards, we had our flat and the guest quarters open for people to be able to see all the renovations that have occurred over the last year or two. Yearly Meeting business officially ended Sunday evening. The Zuses left by ferry early Monday morning to tour around the South Island. Many people came and left their bags at the Quaker Centre during the day, so they could tour Wellington until needing to go to the airport, so we continued to be quite occupied all day.

I confess that I have now attended more of NZ Yearly Meeting than I have of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, so I am not able to compare the two. However, I did enjoy meeting this wider fellowship of Quakers and found many are thinking and working on a broad range of topics that need addressing.