Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 11th January 2026

Dear Friends,

There are times of conflict in every meeting when we are required to find and show the love we have for one another and to face our difficulties squarely, for it is only when we work through them, using our meeting for church affairs and other appropriate methods, that we can move forward together. Such conflict may involve a clash of personalities, a difference over the quantity or style of vocal ministry, or issues about the place where meetings for worship are held. Problems may become tangled and one sort of issue may masquerade as another. Care will be required to identify the root cause. Skill, time and great love are needed to overcome these problems, but where they have been openly faced and successfully overcome, meetings have sometimes been much richer for the experience.

Part of Quaker Faith & Practice 10.21

When there are problems to solve, when we can’t do everything that we would like to and have to prioritise one concern over another, it is likely that different Friends will have different views of the way forward. Our Quaker business method will sometimes find new approaches which were not obvious earlier, but still we will not always change our views and come to a unity of opinion. Where we can seek unity is not in thinking alike, but by coming together in agreed action.

David Hitchin
Quakers value diversity. We share this Friend’s message in the hope it will speak to others.

Pastoral Care and Eldership Team: Patricia Cockrell, David Hitchin, Sharon Krummel, Tim Pitt-Payne, Theresa Samms, Emily Slater.