Diane Randall - Truth and integrity - Yearly Meeting Session 4

“So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.” (Isaiah 59:14) .
One of the names early Quakers called themselves was “Friends of Truth”. This session builds on two preparatory sessions organised by Britain Yearly Meeting staff and by the Quaker Truth and Integrity Group. It will explore how we can be Friends of Truth and Integrity today.
What do the words mean and how do we experience what they describe? How can Quakers work with churches, faith groups and others to strengthen respect for truth and integrity in ourselves, our communities and our politics? How do we listen to the views and experience of people outside Britain Yearly Meeting who may share aspects of our concern?
We expect this exploration to continue during the coming year and at a further session at Yearly Meeting 2024. Conclusions there may serve as a basis for future witness that may lead us to working on truth and integrity alongside people with whom we disagree on other issues.
The introduction will be longer than is usual for a Yearly Meeting session as it launches a year of discernment rather than just an hour. In the session time which follows Friends may be led to respond and to consider how the topic should be approached in the coming months and at Yearly Meeting 2024.
The issues we face were described by Thomas Penny in the introduction to his 2021 Swarthmore Lecture. “The opening of new channels of communication, the algorithms of social media and the polarisation of political opinion have narrowed many people’s sources of information, making political debate more confrontational and facts more elusive. For Quakers, with our historic witness to truth, this presents challenges: What can we do? How can we remove the blinkers obscuring our view of the world and help others to remove theirs? Can we find ways to reduce the conflict that results from such different takes on reality? How can we be champions of truth?”
Further details in Agenda and Notes: www.quaker.org.uk/ym/documents
We expect to provide captions on RUclips. However, in case there are issues, or someone would prefer to see the whole text on a separate device, the captions will also be available on StreamText where they can also be viewed on any device with access to the Internet and the formatting can be adjusted to suit individual needs: www.streamtext.net/player?eve...

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This Friend spoke my mind. An important message that goes beyond Quakers. In friendship