Meeting Minutes
It is important to note that all of the celebration of Friend Benjamin’s life would be meaningless without acknowledging that when we honor Friend Benjamin, we also honor the enslaved Africans for whom he spoke. They had no voice. Benjamin spoke for them, and he reminded us, during his lifetime and today, that it’s the ongoing responsibility of those of us with privilege to speak for those who have no voice. Abington Friends Meeting has a bronze plaque near the entrance to our historic graveyard that acknowledges the unmarked graves of early Quaker settlers, people of African descent, and other persons whose race, creed and identity are unknown to us today. Our graveyard holds the remains of people whose history has been lost. Those are some of the people that Friend Benjamin spoke for, because he recognized their humanity and their suffering. We must remember them when we remember Friend Benjamin.
On November 12, 2017, Abington Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends approved the following minute into record:
Abington Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends recognizes Benjamin Lay’s dedication to equality, and his willingness to repeatedly speak his messages of Truth to a society that was in denial about the evils of slavery. We acknowledge that Benjamin Lay used radical activism in his attempts to teach his peers to recognize the equality before God of all people, regardless of race or gender. He lived his life with integrity according to his Quaker beliefs, and he called others, especially slave-owners, to accountability.
Benjamin Lay was written out of membership at Abington Monthly Meeting on the thirtieth day, eleventh month, 1737 (which by the Quaker calendar, while the Julian calendar was in use, would have been January 30, 1738), because his zealous actions were considered disruptive. It is now known that at least two of the Friends who led the discernment about writing Benjamin Lay out of membership in the Society of Friends were slave-owners and were likely targeted by Benjamin Lay’s anti-slavery activism. Benjamin Lay was disowned decades before Quakers were disowned for being slave-owners.
We now recognize the truth behind Benjamin Lay’s abolitionist efforts. Although we may not reinstate membership for someone who is deceased, we recognize Benjamin Lay as a Friend of the Truth and as being in unity with the spirit of our Abington Monthly Meeting.
The above minute of unity was endorsed by Abington Quarterly Meeting on February 4, 2018.
On July 27, 2018, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting read the following minute into record:
"Benjamin Lay: After communicating further with Abington Monthly Meeting regarding their minute, Quaker Life Council endorses Abington Monthly Meeting’s minute on Benjamin Lay. QLC recognizes Benjamin Lay as a Friend of the Truth and being in unity with the spirit of our Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.”
In the UK, the North London Area Meeting minute, Agreed on 18 November 2017 reads as follows:
“Quakers are proud of the times in history we have been ahead of our time on progressive social issues – but preceding those moments, there have often been long periods when we have not walked the path we would later understand to be the just one. At a time when racism seems as present and ugly as ever – both globally and nationally – and the structures of white supremacy are being defended and strengthened by powerful forces in our societies, this seems a timely moment for North London Area Meeting to reflect on its involvement in the struggle for racial justice.
North London Area Meeting recognises Benjamin Lay’s dedication to equality – and his willingness to repeatedly speak his messages of Truth. We also recognise Benjamin Lay as being a Friend of the Truth – and as being in unity with the spirit of our Area Meeting. We ask our Clerking team to write to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Abington Monthly Meeting and Southern East Anglia Area Meeting (successor to Colchester & Coggeshall Monthly Meeting) to clarify that Lay is in good standing with North London Area Meeting (successor to Devonshire House Monthly Meeting).”
The North London decision was supported by a letter from Tim Gee of Peckham Meeting (close to the now defunct Deptford Meeting where Lay attended as a Young Adult Friend), outlining how the decision would be a manifestation of three 21st century Quaker principles.
“Firstly it is a timely reminder of the Advice to ‘listen for the spirit, even if it is expressed in ways unfamiliar to you’.
Secondly it is a reiteration of the insight that every person ‘has a measure of the light’ with a recognition that then as now, our interpretation of the spirit can be distorted by privilege and hierarchy
Thirdly, it builds on the statement against racism made by Meeting for Sufferings in February 2017, by showing that for a long as racism exists – whether in society or in the Society of Friends – ‘without justice there can be no peace”.
Secondly it is a reiteration of the insight that every person ‘has a measure of the light’ with a recognition that then as now, our interpretation of the spirit can be distorted by privilege and hierarchy
Thirdly, it builds on the statement against racism made by Meeting for Sufferings in February 2017, by showing that for a long as racism exists – whether in society or in the Society of Friends – ‘without justice there can be no peace”.
A BBC article explains further: Click Here for the BBC Article
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In 2018, Southern East Anglian Friends in the UK expressed unity with the formerly disowned radical Quaker abolitionist Benjamin Lay.
The Area Meeting (AM) is the final of the four Meetings whose predecessors disowned Benjamin Lay in the eighteenth century to reconcile and bring Friend Benjamin back into unity. The others are Abington Monthly Meeting and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in the United States, and North London Area Meeting.
According to the minute ‘2018/64 Benjamin Lay’, Southern East Anglia Area Meeting decided on 11 November to ‘recognise the integrity and courage of a man who called slave-holders, including Quakers, to account, who protested the abomination of slavery, upheld the equality of the sexes, and lived his life with integrity according to his Quaker beliefs.
‘We hold that Benjamin Lay was a Friend of the Truth; we are in unity with the spirit of Benjamin Lay.’