Comments:

, 28 June

Stephanie Grant, 18 June
There seems to be some mis-understanding here about how and when the YM epistle is to be read. The LM mailing for clerks reads: 'This month we are sending the Epistle from Yearly Meeting for reading out in your meetings this coming Sunday ...'

This does not, to me, imply any compulsion to read the epistle during the Meeting for Worship. It could just as well be read as part of the notices. I am new to clerking, but have been attending Meeting for Worship for many years, and have heard YM epistles read in Meeting for Worship and in notices. I am sure we should be guided by what feels right for our Meeting on that particular occassion, in this, as in other matters. I have read the epistle in Meeting for Worship myself in the past (when I wasn't clerk), and this year I asked someone who had been present at most of YM to read it for us, at the time that seemed appropriate to her.
Earlier this year one of our young people read us the epistle from Junior Yearly Meeting, also during Worship, which seemed entirely appropriate on that particular occassion.
Let us be flexible in this, and remember, as Ian K Watson points out, that if even one small part speaks to someone's condition, it is serving a purpose.
Stephanie Grant Co-clerk Watford LM