The first draft of a final report of the 2007 Triennial.

It is not quite two weeks since I left Dublin and the 2007 Friends World Committee for Consultation's Triennial with 308 Friends from all over the World and about half a hundred Friends from Ireland Yearly Meeting hosting us. It is probably going to take some weeks more to fully digest but let me just say that it was, for me, a very inspiring event. Even though the official dates for the Triennial were August 11th to 19th, the event started for me with the pre-triennial mini-conference on Peace and Re-conciliation in Northern Ireland and really ended on the 29th of August when I left the UK for Germany where I am spending a week or so before returning to Sofia and Bulgaria.



I want to mention here and now the following ideas for possible action which came to me during this time...



1. To establish a Worship Group in Sofia, which will then apply to be a Recognised Meeting. The next step would be, possibly with other Recognised Meetings in Eastern Europe, to establish a Recognised Monthly Meeting with the aim of establishing a new International Yearly Meeting.



2. To establish a new State-registered Charity in Bulgaria with a name such as "Quaker Service Bulgaria". The new charity would take on some of the responsibilities of Bulgarian Aid Project, would benefit from the goodwill generated since 1993 and could then build on this foundation so that, for example, the new Small Business Advice project could apply for funding and support. The new charity would also exercise Outreach in Bulgaria and South East Europe both through Online Video Meeting for Worship as well as Podcasts (both radio and video) through a new web-based, part-time, radio and tv station called Quaker Broadcasting BSEE (Bulgaria and South East Europe).



3. We have to start spreading the Quaker Universalist Message using a two-pronged approach. Firstly through publishing online and possible on paper in English. Secondly through starting a publishing programme in Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian using Russian language texts in cooperation with other Universalist Friends in Eastern Europe.

Bryn Jones writing from Germany