Cymar was registered with the Charity Commission as the single charity for Quakers in Wales and the Marches in April 2024 and began the process of merging the existing 5 charities in Wales and the Marches (Crynwyr Cymru – Quakers in Wales, Mid Wales Area Meeting, North Wales Area Meeting, Southern Marches Area Quaker Meeting and South Wales Area Meeting) into the single charity.
This proved to be a long and tortuous process. As trustees we had planned to do it over several months, in stages during 2024, but due to unavoidable delays, that proved impractical. In the end all the charities merged at 00.01 a.m. on 1st January 2025.
We have carried on from where the working group, Symud Ymlaen – Moving Forward, left off, adopting a number of policies and procedures, establishing our financial system, moving all money across from the old bank accounts to the new and generally getting a feel for what is involved in being a much larger organisation.
The role of Cymar is to provide the governance for Quakers in Wales and the Marches, to do the things that charities are legally required to do. We have no choice except to be a charity, it is the only legal structure appropriate for us as a religious body. But, by moving this work away from the Area Meetings and CCQW, we are able to give them the freedom to focus on the Spiritual life and social witness of Friends.
Our aim in changing our structures in this way was to “release the Spirit” within AMs and CCQW but, that doesn’t mean that Friends can ignore the work trustees are doing completely whilst they are enjoying and exploring that opportunity for development. It does mean that we need Friends to either be willing to serve as trustees, or to help with task and finish work, or to join one of our sub-committees. We understand that trustee work may not appeal to many, and can seem dry at times. But it is essential to the survival of our society and you never know, you might learn a lot and find it interesting! You will certainly get to know more Friends across Wales and the Marches if you join us.
Our constitution requires us to have at least one trustee from each Area Meeting and a Treasurer, but this is inadequate and fragile. Without sufficient voices heard, and a diversity of views and experiences, trustees cannot make good decisions. It isn’t a strong and effective way to operate. As a bare minimum we should have 2 trustees from each Area Meeting, and ideally 3 from larger Area Meetings, plus the Treasurer, and an Assistant Treasurer, our constitution allows us to be up to 15 trustees including the Treasurer.
Could you become a trustee? Could you help trustees? What we are doing is new and different, it gives us an opportunity to experiment with doing things differently, we can live adventurously, within the confines of Charity law. You might think that you are not the sort of person who gets asked to be a trustee, to do this kind of work, but why not give it a go? We will never learn, change or develop if we always look to the same “sort” of people – we can try new ways, different people and characters, we never know what gifts we may have hidden within us, until we try to bring them to the surface.
2006 to 2008 - RECAST, exploring the shape of Area Meeting in Wales and the Marches and whether to join together. Part of a wider initiative in Britain Yearly Meeting as Area Meetings began to register as charities.
September 9th 2019 - meeting of all clerks of Wales at the Pales, sharing difficulties filling roles as meetings are declining in number and energy. Concern about being able to appoint trustees in the future.
October 26th 2019 - Meeting of Friends in Wales (now Crynwyr Cymru - Quakers in Wales) in Newtown received a report from the Meeting of All Clerks of Wales and discerned it was time to revisit the exploration of whether to join together the Area Meetings and CCQW as one charity.
January 14th 2020 - Meeting of "Newid" - a group for change at Shrewsbury with a representative from each Area Meeting and CCQW. Agreed to find a facilitator from outside the area and appoint 2 reps from each body to work with the facilitator and local development worker.
March 3rd 2020 - first in person meeting of the full "Newid" group just before lockdown. All subsequent meetings were held online and the group soon changed its name to Symud Ymlaen/ moving forwards.
January 1st 2021 - As part of an experiment in working together, an arrangement of Shared Trustees began when each of the 4 Area Meeting trustee bodies included a trustee from each of the other three Areas so trustees became familiar with how each set of trustees operated.
September 19th 2023 - following discernment and agreement from each of the 5 bodies to go ahead, an Inaugral Meeting of Cymar was held in online and the first 4 trustees and the treasurer were appointed.
January 9th 2024 - a progress meeting was held at Shrewsbury
November 9th 2024 - First Cymar AGM held in Hereford with Paul Parker as the speaker
September 20th 2025 - Second Cymar AGM held in Wrexham with Sarah Donaldson as the speaker