Brigflatts Meeting honours 1652 ‘great gathering’

'The occasion was intended to remember the ‘great gathering’ which took place on 13 June 1652 where George Fox spoke to an assembled crowd of more than a thousand people.'

Friends on Firbank Fell | Photo: courtesy Gareth Evans

Brigflatts Meeting held an open air Meeting for Worship (pictured) on Firbank Fell to honour the birth of Quakerism.

The occasion was intended to remember the ‘great gathering’ which took place on 13 June 1652 where George Fox spoke to an assembled crowd of more than a thousand people.

The gathering in what is now South Cumbria is widely regarded as the start of the Quaker movement.

Gareth Evans, from the Meeting, told the Friend that fifty-seven Quakers came to the event, held below Fox’s Pulpit on 11 June.

This year’s guest speaker was Ben Pink Dandelion, an honorary professor of Quaker Studies at Birmingham University, Woodbrooke tutor, and local Friend. This now-annual event had been cancelled for two years previously due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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