Diversity marks ninth Quaker Week
Friends in Britain mark the ninth Quaker Week
Quaker Meetings throughout Britain have been involved in a wide range of diverse events for the ninth British Quaker Week.
Four bright and artistic new outreach posters, especially commissioned for Quaker Week on its theme of ‘Inspired by faith to build a better world’, were sent to Meetings throughout Britain from Friends House.
The BBC One Songs of Praise programme was broadcast from the former Rowntree’s chocolate factory in York (see cover) on World Quaker Day, Sunday 2 October.
The programme told the story of the role of the Rowntree family in supporting wartime Quakers facing imprisonment as conscientious objectors and the setting up of the Friends Ambulance Unit. It included two interviews with Friends: Chris Lawson and ninety-two year old Peter Rutter and is available to view this month on the BBC iPlayer.
A feature of this year’s Quaker Week, which runs between 1 and 9 October, was the way Friends embraced the arts. An art exhibition entitled ‘Spirit and Place’, with work by local Friends, is being put on at Wandsworth Meeting House and another was on offer at Westminster Meeting in central London.
Hartington Grove Meeting hosted a performance of Red Flag over Bermondsey, the play about Ada Salter, at Michaelhouse in Cambridge. Dorchester Quakers also supported Digging the Dirt, a play on the seventeenth century Diggers and whistleblowers in the world today.
Folk singer and songwriter Eden Thomas performed some new Quaker folk songs at Swarthmoor Hall in Cumbria at two events during the week.
Malton Quakers hosted a special Quaker Week at their historic Meeting house to celebrate the work of Quakers and the birth of the movement in the town.
Bath Quakers organised a weekend of talks, exhibitions, and a specially commissioned play that all explored issues around conscientious objection to military service.
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