Florence Meeting finds new home
English cemetery with Quaker links provides free room
The group of Friends who formed a Florence Meeting two years ago have relocated to an English cemetery with Quaker connections. Kirsten Hills, who grew up as an attender in Canterbury Meeting, brought together a group of Friends after ‘craving’ the ‘silence, peace and headspace’.
‘Today was our first Meeting in person for over a year since 1 March,’ she told the Friend last month. ‘Ever since the Meeting started in early 2019, we have been looking desperately for a room. In Florence there’s an English cemetery, which was formerly protestant, and very historical. They have given us a room free of charge and it turns out that the woman who caretakes is from a British Quaker family. There is a Quaker section in the cemetery library, and at least two Quakers buried there and strong links to the abolitionist movement, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning who wrote against slavery. We’re delighted to have found a new home.’
