Friends celebrate new Yorkshire Centre
‘Quakers have always had a strong presence in Yorkshire and having Friends House staff based in our area will be a tremendous support to our spiritual community.’
Friends in the north are celebrating the Quakers in Britain Yorkshire Centre, which will pilot new ways of working.
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) said it was ‘the first time in maybe 100 years that Quakers in Britain have a new base for national Quaker work outside London’.
Between seventy-five and 100 Friends attended the launch on 18 September, which included Meeting for Worship, crafts, films and games, plus a Woodbrooke taster session.
The Yorkshire Centre is a new base for Quaker work, and some BYM employees will be working from there, including: the new Yorkshire local development worker Bridget Holtom; Jude Acton, who works with children and young people; and deputy recording clerk for BYM Juliet Prager.
Juliet Prager said: ‘After years in the planning, it’s so exciting to have the centre up and running. With new patterns of working we need a centre outside of London which is reasonably easy to get to. Our mission is to help Quaker communities thrive, and this centre brings some staff nearer to Quakers in the North.’
Margaret Bryan, a member of York Area Meeting and clerk of Meeting for Sufferings, said: ‘Quakers have always had a strong presence in Yorkshire and having Friends House staff based in our area will be a tremendous support to our spiritual community.’
Juliet Prager tweeted that she was ‘very touched’ that so many people attended the launch. The opening also made it onto the local BBC news programme Look North (Yorkshire).
The hub is a self-contained office suite attached to Central Leeds (Carlton Hill) Meeting House. BYM said the Yorkshire Centre ‘is an important step in enabling Quakers in Britain staff to become more responsive to the communities they serve’.
Comments
Am reminded that the Northern Friends Peace Board has engaged closely with Quakers in the North and Scotland for many decades.
By Hannah Morrow on 30th September 2021 - 10:15
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