Friends come together for Quaker Week
Friends mark Quaker Week around the country
Quakers are celebrating Quaker Week this year with a range of events and faith-inspired action. The week, themed ‘Room for More’, is being marked across the UK from 29 September to 7 October with discussions, displays, vigils and other initiatives.
Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), spoke at Durham Town Hall on 4 October about ‘Tackling Social Changes’, while Ealing Friends will hold a talk on 6 October about: ‘Hostility or hospitality? What it’s like to be a young refugee arriving in the UK.’
Gill Sewell, a member of staff from Britain Yearly Meeting, said: ‘Quakers warmly welcome everyone to explore their faith. There’s room for more at the table, and Quakers value everyone’s experience.’
The week has also featured several exhibitions, including a display at Portree Library by Isle of Skye Friends called ‘What Do They Do?’
Alasdair Galbraith, from Portree Meeting, told the Friend: ‘There are two themes. For one, I’ve created seven speech bubbles from wood, which contain questions, with answers, that people often ask about Quakers. For example, “Do Quakers believe in God?”
‘The other theme is “Let your Life Speak”, with information about the things that Quakers are involved in. This includes mental health services, which Friends on Skye have been lobbying for and recently led to a drop-in cafe being established on the island.’
Leigh-on-Sea Meeting is using Quaker Week as a starting point to focus on ‘modern slavery’. Jim Briggs, clerk of Leigh-On-Sea Meeting, told the Friend: ‘We’ve recently become a Sanctuary Meeting, so we’re having a talk on what modern slavery is and how we can try and approach it. Obviously, it is very difficult. People may have been trafficked, or had their passport taken away.’
Other events include the Quaker Service Exhibition being hosted by Dorchester Meeting and a market stall and display about the history of Quakers by local Friends at St Neots Museum in Cambridgeshire.
Quaker Ghee Bowman, a Phd student from Exeter University, spoke to BBC Radio Devon about ‘the day’s papers from a Quaker perspective’, while Peckham Friends in London had a talk about the links between Peckham radicalism and Quakerism.
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