Joined-up writing: Gill Sewell and Olivia Sewell-Risley seek contributions for the Friends Quarterly

‘We’d love to hear from you.’

In 2023 in the Friends Quarterly, we explored ‘feelings’, ‘preparation for Yearly Meeting’, ‘outreach’ and ‘grief’. Planning for 2024 is already underway. If you’re a subscriber, you’ll soon receive an issue with a focus on faith – faith as it is expressed and experienced in a variety of ways, within the Quaker community and without.

For our May edition we’d like to invite submissions of 3,000-3,500 words on the meaning of membership. Is the way we practice membership in the Society of Friends still fit for purpose? Do we even need formal membership in the modern world? Should we instead have membership by default, where once someone has attended for a year they’re signed up? What are the blessings of membership in terms of belonging and commitment? How relevant is geographic membership when our online worship can span the world? Is our current membership system inclusive, or does it tend to attract ‘people like us’? Please share your experience and visions!

The August edition will include five articles by some of the 2022 Eva Koch scholars, each with a focus on their climate justice research.

By November, we hope that the world will be looking at how Gaza can be rebuilt. So we are planning an edition looking at a variety of Quaker initiatives in the occupied territories of Palestine. We hope that some of you will share your first-hand experience of work and witness in the region.

For February 2025 – we plan ahead! – we aim to offer an edition on spiritual accompaniment. Woodbrooke, the Quaker learning and research organisation, has an ongoing initiative to offer this to climate justice activists, but there are many other manifestations of being alongside someone on their spiritual journey. If you have an experience of being accompanied, of being a spiritual director, of having undergone the spiritual exercises of Ignatius, or attended a course that opened up your spiritual life, then we’d love to hear from you.

We generally require articles three months prior to publication, so if one of these topics appeals to you please get in touch. Then we can explore your ideas before you get started. Essays need to be inclusive and reflect the diversity to which we as a Religious Society are committed.

If words aren’t your thing, we also appreciate images to use on the front cover. Now that you know the themes, maybe you can take on the challenge of creating a photograph, artwork, collage, stitched panel or similar to grace the cover. Simple, bold images work best.

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Olivia and Gill are co-editors of the Friends Quarterly. Contact them at editor@friendsquarterly.org.

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