Letters - 10 July 2026
From Body building to Palestine concern
Body building
Bruce Cadbury (Letters, 26 June) asks whether Quakers will ever have another residential space like Woodbrooke, for retreat, learning, and world community building. Do Quakers need a brainstorming and planning group?
What about Swarthmore Hall, Glenthorne and Charney Manor, and Woodbrooke online teaching?
Remember, Quakers in Britain lost the Penn Club during Covid, and had to withdraw from Quaker House Moscow in 2026.
Woodbrooke was a gem, but was not easy. The building is aging, and unfit for purpose given lack of financial support.
The stewardship returned to The Bourneville Village Trust, which has budgeted £7m for renovations. In 2026 the ten-acre site hosts a thriving community and business hub. Would there be space for a new Quaker building there?
A thirty-six room two-storey public-use award-winning new building was delivered in Coventry in 2021 for £3.3m. New buildings can be much cheaper than refurbishment.
If Quakers in Britain had greater transparency and clarity of budgets, and our professional staff had as much Quaker support as possible, might £5m be available over ten years?
David Fish
Stillness at six
A few weeks ago, a few of us began to sit together at 6pm each evening, sometimes together in person, sometimes at a distance. My phone alarm is set for 5:55pm, and, if it feels good, or is possible to sit, we do – often for ten, fifteen, or twenty or so minutes (whenever we naturally open our eyes).
Our intention is to join with each other and all others sitting at the time (sometimes using an online link), adding a strand of heart to join around the world. It’s an open-palm intention, meaning that we hold it lightly and we let the intention fly. Sometimes when my mind is quiet, I find that I can clearly feel others sitting and joining up, sometimes via the web, sometimes a face or two. Sometimes I am taken to a place and people in need. Sometimes there is just chaos inside and my need for stillness/healing in that moment. But, always, afterwards I feel the difference and am very thankful for it.
We sit and appreciate the silence, or are tolerant to the mind when in chaos, which allows us to be more open to the possibility of silence, the gateway to a pure love in our hearts.
I am also posting on YouTube. Here is the link: https://tinyurl.com/6pmstillness.
Simon Iredale
