Preparing for Yearly Meeting 2025: Part two
Quaker Life - Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations - Book of Discipline Revision Committee - Discovering Quakers - Quaker peace education - Quaker United Nations Office - Quaker Voices on Mental Health
Alistair Fuller and Naomi Major, from Quaker Life, led nearly forty Friends in a meeting about Developing a confident Quaker voice and a generous Quaker ear on Monday.
Naomi described how running online sessions about outreach had brought home to her ‘how much you need to be listening and connecting with the person that you’re speaking to’.
Alistair added: ‘Those conversations don’t happen in a void… they’re often about how we’re responding to a person, to their story, to what they’re bringing, to the kind of questions that they might be carrying.’
Friends entered breakout rooms to share what had brought them to Quakerism. After coming back together, Naomi described three ways of listening: to the head (focussed on the content of a story); to the heart (focussing on the speaker’s feelings); and listening to the feet (which brings the focus to where the speaker is being led to).
Friends were then given two tasks. First: ‘Describe a place, person, or book which has inspired you.’ Second: ‘For each time you are listening, choose a different focus.’
One Friend commented that listening intentionally, without needing to respond, made them feel more connected.
Another shared a quote by Douglas Steere: ‘To listen another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.’
The Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations (QCCIR) hosted John Cooper, director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR), to reflect on The fierce urgency of faith shaped peace.
Elaine Green, clerk of QCCIR, introduced John to twenty Friends who gathered on Monday evening. John introduced Friends to FoR, describing its history and work. He spoke about the Peace Testimony and its relevance in a world that, according to the 2024 Conflicts Index, saw one in eight people being exposed to conflict, and a twenty-five per cent increase in political violence.
‘Each time we’re all appalled by what goes on. We all lament, we all grieve. And then the moment the fighting stops, it so often seems humanity doesn’t do the next bit, the work on peace.’
John described a concern at the turn of the nineteenth century that the Quaker movement risked becoming ‘hollow’. He continued: ‘I think this brings a genuine challenge to all Quakers, particularly this year as the Yearly Meeting thinks more deeply on the question of peace.’
The Fellowship has been growing in the past two years, with a new online learning platform being launched this summer. As he finished John emphasised how Quakers as a faith-based organisation are ‘already part of an alternative system… you are globally connected to people in every single continent’.
The Book of Discipline Revision Committee invited Friends to hear more about how it is approaching the task of reviewing Advices & queries. Rosie Carnall welcomed over eighty people to the session and introduced Jessica Hubbard Bailey, who talked about the group’s process. ‘We begin with a blank page,’ she said, after talking about the committee’s grounding in Quaker practices, and ‘we draft in small groups’. The aim was to be ‘diverse, accessible and consistent in voice and tone’.
Right now the committee was finishing drafting content, in order to get a complete draft ready for Yearly Meeting 2026.
Nuala Watt said the team had been asking people what Advices & queries means to them, and how they use it. Judith Thompson, who said Meeting for Sufferings had been invited to do the same exercise, revealed the answers: for personal reflection; as an introduction to Quakers; as a distillation of Quaker practices; for guidance; and for sharing perspectives.
‘We have to be mindful of all those things,’ said Judith, ‘and mindful of who is doing the speaking, and who is doing the listening… In choosing a voice we need something that will speak to all those people and all those different conditions – quite a tall order.’
In breakout rooms Friends undertook an experiment. Advice 12 was read, along with an alternative version in which the pronoun was changed from ‘you’ to ‘I’. What did Friends make of that? ‘Whose is the vital voice for you in Advices & queries?’
Some preferred the idea of ‘we’. Some thought that using the ‘I’ would make it more difficult to show to not-yet-Quakers ‘We’re taking notes,’ said Rosie. The work from here would be ‘very deadline driven’, she said. ‘So clear your diaries and prepare your hearts and minds. We’re going to be asking you to read, reflect and respond.’
Friends from the Quaker Recognised Body Discovering Quakers introduced nearly thirty Friends to their work on Digital outreach on Monday, in a session led by Helen Drewery, a volunteer, and Caitlin Curtis, the group’s outreach coordinator.
Helen spoke about the group’s aim of ‘trying to reach people who didn’t even know Quakers existed or only had the vaguest idea about who they are’. This is focussed on social media advertising, with easy-to-access newcomer-friendly resources to follow up.
Caitlin shared examples of the adverts and materials, then described the journey someone might make – from clicking on an ad, to subscribing to the newsletter, to connecting with their Local Meeting. Having launched a year ago, this journey has seen over a thousand people travel through it.
Discovering Quakers also provides an informative website, link with Woodbrooke, and offers weekly online sessions where people can hear from a Friend and experience a short Meeting for Worship.
Over 6,500 people have subscribed to the newsletter; social media ads have reached over a quarter of a million people; the group’s TikTok videos have garnered over 80,000 views; and the weekly Tuesday sessions see between thirty-five and forty-five people attending.
Friends wanted to know about the provision of printed materials, how Discovering Quakers relates to Quaker Quest, what else Quakers are doing online, the demographics of the people who are drawn to the group, and whether there is a concern that people initially engaging digitally might not end up going to a Meeting house physically.
Around ten Friends spoke about their work in Quaker peace education. It was a moving and inspiring session, a ‘train journey’ around the country, as Isabel Cartwright, also from the team, described it, with Quakers sharing their work delivering peace education in primary and secondary schools, as well as peer mediation training.
Alison Ronan, from South Manchester Meeting, spoke about Peace Pathways where under ten volunteers deliver peace education in regional primary schools, including peer meditation, with plans to train another cohort in July. ‘It’s humbling because the children absolutely understand what we are on about,’ she said. Jane Harries, from the Welsh Centre for International Affairs, said that, while in Wales there was quite a formal way of recognising the network of Peace Schools, ‘it’s important to respond to the needs of the school where they are’. The centre had many peace heritage resources which link to the Welsh curriculum, she said, including the 1923 women’s peace petition, which children had been particularly interested in. Deborah Mitchell, from RJ Working in Cornwall, highlighted the links between peace education and equality, saying the group’s ambition was to ‘reach all children in Cornwall’, although they ‘weren’t there yet’. They were trying to get the children to think about ‘how they use their power’, she said, as well as empowering children who are marginalised, and also working with those who struggle to stay in school. They had also expanded their restorative approach to tackle ‘harms to identity, such as racism’, and ‘harms to the environment’.
There were moving moments when Liz Flanagan, from the Malverns, read out the children’s response to a story, which showed such emotional intelligence and understanding it had ‘blown them away’, said Liz.
Leonora, from Hampstead (surname not given), highlighted the role of music in peace education and her resource ‘Sing me on a journey’ (www.quaker.org.uk/documents/sing-me-on-a-journey-web). Playing Simon and Garfunkel’s version of ‘Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream’, Friends reflected on how that could be used in sessions, encouraging children to focus on the words, or developing it into role-playing and drama. ‘Some of the things we’ve learned is that the relationship with the head teacher is hugely important and that they understand what we’re trying to do and encourage staff,’ said Rosie Thaymer, from Bristol Area Meeting. This also applied to the form teacher and classroom assistant. As the session drew to a close, there was a palpable feeling of optimism and excitement. All the peace education groups said they were looking for more volunteers.
Over forty Friends gathered for Quaker United Nations Office: Working for peace, justice and sustainability through the UN. After welcome and worship, Kaya van der Horst, a programme assistant, gave Friends a video tour of the charming Quaker House in Geneva. They got to see the dining room where QUNO hosts quiet diplomacy sessions with diplomats, and interim director Laurel Townhead hard at work.
Lindsey Fielder Cook gave an overview of how the organisation was responding amid the ‘intense challenges’ posed by the current world situation. QUNO existed to uphold three pillars, she said: rights, peace, and sustainable development. ‘This is not the first nor the last time our human family faces challenges.’
Andres Naranjo, who works on sustainable economic systems, then explained his work, along with Yvette Isar from the peace and disarmament programme, and Kaya, who works on human rights and refugee. Lindsey returned to discuss QUNO’s approach to the human impacts of climate change.
Friends were impressed, as always, by the knowledge and dedication on display. One asked about QUNO’s work on making arms companies accountable. It’s a space we won’t give up on, said Lindsey. Other questions covered UNWRA in Gaza, and the convention on the rights of the child. UNWRA, like other UN agencies, was under attack from certain states, said Lindsey. ‘It’s getting worse right now but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be worse forever.’
Twenty-five participants joined a soothing session from Quaker Voices on Mental Health (QVoMH) on ‘cultivating calm – emanating peace’. Various members of QVoMH led the session (unnamed, to stay in spirit with the confidential nature of the meeting), which opened with a reading that Paul Parker had included in a talk for General Meeting of Scotland, answering the question: ‘Where can we start?’ ‘We can start with ourselves,’ it said. ‘We can use our Quaker spiritual practice to secure our own spiritual wellbeing’, which leads into stillness.
With the reassurance that anything shared would remain confidential, Friends were told that this was what QVoMH was all about: ‘creating a safe space.’ ‘Our intention is to offer you a multisensory practice,’ Friends were told. ‘We hope that you will take away at least one new idea that you can pass on.’
Different QVoMH members then led a series of mindfulness exercises, including: one on ‘breathing and touch’; an auditory one; and then meditating on symbols (a yin-yang symbol, a chalice, and an ‘illuminated installation’). All of these are ‘rooted in my spiritual and creative practice’, one QVoMH representative said. ‘They have profoundly helped me in my mental health and my continuing practice of calm, balance and wellbeing.’
Friends were encouraged to listen to the message of these symbols: ‘what does the vessel have to say to you? Where does the eye land?’
After fifteen minutes in breakout rooms reflecting on these exercises, there was a period for worship-sharing. The gathering then ended with a ‘sales pitch’, flagging up a newly-updated website (although still ‘embryonic’); QVoMH’s quarterly newsletter, with contributions welcome; ‘Creativity through multiple lens’ sessions, held online every six weeks; and another group called ‘Mental health and that which is eternal’.
Friends also heard about a book created by QVoMH which includes contributions from Quakers on mental health, which will be available at Yearly Meeting and posted to all Local Meetings by the summer. QVoMH was also hoping to start a dementia group, and was interested to hear from other Friends in this endeavour. ‘We very much felt that BYM hasn’t had as big a concern for mental health issues that we would have liked,’ one QVoMH representative said. ‘So we want to create that space.’
Friends can contact QVoMH through its website: https://quakervoicesonmh.org.uk.
