World Plenary 2024 - part one

The Friend reports on the opening ceremony and welcome to the FWCC World Plenary in South Africa (5-12 August)

by Joe Jones 16th August 2024

World Plenary is not like other Quaker gatherings, wherever you are in that world. As Friends from ninety-five Yearly Meetings (YMs) and worshipping groups met for the Opening Ceremony, they did so to the sound of electric guitar – a video of the South African singer Jonny Clegg ‘searching for the spirit of the great heart, under African skies’. The Meeting did quieten a little after that, but – joyously, gloriously – not for long.